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Morality- Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times - August 18th

By Jonathan Sacks

Thursday August 18th, 2022

Can We Reason Together - Part III

Chapter 18– Meaning


Welcome everyone to the United Methodist Men’s Book Study –


How did we do with last meeting’s challenge:

As a Christian, understanding that God breathed life in to us, God’s creation, how do we choose to

confer dignity on our selves and others we encounter?

Recap from – BEING HUMAN - Human Dignity


What is Unique about Humanity?

How does being HUMAN set us apart from anything else?


What does Self Consciousness mean?


How does Self Consciousness build and require dignity?

How does our existence as a moral agent set us apart from other creations, and how does this

challenge us?

Chapter 18 - Meaning

How do you measure your ‘meaning’?

Do you feel that your life has meaning?


Do you sometimes struggle to find motivation?

Philosophers have traditionally identified the search for a meaningful life with service of a moral

cause, a community, a country or God.


We as a society now find ourselves with our a moral philosophy. We find ourselves searching for

meaning in “I”.


Today, is the ‘Meaning of our life’ like a balance scale weighting the Good vs the Bad?

The Righteous vs the Evil?

What happens if we tip to the wrong side of the scale?


Devotion to Happiness

If we are devoted only to our own happiness, you fail to realize that things other than yourself have

value.


When everything is available, every lifestyle is offered, when all you have is freedom, but nothing to

guide you in that freedom, It’s not so much that you lose the thread of the meaning of your life, but

you have trouble staying focussed on the questions.


Did We Kill God?

Do we, when we cannot even understand the sacred relationship between ourselves and our creator

and all that was created, discount that creation to the point of killing that creator in our mind?


Do we hear the music of God’s creation, or do we hear silence in your mind?


Fate - The core beliefs of Pagan cultures

Faith - The core belief of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Fiction - The core belief of Post-Modern cultures

When we are challenged in the face of death, pride, fear, embarrassment and failure fall away, leaving

us with only what it truly important. - Steve Jobs

Looking back we can connect the dots to see how we got to where we are, but we can’t look forward

into the future. You have to trust in something that moving forward your life still matters.


Life is a story.

What does your story tell about how you responded to other people and the suffering in

the world today.

Great lives respond to the reality of other people


Challenge:

How do we help the people around us?

Listen to their story.

Share your story,

Stretch out your hand to those in need, and turn strangers into fri

Next Week – Part 4, Chapter 19 Why Morality?

Blessings.

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