20 replies to this topic

[Crikey]

manbearpigg, on 29 January 2013 - 01:11 AM, said:

...."THE GOLDEN RULE" (eye for an eye)....It seems to me that the golden rule is the oldest and only unifying element in ALL our religions. (maybe except some crazy empathy-lacking cults)
............Lets start a new religion free from money, leadership, and control.............

1- Jesus TRASHED the Old Testament's 'eye for eye' rule (Matt 5:38/39)..
2- Christianity ALREADY trashes money, leadership and control, so why do we need another religion? Look-

"Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit"- 2 Cor 2:17

"Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care,  not lording it over those entrusted to you..." -1 Peter 5:2-3

Jesus said:-"You have one teacher, me,......You're my friends if you follow me. I don't call you servants, but I call you friends" Matt 23:10, John 15:15

Edited by Crikey, 31 January 2013 - 11:10 AM.

[Beany]

My golden rule is do unto others ........ I've always been more concerned with my own moral/ethical code than something put before me that was formulated by someone else. IMHO, unless it comes from within ourselves, it has little value and is difficult to sustain.

[Frank Merton]

I would like to put in a good word for old Immanuel Kant and his "ethical imperative."  It's a little less elegant than some of the others posted above, but I think it works better and is more practical, and, more important, as an extremely strong logical basis.

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.

Now Kant is not famous for being an easy read, but this shouldn't be too hard if you read it several times.

[Mr Walker]

It's interesting. I am 60 years old and i had never heard that this was the golden rule until this post. Wikipedia seems to comnfirm it, but i bravely suggest that it is not the true golden rule, or standard by which humans should live. Fom birth I was taught by family  schools society and life that the golden laws is this.  Love thy neighbour as thy self

Simon Blackburn also states that the Golden Rule can be "found in some form in almost every ethical tradition".^[9] In his commentary to the Torah verse (Hebrew: "ואהבת לרעך כמוך" ca.1300 BCE):

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
—Leviticus 19:18^[10], the "Great Commandment"

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Golden_Rule

(which apears as a subset of the wiki version)


To me the "eye for an eye" is a more primitive  concept which has regained popularity in  our modern individualist world.

In a civilised modern world, I would hope that the version based on love would prevail. It requires one first to understand and love oneself, something more primitive versions do not.  They are based only on a sense of justice or equality of crime and recompense
Only when one truly understands and loves oneself, can one truly love, and treat, another as they would prefer to be treated.
I wouldnt argue that eye for a eye is not an earlier form of law, but in my opinion it is not a golden standard to live by, and thus not the golden rule of humanity. In modern times we would not just all end up blind, but dead, if this law was applied.

Edited by Mr Walker, 02 February 2013 - 11:41 PM.

[Beany]

I think that old eye for an eye business is just a way to justify acting out in a negative way. I don't think it worked well in the way back machine any better than it works now.

[Mr Walker]

Beany, on 03 February 2013 - 12:05 AM, said:

I think that old eye for an eye business is just a way to justify acting out in a negative way. I don't think it worked well in the way back machine any better than it works now.

Like all laws it had the benefit of codifying and regulating behaviours within a society. Thus even the vikings,  within their communities, had a code based on this, where an offender had several choices Pay a gold price or make some recompense for harm done to another.

If you could not, or would not, live by this code you were exiled or at times killed, because a person who would not live by the law presented an unpredictable, but constant, danger to those who did. It was better than chaos or anarchy, or the rule of strength and power. (Although the latter still applied in many societies as an alternative to compensation eg trial by combat)