God's commandments.what is God's moral law? — Beebert
Why are you afraid though? You must go into this fear. Why are you really afraid of hell? Why are you really afraid of suffering? You are already suffering now. And you - not God - is making yourself suffer. So why - why are you doing it? You say you don't want to be in hell. But behold, you keep yourself in hell every second. Why?He just wants me to exist in this tormenting way of imagining a scary deity who threatens with hell and who I can not understand at all? — Beebert
That's like asking me why not keep your hand in the fire? :sThen Why not keep being immoral? — Beebert
What's the use of that? What do you think you'll achieve with it?Why not kill myself? — Beebert
I do, but do you want to better understand God or do you want a comfortable superficial belief? You said you don't like the superficial believers. And yet it seems that you would rather be one of them.Dont you see what this in combination with the idea that God wants Abraham to kill Isaac at first can do to a man? — Beebert
We don't know how much time we have left to live. You say you have 60 more years - how do you know? A car could run you over, you could get an incurable disease, and a million and one things could happen. The world and life is very fragile. Only God knows when we will die. The world may look peaceful at times, and nothing much is happening. Boring in other words. But things generally tend to change very fast when they do.I am damned and night have 60 more years to live, what do I do in the meantime? — Beebert
I would pray that God forgive me and spare me of that fate, but if that's what He wants, then I will accept it, for Him. Afterall, He too died for me, why shouldn't I be willing to suffer for Him if I must? It is not up to a servant to question his Master in the end.What would you do if God said you were damned and in 59 years from now Will be thrown in to a Fire worse and more painful than material fire in terms of physical pain, — Beebert
Tell me this. If you are in the army, and your general asks you to charge into the open fire of the enemy lines, what will you do? Will you cower in your trench, refusing to listen to your general, preferring to live and die like a coward?! Or will you man up, and overcome your fear? For what can be more crippling and life-denying than fear?
How much more should you be ready to go even to Hell when God orders you, his soldier, to do so? — Agustino
No, these are not a progression, but rather three different ways of being in the world. They are "moods" rather than paths. Kierkegaard's ultimate point is that the aesthetic mood is a forgetfulness of the ethical mood, and the ethical mood is a forgetfulness of the religious mood. In-so-far as this relationship holds true, this means that the religious mood does not deny the ethical and the aesthetical, but rather subsumes and incorporates them in itself. Aufheben.Let us take Kierkegaard once: For Kierkegaard, one must go first from the aesthetic to the ethical then to the religious right? — Beebert
What have you done to be more precise?But if you have come to the ethical state where it is possible to take a leap of faith, but you for some reason decide to suspend your ethics and go back to the aesthetic life, then you have devolved. This is what I have done in nu lite — Beebert
Try to be open to the ethical and religious spheres of life - look at your own face, maybe for the first time, without being afraid. Remembrance - anamnesis as Plato says.However, he seems to indicate that this situation would lead to despair because, having already been in the ethical, you are now conscious about your choices and about right and wrong, which is the opposite of the aesthetic, but yet you are aesthetic and have lost the "possibility". You are spiritually paralyzed. Right? — Beebert
Neither do you know the general's intentions in the army. For all you know, he could have sold all of you to the enemy, so he is ordering you to simply rush to your death. But you have to make a choice. That's where faith and trust come into play - relying not on your own understanding.It depends. Mainly on God's intentions, of which I know not anything. — Beebert
Yes He does. God has the greatest track record anyone could ever ask for. One is willing to suffer for God, because God suffered for us in Jesus Christ!You don't get that same sort of trust between a soldier and God, though, because God has no track record. — Buxtebuddha
I think it is modern society's forgetfulness of God - or Flight from God as Max Picard would say - that stops us from hearing the voice of our Shepherd.He's never on the battlefield giving orders, nobody can sit down and tally a list of decisions made by him. A reality where an army has no commanding officer but God is one that won't ever make decisions because no orders are actually being given. — Buxtebuddha
Yes He does. God has the greatest track record anyone could ever ask for. One is willing to suffer for God, because God suffered for us in Jesus Christ! — Agustino
I think it is modern society's forgetfulness of God - or Flight from God as Max Picard would say - that stops us from hearing the voice of our Shepherd. — Agustino
That is not a fact (it would be if you stopped at not hearing the voice) it's an interpretation. But could it be that you do not hear because you have forgotten God?The thing stopping us from hearing the voice is there not being a voice to hear. — Buxtebuddha
