Showing posts with label morality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morality. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2019

The Gods Give Us Emotion To Make Us Moral

An epiphany was what my wife and I called it last night, during our discussion on the Gods, nature, and emotion. Many times, we humans tend to think of our emotional side as a weakness, as we are the most emotional of all other beings on the planet. It's true that we can sometimes be irrational, but the benefits of our emotional state far outweigh the debts. In the grand picture of things, it's hardly a weakness, but a necessary virtue. Being the most powerful and smartest mortal creatures on the planet, things would be much, much worse if we didn't have emotion. It also allows the Gods to appeal to our moral, ethical and compassionate side far more than if we didn't have it.

Let's start with an example from my own life, so that the reader may better understand this universal truth. I have a very cute cat named Rosie, who we adopted from a local animal shelter a year or so ago. She is a valuable asset to our family at times, but she also has her many problems. The trouble she gets into will sometimes make me incredibly angry to the point that I want to get rid of her, but here's the thing, I can't. No matter how much I want to pick her up and toss her out my door, my emotions create empathy and love, and make me realize that such an action is not only cruel, but very wrong and dishonorable. More so, the Gods are able to appeal that ethical side to me because of the fact that they enabled me with the emotional capacity for empathy and compassion. If I had no emotion, I could do whatever I wanted to other living creatures and indeed the world around me. No matter what the Gods or humans told me, I would be unable to feel or understand it, and that would be a recipe for disaster.

The same goes for other people. The reason we don't abandon our children, spouses or loved ones is because our emotional states will not allow it. Our ability to love and feel keeps us moral and honorable. If we didn't have that capacity, our species would de-evolve into extinction. The Gods gave it to us because it was necessary for our survival and the prosperity of everything around us. And if we encounter someone who fails to show emotion, such as a sociopath, we consider them to be mentally ill, not a natural production.

Realizing this about ourselves is crucial to beginning to understand the genius of the Gods and the intelligence behind our natural existence.

In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris Aldridge.

Monday, February 18, 2019

Religion Is A Rescue, Not A Downfall

Most people in the world are religious, or are at least theists, in one form or another. In any case, spirituality itself is certainly a dominant, and natural human trait. We are born with schema, the natural mental construct of looking for patterns and meanings, and therefore Higher Powers. We are born looking for Gods and Goddesses, born with an inherent desire to find Deity. Religion is simply a system established around any one of those given pursuits. Like all good things, religions can be perverted, but in its correct self, being religious, spiritual, and knowing Deity is one of the greatest blessings ever given to humanity.

Those who hate religion will often paint any wrongdoing by religious people on the biggest billboard they can find. However, they never talk about all the people who turned from suicide or crime because they found religion. They refuse to bring to light those religious people who created the greatest civilizations in history, and those people who were among the greatest humanitarians and peace-loving individuals in the world. They don't talk about the fact that the founders of the sciences that we still practice today were theists. Sometimes, they won't even mention that the vast majority of religious people are in fact good and upstanding. There's a reason they don't bring up any of it, because this hate, like any form of hatred, is about promoting an agenda of prejudice and bias.

I'll tell anyone truly, if the Gods and their religious and spiritual principles hadn't been in my life all these years, I don't know if I'd still be alive or living in any form of stability. Hellenism has instilled an immense sense of piety, honor, and morality that I didn't have beforehand, no matter how many other positive influences were around me. There was a time in the past when I didn't see anything wrong with lying to people or cheating them. I didn't feel any reason to have an inherent respect for other people or even their properties and rights. Like some, I thought, It's only wrong if you get caught or It doesn't matter as long as it's not happening to me, or if I benefit from it.

I came to realize through the Gods and their guidance that it does matter if you live your life without honor and dignity, that it does make a difference how you treat others and if bad things become of those around you, not only because they are humans too, but because the same might happen to you if its allowed to continue. It matters because attitudes like mine were not only those that destroy the person holding them, but also are the ones that allow all injustices to flourish in the world. How we live as human beings will determined ourselves and our planet. There are some universal rights and wrongs, whether we like it or not, and connecting with Higher Powers or higher purpose helps bring it all into perspective and understanding, because the Highers are the ultimate orders, as in the stable structure and balance. That's why being religious has brought so many people back from chaos.

