Competition and Christianity are they compatible?

[Tamsulosin]

Let’s see.“a situation in which people try to be more successful than the other people”
Involves a desire to win over the other person, a wish for the other to fail .
A boost for the ego of the winner.A situation that may bring the loser to sin by breaking the commandment related to envy.And the pride of the winner that shows the award around or kisses the trophy may also bring him or her to sin against the need for humility.Competiton brings about ocassions for sin.
There is no charity inbetween the competing fellow human beings.
You see it in boxing, in soccer,etc.I will never forget the cheerleader’s mother that was in the evening news for murdering the young woman that was competing against her daughter for a position in the team.

In soccer all the time you see players pushing and hurting their competitors against the rules to advance their teams’ chances.And in politics they often smear each other’s character in order to win.
Do you think competiton and Christianity are compatible?

 

[James_S_Saint]

It is merely a question of HOW you compete. Morals are all about how to behave. If you leave out morals, you get all of what you stated.

But if morals are not challenged, they are not taught, understood, or even worth mentioning. It is by competition that lessons are learned. But as lessons are learned, the standards of competition mature. A master chess player doesn’t play by the same standard as a novice. The martial arts master is leery to compete with a novice because the novice is likely to do things so foolish, that someone will get seriously hurt unintentionally.

Christianity proposes a standard for interaction which certainly does not forbid competition, but proposes matured rules. If the competitors are not actually mature, such rules become dangerous to the one who is abiding by them.

It is only when you take out the maturity aspect or the concern for reliable supervision/referee that the more intelligent and gentle arts become useless. What good comes from a polite intellectual debate with a moron? Why cast pearls before swine?

“Competition” is not merely a black or white, exists or doesn’t, issue. It comes in types and levels. Christianity suits a certain level and type extremely well, but low intellect, unsupervised, fight the the death types of competition… emm… no.

 

[Julian0404]

Absolutely the two are compatible. In business, and in sports.
Recall the parable of talents in Luke 19, where the Noble gave each of his servants a sum of money, and upon his return rewarded the winner who had made the laregest return and chastised the one who did nothing.
However, can it get way out of line? Yes, and it has both in business and sports, but that does not negate the fact they can coexist in harmony. And this goes to the quality of the coach. Is your child being coached to win or coached to “hate to lose”, which leads to the condition your premise outlines.

 

[James_S_Saint]

And this goes to the quality of the coach. Is your child being coached to win or coached to “hate to lose”, which leads to the condition your premise outlines.

Very good point.

And also, is the person competing against “the best possible” or merely to be “better than the other”. Relativism focuses on merely being seen as the better of two with disregard as to whether better than both is possible. This leads to a deception of reality.

If one is merely competing AGAINST another person, rather than Entropy (the Devil), he is tempted and likely to look for ways to cause the other to fail and ignore methods to cause himself to succeed. This can be seen in many cases throughout new America as it forsakes Reality for Relativity.

The presumption in Judaism is that you always have an enemy to best. That necessitates conflict and war. That is a primitive idea if that enemy is thought of as a person. If that enemy is merely the spirit of entropy, then it becomes more mature and accurate.

Christianity (or at least Jesus) taught to not focus on the person as the enemy, but the spirit of evil (entropy). In this way, you compete with the “bad” rather than with the “other person” and have no desire to cause the other person to fail because the incentive is to do the best that you could do toward the good regardless of what the other person might accomplish.

Survival programs are designed to program the thinking that you must compete against other people. They are ALL setup to entrap the people into “you or me” situations. This is explicitly anti-Christian ethics and conforms rather to Judaism.

After WW2, the US military got into “game theory” so as to use computers to predict and thus control population. But their premise, being a military mindset, was that all people are in competition with each other. That was already an anti-Christ axiom. From that foundation, an entire mountain of strategies all involving entrapments to ensure losing arose.

The “Competition” was between those rigging the “competitions” and those trying to attend to Reality. The winner is the one who has control over the media and uses it to either set people against each other, or uses it to set people against the highest possible goal. Guess which they chose.

 

[Tamsulosin]

One of the arguments you gave that resonated with me is to depersonalize who you are competing with.Although it may be hard or not completely accurate to tell a person you are competing with "the bad’ or the devil,I guess one could tell a child that the 2 teams are trying for the same:to raise the bar, both in ethics of play and in scores.It would be good to create a new set of records for the Guiness book of records…Say 20 goals in a game.
The teams are playing against the present record aiming at topping it.Let’s see which team can do it.Also the record of the least infractions, none if possible.Reward that too.
The reality is that competition exists even outside of matches.“To keep up with the Johnsons”,"Be the envy of your neighbours, buy this or that"The grass is greener on the other side of the fence"All these sayings exist to reflect a certain reality which is often exploited by merchants enticing couples to buy “things” they can hardly afford,like the largest tv screen, etc.to compete in looking successful.How Christian is that!
Schools teach a variety of subjects necessary indeed to progress in life, but does not carry the subject of ethics:the most important and basic one.
And then there are people,I know especially one that makes anything a competition.If you say you caught a 6 inch fish this person caught a 2 feet one and won an awards, type of person.Whatever one did and is happy with, that person tells you did one better than you.
You may know people like that too.

 

[gjhgh]

Let’s see.“a situation in which people try to be more successful than the other people”
Involves a desire to win over the other person, a wish for the other to fail .
A boost for the ego of the winner.A situation that may bring the loser to sin by breaking the commandment related to envy.And the pride of the winner that shows the award around or kisses the trophy may also bring him or her to sin against the need for humility.Competiton brings about ocassions for sin.
There is no charity inbetween the competing fellow human beings.
You see it in boxing, in soccer,etc.I will never forget the cheerleader’s mother that was in the evening news for murdering the young woman that was competing against her daughter for a position in the team.

In soccer all the time you see players pushing and hurting their competitors against the rules to advance their teams’ chances.And in politics they often smear each other’s character in order to win.
Do you think competiton and Christianity are compatible?

The presumption in Judaism is that you always have an enemy to best. That necessitates conflict and war. That is a primitive idea if that enemy is thought of as a person. If that enemy is merely the spirit of entropy, then it becomes more mature and accurate.

 

[James_S_Saint]

You may know people like that too.

All too well. Protectionism of ego or “self-image” is the underwriter for a great many problems.

But imagine having a means to measure harmonious effort such that it could be even read on a meter of some kind. Then apply that to a small community. But then propose, just for “fun and education” that 2 communities compete to raise that “bar” of harmonious effort as high as possible as measured over perhaps a year.

In such a competition, they must apply harmony to the effort to live. Extend that period to a life time, and you have a means to discovering what behavior maximizes life.

“That which stays in harmony cannot perish.”

But of course, the “rules” must be at least that one community, or its secret supporters, may not have effect upon the other community (thus a “Christian” ethic and supervision).

 

[Tamsulosin]

James, that was a beautiful post!!!

 

[James_S_Saint]

James, that was a beautiful post!!!

Wow, well thank you.

So emm… when is someone going to get started? Man really (truly) doesn’t have very long to get his act together.

But before anyone even begins, seriously read my signature and memorize it. Without that understanding, any effort WILL fail and the whole Ahdam and Eve thing gets done all over again.

Start Small and grow Slowly and Carefully, Verifying ALL that is done. The true Original Sin was merely wanting for more than could be safely obtained. - Don’t over extend (ever again).

{{tempted to stop posting while I’m ahead }}

 

[James_S_Saint]

And;

If you want to improve on anything, learn to measure it.