On Morality as a Path

I recently had an interesting conversation with my roommate about whether or not morality was an emotion or a path or based on reason or some other type of thing all together.  This got us along on a conversation about why God sent down rules in the beginning but eventually deemed them as different no longer relevant to our society and repealed them in a vision to his prophets.  This whole debate began on the discussion of whether or not homosexuality is a sin.

Now I am not going to talk go into great detail about my personal beliefs when it comes to the morality of homosexuality but I will say that personally I do not think that it is a sin and I believe whole heartedly that God loves and accepts all of his creations.

Now on to morality, I think that the reason the morality and rules that God sent down has changed because man has changed.  In the beginning man was far below God and they could not understand how great God was, stuck in the wilderness as they were.  The best way I can look at it is through an analogy of a ladder.  Imagine you are standing on the ground gazing up at a twenty foot ladder leading to God.  Now this is no ordinary ladder however, no it only has one step, the highest one.  Is there any way that you can possibly hope to climb there with no help in between?  I personally wouldn't have any hope of jumping that high and reaching God.  That's why God came down to the level of man, to give him the ladder rungs to step on.  God always rests slightly above humanity, slowly drawing them up, giving them rungs to stand on.

I recently learned that my grandfather had a very similar analogy and this may help clear up anything my analogy failed to explain.  My grandfather preached that God was like a fisherman, luring humanity up with his bait; slowly lifting man out of the depths and up towards the top, towards him.

This brings up the question why God even felt the need to lead people instead of allowing them to choose for themselves when man has free will.  I feel that God originally needed to set man on the right path and then allow him to choose for himself what was moral and what was immoral.  Imagine that you are standing in the middle of a circle.  One side of the circle is perfect morality and on the opposite side is immorality.  You have no idea where these points are so how will you know which direction to go?  You won't unless you have a guiding light, and that is what God originally sent down.  God gave man a very narrow path to walk in order to encourage them to walk in the direction of morality.  Sense then He (or She) has widened the path in order to allow humans to decide on their own what they view as moral and immoral because in my opinion morality is always a case by case thing and is not actually an absolute.

God hasn't left man completely in the dark however, we still have the teachings of Jesus and an inborn instinct as to what is moral based on how our society has progressed.  The teachings of God and Jesus basically boil down to love your God and your fellow men.  God is still leading us down the path to righteousness but it is our decision whether or not to follow.

On Christology

For anyone who does not know, Christology is one's belief on how holy Jesus Christ is.  Many Christians think that Jesus is as holy as God while some others don't.  It's a whole spectrum thing.

The problem I've always had with traditional Christian teachings is when they say that Jesus is God's son and because of this he is holy while simultaneously preaching that we are all God's children and are created in his image.  If we should worship Jesus because he is God's son shouldn't we worship each other as well.  I don't think that God came down and actually impregnated Mary so what really makes Jesus holier than any of us?

As anyone who has read my prior posts already knows, I believe in a system of reincarnation in which souls struggle through many lives in order to achieve a oneness with the world or a complete knowledge.  I also believe that as souls age and continue to learn their hosts can begin feeling their presence on a subconscious level.  After souls reach this enlightened stage they no longer have a need to return to this world but occasionally one might have a desire to return or feel that the world needs them at a certain time. That is what I believe happened with many of the prophets in the Bible.  Each one had an abnormal connection to God, some could hear him calling their name by night, some encountered an incarnation and some had dreams.  Still others lived the majority of their lives devoted to teaching the ways of God through many different methods.  Jesus is different from these prophets however in that he does not get messages from God but instead already knows what he needs to say.  He seems to be one step closer to full enlightenment than the other prophets were.  For this reason I believe that Jesus was a soul that had already reached enlightenment before he came down again.

Now just because a soul has experienced more lives or is more educated/wise does not make that soul any holier than any other soul.  I think every soul is holy in its own right.  I think that Jesus was a soul that had an incredibly abnormal connection to God and the world beyond our own and understood things most people can't even imagine.  This doesn't make him holier than any of us because we are all God's children.  This doesn't belittle any of his teachings however.  His teachings are still holy and should still be heeded.  So I guess my Christology is that I believe Jesus is holy but I also believe that we all are as well.