Religion and morals

Heretics don't question the faith. They pervert it. You're posting faith related questions on a forum devoted to movies. Why? What's your problem?

John...
My uncle & Godfather who passed away just last year achieved the Masonic office of Grand Master during his life. When I was a teenager he influenced me to join the "Jr. Masons" which was a similar organization called the Royal International Order of DeMolay - named for the Grand Master of the ancient Knights Templar, Jaques DeMolay!

As a member I was made privy to the secrets, the rituals, the illuminati within our ranks and conspiracies behind our government as well as forces seen and unseen. We are the modern Crusaders and I can't go into detail on the more overt aspects of our mission, but let's say it's not far from restoring the order, honor and justice that was ripped from Europe and Asia during the middle ages by certain ideologies seeking the genocide of Christian & Jewish Europeans to establish a supremacist ruling political structure that used the trappings of an intolerant religion as the facade for it's much more ominous goals of establishing supremacy via intimidation, bloodshed & conquest, absolute submission by the conquered and a worldwide Caliphate of power in it's most brutal extreme.

Ah, but those were ancient times an the need for such Crusaders is long past... but there are rumblings... some say there may yet be enemies of man who even know plot to once again infiltrate, create an atmosphere of anxiety and terror, and to slay their way to conquest and power...

So one day soon there may once again be a need for the once-boys who are now men: the grown members of the Royal International Order of DeMolay who still stand ready when the world once again needs Crusaders as those led by the master of the Knights Templar!

Because that is what the Intermission forum is for.

You seem to be very combative.

__________________
“There's no place to hide, When you're lit from the inside” Roisin Murphy

Sorry, I didn't know it's personal for you, Steel. (btw thanks for calling me John, I wish everyone would ) I was just quoting my dad. Yes, he thinks masons are evil, but that's just him. As for me, I have only one thing - Jesus, and my faith in him. Good will win in the end. I've nothing more to say.

I am actually much more interested in people's lack of empathy in general. What makes someone not develop it? Is it possible to lose it after you've had it? Are some people just born naturally to be more empathic? Are others just naturally less prone to be empathic? Obviously it is a skill you develop so your family, IMO, will have the biggest part in it. But how much of it could be genetic (if any)?

Whenever I witnessed a person exhibit a complete lack of empathy in a situation that obviously called for it, I have to say it left me totally stunned.

What is your problem? This thread was about religion and morals...in the OFF TOPIC SUBFORUM. If you dont like the off topic subforum, which I'm pretty sure you do, why post in it?

Now tell me more about angels and harps in the sky. I doubt very much you're even religious. You just want a punch up. And heretics do question. That's what Heresy is.

@Beatle. This is the quote from Hannibal I wanted to post for you yesterday. Now of course he;s a fictional character, but he regards himself as very moral. He also believes in god and believes he's on the same level. I would normally say that's due to having psychopathy or sociopathy, but Hannibal is neither. So what did he base his moral code on, I wonder. Thinks it's OK to kill because god does, or puts himself on the same level to justify him killing people? Chicken and the egg again.

To cut things short - I don't know. The question of all the questions. Why does evil exist? IDK. I wonder who does. People might say God does, but I don't think God knows anything either. Imho, God isn't thought, he's emotions. It's the devil who thinks. So,if anyone knows, it's him. I could be 100% wrong, though.

I'm happy with that answer. Thank you.

Dig this!

It's funny how people and books tell you things and you think you've learned but to actually learn something you have to experience something first and feel the sting of it. I've never felt more evil than when I would be a prisoner of my own mind, overthinking and acting up.

Intelligence is a great thing but like most dangerous weapons it shouldn't be toted around in the front seat all of the time. Sometimes it belongs in the back pocket.

Just don't sit down too hard or it may stab you in the assnick.

Don't sweat it, John. Everything I told you about the Royal Order of DeMolay I made up (except for the fact that I was indeed a member and the group was named for the Templar Jaques DeMolay). The group was a youth club of little dweebs who wore capes during their meetings, engaged in forced rituals and acted like frustrated middle aged men (instead of the adolescents they actually were) - I quit the group after a year!

From the Deist point of view (I think it's the Deists, but I'm too lazy to check)... God doesn't kill anyone. God simply created the laws of the universe, like the laws of physics - and these laws are very good for keeping things in balance. God set the law and then lets things play out according to the laws of balance. One law says that every living thing eventually dies. This is good because a planet of hundreds of billions of people (and animals) that never die but which just keeps getting more crowded would be a hellish nightmare for every living thing.

According to this view of God, he's not going around picking people off like a sniper.

Which god are you talking about? And how does that relate to what created a moral code?

