----- Original Message ----- From: "Max Battcher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 11:31 PM Subject: Re: The Gospel Of Judas
> Robert Seeberger wrote: >> In terms of morality and ethics *why* one chooses can be more >> important than *what* one chooses. > > Yuck! I know you state "can be" and not the absolute "are", but you > still are positing that "in some cases" "the ends justify the means" > and worse "the intent justify the means". "I'm only hurting you > because I think in the end it will help you." LOL....I couldn't agree with you more, but I was thinking of something a bit different. When discussing morality and ethics one is usually discussing past events and histories so that one can #order# ones future behavior to be ethical and moral. Stealing food to feed hungry children can under certain circumstances be excused. Raping your daughter in order to teach her not to dress like a whore cannot be excused under any circumstances. > > Of all of the slippery slopes in Judeo-Christian ethics, this is the > one that irks me the most, and one that has been used to do so much > ill in the world. As a pragmatist I can certainly understand that > there may be some situations where that might be the case. But I > still see it as an awful moral slope to stand on as ones basic > morality. In that sense I much prefer the (Nichiren) Buddhist focus > on one's "actions" and their consequences. Not decisions, but > actions. Less time in the head, more room for repercussions to hit > you (karma, whether you believe it is cosmic or simply > inter-personal). > >> Again, something I've felt myself, but in this case I find the idea >> a bit solipsistic (maybe narcissistic is a better word). >> Not being much on Bible literalism, I feel that the Garden story is >> a metaphor for the birth of human self-awareness. In that sense the >> shame of loosing the Garden is akin to a longing for the >> "golden-age" where we didn't have to think so much.(As Homo Sapiens >> it is our nature to think about things even when those things pain >> us.) > > > But it elevates stupidity, nostalgia and ignorance over knowledge > and futurity! There was no golden age, ever. Just mindless, > ignorant, brutal survival. Mind that we are talking about a bible story, something that may have no factual basis, but does address some aspect of the human condition or perhaps the human psyche. Generally speaking though we are on the same page vis a vis golden age thinking. > > The Bible is backward. It starts in beauty and ends in pain. Life > so often starts with pain and ends with some semblance of beauty, > albeit so often hidden in pain: the beauty of love, of experience > and wisdom, of the power of family and society. > > Human history seems to have started amidst turmoil and pain, and I'd > love to hope ends in brilliant beauty. An interesting point. > > I've always joked that I could write a better bible if I thought > people might actually care to read it. Only problem is I'd have to > conscientiously leave out the Monotheism, Patriarchal Society, > Vengeance and Miracles, and then you don't have much of a bible. A > good story, perhaps, but nothing people would battle to the death > over, which appears to be such a major goal of Western > Civilization's organized religion. (I sometimes wonder if the > Greeks did too good of a job in trying to separate the useful > Philosophy from Religion that all that was left was the Irrational > stuff...) > The world is still filled with irrational stuff. xponent More Than Just Facts Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
