Madeline
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- #41
I have had a few fixed beliefs all my life in the arena of spirituality.
The first is that dead is dead. Period. There is no after-life of any sort. I take great comfort in this notion because once I have died, there'll be nothing left of me to experience anxiety or any other sort of distress.
The second is that there is a God. Some evidence of divinity is visible to me in almost every human. In nature. In science. In math.
Consequently, I believe the ethical behavior of any human is desirable and pleasing to God, but the only punishment for unethical behavior is that the actor loses his self-regard, his humanity is diminished, and he moves away from God.
Prayer may be self-comforting but God does not alter the course of events because we send up entreaties. He might, however, boost our coping power if we ask nicely.
I think this is an unusual arrangement of beliefs, and I wondered if I was sharing it with anyone else.
And for those of you whose ethical systems are based on a reward in the hereafter, can anyone explain to me why I can find the instant reward in doing the right thing, but you need a dangling carrot of a promise of Heaven to follow your ethical precepts?
Do you honestly think that evil acts are satisfying? I see them as failures, lapses in judgment and future regrets.
I've found that fixed beliefs have a way of sneaking up on me and disabusing me of such notions by a well timed kick in the head.
I've felt familiar in places I've never been, and with people I'd never met. The jury is out on that.
Maybe divinity is within us all. I've been monumentally tired. Couldn't take another step. Dreams of light, soup (still looking for that recipe), warnings and encouragement from a cherub (amputee?) and one of a big feather bed (on a barge?) I was allowed to nap in pulled me through not only through the next day, but months and sometimes years. Maybe our mind makes up what it needs to be told to get through, maybe that IS the divine in our lives. Then again, what designed the mind to do such things? Again, the jury is out.
The best part of religions teach the damage done to self through dishonorable acts, and that freely given grace extended to those supposedly least worthy of that grace (and haven't we all been on both sides of that?) is one of the truly humanitarian acts inspired by the divinity within ourselves.
I think we determine our destiny, but also that small things we do have a ripple effect, for good or bad, and if more concentrated on feeding what is beneficial to others, the world would be a better place.
This view of ethics and their operation is almost exactly my own. Ever heard of a name for it Barb?