Conference quark::mennotes-v1

    
    To eat, drink and be merry!
    
    
    bonnie

    Enjoy life! Do the best you can for everybody!
    Be happy!
    Live!
    Love!
    Enjoy your work!
    Enjoy your peers!
    Be honest!
    Be the best you can!
    
    A noter mentioned he\she hasn't met any yet... It must be terrible to
    live in the stratosphere, away from all humanity!  Is it better "up
    there"? isn't it too COLD? Who, What, keeps you alive?
    
    Well, good-humor apart... that's the only place I thought it'be devoid
    of humanity, so far. (Hell exists, but I pressume it is presently full
    of people)

    For me, "duty" is mostly a negative idea: it's a compulsion to do
    things which very possibly are NOT in my self-interest. Duty causes me
    to spend time hand-holding my parents who make me crazy. Duty is my
    reason for putting on uniform and being shot by "the enemy." I neglect
    my health, my family, and my friends because my duty requires me to
    earn the filthy lucre which pays for orthodontry and college tuition
    and down-payments.
    
    - Hoyt

.1  -< I've never met one. >-

Suppose some day you should meet one...  How will you know that you have just
met a "Human Being"?

.2 & .4, To eat, drink and be merry!

By yourself or with other "Human Beings"?  Do you consider yourself a "Human
Being"?

.3
<Enjoy life! Do the best you can for everybody!>  Will doing the best you can
             for everybody cause you to enjoy life?

<Be happy!> If I go out and buy that "Don't Worry, Be Happy" song that should do
            it for a "Human Being"?

<Live!> Would it ever be the duty of a "Human Being" to die for another "Human
        Being?

<Love!> Who?

<Enjoy your work!> How?

<Enjoy your peers!> Do you mean other "Human Beings" if you should happen to be
                    one?

<Be honest!> To whom?

<Be the best you can!> Why not be the best of the best?

.5>    For me, "duty" is mostly a negative idea: it's a compulsion to do
.5>    things which very possibly are NOT in my self-interest. Duty causes me
.5>    to spend time hand-holding my parents who make me crazy. Duty is my
.5>    reason for putting on uniform and being shot by "the enemy." I neglect
.5>    my health, my family, and my friends because my duty requires me to
.5>    earn the filthy lucre which pays for orthodontry and college tuition
.5>    and down-payments.

If you are a parent do you feel it your duty to perform some type of 
hand-holding with your children even though they may sometimes drive you crazy?
When you "put on uniform and risk being shot by the enemy" are not the reasons
for doing so ultimately in your own self-interests?
If you neglect your health for reasons of straight teeth, college education, and
down-payments for luxury items, what will these things matter if you should die?

What if "duty" were not a negative idea to you?  Are the duties of a "Human 
Being" such that they must be in one's own self-interest?  Should they?

    Re -1:
    
    Are we?
    Supposed to get some?
    Utility out of endless?
    Lists of questions?
    I personally found the response?
    Totally valueless?
    
    - Hoyt

Re .7

No one said it was your "duty" to answer all fifty questions...  Why don't
you choose the ONE question for which you feel you have an answer?  I warn
you now that I may have some more questions about your answer even if I agree
with it.  In searching for answers I have found it useful to pose questions.

Please continue to participate in this topic.  Perhaps we will see some
"Evolution in action" as answers begin to flow from the discussion.

Regards, Don 

"In searching for answers I have found it useful to pose questions."
    
    Why?
    
    :-}
    
    

    NOVA::FISHER
    
    Guess I just wanted to see if anyone was working Christmas Eve...
    
    Since you did ask "Why?", I would be interested to know your answers to
    the base question as to "What are, if any, the duties of a Human
    Being?".  Is this so difficult a question?  The first reply to this
    string answered that the person had yet to meet one!  This actually
    said very much...  Have we been working with computers so long that we
    loose our Humanity?  Did we reach a peak in our evolution as Human
    Beings and are now starting to die?  Are Human Beings actually the
    "cancer" for other life forms on this planet?
    
    Regards and Happy Holidays to you...

    "Are human beings a cancer to other live forms on the Planet?" I think
    you have to take a God exists or God doesn't exist position when
    addressing this question.
    
    No God:  We are like any other lifeform, we live or die on our own
    merits.  It like any other impersonal form of Nature. The ocean doesn't
    care if you drown in it. It also doesn't care if you don't drown.
    Drowning depends on what happens. Period. Whether we live as a species
    or die depends on what we do and don't do. Its really quite immaterial
    whether we do live or die.  But whether we do or not WILL affect other
    life forms. 
    
    God: Now the question gets tough, morality and responsibility gets into
    the picture. Are we a cancer? That depends on Gods and our goals. We
    get our acts together clearly we can have a more positive effect on the
    Earth than negative.  If we don't care more for other live forms and
    get our environmental impact issues under control maybe God could
    decide that to be fair to other life forms we should be allowed to die
    out.
    
