The Gods--All of them! (Religion)

by dhw, Monday, December 06, 2010, 14:17 (5099 days ago) @ xeno6696

dhw: If x + 1 = 3, x = 2. 
MATT: No, because y = 25.-I hate to say it, but that is the way this discussion has been going ever since you started it with your two provocative questions about weak gods and the great and noble Alexander versus the weak Jesus. This led to the question of moral standards and what you mean by "great" and "noble" and "weak". (I have explained that I do not consider personal ambition, greed, envy, disregard for human life etc. to be great and noble, and I do not consider altruism, charity, respect for life etc. to be weak.)-dhw: If your neighbour steals your most prized possessions (greed), burns down your beautiful house (envy) and rapes your wife (lust), will you defend him by saying that greed, envy and lust are "part of the human character and psyche" and his actions are therefore great and noble?-MATT: If I am unable to defend my possessions, my wife, and my house; do I deserve them? I am certainly not entitled to those things that I cannot defend. You ask the question, really, if I think it would be fair to have those things taken from me. My answer is that if I am incapable of maintaining those things--I never had the right to them to begin with, however "bad" this might make me feel. I wouldn't feel it is fair, but if I don't have the power to change things? The human condition to me, must entertain some level of fatalism to endure.-Did I ask about defending possessions, fairness, fatalism? Well, let's try again. I'll remove your neighbour and substitute the soldiers of an invading army led by a "strong leader" like Alexander. As you wave goodbye to possessions and house, will you comfort your wife by telling her that greed, envy and lust are "part of the human character and psyche", and theft, arson and rape are therefore "great" and "noble" deeds?-I pointed out the similarities between Alexander and Hitler, and asked whether you also considered Hitler to be a great and noble hero, and if not, why not?-MATT: A loaded question. This depends. Had I been born a German in 1920, I most certainly would answer "affirmative." However you ask someone whose culture's dominance is predicated on the destruction of the man called Hitler. In the life I live right now, no; Hitler was not a hero. But comparing Hitler to Alexander is an exercise in calling Apples oranges! The only similarity between them is subjugation. Alexander certainly didn't engage on a death mill to the extent of Hitler; he limited himself to the carnage permissible in his day.-Good for Alex. His personal ambition, disregard for human life and happiness, megalomania, greed etc. (not similar to Hitler?) made him a great and noble hero because he wasn't able to slaughter people on the same scale as Hitler.
 
The remainder of your post is devoted to war, but you are discussing this with poor old long-suffering, peace-loving but not pacifist dhw, and not with Buddha. I have already stated that I believe in self-defence, not aggression. If you miss the target again, I shall ask your wife to breathalyse you.