Do you need a Higher Power to be Moral?
I find it funny how one of the “proofs” of God is the fact that we are moral creatures. Our conscience is God in our minds, talking to us, telling us what is right and wrong. Without God we would not have this conscience, but would be just like other animals killing and destroying whatever got in our way.
In my opinion, we do not need God to be moral. We just need to understand that we are like everyone else. All humans have feelings. We know what makes us happy (receiving a gift, getting a compliment, etc) and we all know what makes us sad, mad, or angry. This sense of connectedness is what gives us moral minds.
I like the story of Indra’s Net for this reason. It is an old Indian (Asia, not America) story that explains the world. Indra’s Net was full of connected jewels, and every jewel reflected every other jewel, and if one was disturbed, all of them were disturbed. I believe this describes our condition perfectly.
When I look at you, I see a human, just like me, and I want you to be as happy as you can be, because when you aren’t happy, it affects everyone around you, which affects everyone around them, which affects everyone around them, etc, etc. You are the center of the wave, and you never know how far out that wave will extend into humanity.
Here is a quote I find very interesting!
“A human being is part of the whole called by us, “Universe,” a part limited by time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to personal desires and affection to a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in it’s beauty.” - Albert Einstein
Tags: morality, Inspiration, Buddhism
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Speechless as usual…