There are many such unappealing laws in the Bible, and I ignore most of them. There are many such unappealing laws I receive weekly at the mass, and I try my best to think about it honestly and decide whether to change my behavior or not.
In both those cases, whether or not I feel that I should change is an important factor in my decision whether to change or not, because it is an important indicator of whether the law is actually something I should take into account.
The very purpose of the priest is to show how important it is that I change, so that I change where needed. In return, I try my best to change what I believe I should change, as it is the rational thing to do.
I care about morality in two separate manners : -discerning what is worth changing in my behavior. -changing my behavior.
When I don’t feel emotionally about something, I try to use reason to discern whether I should feel about it (which is what I did here), with the intent to feel about whatever I intend to change. Iff my behaviour is to be changed, I wish to believe that my behaviour is to be changed. I cannot change radically about my faith if I don’t feel strongly about atheism.
So your original question was whether or not it’s possible, on a gut level, to believe that a secular moral world is possible.
Now, you are focused on whether it’s possible for you, personally, to feel morally inspired outside the context of your church. That is a separate question, having to do with the quirks of your psychology. You might have just as much trouble feeling morally inspired by, say, Hindu moral beliefs in a Hindu religious context, as you have in feeing that way about a secular morality.
It is entirely possible that you would never feel the same way about reason-based morality as you do about your church’s moral architecture. That doesn’t say much about whether reason-based morality is true, even less about whether it’s possible, and still less about whether it’s possible for somebody else to feel inspired by reason-based morality. As an atheist who feels inspired by a reason-based morality, I can tell you the latter is possible for some people.
I think that I would have a hard time feeling inspired by a Christian approach to moral inspiration, but it wouldn’t be completely impossible. So I’d suggest starting with a prior that it’s likely difficult, but not impossible, for you to have a genuine affiliation for secular morality. You just don’t know how to get there. And bear in mind that even if you can’t, you might just be attached to a false belief. Plenty of people are—cf astrology and that boyfriend who you know really loves you even though he hits you sometimes.
There are many such unappealing laws in the Bible, and I ignore most of them.
There are many such unappealing laws I receive weekly at the mass, and I try my best to think about it honestly and decide whether to change my behavior or not.
In both those cases, whether or not I feel that I should change is an important factor in my decision whether to change or not, because it is an important indicator of whether the law is actually something I should take into account.
The very purpose of the priest is to show how important it is that I change, so that I change where needed. In return, I try my best to change what I believe I should change, as it is the rational thing to do.
I care about morality in two separate manners :
-discerning what is worth changing in my behavior.
-changing my behavior.
When I don’t feel emotionally about something, I try to use reason to discern whether I should feel about it (which is what I did here), with the intent to feel about whatever I intend to change.
Iff my behaviour is to be changed, I wish to believe that my behaviour is to be changed.
I cannot change radically about my faith if I don’t feel strongly about atheism.
So your original question was whether or not it’s possible, on a gut level, to believe that a secular moral world is possible.
Now, you are focused on whether it’s possible for you, personally, to feel morally inspired outside the context of your church. That is a separate question, having to do with the quirks of your psychology. You might have just as much trouble feeling morally inspired by, say, Hindu moral beliefs in a Hindu religious context, as you have in feeing that way about a secular morality.
It is entirely possible that you would never feel the same way about reason-based morality as you do about your church’s moral architecture. That doesn’t say much about whether reason-based morality is true, even less about whether it’s possible, and still less about whether it’s possible for somebody else to feel inspired by reason-based morality. As an atheist who feels inspired by a reason-based morality, I can tell you the latter is possible for some people.
I think that I would have a hard time feeling inspired by a Christian approach to moral inspiration, but it wouldn’t be completely impossible. So I’d suggest starting with a prior that it’s likely difficult, but not impossible, for you to have a genuine affiliation for secular morality. You just don’t know how to get there. And bear in mind that even if you can’t, you might just be attached to a false belief. Plenty of people are—cf astrology and that boyfriend who you know really loves you even though he hits you sometimes.