| Mike,
Christian Moral Philosophy is best described by Jesus Himself;
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I
have loved you, that you love one another."
Also, to love God with all your heart, mind, spirit and body and
to love your neighbor as yourself. (paraphrased)
Norman
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| Re: Christian Moral Philosophy
Only after I received the name Playtoe, did I begin to look into the
ideas of Plato, and subsequently others. I felt that since my name
sounds like his, I must study up on him. And I found a great deal of
correspondence with his philosophy and the Christian religion.
Also, in the Nag Hammadi Library is included writings by
Neo-platonists, they apparent constituted a "sect" of Gnosticism. So
this too implies a "Christian Moral Philosophy".
I believe "Morals" is defined, concisely, as "right action, conduct, or
behavior," in contrast to "Ethics", which is "right thinking", to which
I would include "right emotions and feelings"; by this I mean when one
elicits the proper emotional or feeling response to a
situation/stimulus. It would depend upon how you classify emotions and
feelings as Morals or Ethics...I consider emotions (debatably) ethics,
but feelings substantially ethics. (e.g. Someone insults me, I FEEL
bad, then get angry (emotional), then I slap em (immorality), thus
feelings cause emotions cause behavior/action/conduct.
Anyway, Plato said, When you determine the Summom Bonum (life's
greatest good), right action/conduct/behavior is easy to determine.
This is ultimately true. However, I perceive a difference in
Philosophy and Religious Philosophy. We can philosophize in general,
then we can philosophize in the religious context. Plate philosophized
in general. So the above statement has pragmatic implications. It
suggests that whatever one determines as Summon Bonum, the concomitant
"right action, conduct or behavior" becomes right...but in the
religious context such action, even the decided "Greatest Good" may
itself be wrong or contrary to the "Will of God." So I perceive a general philosophy and a
religious philosophy. (e.g. A person make decide that Life's Greatest
Good is to acquire great material wealth (thus be Materialistic), and
as a concomitant action/conduct/behavior be greedy, conniving and
deceitful in order to gain that wealth, and think themselves right
based upon their conception of Summon Bonum, and pragmatically they
would be right...but this conception of Summom Bonum and its resulting
action is evil in the context of religious philosophy, as "spiritual
wealth" would the appropriate Summom Bonum in regards to God and
religion.
Playtoe
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| RE: .2
Mike,
The reason that loving others is moral is because we as human beings
function at our best when we can experience genuine love from others
and offer genuine love in return. Love affects ALL the parts of our being.
I believe that the human being was created in love by God and all humans
are an extension of His love. When love occurs, only then can the human
being experience its fullest potential. Alas, man's own spirit has
intefered with being able to fully experience God's love and therefore
has much difficulty loving others. The divine person of Jesus Christ
came to remedy the problems with this human nature.
What would the world and human condition be like without love at its best?
Just read the newspapers and watch the evening news. Yes love is proper,
and moral.
Norman
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| Note 241.2
Mike,
You've posed some difficult questions. Thank you!
As you're already aware, I cannot speak for all Christians.
But, let me share what I can with you.
Allow me to also say that I'm somewhat limited by the constraints
of time and my ability to articulate what's in my heart. In light of the
foregoing, I submit the following feeble attempt:
> What is the philosophical reasoning behind these moral
> imperatives you have quoted ?
My moral philosophy is grounded in the sacredness of life; in the
holiness of all of God's creation; in the incalcuable intrinsic value of
every human person. Moral decisions for me have become an outgrowth of
deep reverence, respect, appreciation and honor for both the Creator and
the creation; something like a prayer or an act of worship.
> Yes, but why is loving others moral ?
The teachings of Jesus requires us to love and to demonstrate
loving behavior even when when we do not feel loving. Love is more than
simply an emotion. In fact, an emotional element need not even be present
in order to act out love or to express love. Jesus requires his followers
to extend this revolutionary love to the outermost limits. We're to love
our enemies and pray on behalf of those who make our lives miserable.
To me, both the overall message of the Bible and of God's Spirit
are clear in setting forth imperitives of love, service and justice.
> What makes loving God moral ?
I'm not sure whether loving God is really a moral action or not.
However, if you love the Other it's natural that you'll want to please the
Other. And to my way of thinking, this relationship becomes the foundation
of our relationships with others.
Well, Mike, my guess is that you now have more questions than ever.
Peace,
Richard
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|
Playtoe:
You asked a good question as the title of your reply.
Interestingly enough, I just read something which reversed the
the differences you gave between moral and ethical and defined
moral as "right thinking" and ethical as "right action". My
dictionary defines morals as pertaining to ethics and ethics
as pertaining to morality. To be honest with you I find the
whole semantic tangle to be pretty humorous.
At the risk of creating an even more tangled situation
let continue on a bit with what morals are. I think any moral
view represents an ideal and an ideal is how we would wish things
to be.
This of course differs from the Platonic idea of the greatest
good being moral. One can reduce this idea to basic needs of food
shelter and sex. Indeed Plato has been criticized for espousing a
philosophy that makes the greatest good the lowest common denominator.
If morality is an ideal, then this makes morality a very subjective
thing. Many Christians seem to have no problem this because of a belief
that the ideal represented by Christian morality is God's ideal.
This should bring up the question are God's moral values necessarily
any more valid than your's or mine. Unfortunately this is the very
question many Christians will not ask and often insist must not be asked.
I frequently hear the opinion expressed that there needs to be an
absolute standard of morality against which actions are to be measured
and that this standard is defined by God's moral standards. However,
I for one, find God's moral standards rather inconsistent and often
contradictory as they set down in the Bible. So, either the Bible is
not the inerrant guide to moral behavior that some claim it to be, or
there are alternative ways of determining moral standards.
Mike
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