We have 6.5 billion or so companions living with us on Planet Earth. Although we did not choose them, we still have to live with every single one of them, even the one's that we don't like very much.
Of course we are absolutely free to choose to murder someone that we don't like, and there is no higher-power that will prevent us from doing that deed. Our wonderful intelligence which elevates us above every other species, is perfectly capable of justifying deeds which harm others. Up to and including genocide occasionally. No threat of punishment has ever been enough to deter us from doing the crime. But if we are able to say that we felt very angry, then perhaps the crime is pardonable in every case. This deed has been rationalized many times over the course of human history, whatever our reasons may have been hardly makes much difference.
If the assassination of Osama Bin Laden should be viewed as justifiable; then perhaps the destruction of the World Trade Centers can be justifiable as well. The men who committed that crime against the American people all died in the act, but still felt some conviction knowing that they would sacrifice their lives to a cause.
I fail to see how the American President is any better than our terrorist companion, he just has more and better organized followers. Ultimately, death should not be viewed as a punishment at all, it only frees us to whatever comes after our mortal ends. And if that fate happens to be unconsciousness, then we fail to be punished. Individually and collectively, none of us has ever had the power or authority to change a single past event, it doesn't matter how many of us vote on it either. If we are to be held accountable for our mortal deeds beyond this life, it's likely better for us not to be too demanding on other lives. We might have enjoyed some satisfaction in life, acquiring the material goods and the faith of our companions, should we be due any additional favor in the future? It's good to be able to write our own terms and conditions, we will usually choose terms most favorable to ourselves of course. In a capitalist society, we get our personal gains at someone else's expense, our pocket can only grow deeper as another person's is emptied. The great movers and shakers take a lion's share of the profits for themselves, which suggests that people in their employ were not compensated well enough. But we think that competition is a good thing, profit is a fairly decent motivation to innovate. People who compete well at sports can sometimes earn a decent living, well above average at least. People who fail to be competitive are left behind, they are not well served by capitalism. The separation between the wealthiest individuals in our world and the rest of the population continues to grow. I can see how people deserve to be rewarded for their own original work; although it appears some people have been rewarded too well. At the very least a person should receive some recognition for their efforts, but do we really have the right to demand more than that? A simple pat-on-the-back for a job well done is all some people ever seem to get. To the best of my understanding, we are inspired by a power that comes to us naturally from a single source. The source is the same for everyone, but we often exercise some exclusive rights to our ideas, we have intellectual property. We may have done some work to develop those ideas into practical applications; if we deserve nothing for original thinking then at least we must deserve something for our efforts. But do we really have a right to exclude others from garnering benefits from our work? If there is a technology that can improve the general welfare in some way, shouldn't we take full advantage? Often we choose to withhold from others those things which give us an advantage over them, least we lose some of our authority over the world. We demand that other nations create no weapons of mass destruction, but choose not to sacrifice our own weapons of mass destruction. Then we think ourselves the responsible world leaders, making the world safe for democracy, the better form of government we think. In my opinion our representative democracy has failed to prove itself incorruptible, it is primarily governed by the wealthy. And in many cases I think that popular opinion does not represent the best course of action. Should we vote on the matter of who should love whom, or whether or not a partnership should be formed between two people of the same sex? If that partnership involves spousal benefits, then it would seem that the common answer is yes we do vote. I find it somewhat disheartening that for many our moral guide is a document that's over 2000 years old, we justify our beliefs because that's what it says in the Bible!
People do not seem to think for themselves very much, always looking for a greater authority that they can trust and follow. Most of our opinions are off the shelf items that we purchased, and many of those items are well supported by numbers, but who can be an authority? I for one believe that there is such a thing as absolute truth, although it is mostly unknown in the events of the past. Some fundamental principles seem worthy of doubt in the face of my observations. For example it's unclear to me that Happiness should be considered a basic human right. If Happiness is guaranteed by a Creator, some people never seem to get any benefit from that guaranty. Although in the long run of eternity perhaps happiness is guaranteed, I think that may be the truth. I don't believe in Karma but I do believe in accountability, I think that we need to be forgiven by others and by ourselves, although it's something that we may have to work to earn. Judgement is guaranteed, primarily the judgement of our peers, whom we often believe are not equal to us. I do not believe that there is a God who intends to judge and punish us. I do not believe that there is such a thing as an unmanifest spirit of pure evil, nor do I believe that we can exist in an unmanifest form. The only place that we can live is within this Universe of manifestation, which can in no way ever be separated from God's presence. Without God's amazing power, we would never experience consciousness I think, and we can not exist separated from that power. I do trust this God of my own beliefs completely, that I will never be deprived of it's companionship, and it serves as a witness to everything that I have ever experienced. I hope that we will all have the opportunity to learn more of the absolute truth as a first-hand experience. I hope that I will have the opportunity to benefit from your personal experience of life directly, as if it were a personal experience of my own. This is true meaning of wealth and the great and buried treasure of the Earth, in my humble opinion. By claiming it for ourselves we must experience much suffering without exclusion, it is not our place to pick and choose from the truth. We will see for ourselves who was honest and trustworthy, and hope that we are not disappointed to have chosen to trust the dishonest person. But we lack knowledge in making such choices, so who can be blamed for having been fooled? Life is so much better for us if we are able to find a few things trustworthy, and to know that we've had companions who shared our beliefs. If there is a Creator who guarantees anything to everyone equally, at least we are guaranteed to never be truly alone. Clearly there are and have been a great multitude of individual person's, each with a unique experience of life and Universe. I think that's a wonderful thing.
