Rules

by onacruse 50 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Brummie

  IMHO, rules are subjective and encultured. They evolve with the culture that supports them

  Makes good sense! I'll endorse it.

  Brummie
• 

  Xena

  What the world needs now is love, sweet love
  It's the only thing that there's just too little of
  What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
  No not just for some but for everyone.

  If everyone treated people the way they wanted to be treated we wouldn't need rules, unfortunately some people don't extend others that courtesy.
• 

  Mac

  Di......YEPPERS!!!!!!!!!!
• 

  onacruse

  LT:

  Well the "two laws" of Christ, have certainly remained fairly consistent standards, until the modern age (as seen even in the spirit of the Hamurrabi law code c1780BC).

  My dear sir, I disagree.

  While I subscribe to one of those "two laws" in my own life, I believe the fact remains that throughout history those 'laws' have been abrogated, ignored, and, in fact, even considered laughably ludicrous.

  1) "Love God." Which God? For that matter, why God? As the supposed 'creator of rules,' it would stand to reason that God would have implanted within us mere humans a consistent (perhaps even genetically encoded) standard ('rule') of behavior(s) that made the "rules" clear and simple. Good lord, we ourselves can train (dictate rules) our dogs and cats to do the same: Place your bodily extrements here, and not there.

  This is the 'law' that I no longer recognize. If God wants us to live a certain way, for our own mutual benefit, then let It enforce that law. Otherwise, it's still just a crap-shoot.

  2) "Love your neighbor." Well enough. But, does that include killing someone else, perhaps in the defense of your own person, family, and/or property? What "rule" rules here? Does a murderer deserve to be executed? Does a serial rapist deserve to be released into society? Is it right that a sociopath be committed to an institution? Does someone who's continually violated the 'rules' of a db deserve to be allowed to continue to post on that db?

  Which gets back to my point: We make our own rules, as the circumstances dictate.
• 

  LittleToe

  Craig:
  Since you disagree, therefore I must counter:

  I qualified my statement intentionally with the phrase "until the modern age".

  I would further add that my statement can further be qualified by "personal interpretation".
  People interpret the two laws as they see fit.

  1. Is there nothing in your life that you worship to the point of giving it your whole heart, even if the sad conclusion arrived at is that you have made yourself your "God"?
  2. Loving neighbour is sure to have it's caveats for the purposes of self-defense, if an individual so deems it a fit use of resource. To each their own.

  I would posit that ultimately we make no new rules at all. There is nothing new under the sun...
• 

  ballistic

  Just to break the conversation and ask a question I've been laying awake at night wondering about... Being that web sites require structure and conformity to standards, why do anarchists have web pages???
• 

  onacruse

  LT:

  I qualified my statement intentionally with the phrase "until the modern age".

  Yes. And if I may be so bold as to suggest: that qualification in and of itself substantiates my assertion that "rules" are transitory and arbitrary, as you seem to admit by the following:

  I would further add that my statement can further be qualified by "personal interpretation".
  People interpret the two laws as they see fit.

  As to:

  Is there nothing in your life that you worship to the point of giving it your whole heart, even if the sad conclusion arrived at is that you have made yourself your "God"?

  I now worship nothing, and nobody. Why should I? "God" needs my worship like He needs a hole in His head. But, after all, he "made me in His image," so I also need to worship myself like I need a hole in the head.

  Loving neighbour is sure to have it's caveats for the purposes of self-defense, if an individual so deems it a fit use of resource. To each their own.

  As I said, "loving my neighbor as myself" is the one 'rule' that Jesus supposedly restated that I still think has positive social value: not an incontrovertible "rule" of life, but a principle by which I can live, and be happy.

  I would posit that ultimately we make no new rules at all. There is nothing new under the sun...

  Perhaps Solomon was, in his own twisted way, sharper on that point than we care to admit.
• 

  LittleToe

  Craig:

  And if I may be so bold as to suggest: that qualification in and of itself substantiates my assertion that "rules" are transitory and arbitrary, as you seem to admit by the following

  On the contrary - that has ALWAYS been the norm. The most significant modern change has been a larger groundswell to dismissing God/gods, in favour of self-worship.

  I now worship nothing, and nobody. Why should I? "God" needs my worship like He needs a hole in His head. But, after all, he "made me in His image," so I also need to worship myself like I need a hole in the head.

  ~inserts tongue in cheek~
  The hole in your head, aside, how are you defining the words "Worship" and "God"?
  ~extracts tongue~

  As I said, "loving my neighbor as myself" is the one 'rule' that Jesus supposedly restated that I still think has positive social value: not an incontrovertible "rule" of life, but a principle by which I can live, and be happy.

  So this one hasn't changed, then?
  

  Is it a rule, or just a "rule of the day"?
  I seem to recall it being called a "law", so doesn't that make it a rule or standard to live by (or not, as the case may be)?
• 

  onacruse

  Ross, my pardons for the delay in responding to your last: I've been rather busy as a 'third-finisher.'

  And if I may be so bold as to suggest: that qualification in and of itself substantiates my assertion that "rules" are transitory and arbitrary, as you seem to admit by the following

  On the contrary - that has ALWAYS been the norm. The most significant modern change has been a larger groundswell to dismissing God/gods, in favour of self-worship.

  An interesting observation. This last week I've been revisiting the French Revolution, which included the out-lawing of Christianity, and the thereby hoped-for rejuvenation of basic human rights.

  An 'experiment' which led to many advances, but also to many more extremely bloody destructions.

  That Robespierre was himself a victim of his own "revolution" accords with your assertion that this is a modern-age phenomenon; how far back in time would you choose to define "modern age"?

  I now worship nothing, and nobody. Why should I? "God" needs my worship like He needs a hole in His head. But, after all, he "made me in His image," so I also need to worship myself like I need a hole in the head.

  ~inserts tongue in cheek~
  The hole in your head, aside, how are you defining the words "Worship" and "God"?
  ~extracts tongue~

  LOL...you Scots are all so intractibly irritating!

  Insofar as "rules" are concerned, "worship of God" is defined by whatever procedures and expectations, as usually backed up by a written text, that a particular culture or politic accepts as sacred. Does their definition of such as "sacred" make it so? No. It's circumstantial, and transitory.

  As I said, "loving my neighbor as myself" is the one 'rule' that Jesus supposedly restated that I still think has positive social value: not an incontrovertible "rule" of life, but a principle by which I can live, and be happy.

  So this one hasn't changed, then?
  

  Not for me. But I recognize it as a parameter that applies only to me, insofar as I choose to accept it. It's not a rule of human life that can be incontrovertibly demonstrated as the best way to live...sometimes, and in many cases, crime does pay, as witnessed to by many of the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes; or, perhaps, in the sense of evolution: survival of the fittest.

  Is it a rule, or just a "rule of the day"?
  I seem to recall it being called a "law", so doesn't that make it a rule or standard to live by (or not, as the case may be)?

  I would dearly like to think it's a law; I just don't see that it is.
• 

  stillajwexelder

  some rules are good otherwise there would be anarchy