| | Okay, last year I tried sharing this message with my seminary class two
or three times and I think some of them actually listened and learned a
little bit, but at least these two girls actually got mad at me once
for trying to explain it. Though I do understand their
frustration. Our teacher, Brother Bennet, Cliffy's older brother,
would often try to share an idea, or do an object lesson, and I would
find some way of screwing it up. Sometimes conscientiously and
sometimes it was purely coincidence. Like when he had us do a
snowball fight during which we only got one snow ball. I
convinced my group to "bury our weapons of war" or simply give up and
not fight. It totally messed up the lesson, but it was still
fun. Anyway, why vs what, which really matters.
There are a number of situations, circumstances, and various other
variables that create which one matters more. But I'll take just
a very few of them. Only two I think, unless I think of more
while writing.
Socially: Society says
that what you do is what matters. You have to get the grade, the
cash, the job, the election, the service hours, the whatever.
What you do is more important than why you do it to society, because
what you do is visible and if someone can see it, they can measure it
and you can be rewarded or punished accordingly. In the very rare
chance that someone will talk to you and learn your motives, they MIGHT
say that why you did it actually was more important.
Religiously: Alright, if we go
off of a religious stand point, I'll the the mormon idea. God and
Jesus the Christ will judge us when we die. They will not only
judge us on our actions but also on our reasons. So we might do
something wrong for the right reasons, or we might do something "good"
for the wrong reasons. Also, remember, no one ever has only one
reason for doing anything. Humans will always have more than one
reason if the do anything. And each action has some good reasons
and some bad one. Examples will come later. It has been my
understanding and observation that to God, your reasons are more
important than your actions.
Yay for examples. You kill someone. Is it right or
wrong? Just from this information, you can not deduce whether it
is right or wrong, hopefully. (If you have deduce that killing is
right or wrong, without any evidence of what happened, you probably
believe in concrete ethics, which creates blind hatred and blind
justice, which is the best way to piss me off and if you believe in
concrete ethics, you will soon have a very long and lengthy
conversation with me, during which I will disprove all previous
thoughts you once had towards concrete ethics. Trust me, I
convinced my brothers JJ and Josh, two very devout mormons, a religious
group that so very often tries to teach concrete ethics, and my own
father, whom you have probably heard me rant and rave about many a
time, into disbelieving their previous thoughts about concrete
ethics. I even got all three to admit that murder, seduction,
adultery, fornication, and prostitution all have their rightful place
in this world. A very small place, granted, but a place all to
their own, defying their previous notions of concrete ethics.)
So, we shall say the killing was in self-defense, and your attacker
already killed your wife. Right or wrong? But wait, you
killed him in a blind rage and anger. You let your emotions run
wild and you killed him even after you had disabled his weapon and him,
so killing him was pointless. Now, was it right or wrong?
Obviously I can't answer for you, but I just want you to decide.
What matters more to you, what someone does, or why they do it.
Post your answer and explain it, I'd enjoy reading your thoughts.
Just in case you are wondering, I happen to believe the why matters
more. If you do something good for the wrong reasons, it's still
wrong. And everything can be done for the correct reasons, we
just have to convince ourselves the reasons are correct. But that
goes into a lying to yourself and some other fun topics, so I'll stop.
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| | Posted 11/5/2006 11:55 PM - 6 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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