In Reply to: a good life.. posted by ray on August 19, 2004 at 21:12:28:
I had a feeling the definition of 'good' would come up. And this is where the world stumbles, as each culture and religious system has its own outline of what is acceptable and not, what is 'good' and what is 'bad'. But there seem to be a few universally accepted morals:
Don't steal, don't kill, don't harm children or others...
If the basic evils are defined, then we have to judge all other actions within those basics.
Osama has a right to his belief system, but he doesn't have the right to try to impose that on others through violence and pain. He can believe that the Christian missionary is wrong and in cahoots with Satan, though I don't agree, I believe it's still within his rights of belief, but he crosses the line when he acts on those beliefs to the pain and hurt of others.
These are the problems that come in esp. with religious belief systems, the extremists begin to impose their beliefs on others through sometimes violent action. This is a violation of the rights of others to their beliefs and is where I personally would draw the line (If I were king!)
I am not against religion for the most part. It seems to give society its rules and beliefs. But I don't believe any one religion is better than another because there are problems within the Christian societies that are the same as within Buddhist societies, and there are good points within Buddhist societies which are the same as within Christian.
It really comes down to the individuals involved and their own perception of right and wrong, which varies from person to person, or else we would truly have perfect societies, and we don't.