Mega Quake in Turkey signals the end of time

Post Reply New Topic

we've already beaten biblical contradictions to death, think it's time to move on. Selfishness is human nature; even rats are more altruistic than us. Thus, if we are made in the image of a hypothetical god, it must be selfish as well.

Laying down your life out of love for your friends is one of the most selfish acts you can commit. Nothing you do from a sense of value can be altruistic.

The greatest sin is to sacrifice with no love and no reason. To hate oneself is to hate God’s highest creation. By extension, self-loathing is hatred of God Himself. It is often the case that those who hate God hate themselves.

While I am an admirer of Ayn Rand, it is worth pointing out her worst flaws and failings are symptomatic of this one oversight: her emotional torment upon completing Atlas Shrugged, her affair and subsequent vilification of Nate Branden, her insistence on the cigarette as an idealized symbol of rugged individualism at the cost of her own health and life… It is reasonable to reject a god of hate and human self-loathing. The god Ayn Rand rejected was the idol worshiped by statist elites, communists, and collectivists of all stripes. I reject the same god.

It’s a shame Ayn Rand was an atheist. She got so much right.

Selfish?



What do you mean by "hating" God? Just not believing in God?



If she were a Christian, then she would have been perfect?

So if a soldier in a platoon throws himself on a grenade in order to save his friends, he was selfish? Because, since God created him, he should value himself more?

Though since God created everyone, wouldn't everyone have equal value? Or is it more the case that God has a specific plan, so one shouldn't assume that one is meant to sacrifice themselves for their friends?

One should never feel obligated to sacrifice anything for any reason.

One becomes a soldier because he values his country and his friends and possesses the desire to defend them. That means that he becomes a soldier for his own selfish reasons. Any time you assign value to something, you are acting on your own self-interest. Falling on a grenade is a selfish act because you are saving lives in exchange of your own. You are getting something in return. So what you are doing is not a true sacrifice. The fact that you are dead is irrelevant.

Any time you get something in return, it cannot be a sacrifice. If I fell on a grenade or take a bullet for my wife, I’m taking the easy way out because I never have to wonder if my friends are ok or live with a void in my life where my wife should have been. Instead, my friends have to live without me, my wife without her husband, my children without a father. I’m dead and no longer have any cares. Which is easier?

If you die out of obligation, however, what was your life worth? If you die for your country but you don’t love your country, what was the point? If you don’t love your wife, why take a bullet for her? Of course, if you don’t love your wife, why marry her in the first place? And why love her at all? Is she pretty? Good in bed? Have hips that promise a large brood? Is she your intellectual equal? Do you see her as your ideal partner? Does she see you as the ideal man? Do you get ANYTHING AT ALL out of the relationship? If your partner is worth so little to you that you wouldn’t die for them, it’s PROBABLY a sign that they aren’t right for you. Never put your life on the line for worthless people; never go to bed with someone you don’t love.

keep in mind that those anti-communism books are a dime a dozen and oft totally miss the point of it. Communism is good. It's not a hive mind. It's not (meant to be) genocides and famines. Everyone is equal, everyone shares, and the government is not oppressive because YOU and your neighbors are the government. It's democratic, but many people hear 'communism' and immediately shoot to the north pole of the political compass. That isn't true. 1984 is an okay horror book, but it's a terrible anti-communist book. Are people not more oppressed during capitalism? take a look at Amazon. Communism isn't collectivist. The people own the means of production precisely so they can have more time to pursue individual goals. If Ayn Rand was anti-communism (and, even anti-socialism), then Ayn Rand was a fool.

Actually, it is the other way around. Objectivism has no place in religion. Per Matthew 6





I've noticed that about Evangelical Christians. Very selfish people. A real Christian sells all he has to give the money to the poor.

That's fair, then. What you said makes sense by that definition. Usually when people say selfishness, they mean not caring about others.

Maybe it's not what communism was meant to be, but it is communism always creates.

And 1984 was anti-totalitarian, not anti-communist. The author himself was a democratic socialist.

Lack of context. Tradition was that wealth and power were symbols of God's blessing. Poor people somehow weren't worthy enough for God and heaven. The disciples gave up everything they had because they wanted to follow Jesus. If, like the camel, it is merely difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, it is IMPOSSIBLE for poor people. Contemporary Christianity (outside of Prosperity Gospel) celebrates mediocrity and poverty, so wealth is not seen as an achievement but rather a curse.

The disciples eventually picked up on what Jesus was saying. It's impossible for ANYONE to get into the kingdom of heaven. You can only get into the kingdom of heaven if God makes it possible to do so.

Another interesting thing about the NT that few people pick up on is Jesus didn't ask EVERYONE to sell everything they owned and follow Him. A lot of theologian misread certain passages, like when some of his disciples explained that they had business to take care of before going with Jesus. The man who wanted to bury his deceased father wasn't told that he couldn't mourn his father. Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead. But you go and proclaim the gospel." Even if he didn't go with Jesus right away, he still had a task to do for the kingdom. Another man who asked to say goodbye to his family got this from Jesus: Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” It's often interpreted as making an excuse for not following Jesus right away, but Jesus's response is a reference to the call of Elisha in the OT. There were a number of wealthy individuals and families who went a long way towards supporting new churches and mission work. Even the apostle Paul took jobs so that his own care and upkeep didn't fall on those he ministered to. He even took advantage of Roman legal loopholes to get an all-expenses-paid trip to Rome.

So the idea that God somehow begrudges wealth and achievement is false.

I hear a lot of trash talk against prosperity gospel. I think too often this comes from a place of envy because prosperity preachers make a lot of money. But the reality is that it IS a scam. Even when prosperity teaching isn't an outright scam, it's wishful thinking and mysticism. The point of the gospels is to bring people to Christ (the real treasure you lay up for yourself in Heaven), not exploit God or people for material wealth. So I agree that prosperity gospel is a false gospel. I'm just not behind all the motives for denouncing it. If it is leading people astray, if it is acting as a parasite on the naive, it is evil.

Yes. 1984 was for Orwell a lesson in what Socialism could become and a warning to avoid certain pitfalls. North Korea seems to have misinterpreted 1984 as a textbook. The whole country is a memory hole.

The Norks have been the only group of people who seem to have embraced this idea so thoroughly. Perpetual war, glorification of Big Brother/cult of personality, rewriting history, and the total banishment of even the thought of any other way of life. I remember watching a documentary where some doctors went on a humanitarian mission to cure blindness from a certain disease. Everyone who was cured wanted the first thing they saw to be Dear Leader, whom they bowed and prayed to for restoring their sight. Any time an interviewer asked about some of the negatives of living in N.Korea, they'd get nervous, give some "these go to 11" response, and change the subject.

With possibly North Korea as the ONLY exception, it's next to impossible to have a world that matches 1984 for several reasons. But the irony is that Orwell hit on the logical extreme of what socialism is and how people are affected by it. Those with power can do as they like. The lowest classes can...well, do pretty much whatever since they are under the care of The Party and aren't in a position to make trouble. They provide the power that props up the rest of the system. Winston was a cog in the party machine, however, and as such had to be controlled. In reality, it's impossible to totally enslave a mind.

what is the song trying to say???