    Actually, as far as PHYSICAL existance is concerned, I see the answer as
    I related in the no God example, that is our physical live here on
    Earth continuing depends on what we do and don't do, not specifically
    on prayer etc. 
    
    Are we a cancer? It depends on what we do?
    
    Jeff
    

    Jeff,

    I need some further clarification...  Did not God spell out the duties of a 
    Human Being via the Ten Commandments?  In this day & age, how are these
    Commandments deficient?  Would God allow Human Beings to be cancer to other
    life forms on this planet?  Here I am thinking of depletion of the ozone
    layer as perhaps some Divine Intervention but in killing off the present
    form of humanity wouldn't this kill off other life forms as well?  

    <Are we a cancer? It depends on what we do?>  I agree...  So what are the
    duties of a Human Being with regard to this issue?

    Don

    Speaking for myself (no Christian rathole here, I hope), IMO the 2 great
    commandments given by Jesus Christ cover human "duties" (can't we come
    up with a better term?):
    
      Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
    
      Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
      heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
    
      This is the first and great commandment.
    
      And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
      thyself.
    
      On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
    
    	Matthew 22:36-40 (King James Version)
    
    To my mind, it's not so much that these commandments are duties for God's
    sake, or even for the sake of our fellow-beings, but that they are 
    precepts for personal happiness.
    
    aq
    

    I don't believe that the physical consequences to Planet Earth as a
    result of our life styles represent Devine Intervention.  I believe
    that THOSE aspects of reality can be explained purely by physical laws.
    
    What is Mans' responsibility regarding our being a cancer?  I believe
    that morally we should get back into a closer balance of resources
    used and pollution created. I believe that we should examine the 'big
    picture' of how our live styles affect other living things and change
    our lives styles to better balance things out where our lives styles
    are too self-serving.  I do have trouble defining this difference:
    
       Higher forms of life; birds, mammals, fish etc clearly deserve more
       respect and care from us.  But what about pathogenic bacteria? Do
       they have a much right to live as say a codfish?  They are both
       life forms, how does one determine the point where the line is
       crossed between inappropriate killing and appropriate killing?
    
    Perhaps we should dispense with antibiotics because they kill other
    life forms?  What is the difference between killing a cod to eat it
    and killing bacteria so that we can go on living?   Certainly we are
    changing the microbe world with our antibiotics much as we are changing
    the ratio of fish in the ocean.  Certainly from the bacteria's point
    of view or the fishes we are a 'cancer' because we represent a mortal
    enemy.  Does our INTENT define whether we are a cancer or does the
    EFFECT we have on other living creatures define it?
    
    We are like any other life form in that we are all struggling to
    survive by using all the tools at our means. Mankind is unique in her
    ability to VERY effectively use tools.
    
    Jeff
    
    
    

    "I was sitting up one night and I heard Momma talking to Poppa.
    I heard Poppa say, `You let that boy boogie-woogie.
    It's in him, and it's got to come out.'
    And I felt so good, went on boogying the same.
    Boogie, children."
    
      -- John Lee Hooker
    

    re: .6  <Be honest!> To whom?
    
    And this above all ... to thine own self be truthful.
    
    Mary

.13  Ann

     I don't think we need to worry about any "Christian rathole" while 
     attempting to gain some insight on the Duties of a Human Being.  I am
     glad you brought this up, however, it does raise some more questions...

     As I see it, the essence of .0 is to really ask "What is a Human Being?".
     Will discussion of the Duties of a Human Being help to define a Human?  I
     certainly hope so.  The first reply was something like "I have yet to meet
     one" so even though we may think of ourselves as Human there are some who
     have other definitions.

     In reading your reply and stating the two commandments, can I infer that
     part of your personal definition of Human Beings is that they be religious
     or spiritual?  As stated, I understand the second commandment to be the
     basis for the "Golden Rule" and would agree it should probably be listed
     as one of the Duties of a Human Being.  The first commandment is what I
     need some help with...  How has living your life by this first "duty"
     made you a better Human Being?

.14> I believe that morally we should get back into a closer balance of
.14> resources used and pollution created. I believe that we should examine
.14> the 'big picture' of how our live styles affect other living things and
.14> change our lives styles to better balance things out where our lives styles
.14> are too self-serving.

     WELL SAID!  To paraphrase, it is the duty of Human Beings to be cognizant
     of the balance of Nature and to live in such a way so as to uphold this
     balance.

.14> Does our INTENT define whether we are a cancer or does the EFFECT we have
.14> on other living creatures define it?

     As stated, I believe INTENT defines it.  If a person INTENDS to be a
     "cancer" then he/she wouldn't be a Human Being.  If we know the EFFECTs to
     be "cancerous" and still continue, then I see this as INTENT.
    
.14> We are like any other life form in that we are all struggling to
.14> survive by using all the tools at our means.  Mankind is unique in her
.14> ability to VERY effectively use tools.
    
     Jeff, here is where I strongly disagree with you...  We are not "using all
     the tools at our means" and Mankind doesn't effectively use the "tools" it
     has.  This in itself could be another topic for discussion...