m066, don't feel discouraged. You are curious and are searching the truth. At the same time, you feel close to certain that Islam is true.

Patience. It will take a while. Keep fighting the good fight, search the truth, plunge into the depths, till you reach peace in certainty.

(March 7, 2013 at 9:20 pm)MysticKnight Wrote: m066, don't feel discouraged. You are curious and are searching the truth. At the same time, you feel close to certain that Islam is true.

Patience. It will take a while. Keep fighting the good fight, search the truth, plunge into the depths, till you reach peace in certainty.

Thanks lol

(March 7, 2013 at 9:23 pm)mo66 Wrote: Thanks lol

No problem.

Intuition, logic, empathy.

paulpablo, as much as I enjoy your posts, please dont try to get yourself banned.

(March 7, 2013 at 9:27 pm)futilethewinds Wrote: Intuition, logic, empathy.

Interesting combination. Is that your response to the "holy trinity"?

(March 7, 2013 at 9:30 pm)mo66 Wrote:

(March 7, 2013 at 9:27 pm)futilethewinds Wrote: Intuition, logic, empathy.

Interesting combination. Is that your response to the "holy trinity"?

I like that too. My own trinity is need, empathy and convenience .. pretty much (but not always) in that order. Of course, as has been pointed out to me, with such a morality I'll never be justified in feeling morally superior or morally outraged. (I'll get by.)

It's important to be good to yourself with an honorable intention of being good to yourself, just as it is with being good to others.

You should love and take care of yourself.

Empathy and reasoning is not enough from this perspective.

Love and praise and gratefulness to oneself is important as well.

You have to appreciate yourself as well.

And this is why I believe suicide is like murder. It's murdering oneself which is a huge injustice.

(March 7, 2013 at 9:07 pm)mo66 Wrote: What do you mean by the "paired with reason" part? How much does reason influence your morality exactly?

Is killing wrong? Surely, you wouldn't want to be killed, and most other people wouldn't either. But what if you were acting in self-defense? Or killing a terrorist leader? Empathy and the golden rule work as good rules of thumb, but just that; rules of thumb. They do not apply perfectly to every situation, and reason is needed to determine where the exceptions are.

Empathy isn't perfect, but it is much better than a specific set of moral rules. "Thou shalt not kill"? God doesn't really follow that, and he orders killings all of the time. If you have specific rules, there is little room for interpretation. And when these rules are flawed, then

If people don't have a sense of empathy, there is little helping them, religion or not.

There is people who don't have empathy (due to mental illness) but chose to act morally and believe in morals. How do you account for that?

Yes they are more dangerous then others, but at the same time, they can chose to act morally still.