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Assume there is a universal goal that is better sought than any known to human. The duty to this universal good would be more important than a person's duty to himself or his species or his planet. By what means should a human try to learn what this universal good is?

edit: just hashing things out here:

By the laws of nature one should take whatever action gives the highest chance to pass on one's genes. This leads to a direct ethical duty to one's species. So to take that one step further one has a duty to uphold the stability of the universe, right? But that's shortsighted too: it assumes that replicating one's genes actually is the ethically correct thing to do. So a search for transcendent ethics may start at a higher* level than life. It may involve duties beyond one's own universe.

But how can an entity have a duty beyond what that entity is able to influence? That's a red herring. Whatever my actual ethical duty it's best to understand that duty from the highest* possible perspective. Even if I have no higher duty than is in regard to those things I can influence, knowing what that duty is requires a higher* level of understanding.

*as in high level vs low level programming, where assembly is low level code and java is high level code

Assume there is a universal goal that is better sought than any known to human. The duty to this universal good would be more important than a person's duty to himself or his species or his planet. By what means should a human try to learn what this universal good is? edit: just hashing things out here: By the laws of nature one should take whatever action gives the highest chance to pass on one's genes. This leads to a direct ethical duty to one's species. So to take that one step further one has a duty to uphold the stability of the universe, right? But that's shortsighted too: it assumes that replicating one's genes actually is the ethically correct thing to do. So a search for transcendent ethics may start at a higher* level than life. It may involve duties beyond one's own universe. But how can an entity have a duty beyond what that entity is able to influence? That's a red herring. Whatever my actual ethical duty it's best to understand that duty from the highest* possible perspective. Even if I have no higher duty than is in regard to those things I can influence, knowing what that duty is requires a higher* level of understanding. *as in high level vs low level programming, where assembly is low level code and java is high level code

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[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

As a direct reply, yes. The priest is a stand in for Christ. So you can have a horrible priest who does all of the horrible things - and the sacraments are still valid. Christ does the work, not the priest.

However God is there fully all on his own.

Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice and listen to me."

Are you his sheep?

Countless people have died for the faith. Are they all fools or just maybe they see something that you can't. It's something ti think about.

As an addendum: I am being very direct and I know that can come through as rude, but subtlety doesn't work well. I will continue to pray for you, and I do wish you the best.