A vocation in a vocation

Quote: FrGamble

Conscience is a gift from God

Conscience is the result of a breakdown in the bicameral mind as the corpus callosum mediates cross talk between the hemispheres.

I view this as being able to enjoy the "Fall Coloring". Those who know that those colors were always there and are now simply being revealed are actually seeing the same beauty as those who think that the leaves are actually creating some new coloring. Causation is not the paramount issue, it is enjoyment of the beauty of nature.

So driven by a love of God or by a love of Dogs really does not make much of a difference; its the courage to take the steps necessary to make the desired transition.

A soldier charging into machine gun fire can zig or zag; the choice is his but he must act fast and will receive immediate feedback if he makes the wrong decision.. Someone contemplating a change in vocational emphasis has the luxury to dwell on the matter and consider the various options.

Quote: FrGamble

You also seem to think that everyone who suffered in the Holocaust lost their faith.

I don't think that at all and never said
it. Many did lose their faith, if they
were lucky enough to survive. That's
a matter of record. Some have written
books about their experience.

Quote: Fleastiff

Someone contemplating a change in vocational emphasis has the luxury to dwell on the matter and consider the various options.

Indeed. Luxury is the perfect word for it..

Quote: Evenbob

I don't think that at all and never said
it. Many did lose their faith, if they
were lucky enough to survive. That's
a matter of record. Some have written
books about their experience.

I'm glad you don't think that because it would be far from the truth. Many found faith or didn't lose it. That's a matter of record. Some have written books about their experience.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Not just the reprehensible Nazis, but those who stood by and let it happen, or didn't question where all their neighbors were going when rounded up, or refused to see the humanity in those who were victimized.

My mother was born in Germany in 1933. She has spoken of this. Whenever the common person, who was too old or too young to join the war effort, spoke of such things they were quickly admonished to shut up. I remember my mother telling the story of someone just passing along what at the time were rumors of the concentration camps and was told, "Keep your voice down or you'll end up in the ovens too."

I'm not saying it is a good excuse but it is my understanding there was a witch hunt type of mentality where you were rewarded if you ratted out your neighbor if he wasn't part of the team and were rewarded if you were openly part of it. I think those like Oscar Schindler were the most effective at quietly fighting the regime by working within its rules and yet with a secret agenda to save innocent lives and shorten the war.

Quote: FrGamble

Many found faith or didn't lose it. .

Proves my point that faith is
a big fat nothing. It comes and
it goes, like every other fickle
human emotion..

Are human emotions a big fat nothing?

Quote: FrGamble

Are human emotions a big fat nothing?

Pretty much. You don't base anything important
on them, do you? Your job, your profession, your
mortgage, even a marriage based on emotion
is usually a very poor choice and ends in divorce.

You don't go to college based on emotion, or buy
a new car, or sell your house and move to a new one.
That's because emotions are fickle and undependable.
In fact we avoid emotional people. Like those who
are always angry, or sorry for themselves and cry a
lot. Emotions mean instability and who needs that.

Quote: Wizard

I'm not saying it is a good excuse but it is my understanding there was a witch hunt type of mentality where you were rewarded if you ratted out your neighbor if he wasn't part of the team.

Of course. All sports organizations were rolled into the Hitler Youth, all school teachers who wished to keep their jobs had to become party members. When buses (and later trains) kept arriving at an orphanage and later the chimneys issued smoke, the entire town knew what was happening. How could they not know? They knew the orphanage only had a certain capacity but they also knew what would happen to them if they opened their mouth even to their best friend about three smokestacks going full blast in summertime.

Don't think the military was exempt from such things., One man was invited by his friend in the SS to attend an event involving the rounding up and immediate processing of a small number of Jews. All those Wafen SS men with submachine guns... that army officer knew what would happen to him right there on the spot if he failed to express admiration and gratitude or failed to do so in a sincere manner.

Quote: Evenbob

Pretty much. You don't base anything important
on them, do you? Your job, your profession, your
mortgage, even a marriage based on emotion
is usually a very poor choice and ends in divorce.

I'm glad you don't base important decisions on emotions. However, after you make these important decisions based on your best reasoning don't you think emotions are important then? Do you ignore feelings of unhappiness or could they be signs or help to think some more about something? Likewise feelings of happiness and contentment are good signs. Yes, these emotions change but they mean something and are important, certainly not a big fat nothing.