5 ms·
religion (that is, an objective morality) has always been the only thing the masses have when confronted with the great pagan principle: "the strong do what the
by recursivedoubts 1y ago
religion (that is, an objective morality) has always been the only thing the masses have when confronted with the great pagan principle: "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"
- HexDecOctBin 1y agoSo pagans don't have a religion or morality? That is interesting to hear, as a Hindu. The more things change, the more they remain the same!
- recursivedoubts 1y agoI don't know anything about hinduism, but I assume there is a base morality that the strong may not take advantage of the weak, in contrast with the athenian dictum I quoted.
- HexDecOctBin 1y agoAnd Hinduism is a so-called pagan religion. Thus, there was no need to pretend that only Abrahamic faiths have a sense of morality.
- recursivedoubts 1y agoDid I say anything about abrahamic religions?
- HexDecOctBin 1y agoNo, but you did talk about pagans in a demeaning fashion.
- recursivedoubts 1y agoI did, and I included a greek pagan quote to give context to the philosophy to which I was contrasting the 'religion' that OP was criticizing. I think you are reading too much into a word and perhaps looking to be offended.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- cozyman 1y agowhat is hindu morality? where does it come from?
- kelseyfrog 1y ago> religion has always been the only thing the masses have This is broadly speaking true because religion is one example of a coping mechanism at cultural scale. If you trace the genealogy of morals, these precise beliefs - humility, temperance, kindness, patience - are all survival strategies of people being oppressed. At a large enough scale, it becomes embedded in moral reality itself ie: in religion.
- recursivedoubts 1y agoand, maybe, its also true
- kelseyfrog 1y agoIf you're a Therapeutae, yes. Sadly they were the only one's to get it right.
- recursivedoubts 1y agoi don't know what that means, but I still think the strong shouldn't take advantage of the weak, and I think all humans know that's true
- kelseyfrog 1y agoI can see how that's appealing. One of the most common human behaviors is creating rules or in this case moral rules, and then doing a mental switcheroo where they forget that they made the rules and attribute them to universal principles, reality, truth, etc. In general, the process of believing concepts are real objects - simply observations of reality - is called reification. Every society does it and the result is that human constructs feel as if they are inalienable truths about how reality works. The only problem is that it's culturally specific and as we know, each culture works differently and yet feels as if they've gotten it right - their concept of how things works happens to match reality. One of the downsides to this is that we often project our own ideas of reality onto strangers especially from other societies. "Of course they protect the weak," we tell ourselves, when in fact, they're operating on a completely different set of moral relations. When our projects override objectivity, we deny ourselves the beauty of seeing the world in a new way. We rob ourselves of appreciating the magnificence of the diversity of human experience.