@fmf saidI actually think you do need an eternal compass within to find your way through life the Spirit of God telling us which way to go, He works with the hand book (Bible) and you are quite right, we are to be good to others, and it doesn't matter what they do to us for that to be the case.
There is no "absolute", and yet not "everyone is lost". So, cheer up. I wish you well on your journey of life. Use your Personal Handbook. Be good to others. And hope that they are good to you.
@kellyjay saidNot everyone is going to agree with whatever you happen to think are "true morals" and "fixed direction" and "true north" for their personal moral sensibilities.
Really what is a compass represent except a finder for true north, you combined it with the word morals, which represent morals, so one finds the others, except your example displayed to total lack of knowing. No fixed direction means no knowledge for a compass, it seems like the metaphor is spot on, but it didn't reveal what you wanted it too, everyone is lost in the landscape of life.
Society - by which I mean things like laws, norms, religious attitudes, traditions - set some external guidelines and constraints that our personal, subjective moral compasses have to interact with and align ourselves to as necessary.
Nothing is stopping you from incorporating whatever your personal religious views are into the moral prism through which you see the other people in the world.
You can also use that prism to help you vote as your participation in the process societies have to decide how they organize themselves.
@kellyjay saidNot everyone believes in "the Spirit of God" and not everyone who does agrees about its implications. You're best off incorporating it in to your own moral compass and then engaging in whatever activity you see fit to promote your ideas if you think others would benefit from them.
I actually think you do need an eternal compass within to find your way through life the Spirit of God telling us which way to go, He works with the hand book (Bible) and you are quite right, we are to be good to others, and it doesn't matter what they do to us for that to be the case.
@fmf saidYep when the compasses don't show truth, its everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.
Not everyone is going to agree with whatever you happen to think are "true morals" and "fixed direction" and "true north" for their personal moral sensibilities.
Society - by which I mean things like laws, norms, religious attitudes, traditions - set some external guidelines and constraints that our personal, subjective moral compasses have to interact with and align ourselve ...[text shortened]... you vote as your participation in the process societies have to decide how they organize themselves.
@fmf saidTruth in a world where it's unknown can be mistaken for lies.
Not everyone believes in "the Spirit of God" and not everyone who does agrees about its implications. You're best off incorporating it in to your own moral compass and then engaging in whatever activity you see fit to promote your ideas if you think others would benefit from them.
@kellyjay saidI suggest you and your moral compass stick to your "true north" concept in your dealings with other people. You can use your "true north" concept to assess your own actions and to get your measure of other people with whom you don't agree on everything but with whom you need to cooperate or find some consensus. I don't see how you can get "lost" in such circumstances.
True north will also be found and will remain with a real compass it is fixed. While those moral compasses you are talking about don't have a fixed direction for morality, they could change from one topic to another, even the same topic could find it swaying to point any ole direction at any time. In other words, lost!
@kellyjay said"Eternal compass"?
I actually think you do need an eternal compass within to find your way through life the Spirit of God telling us which way to go, He works with the hand book (Bible) and you are quite right, we are to be good to others, and it doesn't matter what they do to us for that to be the case.
@kellyjay saidThere is no one "truth". Even if everyone were religious, you'd have staunch Catholics, Methodists, conservative Jews, Hari Krishnas, gay Christians, devout Muslims, evangelical Christians, Buddhists, Pentecostals, Sikhs, Mormons, liberal Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, different subgroups of Hindus, liberal Muslims, far right Christians far left Christians and the list goes on.
Yep when the compasses don't show truth, its everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.
You're surely not proposing to impose your "fixed direction" on all of them. No, of course not. Obviously moral compasses differ from group to group and from person to person.
What you need to do is apply that "fixed direction" you have been touting to your personal code and use it to engage with others.
-Removed-John 3:36
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
There are 44 more verses in the N.T. relative to the wrath of God. Try reading a Bible and learn for yourself about the wrath of God and what happens to non Christians.
@suzianne saidWhat happens to those that don't love Jesus?
The message of love promotes love. The message of wrath promotes hate, or, at the very least, antipathy.
And we all know love is better than hate.
Shouldn't you have enough love for them to warn them about the wrath to come?
In the verse I quoted from John 3:36 Jesus gave the warning. Why? Because He loves the sinner is why.
Or are you afraid of a little persecution for telling the truth?