What the world needs and the best that can happen to anyone

[jimhabegger]

...
What would really like to discuss in this thread is how to help with the growth and spread of people trying to become better people, to help make the world better for all people everywhere, because they want to.

Please define "better".

You mean, better person, or better world? Some examples of the better person I'm trying to be are more encouraging and supporting to people around me, more friendly to everyone, not incriminating and intimidating people as much as I do sometimes, finding ways more often to facilitate and enrich the lives of people around me, more kind more often, learning more and better from other people, communicating more and better with people in my life, about our lives, and be a better listener.

Some examples of how I imagine a better world are people valuing all people everywhere more, and caring what happens to them. More freedom, and better encouragement and support, for more people to develop their capacities, and follow their interests. Less cruelty, brutality, ugliness and violence. Other people might imagine it differently. However they imagine it is okay with me.

[Angrboda]

What is the criteria for this "better person" and who decides it? If you want a discussion on this, then we need to know what goal your trying to reach.

It's the person that decides it.

QFT.

[jimhabegger]

We want better, naturally, the question at the heart of my response is, what is the path most likely to yield improvement? ... As a practical matter, utilitarianism suggests that the greatest good is to be had when individuals are each allowed to rationally choose what is in their own best interest.

That’s where I would like any discussion between you and me to go. My interests in this thread have changed, since I started it. What I would like to discuss now, if anyone is interested, is how it might happen that more people will make more and better efforts to improve themselves for the benefit of others, and what any of us might be able to do, to help it happen. For example, for me it starts with practicing it myself, then encouraging and supporting other people I see doing it, then learning to discuss it more with more people.

On Facebook I started noticing more when my Facebook friends posted images of beauty, possibly to help make Facebook a better place for all of us, as I was trying to learn to do. I’ve tried to learn, whenever I go on Facebook, to search for things I see people doing that I like, to let them know the good it’s doing me, and sometimes to share their posts on my timeline.

I think now that it was a mistake to bring God and faith into my original post the way I did. I think that discussing the pros and cons of religion would distract and detract from what I want to do now, which is for anyone who’s interested, if anyone is, to talk about how it might happen that more people will make more and better efforts to improve themselves for the benefit of others, and what any of us might be able to do, to help it happen.

[brewer]

I'm having hippie commune flashbacks.

[jimhabegger]

I'm having hippie commune flashbacks.

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
The Age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the minds true liberation

Aquarius, Aquarius

- The Fifth Dimension

There's a new world coming
And it's just around the bend
There's a new world coming
This one's coming to an end

There's a new voice calling
You can hear it if you try
And it's growing stronger
With each day that passes by

There's a brand new morning
Rising clear and sweet and free
There's a new day dawning
That belongs to you and me

Yes a new world's coming
The one we've had visions of
Coming in peace, coming in joy
Coming in love

- Cass Elliot

Golden moments moving by
The windows of my mind.
I see you coming back again,
Summer sunshine.

I wonder where my thoughts have gone,
Like withered unborn blossoms blown
Across the seas of Nothing Gained,
From a seed to sow and bloom again,
In the Meadows of my mind,
Born another time.

...

The mood of something in the air,
Look around for what is there,
Don't turn away from what you dreamed,
A lo-ong time ago ...

- Phil Lucas

[jimhabegger]

I think now that it was a mistake to bring God and faith into my original post the way I did. I think that discussing the pros and cons of religion would distract and detract from what I want to do now, which is for anyone who’s interested, if anyone is, to talk about how it might happen that more people will make more and better efforts to improve themselves for the benefit of others, and what any of us might be able to do, to help it happen.

I see a problem with that, since I started this thread in the Religion forum, with a post about God and Faith.  

That isn't what I want to discuss any more, so maybe I need to start another thread in some other forum, about ideas for promoting self improvement for a better world?

[CapnAwesome]

I think that a certain kind of faith in God is the best thing that can happen to anyone, and what the world needs most of all, for human progress, and to right the wrongs and repair the damage. Rather than trying to explain what kind of faith I mean, I'll start by giving an example of how it might happen. I'm not sure it can happen this way, but it's the best way I can think of to illustrate how I think it might happen. A person might read the gospel stories in some Christian Bible, and learn to love and trust Jesus enough to want to follow Him, and learn from Him how to live a better life. I don't think that a person needs to believe that anything in the gospel stories ever actually happened, or believe in any god, or even believe that any such person as Jesus ever actually existed, in order for God to grant them that kind of faith.

The problem is that there was a time and place where everyone did believe in Christianity. Medeval Europe. The world wasn't a better place, it was a frightening place where life was held in low regard.

That world got immensely better with the rise of secularism. Just as today, I'd challenge you to pick a non-secular country you'd want to leave at very in. There are plenty of religious almost all Christian countries in the world, who's populations largely believe what you described in your opening paragraph. They are largely in Africa or South America.

[brewer]

I think now that it was a mistake to bring God and faith into my original post the way I did. I think that discussing the pros and cons of religion would distract and detract from what I want to do now, which is for anyone who’s interested, if anyone is, to talk about how it might happen that more people will make more and better efforts to improve themselves for the benefit of others, and what any of us might be able to do, to help it happen.

I see a problem with that, since I started this thread in the Religion forum, with a post about God and Faith.  

That isn't what I want to discuss any more, so maybe I need to start another thread in some other forum, about ideas for promoting self improvement for a better world?

You can only change yourself. You might be an example for others but that's about it, they will have to want to change themselves.

[jimhabegger]

... maybe I need to start another thread in some other forum, about ideas for promoting self improvement for a better world?

You can only change yourself. You might be an example for others but that's about it, they will have to want to change themselves.

Thank you. That’s what I was hoping for, for people to post their ideas about that. I agree that it’s starts with practicing it myself, and being an example, but I think it can also make a difference for people to exchange ideas and experiences about it, and to talk it up whenever and wherever we can. Also to build better friendships with more people. We can also encourage and support other people, near and far, in their efforts.

[Whateverist]

I think that a certain kind of faith in God is the best thing that can happen to anyone, and what the world needs most of all, for human progress, and to right the wrongs and repair the damage. Rather than trying to explain what kind of faith I mean, I'll start by giving an example of how it might happen. I'm not sure it can happen this way, but it's the best way I can think of to illustrate how I think it might happen. A person might read the gospel stories in some Christian Bible, and learn to love and trust Jesus enough to want to follow Him, and learn from Him how to live a better life. I don't think that a person needs to believe that anything in the gospel stories ever actually happened, or believe in any god, or even believe that any such person as Jesus ever actually existed, in order for God to grant them that kind of faith.

Thanks for the warning *my bolded* but I don't read anything in the bible so I should be safe.