The god as defined by the philosophy of Deism. A belief that there is an intelligent supreme being who created the heavens and the Earth, but who established a set of rules that would run things and who then lets our lives play out according to those rules. In other words, a god who does not intervene or interfere directly with his work.

Morality, therefore, is a set of codes created by the mind of man that work in accordance to the logic of the observable universe.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-moral-code-for-Deism

And then he/she punished people for using free will he gave them? Yeah, makes sense...on some other planet. Seems to me it's just playing dice. I dont think this imaginary guy in the sky gave people anything. People just made their own mind up about good -v- bad. The tiny minority who commit atrocities just like torturing animals and humans for shts and giggles.

My point was that Hannibal's perspective (on a God who must enjoy killing since he does it so often) is based purely on a Biblical view of God - where God chooses who lives and who dies today. According to Deism, Hannibal would only be seen as a murderer, not someone acting in the "image of God" by exacting death on others.

There are many philosophies that simultaneously believe in an intelligent creator, yet don't see him taking any joy in killing or even considering it a necessary evil, because he doesn't do any killing. Death (in such philosophies) just happens as it was set into motion as an inevitability, along with everything else that happens, by God. People are only "killed" by other people, or their parts wear out, or they have accidents, suffer natural disasters, or are killed by illness & disease (in the Deist way of thinking).

Perhaps if Hannibal were a Deist and felt we were still created in God's image, then we shouldn't enjoy killing or take any hand in it (as God does not in Deism), but we should learn to accept death as an inevitable outcome for all things - but not one we should act to hasten.

You make as much sense now as you did when you posted a fake photo from a conspiracy theory forum posting a fake photo of child brides. Sorry. Hannibal is a fictional character. He was an example used by me in a show that touches on theology for an exercise in what created the human moral code. Totally missing the point.

I do believe this thread has drifted off topic, just a bit.

At the end of the day, you either believe in God or you do not. Past all of the philosophy, past all the projecting of my own understandings of this physical world, I can understand God's will no more than an ant can understand mine.

To God killing his son. God is a trinity: God, the father; God the son; and God the holy spirit. God, the son stepped down to teach and to ultimately sacrifice his life for ours. With the Old Testament, unblemished lambs were sacrificed to God as offerings in worship and as offerings for forgiveness of sin. Christ replaced that sacrificial offering with his own life---the Lamb of God. And with his sacrifice, all of man's sins were forgiven as it was in the Old Testament before. That is, for as long as man accepts Christ as the son of God, and with that accept his sacrefice for forgiveness.

Man has bastardized the Word of God by placing our own personal spin on the history or interpretations for our own gains, be it for war, political, financial, or a false moral high ground. Everyone knows just enough to debate and spin and sidestep, but most are not intimate. God's Word is still what it is and we all have the free will to accept it or to deny it. You either have faith in this that cannot be scientifically proven or you do not. God's love is unconditional. For as much as I've tried to love unconditionally, I continually fail. For as much as I try to do right, I fail. We are not perfect though, and again I will never comprehend God's love, forgiveness when I clearly do not deserve it, or his grace and mercy, as the ant will never understand mine.

I try to be, but can never be. So I do my best. God's commandments are there, for those who want to learn. I don't mean the obvious 10.

I will not debate this as it is not my place to argue it. It is my place to have faith, represent (pathetically so, I admit), and follow the Word of God. That's tough to do when anonymous online sarcasm is so much fun!! And I do have my mouth and temper, as demonstrated by a few posts of mine here. Still though, this is what I believe for as horrible a follower as I am.

Even in the context of this reply, I still stand by what all I wrote in my earlier ones in this thread.

So, yeah. There's that. Feeling a bit trippy atm so I think I'll head off to sleep. That went deeper than I intended and got preachy. So. G'nite all. Be well.

Sorry, what point am I missing?

I was explaining Deism and the fact that the fictional Hannibal's reasoning (i.e. his rationality for his committing murder) is based purely on one concept of God - and it's a skewed concept at that as it doesn't take into account other Biblical variables:

On the "made in image of God" statement - this has been interpreted and misused since time immemorial. The most common acceptance of this Biblical statement is that we are the same as God in certain non-physical respects, but obviously not God ourselves.
We resemble God in our ability to think, to reason, to utilize morality (unlike animals to which higher reasoning and morality is inapplicable). But we were not made in the image of God to the point where we possess his omnipotence or omniscience. Since we do not possess God's power or intelligence, we therefore do not have his authority over life or death - which is why man (under God's biblical law) is not permitted to commit murder.

In the end, Hannibal wrote his own moral code - and isn't that always the mark of every great villain?

And yet, don't we all do that to SOME extent ourselves? (I guess it's the extent to which you do it that determines whether you cross the lines between "good, rebellious, or evil").