I spent some time as a religious leader, and I conformed to far too many senseless doctrines and codes of ethics over the years. What's worse is that I taught others to do the same. Leaving religion, the ethics I had built and followed as a religious person crumbled. While I consider myself a reasonably good person, I have come to more greatly value self-interested behavior. Life's too short to live any other way. I still owe a responsibility to my society, of course, but this isn't entirely selfless, nor is it blind. Self-preservation demands that we repay those who contribute to our successes and well being; in other words, if we wish to live a long and fruitful life, and to leave a legacy to be remembered, we must always pay our debts. But I digress.

I just thought I'd share a five-point list of guidelines I generally follow:

1) I will seek to live rather than die.
2) I will indulge rather than abstain.
3) I will seek knowledge rather than faith.
4) I will repay justice rather than mercy.
5) I will love only those who deserve it.

What are others' thoughts about this? Also, do any of you have your own little code to live by, or do you just play it by ear?

Basically, it is LaVey's flavor of Satanism.

I only give myself rules when I have a bad habit to get rid of. Other than that I just go with what seems right to me at the time.

I find that this is very basic. Except that I like this code of ethic.

I never thought justice was on the other side of mercy, and even now when You mention it, nope.

(June 22, 2013 at 1:20 am)Gods_Unreal Wrote: 4) I will repay justice rather than mercy.

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."
Abraham Lincoln

(June 22, 2013 at 1:20 am)Gods_Unreal Wrote: 5) I will love only those who deserve it.

How does one become deserving of love?

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(June 22, 2013 at 1:20 am)Gods_Unreal Wrote: Also, do any of you have your own little code to live by, or do you just play it by ear?

I am a Taoist and Hindu, though the former influences my ethics more than the latter.


In general, I practice virtue based ethics, rather than deontological or consequentialist ethics. And lately, I incorporate bits and pieces from my ideas about cognitive science.

Wikipedia Wrote:Virtue ethics emphasizes the role of one's character and the virtues that one's character embodies for determining or evaluating ethical behavior. Virtue ethics is one of the three major approaches to normative ethics, often contrasted to deontology which emphasizes duty to rules and consequentialism which derives rightness or wrongness from the outcome of the act itself.

The difference between these three approaches to morality tends to lie more in the way of how moral dilemmas are approached, rather than in the moral conclusions reached. For example, a consequentialist may argue that lying is wrong because of the negative consequences produced by lying — though a consequentialist may allow that certain foreseeable consequences might make lying acceptable. A deontologist might argue that lying is always wrong, regardless of any potential "good" that might come from lying. A virtue ethicist, however, would focus less on lying in any particular instance and instead consider what a decision to tell a lie or not tell a lie said about one's character and moral behavior.

I'm also strongly influenced by Greek philosophy — the Stoics, Epicureans, Cynics, Skeptics, and pre-Socratics.

Though, since ethics is outside my purview, I spend relatively little time on the subject aside from my religious practices.

(June 22, 2013 at 1:20 am)Gods_Unreal Wrote: I spent some time as a religious leader, and I conformed to far too many senseless doctrines and codes of ethics over the years. What's worse is that I taught others to do the same. Leaving religion, the ethics I had built and followed as a religious person crumbled. While I consider myself a reasonably good person, I have come to more greatly value self-interested behavior. Life's too short to live any other way. I still owe a responsibility to my society, of course, but this isn't entirely selfless, nor is it blind. Self-preservation demands that we repay those who contribute to our successes and well being; in other words, if we wish to live a long and fruitful life, and to leave a legacy to be remembered, we must always pay our debts. But I digress.

I just thought I'd share a five-point list of guidelines I generally follow:

1) I will seek to live rather than die.
2) I will indulge rather than abstain.
3) I will seek knowledge rather than faith.
4) I will repay justice rather than mercy.
5) I will love only those who deserve it.

What are others' thoughts about this? Also, do any of you have your own little code to live by, or do you just play it by ear?

