I need some understanding

[Seeker4]

I have been reading "Doing the Truth in Love" by Michael Himes and he claims that, from a Christian perspective, God is best understood as agapic love--pure self giving without conditions. He also claims that, from a Christian perspective, the human person's goodness is beyond measure despite the fact that human beings are limited and not God; they are good beyond measure, from a Christian vantage point, precisely because God chose to become human in Jesus Christ--thus affirming irrevocably and definitively the immense value of being human.

Heres what's confusing to me...is it possible for a morally upright atheist or agnostic to understand her responsibility to others in the same way? In other words, how do these Christian claims about God and the human person, if believed, shape one's understanding of social responsibility?

 

[Orias]

I have been reading "Doing the Truth in Love" by Michael Himes and he claims that, from a Christian perspective, God is best understood as agapic love--pure self giving without conditions. He also claims that, from a Christian perspective, the human person's goodness is beyond measure despite the fact that human beings are limited and not God; they are good beyond measure, from a Christian vantage point, precisely because God chose to become human in Jesus Christ--thus affirming irrevocably and definitively the immense value of being human.

Heres what's confusing to me...is it possible for a morally upright atheist or agnostic to understand her responsibility to others in the same way? In other words, how do these Christian claims about God and the human person, if believed, shape one's understanding of social responsibility?

As I have heard a few members of the LHP say, "love is the path of least entropy". But in some cases can be very entropic.

Not sure of what it has to do with Christians or sirituality though, since people are people regardless of their spiritual/philosophical orientation. Whether or not you believe in morals, acts that both defy and uphold them will continue to be done.

Social responsibility is limited to what we put into the system, surely the best way to learn is to observe how the human animal interacts with others. God and "spiritual" are hardly of any concern when it is man and animal you are up against. Humans have an innate understanding of how to behave in front of others, and those that lack those certain essentials are bound to pick them up through experience.

"God" and "no God" come from experience, now the experience that dictates the solidity of the matter is subject to the partaker...which is well subject to the subjective, what we don't know.

A prisoner can claim to be of moral value while covering himself with the symbols of Christianity, yet it is more likely to follow in the footsteps of the devil by creating weapons from toothbrushes and belt buckles.

 

[Super Universe]

Why would a morally upright atheist or agnostic wish to understand their "responsibilities" towards others in the same way a Christian does? They have found goodness on their own, "by their fruit will you know them"...

Some Christians will tell you that you have to believe to be saved. If you were supposed to believe, you would. No flood needed. No bolt of lightning. It would simply be. A moral sense of right and wrong is more powerful than any passage in any bible.

 

[Orias]

Why would a morally upright atheist or agnostic wish to understand their "responsibilities" towards others in the same way a Christian does? They have found goodness on their own, "by their fruit will you know them"...

Why does one wish to understand anything?

To share perhaps? Reach out? Touch faith?

One could bear a fruit that is poisonous to me and gratifying to another.

This only limits it to, this aspect is bad for me. But as you may know, people are generally "cherry pickers".

 

[A-ManESL]

Heres what's confusing to me...is it possible for a morally upright atheist or agnostic to understand her responsibility to others in the same way?

I would say it is possible to do it in the same way. Religions use the concept of God as a symbol to reach out to a Reality which may be reached without using the idea of God at all, such as in Buddhism.

 

[godnotgod]

Yes, but it is not a question of morality, but of innate virtue and your true nature. Once these are discovered, in lieu of nurturing morality, one finds that one has everything one needs to live a good and happy life while also having love and compassion for the world. You simply need to discover that you are complete just as you are, and then to place your complete trust in what the present moment holds in store as it unfolds.