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Originally Posted by Janszoon
There's a couple of huge presumptions here. The first, of course, is that a closed circle is a bad thing. Another is that the idea of a God somehow breaks us out of a circle. By adding God to the equation, you aren't solving the problems, you're just transferring them. The same questions still exist, they just become questions about God instead of questions about humanity: What is God's purpose? Why should God endeavor to create morality? Etc., etc., the snake is still eating its own tail.
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I never presumed that being stuck in a closed circle was a bad thing--futility is not bad, it renders good and bad meaningless, two sides of a coin some force is compelling you to flip for all eternity. Asking for the purpose of God is limiting yourself to thinking in experiential terms, which is impossible if God sits outside experience. We recognize our own nature in the Ouroboros, and if this recognition leads us to assume God we must also assume his nature is radically different, and incomprehensible to us. I'm not saying this is a step we have to make! I'm just saying it's one we're compelled to make, especially if we want have meaning and value.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
What makes you think that the goal of morality is for "man to overcome his own nature"? To me, it seems like the goal of morality is to create as pleasant a life experience as possible for ourselves and others.
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Then your conception of morality already entails a contradiction. You live off me, I live off you, and the whole world lives off of everybody. See we're gonna be exploited by somebody by somebody la la la la
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
So how can you possibly derive a moral code from a being that sits completely outside of experience? If he has no communication with humanity, then how can he be of any assistance with regard to morality?
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Again, because we realize the futility of our own nature, and in assuming a being with a higher nature we see our purpose as overcoming ourselves and striving toward divinity. But I have already said that this "higher nature" is incomprehensible to us, so how the hell are we supposed to strive toward it? That is the ultimate mystery of life. Either there is no point to life or there is a point but no way to be certain what it is. But that's also the beauty of life. If there was a point and everybody knew what it was life would have no impetus to realize that point.