Website owner: James Miller
Two alternative starting assumptions and two conclusions
Consider the following two alternative starting assumptions:
Assumption 1. There is a God, the soul is immortal, there is life after death, and man is accountable for his conduct on this earth.
Assumption 2. There is no God, there is no life after death, and there is thus no accountability for one’s conduct on this earth.
From these two assumptions there are two conclusions that naturally follow:
Conclusion from Assumption 1. It is important to live right, to treat other people right, to live virtuous, good, moral lives since you will be held accountable for your conduct on this earth by a God who knows all things (all the good and bad things you ever did).
Conclusion from Assumption 2. Since there is no life after death, one had best enjoy this life to the hilt and get all the pleasure and good things he can for himself in this competitive, dog-eat-dog world by whatever means needed. Assumption 2 leads directly to selfish, anti-social, predatory conduct. The main concern in pursuing this selfish, predatory conduct is to do it in such a way as to avoid bad consequences for yourself in the way of punishment or social ostracism. The assumption thus leads directly to such conduct as theft, fraud, lying, deception, fornication, adultery, murder, abuse of others, etc. One must simply be very clever and do these things in such a way as not to get caught. It is all a game in not getting caught. An unscrupulous con man cleverly devises schemes for relieving elderly widows of their life savings. Thieves waylay a person for his money. A serviceman lies about the work he did and rips customers off. A man sleeps with a neighbor’s wife.
We thus see that these two starting assumptions result in two very different personal philosophies on life.
From the conduct of most in modern America, one can guess at the assumption under which they operate.
Oct 2013
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