lordjedi said:Purity, in my mind, is unattainable by a mere person. You can try to be as pure as possible, but things will always pop up that will cause you to deviate. At that point, you can either beat yourself up over it or try to correct yourself back onto the path. You can also go the opposite direction, throw purity out the window, and just do whatever the hell you please. So how is my view of "purity" illogical?
The view of purity you specifically described before this (in the post before your last one) was similar to the kind that tries to pretend a "vow of poverty" (and worthless Mother-Teresa-style shit like that) has any value in the sight of God. Hard work aimed at wise productivity in a free market is far more pure and helpful than some supposedly high and lofty individual that spends her life obsessed with death and suffering (as apposed to someone who works hard to alleviate and heal death and suffering). You know this and, as such, running off to India would not be a righteous use of your energy and time (you would be doing what you know to be wrong).
Real purity is the kind attainable by real people. Christianity teaches that Jesus was a real person and that, as a person, he kept himself perfectly pure. He didn't have some God cheat code that he used to make himself invincible to temptation that ordinary people don't have access to. Jesus faced all the same issues you or I do on a daily basis and yet he kept himself righteous. Biblical Christianity then also teaches that our primary calling and goal in life, as Christians, is to constantly strive to be just as righteous.
A man who works hard and helps his family before others is a far more righteous and pure man than one that runs off and ignores his family so he can supposedly help dying people in a far off country. There is wisdom in helping those whom our help will yield the best results within. To act more in accordance with that kind of Godly wisdom is to be more righteous.
lordjedi said:It sounded like you were advocating that we do everything possible to show that we care for the people involved in the attacks. It sounded like you were advocating we do everything possible in every situation to help everyone involved.
Seriously, I mean no offense, but, truthfully, what you think my arguments "sound like" half the time is laughable. You could really stand to learn how to read people's posts better before immediately moving on tp open your mouth.
In your post before last, you went so far as to argue against me accusing you of being someone who wanted to commit terrorism (or something insane like that). Haha. Oh well, I will say definitely have a unique way of experiencing the world, lordjedi. :)
lordjedi said:
For me, there's just no way I can do everything possible. My point was that I'm not going to drop everything in my life to fly 10000 miles just to show that I care. If I were willing to do that, then I'd sell all my possessions and become a missionary. Instead, I will come out against any and all terrorists attacks. Beyond that though, there's nothing I can do. And sitting here behind a monitor and keyboard doesn't help the people in India one bit.
I can send money, I can send prayers. Sure, I can talk about it, but that doesn't help them, does it?
Of course doing "everything possible" is not humanly possible. We can't be everywhere and we can't do everything. Humans have to live human lives. As a very imperfect human life, there are always better ways for me to live out my values and reassess my values at every moment. To me I found your response to C3PX as one that was self-righteous and cocky.
Again, on the level of an ordinary human life, there are no small ways in which you could have better acted in opposition to evil? There are no better motivations and actions you could plan for yourself that would be better than the ones you're in right now?
Sending money helps. Praying prayers helps. Talking about things helps. The question is what mixture of those good actions and other good actions is most wise from a moral persepctive (and therefore leads to greater righteousness).