Comment on Does anyone struggle with spending money foolishly on prostitutes?
Semester3383@lemmy.world 1 day agoWhy do you believe that it does?
Look mate, we’re a cosmic blip. On the scale of the universe, we don’t even register. We’re born, we live, we die, and on the scale of how long the universe has existed, it’s not even a blink. The universe is about 13,900,000,000 years old. The first single-cell organisms emerged about 3,500,000,000 years ago. Humans, in our current form, have only existed for a mere 300,000 years. Our sun will turn into a red giant in about 5,000,000,000 years, which will sterilize the surface of the earth, but it won’t matter to humans, because we will have evolved into an entirely different species and almost certainly have gone completely extinct billions of years before that happens.
NOTHING we do matters to the universe. There is nothing we can do that will affect the course of the entire universe. Any belief to the contrary is simply terror management. So how could one moral code, in the grand scheme of the universe, matter more than any other?
What makes you believe, aside from your attempts to manage your terror of non-existence, that any of your morality matters at all?
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Because I believe that the moral code I follow was authored by a Creator higher than the universe.
If you’re an atheist, morality simply is just a suggestion.
Semester3383@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
And what is your belief based on? What falsifiable evidence do you have that it’s actually correct, factually true?
In other words, how do you know?
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 hours ago
I am convinced that Jesus literally and bodily rose from the dead, and Is Who He says He Is. That is, that He is God.
Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
It is enforced, by varying degrees, by the censure or support of other humans, as well as one’s own conscience.
The moral code you follow may have been authored by a creator figure. It may not have. Frankly, it’s beside the point. In practice, Christian morality is enforced by support or censure of the church and its teachings. It takes as its bedrock a shared conception of humanity as the Created. An atheist’s or humanist’s morality is similarly enforced by support or censure of their human community, though with a different bedrock (a belief in the dignity and capacities of humanity, for instance, either absent of or separate from a deity).
One does not need to be a Christian to act morally. It does mean certain lines may be drawn in areas different than a Christian, but I would say that that simply makes the individual a non-Christian where those lines do not otherwise impede on, say, humanity’s inherent dignity.
I want to say I write this with full respect for your beliefs in your Creator. I believe tolerance for the beliefs of others, where they do not impede on those who do not share those beliefs to live their lives freely, is important. I will add that if OP was being truthful, and actually is a Christian struggling with soliciting sex workers, your suggestion to seek out the Church is a valid one. If nothing else, it places him among humans that share the values he seeks to embody, and may help him on the path he wishes to walk.
For my part, I see no issue so long as both parties enter these arrangements with no coercion or out of compulsion, with the issue here being the compulsion. If it feels bad, and it serves no greater aim, don’t do it, figure out why you’re doing it, and do things more aligned with your morals and ideals - that’s my take.