Do I like you, as a conversation partner? Absolutely. Do I think you are a worse person than I am? Decidedly not...I have no reason to think you're anything but significantly better, actually. I trust that you are.
But speaking honestly, I don't believe in the goodness of men. I believe we're all in need of forgiveness from God. Me first, perhaps. But all of us eventually, no matter how "good" we may suppose we are, or that we may convince others we are.
No, I don't think that.you view Belief in God (leaving out which one for simplicity here) somehow makes a person more moral.
But I do think that what a man believes makes him what he becomes, if he takes it seriously. That's why it's worth knowing what anybody's ideology says, and how rational it is: it tells you what direction he's hoping to head. And that's very likely where he will go.
That's what I'm questioning. I don't disagree that people who do evil things are as you characterize them...at least, that's how they're acting. But I think we've all got business to do in that regard, and things to get right with God. And apart from a relationship with Him, we're all pretty bad, really.as i said many times - asshole is as asshole does, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim or Atheist - and their nature is FIXED prior to any faith or non-faith they adopt latter.
We like to compare ourselves to each other. We like it, because we can always find somebody who's worse than we are, and we can congratulate ourselves accordingly. But the Bible doesn't talk about goodness that way; it compares our goodness to the goodness it takes to stand in a right relationship with an entirely-good God. And it seems we all come up more than a little short, when that's the standard.
You might say that boasting of our own goodness is as you and I have set out to swim the Pacific. Now, perhaps I make it a mile, and perhaps you make it ten. Congratulations. But compared to the distance to go, when viewed from the high perspective, you and I have hardly left the shore before we both drown. Both of us need help.
Perfectly allowable.You view is opposite i understand sir, just disagree!
That voice is the thing that made us think we could make it across the Pacific in the first place....that inner voice of the moral soul we are born with regardless of particular dogmatic religious belief systems
Okay.sadly we are different planets per this debate, we have bot made our view clear, and we reject each others view on the matter.
Likewise. I'm just explaining, not demanding. I am enjoying hearing what you think.I'm ok with that because i know you are not an asshole, but honest in your views - i just do not share them.
And to you. I respect that you are compensating bravely for a difficult challenge. When facing a cognitive "disability," some people quit talking or writing because they feel humiliated. That's a shame, because a learning disability doesn't mean the person in question is stupid, and it doesn't mean they have nothing to say worth hearing. It takes real courage to go on, and I salute that.Peace to you - i know you are a good man because the 2 yrs i've been here you've never made fun of my dyslexia nor bullied me just because we disargeed.
Of course.I look forward with conversing with you more in the future - on this particualr topic i think we have have said enough - both of us have clarified our views and we must agree to disagree.
I have. And the same to you, I hope.I thank you again for being a gentleman, and hope you've had a good week.