What is your personal "world outlook"?

Karma indeed... what goes around comes around and all that. Does a world view necessarily imply a metaphysical element I wonder? I suppose it doesn't for the Dawkins atheists, but perhaps that is because they haven't thought about it enough or in the right way. They are a rattlesnake bunch though - one does not want to irritate them. As for excess leading to wisdom, I expect I would agree if I spoke to you after I had consumed a few glasses of chamapgne faollowed by a number of congacs. You might change your mind after listening to me though.

I don't get karma. Why should everyone get what's coming to them? Is it because they raise the overall amount of goodness in the world by doing good deeds and thus stand to benefit? Or is it just wishful thinking? I believed as a child that if I did a little bit extra it would divinely work out better for me.

How's this for metaphysics: if there were no God, would there be any great call for believing in a universe of order? I suspect it is a hangover from the religious scientific days, trying to find the order of the universe in order to understand His creation better and all that. The ancients didn't believe in any greater order than the petulant whims of their gods.

The Lord looks after those who look after themselves.

When you live in a village what goes around does come around. Usually in the school jumble sale.

Squire wrote:

The Lord looks after those who look after themselves.

What about prayer? What about when you aren't sure what it means to look after yourself? What you think is good for you may not always be what is truly good for you so you might have to end up asking for guidance.

And that's a world outlook, isn't it - whether you make your own destiny and reality or not - whether part of that story you are in is God's Will or whether that reality is the will of others or whether it is simply the Will of mother nature and the momentum of history.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Squire wrote:

The Lord looks after those who look after themselves.

What about prayer? What about when you aren't sure what it means to look after yourself? What you think is good for you may not always be what is truly good for you so you might have to end up asking for guidance.

And that's a world outlook, isn't it - whether you make your own destiny and reality or not - whether part of that story you are in is God's Will or whether that reality is the will of others or whether it is simply the Will of mother nature and the momentum of history.

Prayer!? What about it? If I can't make up my own mind on what is best for me I am reasonably sure that it is unlikely that others will be able to do better. I frequently get guidance on matters I do not know enough about, but in the final analysis it is up to me to heed or ignore.

Look around the world or consider virtually any period of time, the meek don't inherit the earth and the assumption that you had better take care to look after yourself holds true. The momentum of history can be a cruel beast.

Austere upbringing.

Squire wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Squire wrote:

The Lord looks after those who look after themselves.

What about prayer? What about when you aren't sure what it means to look after yourself? What you think is good for you may not always be what is truly good for you so you might have to end up asking for guidance.

And that's a world outlook, isn't it - whether you make your own destiny and reality or not - whether part of that story you are in is God's Will or whether that reality is the will of others or whether it is simply the Will of mother nature and the momentum of history.

Prayer!? What about it? If I can't make up my own mind on what is best for me I am reasonably sure that it is unlikely that others will be able to do better. I frequently get guidance on matters I do not know enough about, but in the final analysis it is up to me to heed or ignore.

Look around the world or consider virtually any period of time, the meek don't inherit the earth and the assumption that you had better take care to look after yourself holds true. The momentum of history can be a cruel beast.

Austere upbringing.

Nature red in tooth and claw?

cactus flower wrote:

Nature red in tooth and claw?

That is a fair description; survival of the fittest. ( Well perhaps fittest is a misleading word self centred may be more appropriate)

Squire wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Nature red in tooth and claw?

That is a fair description; survival of the fittest. ( Well perhaps fittest is a misleading word self centred may be more appropriate)

My mother who grew up surrounded by ancient aunts used to say that only the very, very selfish get really, really old.

Squire wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Nature red in tooth and claw?

That is a fair description; survival of the fittest. ( Well perhaps fittest is a misleading word self centred may be more appropriate)

Depends on what you mean by 'self-centred', doesn't it, says she taking any opportunity to quote Hamlet "above all else to thine own self be true and thus it follows, as night must follow day, thou canst not be false to any man."

Even if Polonius was a twit, I think that's as close as I can come to finding a philosophy. I believe we are firmly in control of our own destiny and are solely responsible for the lives we lead. We are obliged to love everyone but can only do so when we are truly 'self-centred' and I believe that the Universe does conspire to meet our needs once we voice those needs to ourselves. What is for us will eventually come to us. And I am an optimist "All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things shall be well," as Hildegard von Bingen famously said.

You are not only an optimist but also a romantic.

I wouldn't agree with that. Being a romantic implies a lack of practicality, an irrational idealism.