Even the simple peace that being Hellenic has given me has allowed me to keep up successful battles against things that commonly destroy humans, like depression and fear. Without my Gods and my religion, I'd have nothing to turn to for supreme trust and power. Where would I be? I don't want to wonder.

In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris Aldridge.

Monday, August 14, 2017

Does Religion Make You More Moral? It Appears So

Lots of people think one does not need religion or spirituality to be moral, but in my own personal life, I can attest to the fact that I am indeed more moral than I would be without Hellenism.

Of course, morality is not always universal. Each person may have their own definition, but every human being has a certain set of values and ethics, no matter what their religious beliefs or lack thereof may be. Even the most faithless person on Earth has morals. They may say, "I think it's wrong to be prejudice" or, "I think it's a virtue to keep your word to people." Those are morals. However, being religious gives us the potential to have many more morals and ethics that we might otherwise not have without it.

Religion or spirituality sets us up to be conscious of the fact that everything we do, and sometimes everything we don't do, has consequences, whether for the good or bad. Whereas if you think there are no consequences, you're more likely to do whatever you think will have no matter on anything. Some people even think that it's only immoral if you get caught, otherwise no one will ever know and it will make no difference. But we, on the other hand, believe the Gods know, that the universe and our own energy knows, and will repay or respond accordingly. For example, when Justice Scalia died, even though I didn't like his politics, I did not speak ill of him. In Hellenism, it's frowned upon to talk bad about dead people or to challenge someone who is not present to defend themselves. This is immoral for good reason, because those who are not here cannot respond to the attacks or defamation. It's a cowardly act and simply low class to spit on someone's grave, even in a metaphorical sense. But there were people who said that it didn't matter because they weren't religious, and they could publicly call him whatever they wanted. I think most of us would consider respect for the dead to be a moral, or to at least not desecrate their grave. Therefore, I had more morality and perhaps honor than my non-religious counterparts.

There have been times in my life when I have had the opportunity and the ability to do something wrong, even to break the law, and get away with it. But I never did because of the Gods and the morals of my religion. I knew it would be an offense to Olympus or a dishonor upon me, and I could not face the Gods or myself that way. My religion has kept me on a path of goodness and virtue in every way.

I'd say that those of us who are religious and spiritual recognize that we have a grander purpose and place in life and the universe, and that the two have meaning far beyond mere flesh and bone. Therefore, we become more conscious of how we behave and the virtue we strive to achieve therein.

In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Interpretations or Common Sense - Which Rules Morality?

Recently, I talked about how I have adopted the Tenets of Solon as my guiding values in life, and I said that I don't see how anyone (using common sense) could go wrong by following them. Now some might argue that some of the Tenets are unintentionally flawed, because, for example, to "Do Good" could mean a vast array of things to different people, as everyone has their own interpretation of what is good. After all, even Hitler thought he was "doing good works" and "what was right." No one ever sees themselves as the bad guy. That leaves an uncertainty, the question of whether or not someone can follow the Tenets and actually be doing evil or wrongful deeds.

But the great thing about the human mind and soul is that we know when something is right and when it's not. Chances are, if something is wrong, we will say and do all we can to justify it. We could actually end up spending more time trying to convince ourselves of our righteousness than actually doing the act itself. Either that, or we'll just ignore the question all together. In other words, all people know right from wrong, it's just that some people care more about their own ambitions and agendas. Someone who murders another, for example, knows it's wrong. They just care more about their own goals and their own means to an end. Deep down, we all know what is good and evil, ethical and unethical. We know the wicked from the wellness. The problem is that some people make the wrong choice by making friends with evil and immorality for whatever reason. Evil in the name of good is still evil, but sadly, that's not a universal agreement among humanity.

The only real reason we like to think that morality is universally relative is because we don't want to hold ourselves accountable for our wrongs. It's true that morality is indeed relative in certain cases. Some people might consider me to be immoral because of my lifestyle, but that's their own personal opinion and not a truth. However, when it comes to the broad range of things, morality is not relative. Unless they're severely mentally ill, everyone knows full well that it's wrong to kill, lie, steal, sleep with someone's spouse or significant other without the consent of their partner, and cheat and swindle others to name a few. So why do people still do these things in great number when they know it's wrong? Because, as I said, they care more about what they want to accomplish. It's all about their agenda, their wealth, their pleasure, and their success. 

If you look inside yourself, you'll see the light the Gods put there.

In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris.