Is belief in God madness in a modern world?

I am going to have to agree that your content does not exactly follow your topic heading. Anglagard did not say faith = madness. There is also no evidence that his position (that of morality increasing) excludes persons of any particular faith from sharing this view. In other words, there may be christians who believe morality is growing, and christians who believe morality is declining. The same could probably be said for followers of any other belief system.It is also true that morality is not a specifically christian concept and is not a product of any faith or relgious book. We may believe that it is a product of being made 'in the image and likeness of God' or we may believe that is a natural result of cause and effect and general observation by intelligent beings.However in spite of any argument in the previous thread, I must report a failure to see how, without a standard of comparison, we can come to the conclusion that morality is either decreasing or increasing. We are reduced to using our own personal moral code as a basis for our assertions. There may be communities or groups in society which use that same code, but the adoption of the code of one particular majority group might signify nothing in itself about the value of the code, except for the power in numbers or a herd mentality.All morality is relative, and subject to the limited view of reality which we see from our particular perspective.If a woman grows up in a small family community, and 50 years later can not step foot outside without fear of violence, is she 'mad' to assert that morality is in decline?If the governor of a certain state has seen a sharp decline in racial crime, is he 'mad' to say that morality is increasing?If a christian sees in his lifetime a drop in church attendance and more businesses open on Sundays, is he 'mad' to say that morality is decreasing?The thing is, it is impossible to make a determination in any of these cases without more information and a broader perspective. I doubt that any of us are in a position to call another person's perspective 'madness'. If we have no absolute to go by, and we were to attempt a global overview of morality, it would be very difficult. All that we have is our own personal standard by which to judge.

Ah, I am just attempting an objective view of morality, or; how our perceptions of the absolute are subject to our own glimpse of reality, with our moral 'cup' appearing either half full, or half empty, in relativity to our perceptions.

If I were not afraid of posting too long, I would have gone here next. How does a person measure morality? I mean, if crime over the entire world had come to a record low, would we prove that men were more moral, or maybe only that our ability to bring people to justice had vastly improved? Or if we put into effect worldwide laws granting equal rights, would it wipe out bigotry? This is part of it too. Each of us in our lifetime will hear so many horror stories that eventually we get the impression that morality must be really low. We dwell more on the bad, in general, than on the good. How many times does someone call you and ask if you saw the news report on the food drive? Yes, this is true, although I am not sure if we have these type of people here or no. I think your average Christian may feel the world is getting worse, without proclaiming the end of the world. It is perhaps more proper to say that in some ways it is becoming more uncomfortable to be christian. Fundementalist views on abortion for example are not in the majority any longer, and in relation to that it could be said that morality is declining, with no prophesy of 'end times' being implicit. Of course, our human right to choice is being upheld, which is considered moral. I guess it is still a question of free will, and whether having the right to do something = it is moral to do something. That is still up to the individual, as an 'inalienable right' to make our own moral choices.

My post was really more intended as humour I can only give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and hope for a reciprocation. I can not be any bolder than to speak what I feel is true. Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.

and this...Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.

If I say 'I am attempting an objective view of morality' it has nothing to do with whether or not morality is objective. 'Objective' is used here to modify my view, not morality. Our views are capable of being far from objective

Unless, of course they are ordering vodka ; free of imperfecton or mixture = Absolut.Before any one catches this...Absolut is actually Swedish, but Russians do use the word 'absolute' also. They have many words from the Latin as we do.Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.

Yeah, thanks, I caught that...I get all the vodkas mixed up.The question is, what does one do with all those pesky different flavors of Absolut?Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.

If we use 'absolute' as an adjective -complete in itself, perfect, faultless- I would imagine the Word of God to be absolute.Our understanding of it will not necessarily be.But is the Bible absolute?Is it complete in itself?
Does it require external interpretation to 'complete' it?
Is it perfect or faultless?And in what ways does it differ from other books...like, hm, 'A Tale of Two Cities' which is 'complete in itself'?Just questions, no answers supplied!

In reference to this sentence, said to be from the very Mind of scottness, I am perhaps wondering if the 'whole concept of the Bible' can be conflated with the Word of God, or aside from that, I will settle for 'Bible'.It's just a question; Is the Bible absolute, or is a concept absolute?
No conflations provided.Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.

Good. Now, what about 'the whole concept of the Bible'?

Well, I seem to remember having discussions about what exactly the whole concept of the Bible is, but..
my question is whether or not the whole concept of the Bible or any book can be called 'absolute'.