The Nehor wrote: Wow....I must say I don't do my best thinking when under black lights with pulsating music, surrounded by writhing bodies, and with men leering at me. Whatever works for you ;)
Yes, it's been my experience that very few men do their best thinking (or any at all) in that environment . ;)
moksha wrote:Nietzsche was a real killjoy. Even a hardened atheist should see that religion is a pleasant and reaffirming opiate and healing agent for us. Belief in a beneficent God, who urges us to do good, is worthwhile. The s****iness of human behavior would occur with or without religion, but something that advocates for good behavior does us all a favor.
I think you've been in the Hobbesian State of Nature too long Moksha.
And how do you know that the good that God urges us to do isn't our own instincts being projected by us on "God". In effect...how do you know we aren't good by instinct?
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
moksha wrote:Nietzsche was a real killjoy. Even a hardened atheist should see that religion is a pleasant and reaffirming opiate and healing agent for us. Belief in a beneficent God, who urges us to do good, is worthwhile. The s****iness of human behavior would occur with or without religion, but something that advocates for good behavior does us all a favor.
I think you've been in the Hobbesian State of Nature too long Moksha.
And how do you know that the good that God urges us to do isn't our own instincts being projected by us on "God". In effect...how do you know we aren't good by instinct?
We have never left that nature Bond, only our social compact has changed. Most likely some are indeed good by instinct and the rest of us need all the gentle prodding we can get.
Nietzsche wrote some interesting things between the time he lost his faith and he lost his mind (including "Goest thou to woman? Forget not thy whip.), but dare I say that the "God is dead" story (which appeared in several different works of his) is confusing and ambiguous at best. I remember reading something on it just recently. Nietzsche, like most philosophers, has many different interpretations. Anyway, this thing said that Nietzsche wasn't saying that there is no God, or that He has no place in our lives, but that humanity has brushed Him off (the madman screams "you have killed him" before he realizes he is too early; the people aren't yet ready), and that is the reason that we have to become Übermensch (supermen).
James Bond, you don't happen to be taking an ethics class at a certain Utah county institution, do you?
I cannot imagine God "being dead". I can imagine there being NO God but I can't comprehend God DYING. But if I were to find out God were no to be, I would be dissapointed that I had spent my life talking to someone that wasn't there. In fact I was thinking about that last night when thinking of Jersey Girl's Adam and Eve thread. I would feel lost and betrayed and even insulted and imbarrased.
Livingstone22 wrote:James Bond, you don't happen to be taking an ethics class at a certain Utah county institution, do you?
Nope I'm many leagues away but I am a college student. (Does anyone else wish we used "leagues" as a measure of distance?)
I should respond to your points but I'm tired. This weekend. (Yes it does seem that the proclamation that God is dead seems to be more like shrugging off the idea of dead rather than a mention that God is actually physically dead. I think it's the idea of society divorcing itself from the idea of God that Nietzche was getting at.)
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
Livingstone22 wrote:James Bond, you don't happen to be taking an ethics class at a certain Utah county institution, do you?
Nope I'm many leagues away but I am a college student. (Does anyone else wish we used "leagues" as a measure of distance?)
I should respond to your points but I'm tired. This weekend. (Yes it does seem that the proclamation that God is dead seems to be more like shrugging off the idea of dead rather than a mention that God is actually physically dead. I think it's the idea of society divorcing itself from the idea of God that Nietzche was getting at.)
Oh, you're on the OTHER side of the Zion curtain--imagine Nietzsche on ethics being taught here. I can't believe so many students get so offended by others' ideas.
That the question evoked such dismay, if i correctly understood the class response, dismays me some what. That young citizens have accepted the reality of such an entity of "God" as presented theologically, i do not think bodes well for a peaceful future, that must in that case, of necessity still believe in a humanity more directed by faulty faith than by rational responsibility.
The "God" that supposedly "died", never lived. Except in the minds of primitives and those who chose not to question the faith-of-their-fathers. YIKES!! Roger