The Moral Challenge

[GodsRevolt]

Nope, not gonna do it.


What I DO want is to hear your best analogy for what it means to be a good person.

I was think about it today, good/bad and our interactions as human beings. This is what crossed my mind:

We are like a bull in the china shop of everyone else's emotions. There is the delicate balance between self-restraint and acting to your own instincts. And the only way to really avoid breaking something (not hurting another or yourself) is to completely leave the shop, which would be akin to emotional seclusion.

Anyone got something better?

(PLEASE NOTE: Within this challenge there is no mention of God. Just an examination of morals and their place in human relations. I promise to not bring God or anything to do with Him up unless prompted by someone else.)

[FlyingNarwhal]

(PLEASE NOTE: Within this challenge there is no mention of God. Just an examination of morals and their place in human relations. I promise to not bring God or anything to do with Him up unless prompted by someone else.)

God God God God God God God

Your move.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm not sure I understand the nature of the 'challenge' here. While I make it a point never to go out of my way to harm other people unnecessarily, someone else's emotional response to my own actions doesn't trouble me all that much.

In other words, while I try to behave myself as much as possible, I'm not going to conduct myself in such a was as to preclude hurting someone else's feeling.

Boru

[Cinjin]

Nope, not gonna do it.


What I DO want is to hear your best analogy for what it means to be a good person.

I was think about it today, good/bad and our interactions as human beings. This is what crossed my mind:

We are like a bull in the china shop of everyone else's emotions. There is the delicate balance between self-restraint and acting to your own instincts. And the only way to really avoid breaking something (not hurting another or yourself) is to completely leave the shop, which would be akin to emotional seclusion.

I don't get it. Don't you already know what a good person is???

If BAD is treating people like shit than GOOD =
If BAD is forcing your religion onto other people's daily lives than GOOD =
If BAD is cheating people out of their money than GOOD =
If BAD is miscellaneous action with a negative outcome than GOOD =

You get where I'm coming from???? Good is not any one thing, nor is it necessarily quantifiable. But one things for sure, you'll know it when you see it.

[GodsRevolt]

God God God God God God God

Your move.

Knight to G7.

Amen, I say unto you, checkmate!

---

I don't get it. Don't you already know what a good person is???

If BAD is treating people like shit than GOOD =
If BAD is forcing your religion onto other people's daily lives than GOOD =
If BAD is cheating people out of their money than GOOD =
If BAD is miscellaneous action with a negative outcome than GOOD =

You get where I'm coming from???? Good is not any one thing, nor is it necessarily quantifiable. But one things for sure, you'll know it when you see it.

That is why I asked for an analogy - because it is hard to sum up in just a dictionary definition kind of way.

Did I offend somehow?

---

I'm not sure I understand the nature of the 'challenge' here. While I make it a point never to go out of my way to harm other people unnecessarily, someone else's emotional response to my own actions doesn't trouble me all that much.

In other words, while I try to behave myself as much as possible, I'm not going to conduct myself in such a was as to preclude hurting someone else's feeling.

Boru

I've thought about that before, do you mean like being completely straight forward about what you see and do?

I tried it before (with my wife) and it was a definite strain on the marriage.

If I am right about what you are saying, do you think that tact comes into it at all? Or do you think that people just need to face up to hard truths in a sink or swim sort of way?

[Zazzy]

I don't know if I have a good analogy. What matters is the best person I personally can be, not what someone else can be. The best I can be is when I think carefully before I act or speak, taking the needs and feelings of others into account. Being honest and chill in my daily interactions. Giving time and money to help others, and to do it in the spirit of remembering how lucky I am, and how quickly luck can change.

In the every day, practical world, it's hard to think carefully all the time. I think forums are appealing because we don't always have to be our best selves when it comes to that. It's also hard to give time and money, but it's almost always worth it when I do. And being honest? Man, that's the toughest. It's so much easier to tell a lie than to find an appropriate way to say, "I don't want to come to your party because I don't like your friends."

[pocaracas]

Have you ever heard of.... the golden rule?

=> One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

or, in it's most common form:



Surely, it's not a magic bullet, one size fits all, but it's a good start.

[catfish]

We are like the pieces in a china shop with a few hundred thousand bulls fucking everything up.

[freedomfromforum]

Even if I knew there was absolutely no way I would get caught, I would never rob a bank, or steal from someone. My self-respect is worth far more to me than any amount of money or material goods. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that atheists believe that there is no meaning to life (which is what some theists believe), and that since we're headed nowhere, and will not be held to account for our misdeeds (nor rewarded for honoring a god), that we can therefore do as we please - why not? Free-for-all rules! What's to keep me from participating in mayhem and treachery? How about my self-respect? I have to sleep at night, and while it may sound neither entirely altruistic, nor necessarily selfish, I value my ability to rest well knowing that I have done no harm to another in the world today. That's enough to make me want it again tomorrow, and millennia past are leading toward future generations who will move us even further away from our roots - unless religion kills us all first.

[GodsRevolt]

In the every day, practical world, it's hard to think carefully all the time. I think forums are appealing because we don't always have to be our best selves when it comes to that. It's also hard to give time and money, but it's almost always worth it when I do. And being honest? Man, that's the toughest. It's so much easier to tell a lie than to find an appropriate way to say, "I don't want to come to your party because I don't like your friends."

Right?

The self-restraint part gets me sometimes. If I have a head ache or a stomach ache or am just in a plain shitty mood I can hardly help myself from bucking like bull at little things. And the whole china shop comes down.

But I think I want to change my analogy now:

A good person is like a desert rose on moonlit night . . .

No, just kidding.

The good person is the one with the glue in his/her back pocket, willing to take it out and put the broken things back together, things that others broke and things that were broken by him/her (the good person).