But this is basically true for all of us here. In fact, it would seem to be the nature of exchanges that revolve around things like God and religion and value judgments. Some things we can pin down as true for all of us and some things we cannot.
Is it possible then to construct the least problematic argument relating to the relationship between behaviors deemed to be moral on this side of the grave and understandings of beyond it?
What might that argument encompass relating to actual conflicting behaviors that we are all familiar with?
Still in the end it always seems to come down to sets of assumptions that rationalize different [sometimes very different] behaviors.
Basically, isn’t that just common sense?
There is no common sense in asking for something to be valid “forever”. There is no way to approach “forever”.
And yet for all practical purposes in our interactions with others it seems important to make distinctions between things that do appear to be true for all of us [as far into the future as we can imagine], and things that are rooted more in dasein and conflicting goods. After all, this marks that crucial distinction between relationships that all rational men and women would be committed to embrace and reactions to relationships that would seem better suited to moderation, negotiation and compromise.
Take the unfolding Trump scandals. There are things that did in fact occur between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Investigations are now in place trying to determine what those facts are.
And the facts unearthed will either be or not be in sync with the law.
But if no laws were broken there will still be a deluge of conflicting political opinion regarding whether Trump and his cohorts “did the right thing”.
This thread would then explore all of that as it relates to any particular individual’s belief in God.
What does God make of Trump and Putin here? How will He judge them?
Now, if, on the other hand, a God, the God, your God does in fact exist that could be construed as the ontological and teleological font. Right?
Since you could never know exactly what God knows, then you would always fall short even with the proven existence of God. Does God want you to eat one more cheese doodle? You can’t know unless you ask and He says. Is God going to reply to that? Is He going to tell you if your toenails are too long?
Turn it into a caricature if you must, but the bottom line on this thread is still the same:
1] A God, the God, Your God either does or does not exist.
2] If in fact He does exist, He will judge our behaviors on this side of the grave.
3] With so much at stake [immortality, salvation, devine justice] the manner in which any particular individual construes the meaning of God and religion will surely be pertinent regarding the behaviors that he or she chooses on this side of the grave.
The idea being to keep them in sync.
But there are so many different renditions of God with so many different [and conflicting] renditions of vice and virtue how is one to choose?
So, I created this thread in order to explore what those who do believe in God and [thus] are not entangled in my own dilemma above choose.
How does God and religion play out in their day to day lives when their values and their behaviors come into conflict with others.
And when have I ever argued that nothing can be demonstrated? On the contrary, I think that, for example, it can be demonstrated that Donald Trump and Pope Francis recently met at the Vatican.
A hundred years from now, nobody will know or care if they met in the Vatican. IOW, even that fact, does not meet the requirement of being true “forever”. It has a time and place where it is true.
That’s not the point. The point is that both Don Trump and the Pope are around today. As is Vladimir Putin. They all choose particular behaviors here and now that an existing God is either judging or not judging. These men will die. Now, how will an existing God take into account the behaviors that these men choose “here and now” insofar as “there and then” their immortality and salvation are in play?