This is a very thoughtful article, and you make some good points e.g. how can God be moral when the act of childbirth is traumatizing — we're plucked from peaceful nonexistence into a harsh world.
The problem lies in understanding God. It's impossible for us to fully understand God, so we try to humanize it using manmade concepts such as "morality".
The prevailing belief is that God put pain and suffering into the world to test our faith. But that is just as much an opinion as "God is wrathful" or "God is all-loving". We can only discuss beliefs, not facts, which makes the conversation difficult.
Yes, you are right. We hopelessly try to understand things that are beyond us. We can philosophise all we want, but in the end, philosophy is doomed to fail.
"Isn’t it cruel to dangle in front of an innocent life joys and wonders that will never come to pass?"
I've always thought, one of the worst parts of this world, is that we have such vivid imaginations and creativity to imagine better ones. The ones we create in our fiction and media are so much more beautiful than our own.
I have heard Christians argue that suffering may not be such a bad thing, because we read stories that involve characters going through suffering, and enjoy those stories. But the ways the characters die and suffer in these stories are way more beautiful than the ways we die and suffer.
I watch characters embodying archetypes rise up, and colorfully fight against black evil. They die beautifully against it, or succeed destroying it, and get rewarded with peace and prosperity.
Meanwhile we die of "complications" in hospitals, hooked up to tubes and paying thousands of dollars. And we can't even fight against the big evil people, because they are embedded in our systems. :/
We just seem to be better world creators than God lmao.
Insightful comment. And well written. Life is indeed not as colorful or meaningful as the stories we make up to distract us from them meaninglessness of existence
Most, if not all your articles are deep. I shared the 'Birth Bump' with you, which helped me immensely, but have also read countless articles about the 'Birth Contract', which I have since revoked to set my course the way I want. I'm still working on that, haha.
I don't know how people worship a 'god' who kills whole cities, as in the Old Testament, including children, and today, many of the so-called big religious organizations are involved in pedophilia rings, human and organ trafficking. Not to mention governments and military poisoning our skies, water, good, etc., causing fatal illnesses for all. On top of that, there is no healthcare, unless one goes to a Holistic Practitioner, but only deathcare--it's all about the money, baby.
Thank you for the insightful comment. I too wonder how such caricatures of gods are deemed worthy of worshiping. It divulges our own human vulnerabilities
I am Christian and I always despised old testament even as a kid. New testament is a totally different idea but then if you read stoic philosophers from the same period this all seems very familiar...
Yes, the Old Testament is atrocious. Even in the New Testament there is a tonal and moral misalignment between the words of Christ and the words of the apostles.
I consider myself an unconditional loving BEing and don't associate with any religious title. However, I received various vague answers when questioning the difference of the old testament where wars ran rampant and people had to find favor of the god, whereas the NT is completely different. Not without it flaws, but I will never turn my cheek again.
I kinda was raised Catholic, but was too young to understand much of it, let alone First Communion all dressed in white. I visited some other religions, but in the end, I seek the truth and I don't need to have someone program into my mind what that is.
Something I notice consistently in the article is treating an unborn person as if they had some sort of existence. But when I think about it, I didn't exist at all. So being brought into existence can't be a crime against me, because there was no me.
What am I missing? The only thing I can imagine is if my existence is sum-negative, in which case I would have preferred never to have been born. I can't imagine that for myself, but I'm sure there are people like that. Is your argument only relevant for those people?
"you essentially pull a life from the bliss of nonexistence and then thrust it into a reality that is hostile"
"One may argue that bringing a child into this world is in fact an act of aggression, a violation of the non-aggression principle."
bliss of nonexistence makes no sense. It's just as sensible as the horror of nonexistence. nonexistence can't be qualified.
I don't see how one can violate the non-aggression principle against a being that doesn't exist. My only understanding is if the existence of the being itself is net-negative.
If one prefers to be alive then to die, how can one be resentful against his/her creators? I don't understand.
I wrote further about the self-preservation instinct. Yes, you prefer not to die now that you’re alive. But would you like to be reborn after you’re dead as something completely new? Most people would answer no. How I know? Because we all believe what suits us. Most people don’t want to believe in afterlife or reincarnation, which is why lost people aren’t particularly religious
This is a very thoughtful article, and you make some good points e.g. how can God be moral when the act of childbirth is traumatizing — we're plucked from peaceful nonexistence into a harsh world.
The problem lies in understanding God. It's impossible for us to fully understand God, so we try to humanize it using manmade concepts such as "morality".