Sure, but there is always the underlying experience of hearing.And hearing something and calling it God isn't also a mere interpretation? — Buxtebuddha
Sure, but there is always the underlying experience of hearing. — Agustino
But really, you're saying nothing new. What you're saying is that God is dead - you cannot hear His voice anymore. Old news. We already know that we live in a culture and world which has forgotten God, and where those who hear God are the madmen. — Agustino
Yes, that is because you do not understand God - God for you could be anything.I'm saying that a voice could be anything. — Buxtebuddha
Yes of course, because you are born after the loss of faith. You are born in a faithless world. So why would you expect to hear God? From your perspective, it looks like there never was a God. That is precisely why it is a forgetfulness. It is almost impossible to even think God today.This suggests that God was real and no longer is, which isn't my position. I don't believe in God, which means at the barest minimum he never was and never is. — Buxtebuddha
Yes, that is because you do not understand God - God for you could be anything. — Agustino
Yes of course, because you are born after the loss of faith. You are born in a faithless world. — Agustino
So why would you expect to hear God? — Agustino
From your perspective, it looks like there never was a God. That is precisely why it is a forgetfulness. — Agustino
Oh, have you been reading Pseudo-Dionysus? That's good to hear!I don't venture to define God as being this and not that. Attempting to define God is a theist's first mistake. — Buxtebuddha
Sure, but even if you personally were a Christian, you lived in a non-Christian world.What? I was a believing Christian for the majority of my life, so I don't know what you're trying to suggest here. — Buxtebuddha
Your expectations are governed by the modern zeitgeist in which you find yourself. An age governed by spiritual darkness isn't going to be an age where God appears very clearly at all, even to most "believers". Especially while they make their abode on college campuses :PWell, yes, this is the point. I don't expect a heavenly vision any more than I expect to hear from the dead 'neath the earth. — Buxtebuddha
God.Forgetfulness of what? — Buxtebuddha
It's deeper than that, it's that God doesn't rule people's lives anymore, God is no longer a discernible presence as He once was. Nietzsche's madman came amidst people who still "believed" - and he proclaimed that God is dead, and they understood him not. Their problem was that they weren't even aware that God is dead - that God is not communicating with them. That's how alienated they were from the experience of God, even though they still claimed to believe and went to Church as they were used to. The truth was that they didn't know God, that's why they didn't even know He was dead. For them, God was an empty symbol, an idol. It was just going to be a little bit more time until they finally dropped the empty symbol as well, and stopped pretending, showing their true face.Also, I understand Nietzsche's "God is dead" to mean his assertion that God doesn't rule society anymore, which I think is true. — Buxtebuddha
Oh, have you been reading Pseudo-Dionysus? That's good to hear! — Agustino
Sure, but even if you personally were a Christian, you lived in a non-Christian world. — Agustino
Your expectations are governed by the modern zeitgeist in which you find yourself. An age governed by spiritual darkness isn't going to be an age where God appears very clearly at all, even to most "believers". Especially while they make their abode on college campuses — Agustino
It's deeper than that, it's that God doesn't rule people's lives anymore, God is no longer a discernible presence as He once was. — Agustino
Their problem was that they weren't even aware that God is dead - that God is not communicating with them. — Agustino
Today if we shall go in the multitudes and mention God, we shall not be heard. They will ignore us. They will look at us as if we're crazy, as if we don't even know what we're talking about. They will not understand the meaning of the word "God". It will be as meaningless as sadakdhald. — Agustino
When I say you have forgotten God, I don't mean just you - I mean our entire age. You yourself are a member of this age, and therefore inherit its problems. — Agustino
You cannot accept the rules of today's world - be a member of it - and believe in God at the same time. — Agustino
For one cannot serve both God and Mammon, one cannot have the mark of the beast on their forehead and yet serve the Lord. The way society is built, it's almost predicated on a rejection of God. To live in modern society, even amongst most believers, means to reject the mystery of God (most of the time). That is why people like Max Picard chose to retreat like hermits on a mountain. Where else could they live in communion with God?! — Agustino
I feel that the time is not right yet. All we can do is wait. But one day the clock will strike 12 and the world will awaken anew. We alone cannot save the world. A human being cannot be the light of an age, regardless of how great they personally are. The time needs to be right. — Agustino
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