Thinking... oh no...

Well, okay, my thinking has been prompted by philosophy class... but then I guess that's kinda the point of that class afterall, huh? Well, anyway, I've been thinking about how we always try to fit God in a box. While trying to decide for myself what I believe about ethics and morality, I've decided that I look at God in a very small way.

(This really isn't a new subject. The paragraph change is simply for the ease of my many fans...) Anyway, I was trying to decide if there is any truth to cultural relativism at all. Conclusion: Yes, there is some truth to it. But I second guess that conclusion. If there is a god that is all powerful (and I'm begging to differ only for argument's sake), then shouldn't all of the same things be right and wrong everywhere? Maybe.

There are some things, though, that I've decided are relative to time and place. The whole cannibalism vs. cremation thing, for example. There nothing that I know of (and I admit I don't know much), that says that cannibalism will condemn a person. As far as I know, it's not morally "wrong." It is disgusting, and here we would see it as immoral, but other cultures view that as the most honorable way to treat their dead. They eat them.

Other cultures, however, believe that cremation is the best way to honor their dead. Our culture has differing views about it, but in some places it's the only thing that's acceptable. Ruth Benedict did a study about 80 years ago involving cultures with opposing views of cremation and cannibalism. She asked the cannibals what it would take to get them to burn the bodies of their dead... they were shocked and horrified. The same was true of the others.

So there you kind of have it. But I've gotten off topic. God in a box. If we can look at things like murder, for example, it's a little more cloudy. The Eskimos will kill their children if they feel then can't take care of them and all of their other children. Is murder "right" anywhere? I think, no, know not. But we can argue that because the Eskimos don't believe it is wrong, because they don't believe in a god who condemns it, that it is right for them. We have put God in a box. By buying into this we fall into the trap of believing that God's commands don't apply to those who don't believe.

The way I put it really doesn't communicate what I was thinking quite right, but I can't think of any other way to say it. So, I don't know. I guess basically, we can easily fall into the trap of believing that God isn't all-powerful, but only half-powerful. It's way too easy to let him shrink into a corner and stay there. Sometimes the human mind is such an annoying thing... :)

Well, okay, I'm gonna get off my soapbox now, even though I'm pretty sure nobody can possibly understand it. I will stand on my soapbox all by myself :)

I've also decided I'm not near as good at the whole figurative language thing as Nick... 'course I think he steals part of his from books. :)

And as for other things I've been thinking about... well, I'm still in the thinking stage and not the concluding one, so I'll stay away from them for now.

There are a whole lot of people calling to schedule tests this morning. I hate it when they call for anything else though, cuz I don't know what to do :) What a loser... oh well.

Well, I guess I'm gonna go and get back to "work." Everybody have a super-dee-duper day! Oh my goodness... I'm starting to sound like... I don't know who, but somebody. Good think I could never say that out loud :)