There is nothing in life that doesn't work out. Even at times when the world seems to be falling apart, things work out. There is an abundant universe out there and we can chose to work with it or against it, but we have to have a centred self to do so well.

Couldn't you find that being true to yourself might sometimes be impractical and might conflict with others and with your needs at the moment and other troublesome realities?

And then there's compromise ..

Compromise isn't excluded, but it's more impractical and creates more conflict to act out of something that isn't your own. #

The better you know yourself, the better the decisions you make for yourself and others. I have to live in my own head 24/7.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Couldn't you find that being true to yourself might sometimes be impractical and might conflict with others and with your needs at the moment and other troublesome realities?

And then there's compromise ..

Well not to take a too overtly Christian look on this self-centred viewpoint, but didn't jesus say:

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

riadach wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Couldn't you find that being true to yourself might sometimes be impractical and might conflict with others and with your needs at the moment and other troublesome realities?

And then there's compromise ..

Well not to take a too overtly Christian look on this self-centred viewpoint, but didn't jesus say:

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

That can't be bettered. It's a great starting point for society to flourish and develop real sustainable values which guide us in all we do.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

riadach wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Couldn't you find that being true to yourself might sometimes be impractical and might conflict with others and with your needs at the moment and other troublesome realities?

And then there's compromise ..

Well not to take a too overtly Christian look on this self-centred viewpoint, but didn't jesus say:

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

That can't be bettered. It's a great starting point for society to flourish and develop real sustainable values which guide us in all we do.

Can't it? The sentence before said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.

johnfás wrote:

Can't it? The sentence before said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.

Well. I was saying that in the context of it being a "personal outlook". The greatest commandment is much more of an edict, an actual command. It isn't, strictly, a nucleus of a personal outlook. I'd argue that the greatest commandment is the nucleus of a personal inlook, it is the guiding principle for how we are meant to think and conduct ourselves within. Loving your neighbour is the guiding principle for that which is without and related to your fellow man or woman.

johnfás wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

riadach wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Couldn't you find that being true to yourself might sometimes be impractical and might conflict with others and with your needs at the moment and other troublesome realities?

And then there's compromise ..

Well not to take a too overtly Christian look on this self-centred viewpoint, but didn't jesus say:

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

That can't be bettered. It's a great starting point for society to flourish and develop real sustainable values which guide us in all we do.

Can't it? The sentence before said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.

No, I disagree. I'd say regardless of your philosophy, that the second commandment is instantly recogniseable as a worthwhile one. The first lacks that universality. Plus, one could argue that in doing the second, one does the first.

I'm only winding you up with the semantics of the text

johnfás wrote:

I'm only winding you up with the semantics of the text

Whateva. In any case, we Catholics pwn you on interpreting God's wishes and pecadilloes!

Kate P wrote:

I wouldn't agree with that. Being a romantic implies a lack of practicality, an irrational idealism.

There is nothing in life that doesn't work out. Even at times when the world seems to be falling apart, things work out. There is an abundant universe out there and we can chose to work with it or against it, but we have to have a centred self to do so well.

Sorry I was mixing up your post and that of Cactus flower. It is cactus flower that quotes Hamlet and treads the path of dogs deceased, you don't. Teach me to read more carefully and not hop back and forth from reading some business tedium. Forward cash flow projections for the year 2014, hard to take serious but wallow through it I must.)

I would disagree life plainly does not always work out.

Squire wrote:

I would disagree life plainly does not always work out.

But it does in the vast majority of cases.

riadach wrote:

No, I disagree. I'd say regardless of your philosophy, that the second commandment is instantly recogniseable as a worthwhile one. The first lacks that universality. Plus, one could argue that in doing the second, one does the first.

Did Kant in the 18th century come to that conclusion too through a process of reasoning?

Squire wrote:

Kate P wrote:

I wouldn't agree with that. Being a romantic implies a lack of practicality, an irrational idealism.

There is nothing in life that doesn't work out. Even at times when the world seems to be falling apart, things work out. There is an abundant universe out there and we can chose to work with it or against it, but we have to have a centred self to do so well.

I would disagree life plainly does not always work out.

Could it be that your outlook can have an influence on whether something is working out or not? "Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so".

cactus flower wrote:

Squire wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Nature red in tooth and claw?

That is a fair description; survival of the fittest. ( Well perhaps fittest is a misleading word self centred may be more appropriate)

My mother who grew up surrounded by ancient aunts used to say that only the very, very selfish get really, really old.

Against which I would set my great-aunt, who lived to just short of 104, and didn't have a selfish bone in her body. Spent the last twenty but four years of her life looking after my grandmother.