There Both IS And IS NOT Absolute Truth

I recently have been speaking with people about morality and how it is defined. I am largely an ethical subjectivist with traces of nihilism in my belief system, though not clouded by the notion that everything is without purpose. I know there's a term for that. I don't know what it is. Sue me.

TERMS

So to really get at the heart of what my thoughts are you need to understand some very basic verbiage or constructs. It's not necessarily the "definition" by English standards that I am concerned about, but the "concept" that underlies that definition so don't get too hung up on the words I'm choosing but more on the idea behind them. Words change based on linguistics but the concept can remain the same.

Objective - Independent of the mind or free of the mind. Essentially it means you don't have to apply any personal reference. This is simply what is observed or found from testing

Subjective - Dependent upon other factors besides an intrinsic nature. Subjective means essentially that the object relies heavily on things beyond itself to define itself.

Morality - This is a basic idea that something is either "good" or "bad" as applied to several fields. It can apply to the best interest of a person, group, ideal, or anything really. (More on this later)

Absolute - Absolute means that something cannot change. It will continually remain however it is regardless of external factors.

Eternal Force - This is my polite way of acknowledging deities. While I believe in Jesus and God, my thoughts regarding this apply unilaterally and thus I'll replace the words "God" or "Jesus" with "Eternal Force" which will represent an eternal force that governs the universe and has values that are absolute as defined above.

Belief - The concept that you have a thought or feeling and you, by way of agreeing to your own, either silently, mentally, or vocally argue that all others are incorrect. (ie. if you believe even that all beliefs are correct then you would say that those who only think there is one right belief are wrong, etc.)

Community - The grouping of people with which you currently have awareness. If you are aware of the people, even if you choose to ignore, they belong to the community.

Power - The ability/inability to further an agenda

Law - Rules given to groups that may or may not be independent of morality

Justice - The concept of weighing moralities against one another in order to "justify" or make a concession for one or the other.

Bad - Painful or Damaging (whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise)

Good - Pleasing or Restorative (whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise)

WHAT IS MORALITY?
Here is where I will argue what morality is. I don't suggest you continue reading this if you are a Christian with a weak faith that isn't subject to challenge yet. The thoughts I have largely fly in the face of a lot of traditional beliefs. I by no means mean that to insult you, but the statements I will be making may get you thinking in a way that is counter-biblical, which is not the intent. I fully believe the Bible and this is simply my way of understanding it.

My belief largely corresponds with different escalating levels of community. Here are what I have so far (meaning I am willing to adjust):

1. Self
2. Small Social Circle (Family/Friends/Etc.)
3. Large Social Circle (Friends of Friends/Extended Family/Etc.)
4. Establishment (City/Town/Village/Etc.)
5. State (Where applicable)
6. Region (Where applicable)
7. Nation/Country
8. Allied Nations/Countries (Where applicable)
9. Hemisphere (Where applicable)
10. World 
11. Beyond World (Theoretical contingent upon other intelligent life)
12. Universal
13. Eternal Force (If consented to)

BASIC CONCEPTS:
Everything in life that we can know is subjective. Objectivity being free of the mind or without the mind then would mean that the minute you begin to know something it is no longer objective, because it is tainted by your perspective of observation. If I look at a cylinder from the top, it only looks like a circle and for me that truth is absolute from that point, but it is relative to my position in relation to the cylinder. The basic idea then comes down to this: There is no such thing as objectivity as applicable to mankind. If we begin to know what it is, then by the very idea of what objectivity is then it no longer exists. 

Since Objective Truth collapses upon itself in the face of human observation, morality is then defined by whatever the majority believes in relation to the level of community within which it exists and is re-evaluated whenever the level of pertinence increases beyond the level of the existing group (For example: groups within groups, expanding groups, combining groups, etc.). This then lends that the chain will escalate up as far as the world, but since other-worldly intelligence is yet to be discovered it is then not logical to assume community levels 11 or 12 and you jump straight to 13 if the group as a majority consents not only that 13 exists but also on what/who 13 is. 

For example: Premarital sex by levels of community

1. I individually believe it's "bad" as you can get diseases and it damages it's own value within the context of marriage (escalate to 2)
2. The majority of my immediate family and friends concur (escalate to 3) 
3. Most people who know my friends and family closely also concur (escalate to 4)
4. The majority of the city I live in believes it is okay (either escalate to 13 or stop)
5. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
6. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
7. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
8. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
9. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
10. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
11. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
12. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
13. I am a Christian. I fall subject to the subjectivity of the Eternal Force (God) and the consensus is that it is "wrong" among the believers of this particular deity.