1. Shouldn't need to be said.
2. So you're American?
3. Good idea.
4. Self-propagated justice isn't a mirror. It's a giant circle-fuck that never ends.
5. You will love whoever you love. Only a very twisted individual sits around judging who that will be.

Overall, I have to say you sound like a World-Ender gun nut. I'm guessing you own at least one Confederate flag. Am I right or am I right?

(June 22, 2013 at 7:25 pm)bennyboy Wrote: 1. Shouldn't need to be said.
2. So you're American?
3. Good idea.
4. Self-propagated justice isn't a mirror. It's a giant circle-fuck that never ends.
5. You will love whoever you love. Only a very twisted individual sits around judging who that will be.

Overall, I have to say you sound like a World-Ender gun nut. I'm guessing you own at least one Confederate flag. Am I right or am I right?

You think you're so clever. You're really just a bloody idiot.

1) It does need to be said. Too many people give up on life, or are too foolish to act in accordance with their own self-preservation. That's their choice, but it won't be mine.

2) Yes, I am American, but I don't live in America, and my experience is that regardless of what country you're in, people like enjoying things more than they like abstaining from them. I refuse to live by any self-righteous, self-deceitful, and self-denialist philosophy of "don't eat," "don't touch," "don't fuck." I do what I want, within the boundaries of others' liberty.

3) Yes, it is a good idea (as are the others). I very rarely have bad ideas, and my good ones certainly don't need you to point them out.

4) Justice is repayment. That's it. If someone does wrong, they are repaid according to their action, not according to their supposed potential for goodness or change. When someone murders or maims or rapes, they are sent to prison and, if the law is just, killed. Mercy is unjust weakness. It is a quality I will not cultivate. (And to that person who quoted Lincoln: I wonder whether you know anything about him. He may have said that, but that hardly speaks as loudly as his actions. Abraham Lincoln started a war that resulted in the deaths of more than a half million people, held more than 20,000 prisoners of war, and employed surveillance measures on enemy correspondence in order to ambush them. Abraham Lincoln was not merciful. No good leader is.)

5) This principle is opposed to the common and ridiculous goal of the world's mindless religious to love everyone without discrimination, to love unconditionally, even if that love is unrequited, as their gods supposedly love us. I refuse to love blindly and universally, as love for everyone is love for no one; it is nothing more than sugar-coated apathy. I will love those who demonstrate their goodness and/or loyalty, and I will hate those who demonstrate evil and betrayal. Any other way of loving is foolish and ultimately self-destructive, in my experience.

While I find your assessment of who I am—namely a conservative gun nut running around shouting TEOTWAWKI and waving my confederate flags—amusing, it is entirely incorrect. I am not conservative in the general sense, nor liberal, nor really libertarian. I disagree with the social principles of most conservatives, the fiscal principles of most liberals, and the utter lack of pragmatism among most libertarians. I disagree with conservative justification if bigotry as much as I disagree with the liberal wet dream of making everyone absolutely equal in every way imaginable. I don't really have a label that suits what I believe. But I am not a Confederate nut, a pro-life seceder, a homophobic traitor to the American nation; I am generally self-described as some sort of liberal, I would have supported most of what Abraham Lincoln did, and while I enjoy the craftsmanship of firearm manufacture and the beauty of a well-trained fighter, I do agree with certain regulations on firearms.

Good day.

1. Would you give your life for another?

That's how I wanted to die as a believer. It isn't now, but if put in that situation I wouldnt even think about it. I'd die for someone else. I wouldn't go out of my country for war, but I'd die defending those I love.

(June 23, 2013 at 2:44 am)missluckie26 Wrote: 1. Would you give your life for another?

That's how I wanted to die as a believer. It isn't now, but if put in that situation I wouldnt even think about it. I'd die for someone else. I wouldn't go out of my country for war, but I'd die defending those I love.

There is only one person I would give my life for, and only if giving my life would certainly save his. As for anyone else, I would likely see it as a waste of my own life.