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Feb. 28th, 2005 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sereneWhat I wrote in response to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pure_agnostic's post about the Golden Rule and personal agnosticism:
I have always thought the Golden Rule as written was just so much bullshit. And "do no harm" is nearly as useless, to me, for much the same reasons you state above -- how do I know for certain what will harm another? So my Golden Rule, as it were, is to live as ethical and harmless a life as I can manage, using my sense of reason and proportion as best I can -- after all, I have people's word for it that they *do* like to be treated with respect and compassion, and lots of datapoints as to what those things mean to different people, so while I can't read their minds, I can use my own mind to make reasonable guesses as to appropriate behavior. And when I fuck up, I admit it, attempt to make amends, and go about my life as best I can from there.
pure_agnostic's post about the Golden Rule and personal agnosticism:I have always thought the Golden Rule as written was just so much bullshit. And "do no harm" is nearly as useless, to me, for much the same reasons you state above -- how do I know for certain what will harm another? So my Golden Rule, as it were, is to live as ethical and harmless a life as I can manage, using my sense of reason and proportion as best I can -- after all, I have people's word for it that they *do* like to be treated with respect and compassion, and lots of datapoints as to what those things mean to different people, so while I can't read their minds, I can use my own mind to make reasonable guesses as to appropriate behavior. And when I fuck up, I admit it, attempt to make amends, and go about my life as best I can from there.