Monday, August 28, 2006

Hypocrisy and Manners

I see what you are saying about "good" and "bad" hypocrisy. From the dinner example you gave, the former could perhaps be called "good manners" - perhaps a better definition of hyprocrisy is along the lines of what you said about certain religious folk. One question, does the religious hypocritical preacher mind at all if someone does the same thing back to him or her? Does he or she mind it if someone higher up the Church power ladder preaches down to them, whilst doing the opposite? If they mind then:

Is a hypocrite someone who treats others in a way that they themselves would not like to be treated?

If they don't mind then their moral structure is an interesting one.

On a distantly related topic you mentioned recently altruism and about whence it comes from, and we had discussed that before. I maintain that on the face of it altruism does not exist. Giving up your self interest never happens, if a parent gives his or her life for a child then that is in the parents interest, because it moves the world in a way that the parent expects the world to move in. Imagine a loving parent who deliberately decides to give up his or her self-interest and refuses to save the life of his or her child, the child dies and the parent knowingling leads the rest of his or her life in the agony of remorse, wishing that they could have died to save their child but unable to have done so due to "altruism".

The question really is where does the remorse come from? Could it come from a set of cells evolved to create more copies of itself? The fact that your child is more likely to live longer than you means that it's better the child live than you - to go on to make even more copies. My thinking is woolly here I know, but the overall requirement placed on us seems to be this:

breed.


Capacity for choice: I realise that the question "Could God make someone with the capacity not to come to Him?" is a non-sequitur. Perhaps it is the question that if answered could prove or disprove the existence of God? If such an individual was found (who could prove it though?) then surely this would disprove that God existed. Why would God have created something that could not have a relationship with God?

If such an individual is found, and God is disproved, then I'm left with why was that individual created? And therefore why were any of us created? Some people might argue that there is no reason we were created but then that leads to a pointless Universe and I don't like that. This is one of the big pro's for faith, it gives us a purpose.

Yes I think God gave you just enough "X" to believe, and that led you down the path you have followed to Him since.

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