Hi all,
I know I’m way behind in this conversation. I’ll start here. I’m not intending to pick on you, or say that you are proposing these statements. This just seems like a good place to start.
I would say, first, that the premise is wrong. (Sorry, @Confused-by-christianity) That is, does knowing whether a divine being exists make the big questions (a few listed before) important or not?
It’s also not the way that Istvan worded it when he said, Things are equally important with or without God. I would change that to say that the big questions are important before we know whether a divine being exists or not. Not caring about those questions makes one little better than an animal, “more meat than spirt”, as you said before.
For example, “Why are we here?” is one of the most important questions. What is our mission? Do we have one? The Grand Nudger, I’m sure you know the importance of knowing your mission and achieving it.
Without God, the only other answer, AFAIK, is that it’s just chance. My being here or not being here is a function of a universe-load of random events. We are here without any purpose. We have no mission. If so, then why is anything important? (Where Confused-by-christianity is going, I think.)
On the contrary, if the answer is that “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” (Compendium to the Catechism of the Catholic Church Q1) then that’s a mind-blowing difference! Our short, little life here, full of pain and sorrow along with the happiness, is only a prelude to something far, far better than we could ever imagine. That changes everything and makes the answer to the other questions even more important.
Second, the other questions (besides ones such as “why are we here?” and “Does a greater being exist?”) are also important before we know “the god fact.” Questions like the ones Istvan said, “what constitutes a meaningful existence, a just society or an ethical decision” are vital for us. However, to Confused-by-christianity’s point, there really is no good answer to these without something like a divine being. (I think that’s what he meant. I could be wrong.) Random chance has nothing to offer here.
I know I’m way behind in this conversation. I’ll start here. I’m not intending to pick on you, or say that you are proposing these statements. This just seems like a good place to start.
(November 28, 2023 at 10:10 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote: That sounds like a rough place to be. If nothing about anything you think is important without a god, then they couldn't be important with one either. Its the god fact that's important, the rest is superfluous and uninstructive.Yes, at first, this seems right. But it really isn’t.
I would say, first, that the premise is wrong. (Sorry, @Confused-by-christianity) That is, does knowing whether a divine being exists make the big questions (a few listed before) important or not?
It’s also not the way that Istvan worded it when he said, Things are equally important with or without God. I would change that to say that the big questions are important before we know whether a divine being exists or not. Not caring about those questions makes one little better than an animal, “more meat than spirt”, as you said before.
For example, “Why are we here?” is one of the most important questions. What is our mission? Do we have one? The Grand Nudger, I’m sure you know the importance of knowing your mission and achieving it.
Without God, the only other answer, AFAIK, is that it’s just chance. My being here or not being here is a function of a universe-load of random events. We are here without any purpose. We have no mission. If so, then why is anything important? (Where Confused-by-christianity is going, I think.)
On the contrary, if the answer is that “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” (Compendium to the Catechism of the Catholic Church Q1) then that’s a mind-blowing difference! Our short, little life here, full of pain and sorrow along with the happiness, is only a prelude to something far, far better than we could ever imagine. That changes everything and makes the answer to the other questions even more important.
Second, the other questions (besides ones such as “why are we here?” and “Does a greater being exist?”) are also important before we know “the god fact.” Questions like the ones Istvan said, “what constitutes a meaningful existence, a just society or an ethical decision” are vital for us. However, to Confused-by-christianity’s point, there really is no good answer to these without something like a divine being. (I think that’s what he meant. I could be wrong.) Random chance has nothing to offer here.
