What is your biggest regret?

Ethics, Morality, and Sin

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Compassionist
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What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Compassionist »

What is your biggest regret?

I long to make the world free from all suffering, unfairness and deaths, but I lack the power to do so. My biggest regret is that I am not all-powerful. If I were all-powerful, I would have gone back in time and prevented all suffering, unfairness and deaths. If I were all-powerful, I would have made all living things equally all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful and the owner of an infinite number of universes each. If I were all-powerful, all beings would be forever happy. As things stand now, all sentient biological organisms are doomed to suffer and die. No one is going to save us from suffering, unfairness, and deaths. I want to save and improve all lives, but I don't have the power to do so. I am so sad because of all the suffering, unfairness and deaths. I have postponed some deaths and improved some lives but that's not enough. If God is truly real and good, why didn't God prevent all suffering, unfairness and deaths? I think God is either evil and imaginary or evil and real. I can't decide which, so, I am agnostic regarding the existence and nature of God.

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by nobspeople »

Compassionist wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 6:49 pm What is your biggest regret?

I long to make the world free from all suffering, unfairness and deaths, but I lack the power to do so. My biggest regret is that I am not all-powerful. If I were all-powerful, I would have gone back in time and prevented all suffering, unfairness and deaths. If I were all-powerful, I would have made all living things equally all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful and the owner of an infinite number of universes each. If I were all-powerful, all beings would be forever happy. As things stand now, all sentient biological organisms are doomed to suffer and die. No one is going to save us from suffering, unfairness, and deaths. I want to save and improve all lives, but I don't have the power to do so. I am so sad because of all the suffering, unfairness and deaths. I have postponed some deaths and improved some lives but that's not enough. If God is truly real and good, why didn't God prevent all suffering, unfairness and deaths? I think God is either evil and imaginary or evil and real. I can't decide which, so, I am agnostic regarding the existence and nature of God.
I, too, regret being all powerful. But many of you should be thankful I'm not :dance:
That said, I wish I could help those who or that truly need helped more than I do now. There's so much real need in the world, but not enough people to help.
But that's highly impractical.
So, more realistically.....I don't think I have realistic regrets :blink:
Have a great, potentially godless, day!

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Athetotheist »

Compassionist wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 6:49 pmMy biggest regret is that I am not all-powerful.
I wouldn't call that a regret. A disappointment, perhaps, but not a regret.

A regret is wishing you hadn't done what you did, or that you had done what you didn't. A regret is wishing with all your heart that you could go back to that moment and say, "Wait.......I'm sorry. I was wrong." Or go back to the moment before that and say to your past self, "STOP! DON'T BE STUPID!"

There's a difference between regret and disappointment, but it's all too terribly easy to let our disappointments lead to regrets.

My memory is filled with regrets.

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Purple Knight »

My biggest regret is that I wasn't born with a better conscience. Morality eludes me and not for want of trying. I was born with a high IQ and so I use that to attempt to understand what is moral.

People think I'm trying to "pick apart" their philosophies when I'm only trying to understand them. I am rejected by my heroes because I ask questions I ought not to be asking. And I can't stop. I have to try to understand. Otherwise I won't understand, and I won't know how morality applies to a new situation. If I don't probe for the rules, I will be lost.

I'm constantly at once inspired and jealous to the point of feeling totally dead inside when I see a moral person. We live in a world with real heroes. There are perfect people. Perhaps religious people think these are angels on Earth, for the last days.

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Compassionist »

Purple Knight wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:35 pm My biggest regret is that I wasn't born with a better conscience. Morality eludes me and not for want of trying. I was born with a high IQ and so I use that to attempt to understand what is moral.

People think I'm trying to "pick apart" their philosophies when I'm only trying to understand them. I am rejected by my heroes because I ask questions I ought not to be asking. And I can't stop. I have to try to understand. Otherwise I won't understand, and I won't know how morality applies to a new situation. If I don't probe for the rules, I will be lost.

