What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Catholic_Lady]

But we, as humans and not cows, can still make the choice. We can choose to fantasize about having sex with the people we see on the street while our spouse is at home waiting for us, or we can choose to simply acknowledge their sexiness, and move on. I can choose to be snippy with my husband when I'm in a bad mood about something else, or I can choose to put aside my natural feelings and treat him with kindness.

But it's walking a fine line. First, animals make choices too. They don't mate with everyone, but only with those partners that are willing to have them. Some even have lifelong relationships. Second, in my mind you're doing nothing bad to your relationship by imagining having sex with another person. Nobody's feelings get hurt, if you don't act on that impulse. And third, even the snippy part can be argued, since sometimes it's better for a relationship to  have it out than to pretend. It's all situational and there's no user manual on how to act as a human being.

Fair enough about the animals. They do make choices, but I would argue not to the same extent that we do.

I still retain that it is better to treat your spouse with kindness than to be rude to them when whatever it is that's upsetting you is not their fault. You can talk about how you feel and vent without lashing out. (and I say this as someone who struggles greatly with it)

But the point I was trying to make is that just because we have a natural impulse to do something, doesn't mean we should never try to take the higher road. We may have natural impulses, but we still have the choice to act on them or not.

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I'm hardly wasting my time CL.  I hope that your interaction with me either deepens your knowledge of your own faith, or leads you from it entirely.  I'm happy either way.

Vatican I

confess the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, as regards their whole substance, have been produced by God from nothing"

Pope Pius XII

When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now, it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own"

The catechism (ccc 390)

The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents

Tell me why you disagree with your church, your pope, and your catechism....and why you believe that you are knowledgeable -at all- regarding your faith given the fact the you have been completely, unambiguously wrong on every portion of your claim?

Nothing you post above contradicts anything I have said. And if you think it does, then I have done a poor job of being clear.