The prevailing belief is that God put pain and suffering into the world to test our faith. But that is just as much an opinion as "God is wrathful" or "God is all-loving". We can only discuss beliefs, not facts, which makes the conversation difficult.
Yes, you are right. We hopelessly try to understand things that are beyond us. We can philosophise all we want, but in the end, philosophy is doomed to fail.
"Isn’t it cruel to dangle in front of an innocent life joys and wonders that will never come to pass?"
I've always thought, one of the worst parts of this world, is that we have such vivid imaginations and creativity to imagine better ones. The ones we create in our fiction and media are so much more beautiful than our own.
I have heard Christians argue that suffering may not be such a bad thing, because we read stories that involve characters going through suffering, and enjoy those stories. But the ways the characters die and suffer in these stories are way more beautiful than the ways we die and suffer.
I watch characters embodying archetypes rise up, and colorfully fight against black evil. They die beautifully against it, or succeed destroying it, and get rewarded with peace and prosperity.
Meanwhile we die of "complications" in hospitals, hooked up to tubes and paying thousands of dollars. And we can't even fight against the big evil people, because they are embedded in our systems. :/
We just seem to be better world creators than God lmao.
Insightful comment. And well written. Life is indeed not as colorful or meaningful as the stories we make up to distract us from them meaninglessness of existence
Most, if not all your articles are deep. I shared the 'Birth Bump' with you, which helped me immensely, but have also read countless articles about the 'Birth Contract', which I have since revoked to set my course the way I want. I'm still working on that, haha.
I don't know how people worship a 'god' who kills whole cities, as in the Old Testament, including children, and today, many of the so-called big religious organizations are involved in pedophilia rings, human and organ trafficking. Not to mention governments and military poisoning our skies, water, good, etc., causing fatal illnesses for all. On top of that, there is no healthcare, unless one goes to a Holistic Practitioner, but only deathcare--it's all about the money, baby.
Thank you for the insightful comment. I too wonder how such caricatures of gods are deemed worthy of worshiping. It divulges our own human vulnerabilities
I am Christian and I always despised old testament even as a kid. New testament is a totally different idea but then if you read stoic philosophers from the same period this all seems very familiar...
Yes, the Old Testament is atrocious. Even in the New Testament there is a tonal and moral misalignment between the words of Christ and the words of the apostles.
I consider myself an unconditional loving BEing and don't associate with any religious title. However, I received various vague answers when questioning the difference of the old testament where wars ran rampant and people had to find favor of the god, whereas the NT is completely different. Not without it flaws, but I will never turn my cheek again.
Yes, “turn the other cheeks” is extremely bad advice.
HAHAHA, yeah, I learned quickly not to do that!
Same. A childhood full of religious education can do that
I kinda was raised Catholic, but was too young to understand much of it, let alone First Communion all dressed in white. I visited some other religions, but in the end, I seek the truth and I don't need to have someone program into my mind what that is.
Something I notice consistently in the article is treating an unborn person as if they had some sort of existence. But when I think about it, I didn't exist at all. So being brought into existence can't be a crime against me, because there was no me.
What am I missing? The only thing I can imagine is if my existence is sum-negative, in which case I would have preferred never to have been born. I can't imagine that for myself, but I'm sure there are people like that. Is your argument only relevant for those people?
I don’t understand how you would conclude that the article treats the unborn as having an existence. I specifically say “no existence”.
"you essentially pull a life from the bliss of nonexistence and then thrust it into a reality that is hostile"
"One may argue that bringing a child into this world is in fact an act of aggression, a violation of the non-aggression principle."
bliss of nonexistence makes no sense. It's just as sensible as the horror of nonexistence. nonexistence can't be qualified.
I don't see how one can violate the non-aggression principle against a being that doesn't exist. My only understanding is if the existence of the being itself is net-negative.
If one prefers to be alive then to die, how can one be resentful against his/her creators? I don't understand.
I wrote further about the self-preservation instinct. Yes, you prefer not to die now that you’re alive. But would you like to be reborn after you’re dead as something completely new? Most people would answer no. How I know? Because we all believe what suits us. Most people don’t want to believe in afterlife or reincarnation, which is why lost people aren’t particularly religious
hmm... Maybe I'm an outlier. I think reincarnation as a human again would be wonderful.
I'm not sure I am though. I wonder if most people would prefer reincarnation over nothingness.
Opinions differ here. Some wild love another shot. Others say “I’m not doing this shit again”. Depends on your life experience so far.