A better sapient / sentient being

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I agree we are inferior physically. But, to me, the point is that we are superior mentally and emotionally, and our purpose for being is to use our strengths effectively rather than bemoan our weaknesses. We have the power to self-reflect, to create, to learn, to grow wise, to reason, to rationalize, to plan for the future, to contemplate the past, to hope, to wish, to forgive, to love. For me, that is quite enough.
 
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fhansen said:
Try making one 😀
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Why?
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Not to be sassy, but where’s the human being you created from scratch?
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You mean if you cannot actually perform an act “better”, then you should not criticize something? If you cannot “create” an automobile, then you should not use the power of imagination to ponder - how to make a better one?
White_Tree said:
If you were unaware of the birth in the spirit, what were you referring to in your earlier post then?
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I have no idea what you are talking about.
meltzerboy2 said:
I agree we are inferior physically. But, to me, the point is that we are superior mentally and emotionally, and our purpose for being is to use our strengths effectively rather than bemoan our weaknesses. We have the power to self-reflect, to create, to learn, to grow wise, to reason, to rationalize, to plan for the future, to contemplate the past, to hope, to wish, to forgive, to love. For me, that is quite enough.
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Why do you think that these are mutually exclusive? Mozart died very early in some bad disease, and that prevented him to write more, beautiful music.
OddBird said:
That’s your opinion, but, this being a Catholic forum, I guess most people here would disagree - myself included.
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You are always welcome - nope sincerely “begged” - to teach me, just HOW can I have actual access to God, here and now.
 
Abrosz said:
HOW can I have actual access to God, here and now.
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You can’t. We don’t access God. We receive God on His initiative. You already have received some minimal access to God, since you exist. If you truly want more, that’s a good sign.
 
Abrosz said:
You are always welcome - nope sincerely “begged” - to teach me, just HOW can I have actual access to God, here and now.
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I’m not sure how to answer that without knowing where you’re coming from. You said upthread you once were Christian. If you’re not any longer, I’m not sure you can accept my own premises.

The privileged ways, to me, are the sacraments -God coming to us-, prayer - us striving toward God-, Scripture -the witness of God’s faithfulness throughout human history and of His sharing of our life and death in Christ-, and human interaction -discovering Christ’s face in our neighbour’s.

Desire for God, I think, is a sign that communication is not closed between you.

But I suspect I’m not telling you anything new, and I’m not sure I’m actually helping.

🤷‍♀️
 
Abrosz said:
I have no idea what you are talking about.
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Then allow me to recap for you.

I said:
White_Tree said:
The human body is a seed.
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I then provided a quote from St. Paul explaining what I meant.

Then you said:
Abrosz said:
The current pandemic refutes your view.
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Then I said:
White_Tree said:
It’s not entirely clear to me how the current pandemic has any bearing on the birth in the spirit (John 3:3-8) or the resurrection.

Would you care to elaborate on that?
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The quote from St. Paul that I provided in my first post directly relates to the birth in the spirit and explains it. That implies that when you said “the current pandemic refutes my view,” you were referring to the birth in the spirit that the quote explains.

But your conclusion about how the pandemic implies that human body is not well situated to the birth in the spirit wasn’t obvious to me. So, it would be helpful if you explained what you meant, and how you arrived at that conclusion.
 
Abrosz said:
When I look at the current “design” of humans, my first thought is that we are created of inferior materials with shoddy design and lousy workmanship .
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Are we supposed to be created as perfect specimens? I can definitely think of a “better design” from my own subjective idea of perfection, but it doesn’t become reality.

If you’re interested in an entertaining thought experiment of possibilities, that’s great, but do you also perceive some flaw in the One who created us? To say God “should have” done much better? I don’t want to misinterpret your statement.
 
Abrosz said:
You mean if you cannot actually perform an act “better”, then you should not criticize something?
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It’s not unreasonable to assume that Whoever created the human prolly knows about more about…well…everything than you 🤣
 
Okay. I would like to have four wheels and an aerodynamic body shape. Then I want to feel no pain, only degrees of pleasure. I want to eat but not get fat nor excrete anything. I want three eyes with holographic, ultraviolet vision. I want GPS and GLONASS built into my brain, which has an upgradable 10Gbps Internet link. I want to be strong enough to carry five of my closest friends.
Summary
Oops, I’m a Tesla!
 
Anesti33 said:
Okay. I would like to have four wheels and an aerodynamic body shape. Then I want to feel no pain, only degrees of pleasure. I want to eat but not get fat nor excrete anything. I want three eyes with holographic, ultraviolet vision. I want GPS and GLONASS built into my brain, which has an upgradable 10Gbps Internet link. I want to be strong enough to carry five of my closest friends.
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I guess, you did not pay attention. I explicitly stipulated to use the already existing, true and tried methods from the flora and the fauna.

But none of those you mentioned would present a problem for a hypothesized omnipotent being.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
It’s not unreasonable to assume that Whoever created the human prolly knows about more about…well… everything than you
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This kind of reasoning could be used to “explain away” everything. Take a psychopath, who kidnaps and rapes a child before throwing her into a furnace. God obviously does not interfere… but according to your method, he knows “best” and that this event would be in the best interest of the victim.

Or putting it differently, this is the best possible world, and any hypothesized “improvement” would actually detrimental. Is that how you view the world?
 
Lucy_1 said:
You’re confusing redemptive suffering with sadism. Suffering is the gift no one wants.
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How do you separate “redemptive” suffering from sadism? Objectively, please!
Veritas6 said:
If you’re interested in an entertaining thought experiment of possibilities, that’s great, but do you also perceive some flaw in the One who created us? To say God “should have” done much better? I don’t want to misinterpret your statement.
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No, I did not say “SHOULD”, I say “COULD” have done better.
OddBird said:
But I suspect I’m not telling you anything new, and I’m not sure I’m actually helping.
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However, you tried, and that is kind of you.
 
Fair question.

If you’re trying to find out the “why” of undeserved suffering, you came to the wrong place.
Of course, every place is the wrong place because we simply don’t know.
But what sets Christianity apart from other religions is that we believe in a God who suffered alongside us.
He didn’t have to. He chose to.
And that was in spite of His knowledge that we humans will reject Him and His moral law (the breaking of His moral law being why we have torture and rape and genocides and concentration camps).
What we deserve is to be left to our own devices.
But we believe He suffered at our hands.
I don’t lnow what it all means.

But I stand by my statement that a Being who created an entire universe understands more and better than you and me.
 
Okay this might be unrelated to the moral question in the thread but…

Amphibians don’t necessarily have an advantage over land or water-only animals because mechanically and biologically this comes with a lot of restrictions. Amphibians needs to burn a lot of calories in the early stages of their life as they transition from water to land. Their natural habitats also tend to be more picky, not less picky, because they inhabit wetlands and small stagnant ponds outside of river systems. They don’t thrive well in deeper water or in dry areas, where other animals can easily out-compete them.

When talking about advantage or disadvantage, it completely depends on the environment and what a certain animals needs in order to excel. Even human creativity and intelligence is a mixed bag. In some respects it is great, but if the tools and society brought into existence through those abilities eventually leads to mass annihilation through war or climate change, then clearly it is also not great.
 
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Who am I to judge your preferred identity? Can I touch your missiles?
 
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