Of course we are absolutely free to choose to murder someone that we don't like, and there is no higher-power that will prevent us from doing that deed. Our wonderful intelligence which elevates us above every other species, is perfectly capable of justifying deeds which harm others. Up to and including genocide occasionally. No threat of punishment has ever been enough to deter us from doing the crime. But if we are able to say that we felt very angry, then perhaps the crime is pardonable in every case. This deed has been rationalized many times over the course of human history, whatever our reasons may have been hardly makes much difference.
If the assassination of Osama Bin Laden should be viewed as justifiable; then perhaps the destruction of the World Trade Centers can be justifiable as well. The men who committed that crime against the American people all died in the act, but still felt some conviction knowing that they would sacrifice their lives to a cause.
I fail to see how the American President is any better than our terrorist companion, he just has more and better organized followers. Ultimately, death should not be viewed as a punishment at all, it only frees us to whatever comes after our mortal ends. And if that fate happens to be unconsciousness, then we fail to be punished. Individually and collectively, none of us has ever had the power or authority to change a single past event, it doesn't matter how many of us vote on it either. If we are to be held accountable for our mortal deeds beyond this life, it's likely better for us not to be too demanding on other lives. We might have enjoyed some satisfaction in life, acquiring the material goods and the faith of our companions, should we be due any additional favor in the future? It's good to be able to write our own terms and conditions, we will usually choose terms most favorable to ourselves of course. In a capitalist society, we get our personal gains at someone else's expense, our pocket can only grow deeper as another person's is emptied. The great movers and shakers take a lion's share of the profits for themselves, which suggests that people in their employ were not compensated well enough. But we think that competition is a good thing, profit is a fairly decent motivation to innovate. People who compete well at sports can sometimes earn a decent living, well above average at least. People who fail to be competitive are left behind, they are not well served by capitalism. The separation between the wealthiest individuals in our world and the rest of the population continues to grow. I can see how people deserve to be rewarded for their own original work; although it appears some people have been rewarded too well. At the very least a person should receive some recognition for their efforts, but do we really have the right to demand more than that? A simple pat-on-the-back for a job well done is all some people ever seem to get. To the best of my understanding, we are inspired by a power that comes to us naturally from a single source. The source is the same for everyone, but we often exercise some exclusive rights to our ideas, we have intellectual property. We may have done some work to develop those ideas into practical applications; if we deserve nothing for original thinking then at least we must deserve something for our efforts. But do we really have a right to exclude others from garnering benefits from our work? If there is a technology that can improve the general welfare in some way, shouldn't we take full advantage? Often we choose to withhold from others those things which give us an advantage over them, least we lose some of our authority over the world. We demand that other nations create no weapons of mass destruction, but choose not to sacrifice our own weapons of mass destruction. Then we think ourselves the responsible world leaders, making the world safe for democracy, the better form of government we think. In my opinion our representative democracy has failed to prove itself incorruptible, it is primarily governed by the wealthy. And in many cases I think that popular opinion does not represent the best course of action. Should we vote on the matter of who should love whom, or whether or not a partnership should be formed between two people of the same sex? If that partnership involves spousal benefits, then it would seem that the common answer is yes we do vote. I find it somewhat disheartening that for many our moral guide is a document that's over 2000 years old, we justify our beliefs because that's what it says in the Bible!
People do not seem to think for themselves very much, always looking for a greater authority that they can trust and follow. Most of our opinions are off the shelf items that we purchased, and many of those items are well supported by numbers, but who can be an authority? I for one believe that there is such a thing as absolute truth, although it is mostly unknown in the events of the past. Some fundamental principles seem worthy of doubt in the face of my observations. For example it's unclear to me that Happiness should be considered a basic human right. If Happiness is guaranteed by a Creator, some people never seem to get any benefit from that guaranty. Although in the long run of eternity perhaps happiness is guaranteed, I think that may be the truth. I don't believe in Karma but I do believe in accountability, I think that we need to be forgiven by others and by ourselves, although it's something that we may have to work to earn. Judgement is guaranteed, primarily the judgement of our peers, whom we often believe are not equal to us. I do not believe that there is a God who intends to judge and punish us. I do not believe that there is such a thing as an unmanifest spirit of pure evil, nor do I believe that we can exist in an unmanifest form. The only place that we can live is within this Universe of manifestation, which can in no way ever be separated from God's presence. Without God's amazing power, we would never experience consciousness I think, and we can not exist separated from that power. I do trust this God of my own beliefs completely, that I will never be deprived of it's companionship, and it serves as a witness to everything that I have ever experienced. I hope that we will all have the opportunity to learn more of the absolute truth as a first-hand experience. I hope that I will have the opportunity to benefit from your personal experience of life directly, as if it were a personal experience of my own. This is true meaning of wealth and the great and buried treasure of the Earth, in my humble opinion. By claiming it for ourselves we must experience much suffering without exclusion, it is not our place to pick and choose from the truth. We will see for ourselves who was honest and trustworthy, and hope that we are not disappointed to have chosen to trust the dishonest person. But we lack knowledge in making such choices, so who can be blamed for having been fooled? Life is so much better for us if we are able to find a few things trustworthy, and to know that we've had companions who shared our beliefs. If there is a Creator who guarantees anything to everyone equally, at least we are guaranteed to never be truly alone. Clearly there are and have been a great multitude of individual person's, each with a unique experience of life and Universe. I think that's a wonderful thing.
