Max9 I understand you Max. I just disagree, and I have given several reasons why this is so. I'm sorry if this offends you. This might be a long post but I hope you take the time to read it.
Regarding "understanding"... I acknowledge and understand the Christian perspective. Like most western people, I was educated by it growing up. But I have lived with many cultures and observed many different viewpoints... not just different religions but entirely different ways of thinking and seeing the world.
The examples I have given regarding morals being seperate from god are common in many cultures. I am not saying your belief system is wrong, but you will need to step back from how you perceive things. Not what you believe, but how.
I will give two examples:
Buddhism is a philosophy with a moral code followed by millions of people with no perception of god. It is the ultimate "self" help book. God doesn't come into it.
Aboriginals don't see "god" as a thinking, judging, knowledgeable entity. Think of it more as electricity... energy that flows through all living things. You can revere it, because it's pretty amazing. You can be grateful that it exists and that you are "plugged in" to it. But they don't perceive that praying to it would do anything. It's just energy. When you die the energy keeps flowing to other living things.
Incidentally, perhaps this explains the concept of reincarnation. We might not "come back as a frog", but our energy continues to flow. Einstein showed that energy can't be created or destroyed, it just changes form. So who knows? Maybe they knew more than us. Perhaps science and religion aren't that seperate after all.
So ethics as you understand them are not how other cultures operate. At all. Rather, they are based on social ideals and improving yourself as a human. It is a completely different concept to Abrahamic /Judeo-Christian religions.
I'm not saying this is what I believe, or that you should change what you believe, but you will have to accept that other cultures don't just have different religions. They think and perceive things in a way that is completely foreign to your perception of things.
So I'm happy to discuss things further, but on the topic of understanding, please accept that it's a two-way street. I might be wrong, but I think I understand you better than you realise.
❤️
