An honest answer. And yes, Moral Philosophy, or Ethics, has no bigger question than that.Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 4:59 pmI don't know. I guess that's the biggest question that exists in the realm of ethics.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 3:16 pmI understand, Gary, if you say, "I know of no manual." I don't know how one would know, in advance of all searching, "There is no manual."
Let us set aside the question of whether there is a written revelation of such things, one we might metaphorically term a "manual." Let us use "manual," for the moment, merely metaphorically, to mean "pre-existing set of values," or something like that. Shall we?
Okay, then let's ask this: if there is no such "manual," (i.e. no pre-existing set of values) then what critierial, what set of axioms, will we use in order to "find our way" existentially thorough life? Will not all choices of action, and all courses, look to us equally uncertain of value? Will not all options simply seem either strategically useful to us, on the one hand, or not strategically useful, on the other? But for what would we be "strategizing," then, since no value-criteria are available for us to know what is "strategic" either?
Existentially, what are we trying to become? What should we try to become? How can we even "find a way" in such an existential vacuum? How do we know when we've gotten off track in some way -- indeed, how would we know we aren't already off track? Where is the track? How shall we find it?
Listen to Nietzsche on this: "What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?"
So how does one "existentially" navigate the infinite empty space in all directions? What criteria do we use, as we "feel our way," so to speak, like blind men in an existential vacuum, a universe with no "manual for how to exist"?
By first understanding that atonement has already been made on your behalf, Gary, and by accepting that for your own.How do sinners navigate a world without atoning for all of our sins?
Well, the first step is exactly where you are right now: realizing you can't do it. Salvation is not saving yourself. If you could do that, you would surely have done it immediately, would you not? And if you could what need would you ever have of God's help?I mean, sin (such as breaking most of the 10 Commandments) is so deeply rooted in my being that I don't know how to atone for it. I mean, I'd like to avoid going to hell but how do I atone for all my sins?
Like a swimmer who's in trouble in deep water, the first thing you have to realize is that you're drowning. It's only then that you'll look about and cry out for the rescue you need. If you continue to believe you can make it yourself, you'll eventually just drown, won't you?
Then "they" are not telling you enough.They say, walk the path of Christ.
If you actually found it possible for you to "walk the path of Christ," wouldn't you have done that already? Or wouldn't you just redouble your efforts now, and start doing it from here on in? But the truth "path of Christ" was never, never to be out of sympathy with His Father. And that is a thing that no human being, no matter how sincere and well-intended, can do.
Again, it is indeed the right thing to do; but you must first realize you'll never do it alone, and cry out for the help God freely offers. That's salvation.
If you want to walk with Christ, expect that there will be challenges. Jesus Himself spoke of it in terms of association with His own death. He said, "If any man would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23) What He's saying is that one must first utterly despair of one's own goodness and one's own efforts; in that way, believing in Christ is like a sort of painful "death," a "crucifixion," even, because it puts to death our pride and our desire to do it our own way.Christ was murdered (pretty heinously too). Will "walking the path of Christ" entail being murdered?
And salvation comes with a cost. It means that we give up all our selfishness and all our worldly ambition, and make instead our ambition to know Christ and become like Him. It means the end of old Gary, and a new Gary to be born...born again, born from above, born of God. Do you see?
I'd love to think that God will protect me if I walk the path of Christ,
What is the danger from which you desire "protection, " Gary? That God will protect you from that which is truly to be feared is certain. But Christ Himself asked the most important question: "For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
There are losses and dangers that are not worth fearing, and there are losses and dangers that are definitely worth fearing. It is the dangers that are definitely worth fearing from which God promises His protection.
This is why the Word says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God; for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He is the Rewarder of those who seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6)...but I don't know if I believe that Christ is God or rather that God incarnated himself in Christ or whatever. What if Christ was not God? Then what? I mean, for what little I know, Christ might have been God incarnate. But, I don't KNOW if he was (in "reality") or not. I don't even know what reality is aside from what I actually see, hear, smell and touch, or taste. And I don't know what science is other than descendants of monkeys playing with dangerous or volatile substances.
Faith, Gary. That's what He requires of you. Faith is trust, reliance, belief, investment of self. What we have to decide is whether or not we're going to believe God, and invest all that we are in Him...or not.
We all trust something. Some trust in science. Some people trust the word of other people. Some trust government. Some trust their own cynicism or cleverness. Some trust in their own intrinsic goodness. And some trust God.
So, Gary...what are you going to trust?