In this case you can see how it is Absolute Truth, where Christians would then be concerned, however it is simply a subjective truth for those who don't believe. If the majority of the city I live in sided with me (even if on an unobserved level) then we now hold morality and it is then escalated to the next level of State, and so on.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

For Christians: Paul says that we aren't supposed to hold non-christians to the same standard we hold ourselves to. We should be doing what we can to help them come to know what we know, but inevitably it is the Light that draws all men unto itself, not the lamp. Our job is to allow the Light to shine, not to convince other people that it exists or that it is the right thing. Once they have seen and believe the light, we are to hold one another accountable. 

Stop telling non-christians they have to conform to christian standards or they are going to hell. If they haven't seen the light and met Jesus, then according to our belief they are going to hell regardless of behavior. Show them Jesus before condemning them.

For Non-Christians: It is equally acceptable for Christians to say that an Absolute Truth exists and for you to say that it does not. We are simply two separate people looking at the cylinder from different angles. We may see a circle and you may see a rectangle, but in the end neither of us understands fully what we are looking at. Christians aren't "bigots" or "antiquated" for believing the way they do. They are justified in their own beliefs even under the rules of subjectivity and that's okay. 

Stop calling christians ignorant and bigotted for their beliefs. Often times Christians don't feel deep in their hearts that some things are wrong that the bible says but they consent to the will of their deity and as such have compassion for those morals. It's not biggoted. It's not ignorant. It's looking beyond self and considering a larger picture, which is what most non-christians do when they make the argument that religion destroys people.

I'm renouncing my Christianity to follow Jesus

When I was growing up, I was under the impression that much of the world still needed to hear about Jesus Christ. This statement is true, but in reality it's only about half of the story. For generations "the church" has been very focused on reaching everyone in the world because "Jesus is coming back soon."

I want to discuss some of the issues with the way "the church" has gone about doing this.

1) Sacrificing Quality for Quantity
The church often celebrates and hears great cheering when they hear about the volume of "salvations" that they get. If we go to a service and find that 20 people were "saved" at the service we are all emotional. Everyone gets into their own personal Jesus moment and there is a lot of cheering and clapping. The new recruits are treated like fledglings and ushered into the care of some people they have never met and handed some pamphlets and told that God loves them. After about 10-15 minutes of them discussing their personal lives they are then set free to fly on their own. These birds learn to fly in 10 minutes.

You wanna see how this looks from the outside?
Here, we have all these new baby birds! Hooray they look adorable and we are so excited. Let's handle them for about 10 minutes and then we are throwing them from the tree to see which ones fly. Training? No...we gave them a manual (written in complex and contrived language) and they can read it if they need training. We have seminars and groups that do training, but the next one doesn't start for about 3 months so they will probably have to wait. You were born at the wrong time little bird.

We as Christians are so focused on the act of saying you accept Christ but not helping these people develop with Him. Is it because we just don't care about those people or because in reality many of us don't live the "christian" lives that we like to talk about on Sunday mornings? Is it because we are so shy or because we are embarrassed that these "new birds" will see how flawed and misshapen we are if we truly share life together and walk with Christ?

The outside world is bitter from the Church being so one track minded. They are tired of the "you need to accept Jesus" campaign and they are tired of hearing about how great He is but not seeing it. I'm tired of it. The world is tired of it.

2) Using our own language and colloquialisms to explain things
We have very "christian" ways of explaining things. We use metaphors and we use christian idioms to express things. In the Christian subculture it's a very comforting and affirming thing to do. You tell someone that God hasn't answered your prayer yet and they say that "God is never early or late" and that's supposed to make you feel better, so you give up on it. 

The problem with the outside world (non-christians) is that this is simply an unintelligent reply to a legitimate question. People nowadays are tired of the unintelligent expressions. They are tired of the band-aid expression meant to cover the problem but not heal the wound. If God isn't answering  your prayer right away, your friend should be helping you as much as possible. They should probably ask what your prayer is for and help evaluate if it lines up with the will of God. Does your prayer affect someone's free will? God is a gentleman and will not steal away someone's ability to choose. Are you praying for something that takes time? Then why are you expecting it to happen right now? There are several logical answers that still maintain with biblical standards. For instance, how are you living your life? Are you cheating on your spouse but expecting God to hear your prayers? He may, but if your prayers are unanswered you may have an underlying issue to take care of. People need practical answers, not some made up "Christian-ism" that calls into question the intelligence of the christian community.

3) Fear of anything that challenges our faith
Christians, generally speaking, are afraid of whatever challenges their faith. We avoid science because it says that Evolution is real and that the universe started from the Big Bang. We get afraid of these things because the presumption is that then God must not exist and calls into question all of our beliefs. 

For the record, let's go into those two things. Evolution is the theory that things change over time. They do. That's proven. It's not worth arguing. Whether we came from monkeys or fish or not is completely different from Evolution. Evolution as a process may be a theory, but it's widely proven. Don't fight it. God wants us to change over time too. In regard to the Big Bang, realize a simple truth. If everything in the universe came from a single point, then something with equal or greater power than the universe MUST have existed in order for the universe to have ever happened. That's the law of math. If 1=everything and 0=nothing then 1=1 and 0=0, Everything that exists requires a force equal to or greater than itself to exist. If the universe is infinite in space (though not commonly held belief) then by the rules of e=MC^2 and relativity it is then infinite in time and energy also. Under these assumptions it is not only probable that God exists, but inevitable. That's also legitimate reasoning.

