I like your description of god for it’s usefulness in locating an internal compass as the source of moral authority.I understand you to be using the term god as a symbol. I get nervous when people actually imagine an external source of moral authority….

Amanda, thank you for talking to me.

I don’t know what god or God is. I do see evidence in my life that there is a power higher/stronger than just me/us. But i don’t understand it. We are responsible for our actions and how we treat each other and ourselves no matter how the universe was created and no matter what beings or forces we don’t understand actually exist. To understand god I think we must understand ourselves and each other, so I’m starting from there.

Thank you & peace,
Frank

As far as what ‘religion’ does I think it need not be a negative. It just tends to be that way usually. But what is it other than our attempts to understand the universe (at least it starts that way I think.)

I agree with you. I think we each come equiped with the capacity and obligation for thought and moral reasoning. I agree that meditation is a way to engage that capacity, as is thoughtful debate. I like your description of god for it’s usefulness in locating an internal compass as the source of moral authority. I understand you to be using the term god as a symbol. I get nervous when people actually imagine an external source of moral authority, particularly one they feel conditioned to turn their will and cognitive abilities over to, as that is a projection of an internal capacity. Just as we like to project our shadow onto others, we like to project our light.

I think religion eats away at the basic development of reasoning skills and ethical decision making. It teaches people to replace their internal compass with an external set of rules and lists of right and wrong, which were developed to keep certain people in power a very long time ago. I think that, ironically, the process of religious indoctrination creates LESS moral individuals who lack ethical problem solving skills, unless they break away from it.

Thanks, Frank.

I’m back and want to pick up on your question to me:

Just a quick thought you can respond to later when you have time…

I, too, am certainly “turned off by the actions of others” at times, and agree that we can all do things that are “not so good, not so healthy.”

But my question is, HOW DO WE KNOW that something is good or not good, and WHY are we turned off?

Thanks,
Amanda

Bird quoted Bertrand Russell recently:

““Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin — more even than death…. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.”

I’m afraid that telling right from wrong, good actions from bad requires dreaded thought. It requires discernment — a power of the mind and soul that needs to be developed and encouraged throughout one’s life.

I believe that what we traditionally call god resides within us and serves as among other things as a moral compass. Prayer and meditation help us to hear the voice within and give us the strength to follow its guidance.

I don’t know if every person has a moral compass but I think that the design of the universe includes one for each of us. Sometimes we are born without all our facilities, that is one of the roles of chance in our world. But our design includes a moral compass that gives us an innate ability to discern right from wrong. Of course we also have free will and can choose to ignore or heed the indications of our compass.

What do you think?

Peace,
Frank

“I’d really like to finish Walter Kaufman’s “The Portable Nietzsche,” which I’ve been working on for a while now. It’s a beautifully translated book of Nietzsche’s greatest work. that’s the only thing I’m really committed to right now, although I was informally reading a book about Plato’s Republic. I read the Republic for a class, and found it extremely distasteful in the morals and social structure it advocated. So I wanted to understand why people admired it so much. The book has turned out to be surprisingly simple.”

Good reading! I have similar reading on my to read list — I just need to make the time for it. My to read list grows faster than my read list. Got to work on that.

Best Wishes,
Frank

Good questions — I’m off on a trip and wil get back to you early next week.

Peace,
Frank

You wrote,

One of my goals for this year is to read the bible (New Testament first) from cover to cover. What will you be reading?

I’d really like to finish Walter Kaufman’s “The Portable Nietzsche,” which I’ve been working on for a while now. It’s a beautifully translated book of Nietzsche’s greatest work. that’s the only thing I’m really committed to right now, although I was informally reading a book about Plato’s Republic. I read the Republic for a class, and found it extremely distasteful in the morals and social structure it advocated. So I wanted to understand why people admired it so much. The book has turned out to be surprisingly simple.

There are some better versions of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc0gDgp1V8Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxAR8tCZ4zE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwsNR5GxCmI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXiT3WcoLPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRBcHRHAKf4

And perhaps more if you search…