Nonsense. Christian morality is antiquated in modern western society. Ours is a secular moral system. Concepts of gender and racial equality simply do not exist in the monotheistic religions.
Do we need to love people?
- Thread starter Saint
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Nonsense. Christian morality is antiquated in modern western society. Ours is a secular moral system. Concepts of gender and racial equality simply do not exist in the monotheistic religions.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
As a third-generation atheist I'm hardly an expert on Christianity. That said, nonetheless as a linguist I'm rather certain that he was using "love" in opposition to "hate." And remember that the New Testament was written in Greek, which has two words for love: eros for passionate carnal love, and agape for the love that we feel for our friends. Whenever you read a translation of a document, you have to settle for the likelihood that you're not getting exactly what the original says.
I'm sure Jesus did not expect us to be sexually attracted to our dogs or our favorite athletes or our president or even our priests--especially if we're both the same sex, although I'll go out on a limb and suggest that he would tell us to love gay people and therefore he would not object if a gay man feels sexual attraction for President Obama.
But back on topic, he specifically wanted us to love the sick and the poor and the downtrodden. That sure sounds like agape to me.
You should see the questions he asks on the Linguistics board.
Frankly I suspect that he wants the kind of answers he gets here, rather than the kind he'll get on a forum populated primarily by people who are so religious that they hang out on religious discussion boards.The only time I stumbled into one of those places, a pastor was explaining to a mother why it would be okay to lie to her children and assure them that their recently-deceased dog will indeed be waiting for them in heaven, even though proper Christian adults know that non-human animals have no souls and therefore no afterlife.
Will Rogers said:
Amen to that, Brother Will.
Love=hate
No
But we can respect and honour there lives , if they deserve such
The fundamental problem with love is that it is an emotion
Therefore can be twisted and manipulated
Respect and honour are what they are
Depends on what you mean by ''love''.
Based on the gospels, I'm quite sure Jesus' meaning of ''love'' differs from the current mainstream ideas.
jan.
Perhaps it is more imortant to feel love FROM them!
I think that honesty is so much more important than loveto the betterment of mankind. Maybe that's just me.
Or even on an individual scale. I've neither met nor heard of a pure altruist. Ever. You can't care about a killer as much as you do for his/her next victim. Maybe that killer is suffering in some way that gives him the need to kill others. If you lock him up, it causes more suffering. If there was a way to change this situation, ther wouldn't be any killers or rapists.
Sure, the question was asked with a bit of religious context to it, but it's still something worth pondering. Many ethics systems have a similar ideal.
Coming back to this post, it makes no sense at all, so I am deleting what is posted and replacing it with something else.
Love is something that has to come from within, and if hate is within, that is what come out. Understanding love goes with being forgiving, tolerant, and having a capacity for joy. Jesus also said for us to take the splinter out of our own eye, before trying to remove one from someone else's. Jesus commanded us to heal ourselves. Before we can be good for anyone, we have to do these things and find the love within ourselves.
Love is something that has to come from within, and if hate is within, that is what come out. Understanding love goes with being forgiving, tolerant, and having a capacity for joy. Jesus also said for us to take the splinter out of our own eye, before trying to remove one from someone else's. Jesus commanded us to heal ourselves. Before we can be good for anyone, we have to do these things and find the love within ourselves.
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I think you are missing an understanding of cause and effect. Christian morality is as good as it ever was. Perhaps you can provide a moral that you think doesn't make sense to us today.
loganonlove
Registered Member
Yes, we do need to love all people..
yes, you need to love humanity, AKA society, in general.
love for any particular person "just happens" although it might take some work.
elte
Valued Senior Member
We should. Here is a way to look at it - wish to fight against unconscious, harmful things to our lives like hunger, disease, and the mental state of not knowing. Each of us gets beat by these things even as we fight among ourselves, which is tragic. So feel compassion as best as you can for sentient beings in their struggle to survive and to have significance. We should love them at least somewhat like we should love ourselves, even though it likely can't be the same love, as Rodereve said.