Metaphysics : Right And Wrong

[Josh_Jpn 0]

How do you define what is wrong and what is right? Do you follow the bible, believe in moral relativism, agree with Kant, or something else?

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

How do you define what is wrong and what is right? Do you follow the bible, believe in moral relativism, agree with Kant, or something else?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Fine, if nobody else with start off this topic...

 

I am a buddhist utilitarian. Rule utilitarianism specifically. I base my view on my understanding of suffering from a buddhist standpoint and then am a utilitarian whose measure of utility is minimum suffering long term. The rules involved, unsurprisingly, are more or less extensions of the 5 precepts.

[Sadas 0]

I'm am a christian. But I don't believe in God. I don't believe in mirracles too. But when we see something unexplainable, we say that is God. I think that everything can be explained. But many things are just to difficult for us to understand.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

I'm am a christian. But I don't believe in God. I don't believe in mirracles too. But when we see something unexplainable, we say that is God. I think that everything can be explained. But many things are just to difficult for us to understand.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

By this do you mean you were raised/baptised christian but no longer believe in god? Not believing in god and being a chrisitian are sorta incompatible.

[Sadas 0]

MajesticTreeFrog when I was a child I believed in God, but now I believe no more. And I don't know why...

I have nothing to take from it and nothing to give to it.

Many people live without God, or believe in other gods.

Tsunamis and earthquakes in my opinion are not "punishment" for not being a christian or for praising other gods.

 

Science can't explain everything. That's why people believe in God.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

MajesticTreeFrog when I was a child I believed in God, but now I believe no more. And I don't know why...

I have nothing to take from it and nothing to give to it.

Many people live without God, or believe in other gods.

Tsunamis and earthquakes in my opinion are not "punishment" for not being a christian or for praising other gods.

 

Science can't explain everything. That's why people believe in God.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I see. I personally never believed. I was not brought up in any religion at all, because my parents believed I should decide for myself. I went to church a few times, but I found it really creepy, what with the ritualized cannibalism and all.

 

Anyway, I hope you figure out what is right for you. But don't be afraid to say you don't know, when it comes to religion. It is wiser to say you don't know than to say you do and be wrong.

[ill 0]

i define what is wrong and right by logic. of course you have to have emotion in it. what would you rather save from a fire? your dog or your computer? well your computer is more logical, since it costed you more money probably, but what did you care for more? your dog most likely. i would probably save my computer cause MY dog is smart enough to get out of the freaking fire. lol but i'd really save my dog if it was stupid. as for not believing in christianity? i'm gonna do my kids the same way i was done. im gonna make them go when they're young and when they're old enough lets say, 16. they get to choose. before that they go wherever i want to go. :)oh yes, and they get spanked. forget that wussy stuff that parents are doing now, go in timeout! forget that.

[mitchellmckain 0]

Here is another post where I found the title interesting but the direction of the discussion a bit disappointing. Let me quote this website: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

The term metaphysics originally referred to the writings of Aristotle that came after his writings on physics.  Traditionally, metaphysics refers to the branch of philosophy that attempts to understand the fundamental nature of all reality, whether visible or invisible.  A commonly employed, secondary, popular, usage of metaphysics includes a wide range of controversial phenomena believed by many people to exist beyond the physical.

The direction of this discussion really follows none of these but the commonly employed one would have been just as disappointing to me. The introductory post seems strongly pointed in the direction of ethics. This is a branch of philosophy which I could never summon much interesting in except on personal level because I find it the least susceptible to logic but primarily a matter of choice.
As a reference to the writing of Aristotle, I find metaphysics very interesting, since he is my favorite of the Greek philosophers and his work "Metaphysics" the most intersting of his writings. But it is the traditional branch of philosophy that holds the most interest for me. I am fascinated by its historical development and especially the impact of modern physics.

Science can't explain everything. That's why people believe in God.

This is tragic. I agree that science can't explain everything. I believe that the main reason for the spectacular success of the physical sciences is its very narrow topic area. Science has a sort of tunnel vision seeing the world through the filter of mathematics. The non-physical sciences have adopted the same kind of tunnel vision and blindness by emulating the physical sciences. BUT, God does not explain anything. I absolutely love the TV series "Joan of Arcadia", where Joan is constantly fustrated by God's unwillingness to explain a single thing. Well as an explanation for things, God is pathetic. We would do better to say that things just are the way they are and require no explanation. From this perspective of explaining things I find myself in agreement with majestictreefrogs essay in the thread "The nature and purpose of religion"

The problem isn't that they don't have access to the truth; the problem is that they pretend they do when they actually don't.

But whether it is by participants or by observers I think this idea of God as an explanation is a gross misunderstanding of religion. It is not about explanation at all. It is much more about coping with life and the responsibilities we have in living it.

oh yes, and they get spanked. forget that wussy stuff that parents are doing now, go in timeout! forget that.

Parenting is one of life's most difficult tasks, and for the mainpart I say whatever works and the observers can mostly butt out. I personally like finding punishments appropriate to the infraction. I found my boys and some new friends accross the street throwing rocks at each other. I have forbid them playing with these kids for a week. I have also taught my children that, "Your boss is and always will be someone who has something you want." When other members of the household (mother and wife) have requested that I punish the boys I have sometimes (especially when it is for something I don't feel strongly about) told them that it is up to them to find their own arsenal in the favors they do for the boys themselves.

[iGuest 3]

Metaphysics: Right/WrongMetaphysics : Right And Wrong

Right cannot be defined without the aid of wrong andWrong cannot be defined without the aid of right.Right and wrong are the two poles of the same thing. One cannot exist without the other. Note that every thing in this universe( is in the field of time and space) is on a scale between two extremes and the field in between these two extremes is time or space.Metaphysics literally means beyond Physics. Physics deals with all that is within time and space. Metaphysics deals with studies beyond time and space.ASHOK

-reply by ASHOK