It's not just learning, it's about influencing the moral choices we make by the mere knowledge, or even liklihood, of God's existence.
First off, we could have a change of heart and repent and change our ways, or become evil. But the real problem with any intervention is that it influences everybody, not just one or a few. We continually underestimate the value of free will. That's the only reason God (if It exists) would have created the universe, so that God could bestow that gift on us, for God's benefit as well as our own. If God revealed Itself, we would be like children whose parents are always watching.
Right and wrong are inherently embedded on our souls through our full self-awareness. It puts us in the shoes of the one(s) we are about to harm or help, and free will allows us to ignore that knowledge or not.
Hate and being offensive aren't evil in themselves, acting on those feelings alone is when things turn to evil. We must never stop thinking as individuals. The minute we turn our moral decision making over to others, we become part of a mob. And while understanding and diplomacy are vital, we don't surrender our security to others if our lives and liberties are threatened or attacked. Understanding gets us nowhere with evil--of which there are endless examples, i.e. Nazis, Communists, and religious theocrats.
Please explain to me why the Left in the US appears to side with minority rights here at home, but continually forgives and appeases the mistreatment of those groups by radical Islamists elsewhere, or even here, in the name of understanding them.
They already know what's right and wrong via their self-awareness, but they turn off their intelligence in order to submit to their emotional desires. Wealth, power and influence aren't the sources of evil. People can and do possess those with honor. A moral/legal double standard is the source of all evil. It's one side saying my worth and my rights outweigh yours. Morality is really simple when you sweep away all the crap clerics and politicians have added to it. That simple morality is: Honoring the EQUAL rights of ALL to life, liberty, property and self-defense, to be free from violation through force or fraud. That's it, a simple, precise statement of the Golden Rule. Other rules for individual behavior are individually determined/adopted, and can be called virtues. Morality is the only thing that should be legislated.
I agree religion,society,people, and governments have great influence on people. On the other side, they only have great influence if one allows them to. It doesn't matter what everyone else does. It's what each person chooses to do that counts.
Is right and wrong or morality already understood? By what standard does everyone go on. Now everybody wants to rule the world. Everyone has different ideas on that.
We all have the power to choose what we deem important in this world. Many people value money and power over people. Do they really know right from wrong? If they could understand all sides by living all sides, I bet their choices would change.
In a Giant multilevel classroom, each student has learned lessons others have not learned yet. Perhaps that is why the world seems so crazy. What is the old saying? Who in their right mind would do that? Wouldn't it only be people who have not learned that lesson?
You are right that one person's choice changes other people's lives. That makes the dynamics of this world even more amazing. Just being able to keep up with the people factor along with all the variables is amazing. If one looks at the universe around us, everything adds up perfectly. Isn't it safe to assume the people factor does as well, only since there are so many variables complete understanding is going to be much harder?
Getting back to another example of lessons learned and not learned. See if this does not make sense. Example: You have a person so wrapped up in their holy book and religion that they can see nothing else. They accept. They believe. They follow. Next there is a person like you. You have already learned that to Question is key to acquiring truth. The religious guy only knows to accept,believe and follow.
What happens at this point, stalemate? Is there any hope? How about interaction among people? Sure it takes plenty of time and drama but people do learn. So this means the fix must be built into the system, right?
Yes,yes, we are going to need many many lifetimes of interaction. On the other hand, if one assumes these dynamics, that means there will always be new students along with new problems to continue the learning process. Drama must always continue because more is learned through the drama than anything else.
OK, let's put this to the test. If one no longer has any problems at all, are they still alive??? I say no. Isn't learning through adversity real? When times are easy, we sit back and enjoy the ride. When those pesky problems arise, don't we have to think. plan, study, analyze, learning so much until the real solutions are discovered?
Like I said. I think it is a very wrong assumption that all people know what choices are truly right and which are truly wrong. Perhaps that is what each of us are truly learning, living our lessons.
By making the assumption that everyone knows right from wrong completely, isn't this a Belief religion has been teaching us all since birth? Doesn't this lone idea generate hate for others who one deems does not live up to the standards created by ourselves or religion??
Instead of trying to define right from wrong, maybe each will discover it for themselves. In the end after living all sides, it will come down to math instead of feelings. There will be only one answer and it will take experience and intelligence to discover that answer.