Remember this: If we as Christians are afraid to challenge our faith, then what faith do we really have? Do you really believe that Science will ever disprove God? Science is the study of his creation. Do you actually believe it can result in anything but finding God?

4) I'll do this for you, if you do this for me

The church is very focused on the giveaways that require you to do something. You can eat at our free pancake breakfast if you sit through a sermon first. We are happy to feed the poor if we can brand ourselves and label everything with our logo and such. I don't see anywhere in the bible where Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone did something for him before He did for them. We always focus on the bible from one perspective. Take when Jesus fed the 5,000. Everyone focuses on the faith of the boy to give the two fish and the bread. They want to talk about how Jesus will provide, but they don't want to focus on the simple things.
Jesus did NOT require everyone to sacrifice. The sacrifice of one was for the benefit of many. Jesus didn't talk about moochers or even care that they were there. If you think there weren't moochers you are foolish. There were 5,000 people there. There were moochers and Jesus fed the moochers more than they needed. Why? It's not our job to convince a moocher or anyone else that Jesus is the way. We don't do the convincing. His spirit is enough for that. Our job is simply to show his love to people. That's where we miss it.

As a church we want to do so much to build numbers of attendees and we want to add to the ranks, but we have lost a grip on how to show the love of Christ. The world is sick of the marketing campaign where you get to get something if you do or give something. They are tired of the, "you get this great experience for only 10% of your income." I am 100% in support of tithe and offering. If you are a christian and you aren't tithing, shame on you. That said, the focus shouldn't be on the rules. It should be on the Love.

I honestly today am ashamed of the title Christian. Not because of Jesus. I'm proud to know Jesus. I'm ashamed to be associated with people that are seemingly unintelligent, greedy, finger-pointing, and relentless to serve their own needs. That's not the Jesus I know. As it is, I don't think Jesus would be a christian either.

Nobody Tries Anything

I've had a lot of things in life change. I've had ambitions to be a professional artist, musician, and several other endeavors. I had a conversation with my wife regarding the satisfaction level that I have with such endeavors and here are some key points that are huge to understanding ambitions:

1 - There is no TRY; only DO
There is no such thing as trying. If you indeed try, you proceed through failure after failure and get knocked down only to rise again and overcome. The end result is that (provided enough time) you DO what you set out to do. If you are saying to yourself that you are "trying" to do something and not actually doing everything you can to make it happen you are simply fooling yourself

2 - If you WANT something you WILL DO what it takes
Since there is no such thing as "try," when you want something you will do what it takes to attain it. Sometimes there are imbalances in this equation. For me, I wanted to pursue music and other selfish endeavors, but ultimately my want for a traditional family and my own children and pursuing my career weighed heavier on me than my own pursuits. I wanted a family. I have a family. If I had truly wanted to be a musician professionally rather than having it just be a fantasy I would have DONE it.

3 - Repetition is the mother of success

The dividing line between success and failure is simple. The person who quits fails. Don't say you want something if you don't have the willpower/stones to go get it/take it. If you are failing it gives you insight into what does NOT work to get where you want. Re-evaluate, re-position, and keep moving.

4 - "One day" and "Later" simply mean "No"
Do not say, "one day I will be rich." You'll never be rich. I'm not rich, but the concept lies in your pursuit. If you say "one day" or "later" you aren't starting what it takes NOW. Nothing in life that's worth anything comes easy and quick. Being wealthy/successful, whatever your definition, is about goal setting, strategy, and careful execution. The only time "one day" applies is when that day is today.

5 - Good things require sacrifice
Anyone who has anything good will tell you they gave something else up to get it. People who are fit give up eating a lot of junk food. People who are wealthy give up a lot of their time to it. People who are intelligent typically give up social functions to pursue that. Everything is a balance. If you want something badly, you need to be willing to sacrifice to get it. This goes along with point number two. If  you REALLY want it, you will be willing to make the sacrifice. If you aren't willing to make the sacrifice, then you want whatever it is that you aren't willing to let go of MORE than what you think you want. Plain and simple.

WHOA JON - DIAL IT DOWN - GET TO THE POINT!

Okay. Here is my point. I don't regret choices that I've made. I accept that certain things are the sum of equations of what means more to me in life. I'm not rich because I value my family, but we do okay. I'm not famous because I value time with my friends/wife/daughter. I'm not athletic because I value pursuing knowledge MORE than physicality (not that you cannot do both - that's just where MY choices led). If you want to do something truly, then do it. Don't say you will try. Don't say you will do it later. Don't give up because it didn't work the first 50 times. Like Nike says, "Just Do It."