A bit of a crisis

[devogue]

I have found that my moral and ethical compass is all over the place.

Actually - I should rephrase that. I don't know if I have a moral and ethical compass - I keep finding myself in a place where I think I am firmly rooted but I then find the rug is pulled from under me, either by myself or others.

Although I can never believe in a god I find myself envious of the anchor it provides for theists - the "higher authority" which they use to absolve themselves from ethical difficulties and hot spots.

To begin with, I think homosexuality is natural and beautiful - two consenting adults enjoying mental and sexual stimulation, love, companionship. There is nothing wrong with it - nothing - and I find comfort in that certainty. However, a theist with latent (or blatant) prejudice can hide behind their "certainty" in the bible - they almost "blame" their homophobic prejudice on God. I have seen through that sort of thinking and, as such, I can have no truck with such a philosophy.

However, something like the recent pyjama debate bothers me greatly. Why do I feel affronted, why do I see disrespect in someone wearing nightwear outside during the day? It just seems ludicrous to be bothered about it, but if that is so why don't people walk about in their underpants or naked, why can't a teacher stand naked in front of his pupils if he so desires? - it's no different really, it's just further down "the slippery slope". Why would I be bothered about that? It's just genitalia after all - as long as it's not erect or anything then why is it a problem? Where is the problem? I know there is a problem, or feel there is, but I don't know exactly why and I can't defend it. I can't get my head round the fact it isn't a problem - I would never, ever let my children be taught by a bollock naked teacher.

I had a few glasses of wine last night and I ended up watching Archbishop Fulton Sheen on EWTN, the Catholic channel. He was talking about temptation and some of what he said struck a chord with me - we naturally feel hungry, we feel joy and pleasure through eating, but if we succumb to temptation gluttony results. I'm a fat man and I succumb to gluttony. I don't have a mental illness or thyroid problems or anything, I just give in to temptation and eat far more than I need. I would love sometimes to have that religious yardstick - that dualism and separation of the soul and the physical - I would love to have that anchor, that yardstick.

I feel very confused about a lot of things. I find that I contradict myself, that I am hypocritical, that I can't defend things I hold dear which are irrational but seem to make the world go round.

I don't know any more. I hate the whiney, pathetic sound of this I need a bit of comfort and peace and I don't know where to get it.

[Bella Fortuna]

You're not the only one. I am admittedly a hypocrite in some of my conflicting opinions and beliefs. I really don't have an explanation, and don't really try to reconcile it anymore...

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Truer words were never spoken about the human condition.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Dev

It's called the human condition, mate. We are all hypocrites. We all expect more of others than we would realistically offer ourselves at times. We all hate being judged but judge in turn. We can all be cunts. Fuck us! Let's all get drunk and go nekkid! (... and then teach algebra... )

[War Arrow]

Any philosophy which is essentially watertight and without a single inconsistency always strikes me as a bit fishy, to be honest.

[devogue]

I'm not even talking about the twisted hypocrisy I have been guilty of, for which there isn't any excuse - that is a side issue; something I was conscious of to a degree...it's the rest: the unsteadiness of everything - my thinking is like a game of Twister. I get a firm and solid shape, then I have to move a leg over to a blue spot, then my next move has me thrown off balance and landing in a heap. And it happens all the fucking time.

[Animavore]

Morals seem to be quite elastic. Even the morals of Christians are all over the place. Thou shalt not kill... except, it seems, abortion doctors, Muslim terrorists and anyone else who goes against their ideals.
I remember in the book Moral Minds the author suggested that people are only good if it is beneficial and productive to their well being. Think of it as a survival technique in Western society. Being a gangster or violent criminal is not generally going to get you very far before you're chucked in jail or shot by a rival. But if you were in a country like Angola or Burundi it would be more beneficial to your survival to join the death squads.

[Bella Fortuna]

Any philosophy which is essentially watertight and without a single inconsistency always strikes me as a bit fishy, to be honest.

Yes.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I'm not even talking about the twisted hypocrisy I have been guilty of, for which there isn't any excuse - that is a side issue; something I was conscious of to a degree...it's the rest: the unsteadiness of everything - my thinking is like a game of Twister. I get a firm and solid shape, then I have to move a leg over to a blue spot, then my next move has me thrown off balance and landing in a heap. And it happens all the fucking time.

All the more reason never to be certain of anything. There are always other perspectives, other arguments, other conclusions that can be drawn from the same data. Employ skepticism with everything - especially your own, deepest-held certainties. That heap is your natural state. Stop trying to fight gravity and hold a fixed position.

Wisest is he that knows he knows nothing.

[cowiz]

All the more reason never to be certain of anything.

Are you certain about that?

[Animavore]

If you and I were theists I could tell you you're having doubts, to be strong and to have faith. Maybe recite a prayer over and over to 'til the moment passes and you feel all warm again.
Unfortunately I can't do that. Doubt is all there is. Hiding it behind a mask of faith can only work for so long except in the minds of the most seriously deluded before the cracks begin to show.

[devogue]

Wisest is he that knows he knows nothing.

But if he knows he knows nothing how will he ever know something with which to be measured as wise?

[Bella Fortuna]

Wisest is he that knows he knows nothing.

But if he knows he knows nothing how will he ever know something with which to be measured as wise?

You really have to stop all this thinking; it's doing you nothing but damage.

[Rum]

How are we supposed to be intellectually certain about morals? Our moral sense is a deeply engrained social construct (which the religions have hijacked in my view). The morals that arise from outr moral sense are based on a range of things from taboos, to social expectations (thus the ambiguity of Dev's reaction to pyjamas), to accepted 'norms' and standards, all of which change as social attitudes do. They are deeply related to so called morality in my view.

All of that is churned around inside our monkey brains to be made sense of. But who says it has to make sense and fit into some tidy model? No model is the real thing and no model has ever worked.

Accept that your heart is in the right place and that you head is all over the place. That'll work fine!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Wisest is he that knows he knows nothing.

But if he knows he knows nothing how will he ever know something with which to be measured as wise?

I don't know.

Oh happy is the idiot
He doesn't give a damn
I wish I was an idiot
Oh fuck! Perhaps I am?

[Animavore]

Accept that your heart is in the right place and that you head is all over the place. That'll work fine!

Unless you have situs inversus.