Araceli Cianna
Active Member
For me it's more the other way around. My actions affect my beliefs. I love nature, so I become a pagan. There's no conflict.
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How do your religious beliefs affect your actions?
- Thread starter 9-10ths_Penguin
- Start date
Ponder This
Well-Known Member
I think that part of the purpose of religion is to motivate people to be better people. So, in practice, it should motivate you to do things that you might not otherwise do, or refrain from things you might otherwise do, in the interest of being a better person. Personally, I don't like other people very much, so religion tends to motivate me to interact with people that I would otherwise not be interested in.
That religion can motivate people to perform questionable moral actions is also a very real possibility. Sometimes the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So we have a responsibility to consider the real moral implications of our religious beliefs by cultivating more than a blind adherence to apparent dogma.
For example, an adherence to strict monotheism might motivate you to deface sites of historical value on the basis that they are expressions of a polytheistic culture. There's a responsibility to ask if you are really doing things that will help to ensure your afterlife or if you are simply blindly following dogma.
That religion can motivate people to perform questionable moral actions is also a very real possibility. Sometimes the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So we have a responsibility to consider the real moral implications of our religious beliefs by cultivating more than a blind adherence to apparent dogma.
For example, an adherence to strict monotheism might motivate you to deface sites of historical value on the basis that they are expressions of a polytheistic culture. There's a responsibility to ask if you are really doing things that will help to ensure your afterlife or if you are simply blindly following dogma.
Akivah
Well-Known Member
Thank you.That's very Jewish of you.
For what it's worth, I have found that, overall, in general, the ethics and religious ideology of Jewish people are noticeably superior to those of the heretical offshoot religions
. When the Christians and Muslims claim to know better what the god of Abraham really meant than the Jews, I can't help but sigh. It sure doesn't show in their cultures.
Tom