Religion is Everything

[Socionics Is A Cult]

So, like, it's all about you.

My Dad used to say, "Do you think you live in a vacuum?" Because we kids of course thought life was all about us; the world revolved around us. Think of a world where everyone thinks this way. Pretty horrible. It is the unselfish people that make our world tolerable. In Hell none of those unselfish people will be there. No one to trash. Every single being there will be all about self and getting from/at others. Everyone trying to have power over and do violence to everyone else. All alike. All the time. For eternity. People will choose that for their eternity, having learned to hate goodness in life. Going down that path and choosing never to examine it and never leave it. To the point of desiring only that path and not wanting to choose another in the end when given that choice.

Christianity is a slave cult devoted to a selfish being who is capable of preventing suffering but chooses not to.

[ashlesha]

Christianity is a slave cult devoted to a selfish being who is capable of preventing suffering but chooses not to.

I can't imagine where I'd be without the shit suffering has taught me. Obviously l don't wanna trivialize it, like the holocaust was bad, lol, but haven't you ever fucked up and learned some shit? I know I'm not gonna bring you to Jesus, lol, but have a little nuance ffs.

[Socionics Is A Cult]

I can't imagine where I'd be without the shit suffering has taught me. Obviously l don't wanna trivialize it, like the holocaust was bad, lol, but haven't you ever fucked up and learned some shit? I know I'm not gonna bring you to Jesus, lol, but have a little nuance ffs.

Suffering is Good, Actually

If you think suffering is good, then to me, it is difficult to see how you could consider anything bad.

I don't think I could ever trust a person who thinks that suffering is good and who not only does not have their own self-preservation at heart but does not have the self-preservation of others at heart either.

I'd prefer to learn without suffering, personally.

[ashlesha]

If you think suffering is good, then to me, it is difficult to see how you could consider anything bad.

I don't think I could ever trust a person who thinks that suffering is good and who not only does not have their own self-preservation at heart but does not have the self-preservation of others at heart either.

I'd prefer to learn without suffering, personally.

Seeing the good reasons for the suffering you have endured and not having self-preservation at heart are incompatible. If you encountered suffering because of low self-preservation repeatedly, you obviously hadn't been learning anything, therefore there was no growth, and little to appreciate.

[Socionics Is A Cult]

Seeing the good reasons for the suffering you have endured and not having self-preservation at heart are incompatible. If you encountered suffering because of low self-preservation repeatedly, you obviously hadn't been learning anything, therefore there was no growth, and little to appreciate.

In my view, if suffering, pain etc. has a purpose, it is to encourage you to take steps to prevent the things causing the suffering/pain. The suffering itself is not good - it is only because there are other things that are sometimes worse that it has utility. Hence why I say "Christianity is a slave cult devoted to a selfish being who is capable of preventing suffering but chooses not to."

[Eliza Thomason]

...I'd prefer to learn without suffering, personally.

Omigosh, me, too! I have low pain tolerance. I'm good at thinking ahead in order to avoid any possible suffering for myself. [my SLE son has a much higher pain and suffering tolerance.] But it is impossible to live in this life without suffering, and it is GREAT to know that there is meaning in suffering as well as goo0d fruit from it, that it can be a great efficacious good. God makes all things work together for the good, including suffering. No one teaches the good of suffering as well as the Catholic Church.

Once, I went to a Catholic event in our city and us regular folks were sitting at tables just enjoying each others company (between speakers or something), when a guy came around with little pamphlets and asked us fellow Catholics, smiling engagingly, "Who would like to be a Victim Soul?" He got no response except averted eyes, which did not discourage him, so I said, "I don't want to be Victim Soul because I don't like suffering. I avoid it." Nods all around. But he talked reasonable, and I took the pamphlet. Apparently we don't have to scourge ourselves or wear hair shirts, but just offer the suffering we have in our everyday life, since we all have suffering. I endeavor to do this, though I am not consistent by any means.

If you think suffering is good, then to me, it is difficult to see how you could consider anything bad. I don't think I could ever trust a person who thinks that suffering is good and who not only does not have their own self-preservation at heart but does not have the self-preservation of others at heart either.

Understandable because to think suffering is good is liken to enjoying it or something, and who would trust such a person? But we imitate Christs whose sufferings were efficacious for the whole world. We make up for what is lacking in Christs sufferings. What is lacking? Our own suffering. We unite our own to His for specific purposes, or we let God choose (like in prayer below). Sometimes we offer for a specific purpose. Lent started yesterday so what an appropriate topic.