I'm constantly at once inspired and jealous to the point of feeling totally dead inside when I see a moral person. We live in a world with real heroes. There are perfect people. Perhaps religious people think these are angels on Earth, for the last days.
I am and have always been highly conscientious. Morality comes easily to me. Why does morality elude you? I treat all sentient beings with love. All sentient beings should be treated with love and all sentient beings should be loving toward all sentient beings.

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Purple Knight »

Compassionist wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:08 pmI treat all sentient beings with love.
No, you don't. Or at least, if you did, you'd be in a similar place to me.

That's because this is a rule you think you follow, but you probably don't. When I follow a rule, I don't have an internal trigger for exceptions. I must learn each exception.

For example, Nazis would be an exception to this "love everyone" rule. Hitler was even a vegetarian.

But do you love Nazis? Well, if you did, if you treated racists with kindness, you'd get a powerful corrective verbal smack in your face, just the same as I have when I've tried to treat everyone with dignity and respect. I had to learn not to treat everyone with kindness. I'm constantly trying to figure out who I ought to be kind to, and who I ought to hate. My current working theory is be kind to everyone except racists, and be hateful and nasty towards racists.

Is there another exception, though? I wouldn't know.

What I do know is that when that exception presents itself, the whole world turns as one to spit in the eyes of the new exception and I'm left standing here without my copy of the script, wishing I was never born because I was too stupid to see the same thing everyone else did.

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Compassionist »

Purple Knight wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 6:44 pm
Compassionist wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:08 pmI treat all sentient beings with love.
No, you don't. Or at least, if you did, you'd be in a similar place to me.

That's because this is a rule you think you follow, but you probably don't. When I follow a rule, I don't have an internal trigger for exceptions. I must learn each exception.

For example, Nazis would be an exception to this "love everyone" rule. Hitler was even a vegetarian.

But do you love Nazis? Well, if you did, if you treated racists with kindness, you'd get a powerful corrective verbal smack in your face, just the same as I have when I've tried to treat everyone with dignity and respect. I had to learn not to treat everyone with kindness. I'm constantly trying to figure out who I ought to be kind to, and who I ought to hate. My current working theory is be kind to everyone except racists, and be hateful and nasty towards racists.

Is there another exception, though? I wouldn't know.

What I do know is that when that exception presents itself, the whole world turns as one to spit in the eyes of the new exception and I'm left standing here without my copy of the script, wishing I was never born because I was too stupid to see the same thing everyone else did.
Thank you for your interesting reply. I don't hate anyone - not even murderers, rapists, kidnappers, torturers, robbers, thieves, racists, etc. I am totally against 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life' kind of policy. I am an agnostic pacifist vegan egalitarian compassionist. So when someone breaks the law I would like them to be imprisoned and given education in ethics and self-control. Like you, I also wish I were never born but I did not have a say in the matter of my birth. I find existence to be full of suffering and I would have preferred it if no one ever suffered.

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Purple Knight »

Compassionist wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 4:18 amI don't hate anyone - not even murderers, rapists, kidnappers, torturers, robbers, thieves, racists, etc.
Try not hating racists in a way where people can see you do it. Just try it.

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by nobspeople »

Purple Knight wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:15 pm
Compassionist wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 4:18 amI don't hate anyone - not even murderers, rapists, kidnappers, torturers, robbers, thieves, racists, etc.
Try not hating racists in a way where people can see you do it. Just try it.
Hate is real. And I'm all for it for the right (individualized preference) reason or reasons. For me, I just don't let it run my life. If other let it, that's their issue but for me, no sense of letter hate fester within me. See it, realize it, allow it to run its course, flush it out and move on.
Have a great, potentially godless, day!

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Re: What is your biggest regret?

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Post by Purple Knight »

nobspeople wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:55 pmHate is real. And I'm all for it for the right (individualized preference) reason or reasons.
It's ruining my life that I can't hate when I'm supposed to for the exact, precise reason I'm supposed to, and I have to fake it. Everyone can see through it because it doesn't have the vitriol and disgust it's supposed to have.

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