Another tough question, with only brief thoughts -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, [8], 9 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 14:40:58 02/26/02 Tue
Author: Omega
Subject: Another tough question, with only brief thoughts
In reply to: mvd 's message, "A thoughtful answer" on 16:15:55 02/25/02 Mon

I think there is certainly an element of what you say -- there is a psychological side going on. Self-awareness has its benefits, but it is also, incomplete. Self-awareness is not true self awareness, but a limited awareness of how we define ourselves. Yes, the unconscious side is often split off from our self-awareness, but a higher sense of self-awareness will also be aware of that unconscious side. In some senses, this is part of what happens when one matures "spiritually," or at least should be an aspect of it -- that what was one seen as the "self" and thus our awareness was wrong, for it was incomplete. We are not who we generalize ourselves to be through our self-awareness, we transcend it, for as with most labels, they have analogous value but they are still imperfect. This is connected with the idea of "no-self" within Buddhism.

As for the development of moral norms, I think there are many factors which were at work. Some of them were clearly the kind where "this here will hurt me our the community, and with the community, me, therefore it is not good." I think these probably were the first, basic insights of morality; but as we explored the world, and ourselves, we began to make connections "this is related to this, if you do this, this will happen." Looking back, some of the connections are hard to understand.

But there is another side to the development of morals. Religions, though they share a lot in common, also, especially in their early formations, tend to overstate the error of those who are "not of this religion," and so focus on many of the activities of rival religions, and demonize them. Judaism certainly did that with many of the Egyptian and Canaanite practices. Certainly some aspects I think were justified for critique -- for example, human or infant sacrifice, if it really did happen. Other kinds of critiques, I think, were not necessarily as helpful or beneficial -- for example, condemnations of idolatry. I can see some reasons for it, within a religious view, but on a moral landscape, I think most idolatry would be harmless to society and has an element of creative impact and can even be beneficial.

Now the sexual moral codes, I think are often misunderstood. Most people think it made the idea that sex was something quite unholy, something evil and to be tolerated. Rather, the idea was that sex had great primal forces involved, that it must be holy, and in its holiness, it should not be profaned. For some, this meant having temple prostitutes to help keep the holiness of sex alive. For others, of course, it was to limit sexual activity to a predefined function: the power of creation. For others, it had a role in fertility cults and all that entailed.. and uncontrolled use of these urges was thought to have an impact upon the land itself; the power was seen to have some connection to the cosmos (and personally, I think there is much value in this view).

So I would suggest some morality certainly was geared towards the betterment of the individual and society, but some of it was formed more as a form of religious self-identity than it was necessarily a true moral norm.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

I have a question, too. -- Adilbrand, 12:23:27 02/27/02 Wed
- It is a good notion -- mvd, 12:34:00 02/27/02 Wed
- There are many reasons -- Omega, 13:29:06 03/02/02 Sat