God is not intelligent, or, why I am a pantheist

Hume said:
Okay. I have no interest in Christian ethics.
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But my ethics would hardly be called "Christian" since I'm not doing it based on the Christian model of original sin which I, like you, find repulsive.

My ethics just happens to share one component: awareness of my limitations and my ability to do bad things. And my sincere wish to NOT do those things.
 
Daylight63 said:
But my ethics would hardly be called "Christian" since I'm not doing it based on the Christian model of original sin which I, like you, find repulsive.

My ethics just happens to share one component: awareness of my limitations and my ability to do bad things. And my sincere wish to NOT do those things.
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okay
 
Daylight63 said:
But my ethics would hardly be called "Christian" since I'm not doing it based on the Christian model of original sin which I, like you, find repulsive.

My ethics just happens to share one component: awareness of my limitations and my ability to do bad things. And my sincere wish to NOT do those things.
Click to expand...
luckily morality is rational.

don't you find?
 
Hume said:
What do you mean that "morality is rational?"
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like it's easy to explain what it is.

masons spend inordinate amounts of time insisting morality cannot possibly be rational or easily explained.

otherwise their influence through organized religion game is over.
 
Lao Tse said:
like it's easy to explain what it is.

masons spend inordinate amounts of time insisting morality cannot possibly be rational or easily explained.

otherwise their influence through organized religion game is over.
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By rational, do you mean reason can prove the ethical system is correct?
 
Lao Tse said:
nope.

wrong.

you're miseducated.
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Well, given that the word GNOSTIC refers to "special knowledge" not available to everyone except through the route of the faith that pretty much seems like the textbook definition of a Mystery Religion which is called a mystery religion because the adherents weren't able to access special knowledge unless they followed the path of the faith.


"As an esoteric (and often elitist) religion Gnosticism is connected to polytheistic mystery religions "

"Ironically, Gnosticism, which was a mystery cult in the Classical sense of presenting the initiate with secret and publicly unavailable information about its doctrines and practices"
wherepeteris.com

Gnosticism: When Is a Mystery Not a Mystery?

In my last essay, I took aim at Pelagianism, a heresy from Late Antiquity, which Pope Francis has frequently targeted in its perceived modern forms in his teaching. In this essay I will discuss Gnosticism, the other major heresy whose
wherepeteris.com wherepeteris.com
 
Hume said:
By rational, do you mean reason can prove the ethical system is correct?
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I don't know what Lao means, but for me that's a key part of it. There has to be a REASON why a moral teaching exists.

Just arbitrary "commands" without any real frame is hardly what I would call a "morality".
 
Daylight63 said:
Well, given that the word GNOSTIC refers to "special knowledge" not available to everyone except through the route of the faith that pretty much seems like the textbook definition of a Mystery Religion which is called a mystery religion because the adherents weren't able to access special knowledge unless they followed the path of the faith.


"As an esoteric (and often elitist) religion Gnosticism is connected to polytheistic mystery religions "

"Ironically, Gnosticism, which was a mystery cult in the Classical sense of presenting the initiate with secret and publicly unavailable information about its doctrines and practices"
wherepeteris.com

Gnosticism: When Is a Mystery Not a Mystery?

In my last essay, I took aim at Pelagianism, a heresy from Late Antiquity, which Pope Francis has frequently targeted in its perceived modern forms in his teaching. In this essay I will discuss Gnosticism, the other major heresy whose
wherepeteris.com wherepeteris.com
Click to expand...
that's fake gnosticism.
 
Hume said:
Well, that is entirely what Christian ethics are.
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Not necessarily. YES, I think everyone would agree that most Christians feel their ethics are given to them by God, but it is no real effort to find the ones that make sense even without any sort of God or supernatural thing.

Take Luke 6:31. Yeah it was uttered by Jesus. But the same sentiment has been uttered by just about every religion on the earth. Because it is manifestly rational to treat another person as you want them to treat you. There's no need for any supernatural intervention to understand that.

The rule against murder is another one. One doesn't need God to tell you that murder is wrong. Sure it's part of the Christian ethos, but it is not ONLY understandable as a religious commandment.

Things like "having no god before me", that's not what I would call a moral issue. That's a religious command.

But the ETHICS of loving one another, working to befriend one's enemies, caring for the poor, not hurting other people...those are things which can easily be understood without any reference to religion.
 
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