Daily Morning Prayer of Offering: "Lord Jesus, I offer you, through the Immaculate heart of Mary, my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart."

[Socionics Is A Cult]

Omigosh, me, too! I have low pain tolerance. I'm good at thinking ahead in order to avoid any possible suffering for myself. [my SLE son has a much higher pain and suffering tolerance.] But it is impossible to live in this life without suffering, [...]

That's a defeatist attitude.

, and it is GREAT to know that there is meaning in suffering as well as goo0d fruit from it, that it can be a great efficacious good. God makes all things work together for the good, including suffering. No one teaches the good of suffering as well as the Catholic Church.

There is no higher meaning in suffering, that is purely a human view of things. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu told children that "Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus - a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.", and increased the suffering of children who were supposed to be in her care - one child replied to her "Then please tell him to stop kissing me." Sadly, this is where seeing suffering as having absolute value gets you. Anjezë herself did everything she could to escape suffering when she was the one who was facing it.

Once, I went to a Catholic event in our city and us regular folks were sitting at tables just enjoying each others company (between speakers or something), when a guy came around with little pamphlets and asked us fellow Catholics, smiling engagingly, "Who would like to be a Victim Soul?" He got no response except averted eyes, which did not discourage him, so I said, "I don't want to be Victim Soul because I don't like suffering. I avoid it." Nods all around. But he talked reasonable, and I took the pamphlet. Apparently we don't have to scourge ourselves or wear hair shirts, but just offer the suffering we have in our everyday life, since we all have suffering. I endeavor to do this, though I am not consistent by any means.


Understandable because to think suffering is good is liken to enjoying it or something, and who would trust such a person? But we imitate Christs whose sufferings were efficacious for the whole world. We make up for what is lacking in Christs sufferings. What is lacking? Our own suffering. We unite our own to His for specific purposes, or we let God choose (like in prayer below). Sometimes we offer for a specific purpose. Lent started yesterday so what an appropriate topic.

With a person who does not care about their own suffering you have no reason to know that they care about the suffering of others and of minimizing suffering. I would say that a person who knows they are capable of preventing suffering but chooses not to can only be a "bad" person by my standard. Jesus and the Christian God are two such beings.

Daily Morning Prayer of Offering: "Lord Jesus, I offer you, through the Immaculate heart of Mary, my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart."

Christian doctrine of the New Testament says there is only one intercessor - Jesus, not Mary. What's more, there's no evidence in the New Testament that Mary was resurrected and went straight to Heaven or that she was especially valued by Jesus. In fact, Mary is one of the people Jesus rebukes in the New Testament.

[Eliza Thomason]

@Subteigh, you are an odd one - a Protestant Apologist AND an atheist. As to the former, my research and experience is far more extensive than yours. I have an entire library, and that is been culled down to half!

Martin Luther was plagued with scrupulosity, and that sickness was the foundation upon which he formed his beliefs. Theology based on a grave psychological disorder is naturally malformed.

As to the latter, Atheism is your cherished identify and I can't relief you of that malady. Only God can. For that, I pledge to pray and offer sufferings this Lent.

[Socionics Is A Cult]

@Subteigh, you are an odd one - a Protestant Apologist AND an atheist. As to the former, my research and experience is far more extensive than yours. I have an entire library, and that is been culled down to half!

Martin Luther was plagued with scrupulosity, and that sickness was the foundation upon which he formed his beliefs. Theology based on a grave psychological disorder is naturally malformed.

As to the latter, Atheism is your cherished identify and I can't relief you of that malady. Only God can. For that, I pledge to pray and offer sufferings this Lent.

In Northern Ireland, there's a joke about how atheists get asked if they're a Protestant atheist or a Catholic one.

I'm only telling you what it says in the New Testament. If Catholicism has added things to that, that is their choice.

I'm not convinced that your research and experience is far more extensive than mine, or even that it is more extensive than mine. I have found you to be ignorant even of Catholic practices.

Do you think Martin Luther was wrong to campaign against the selling of indulgences by the papacy then? I asked you before which of Luther's Ninety-five Theses you agree with, but you didn't get back to me on that.

I don't call myself an "atheist". You might find that an useful label, I do not. I lack a belief in the existence of a lot of things - I see no wisdom to define myself in terms of what I don't believe in. I also do not want to give the Catholic god the illusion of respectability, more than say the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the invisible dragon in my garage, or the teapot orbiting around the Sun between the Earth and Mars. There is absolutely nothing that could convince me that a supernatural being exists - things either exist as part of Nature or they cannot be observed.