1. the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation,
2. a set of moral principles or values,
3. a theory or system of moral values,
4. the principles of moral conduct governing an individual or a group,
5. a guiding philosophy.
This made me want to look up moral, just to make sure I had this all clear:
1. of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior,
2. expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior,
3. conforming to a standard of right behavior,
4. sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgement.
What these statistics say is that eighty percent of adults from age 18 to 34 believe that what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, can change from situation to situation. What these statistics say is that eighty percent of adults from age 18 to 34 believe that the principles guiding themselves and change from moment to moment. What these statistics say is that eighty percent of adults from age 18 to 34 believe that a guiding philosophy cannot be consistent.
I looked at these numbers and was astounded. If the philosophy an individual uses to guide their life is not consistent, it's not a philosophy at all.
And this was in no way to pick on Catholicism versus any other religious belief - or any belief system, for that matter, that an individual claims to follow but does not follow - it is merely to show that a belief system is consistent, and it is the individuals who choose not to follow it consistently.
I won't even talk about the fact that this group is merely a collection of individuals, each with rights that should not be violated. I won't even talk about you as an individual having the right to your own life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But imagine not knowing what laws will be enacted, not knowing what freedoms will be given to you and what freedoms will be taken away. Imagine not being able to gauge what will happen to your future. This is what it's like to have ethics that vary by situation.
This is what is currently happening in our society today - people do not have a consistent set of values, of morals, of ethics - and it makes living a chronic state of terror.
Our current philosophy classes teach people that the world is in chaos. That you can't make a difference. They question whether you can prove that you're not dreaming through your entire life, or tell you that you can't even prove if you are merely a part of someone else's dream and do not even exist. They tell you to answer any difficult question with, How should I know? I'm only human.
People are rational beings - that's what separates us from animals. People need to use their rational faculties in order to thrive. But they can choose not to use their mind - and the consequences are evident in the current trends in philosophy.
People, when faced with these alternatives for philosophy, turn to the religion that was forced down their throats as a child, to the same religion forced down their parent's throats when they were children, and claim that as their philosophical system. But they don't really believe in it, they don't really follow it.
But they need something, their mind keeps telling them, they need some sort of system of beliefs. And so they keep telling their mind to shut out the fact that the system they chose isn't working for them.
But what they should be doing is listening to their minds, following logic and reason, so that they can find a consistent set of answers to every question they face in life.
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