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tonyrey
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It is a form of pride to consider yourself more compassionate than others…
Is it OK to be truly happy living in a world where more than 9,500 innocent children starve to death each and every day?
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tonyrey
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You are simply confirming that your deeply entrenched view of the world is very negative and one-sided.
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Robert_Sock
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Who is considering themselves more compassionate than others? It sounds like you’re making things up as you go along.
All I’m inferring is that compassion is necessary for positive action to be taken in alleviating world hunger.
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Robert_Sock
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Have a heart!!! Have empathy!!! Feel some of the pain and suffering that these poor souls are going through!!!
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Robert_Sock
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I was merely trying to confirm that people’s overly optimistic view of an actual miserable and corrupt world is most naive.You are simply confirming that your deeply entrenched view of the world is very negative and one-sided.
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Robert_Sock
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Elizabeth502
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You are. And several people keep calling you on it.
Pope Francis is joyful yet aware. Why do you think you are more aware, let alone more compassionate, let alone have “more of a heart” than he has? According to your logic (post 255), if he is joyful, surely he can’t “have empathy” and “can’t feel” the pain of others.
It’s a very offensive implication.
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Robert_Sock
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Slander me why don’t you? Nowhere did I ever say that we cannot be joyful, as long as the joy is directed to Christ. Nowhere do I imply that I’m more compassionate than others. Please provide a direct quote to the contrary.
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tonyrey
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Your constant repetition of “miserable and corrupt world” is akin to Schopenhauer’s view that it would be better if life had never existed on this planet. It is certainly at the opposite extreme from the teaching of Jesus:
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23)
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:19-20)
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matt. 13:44)
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your **joy **may be full. (John 15:11)
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ynotzap
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We wouldn’t be truly happy in this world even if there were no human tragedy. We were made for and by God ST. Augustine: Our souls are restless until they rest in thee. Nothing in this world can satisfy completely, because we are part spirit to the likeness of God. There is no permanent security of any kind in this ever changing world. Everything passes. Life in this world is like a grand illusion, the newness and its beauty fade. So like Job who was tested to the utmost, so are we in order to prove our faithfulness and love for God. God himself is our permanent reward. St. Augustine: " Oh rich man if you have everything but don’t have God, what do you have. Oh poor man if you have God, what do you need." ST. Thomas Aquinas gives very clear explanations as to why we won,t find complete happiness in this world. 
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tonyrey
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We wouldn’t be truly happy in this world even if there were no human tragedy. We were made for and by God ST. Augustine: Our souls are restless until they rest in thee. Nothing in this world can satisfy completely, because we are part spirit to the likeness of God. There is no permanent security of any kind in this ever changing world. Everything passes. Life in this world is like a grand illusion, the newness and its beauty fade. So like Job who was tested to the utmost, so are we in order to prove our faithfulness and love for God. God himself is our permanent reward. St. Augustine: " Oh rich man if you have everything but don’t have God, what do you have. Oh poor man if you have God, what do you need." ST. Thomas Aquinas gives very clear explanations as to why we won’t find complete happiness in this world.
But the joy inspired by Jesus should transcend everything else because then heaven is not a distant dream but a living reality here and now! Otherwise this life can be a foretaste of hell…
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Robert_Sock
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I believe this life has a deep purpose and I feel we are fortunate to be here. But that does not preclude that the world is not miserable and corrupt. The joy that we are to feel here in this world is that of Christ, and our rewards in the Hereafter.
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ynotzap
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For believers: Jesus came to redeem us f rom the works of Satan Humanity is helpless against angelic power (angels are pure spirits more like God then we are).( Satan is called Lucifer, the Barer of light, next to the Throne of God) When he rebelled "he fell from Heaven like lightening to earth’. Mankind lost favor with God. Satan held humanity in spiritual bondage. Jesus then assumed human nature and defeated Satan in His human nature, there is no competition between a creature and his Creator. In His humility and love (shown in His crucifixtion) He stripped Satan of his rightful rule over sinful man. There is one condition needed before we can avail ourselves of liberation from Satans rule. We must turn to Jesus Christ and accept Him as our Lord and King. We do this by admitting faults and sins (humility ) and asking forgiveness. We are then reborn by water and the spirit in Baptism. We then become “adopted children of God, heir to His Kingdom.” WE then live His teachings in our lives. We come into this world in spiritual bondage, thats why there is so much corruption in the world, thats why we need to be reborn. It is only by the grace of God that we can be liberated from evil. God gets blamed for the evil Satan perpetrates. I know for a fact the truth of the existence of these spirits. I also know of the “sweetness of the Lord.’ We keep praying…Thy kingdom come… I also know that even in this life we can experience a 'touch of Heaven” Life is a trial. Jesus promised if we love Him and keep His commandments (in our trials) He and His Father will reveal Themselves to us. Many saints have experience this blessing. All who are baptised into Christ by water and the spirit are saints (infants at first, then if we continue to grow by cooperating with His grace in our trials we become adults)
I might add, Jesus’ war was not against Jews or Romans, He came to save them. Satan worked through their weakness. They at the time were devoid of His saving grace. There is so much misunderstanding in the world of who Jesus is, He is the stumbling block in so many religions.
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I might add, Jesus’ war was not against Jews or Romans, He came to save them. Satan worked through their weakness. They at the time were devoid of His saving grace. There is so much misunderstanding in the world of who Jesus is, He is the stumbling block in so many religions.
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Qoeleth
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I agree that it can be unhelpful to focus on the misery and corruption of the world. But the “Schopenhauerian” view of the world does have a place in Christianity. There are writings by St. Innocent III (De Contemptu Mundi) and St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Meditationes de Conditione Humana) that make the pessimism Schopenhauer seem mild by comparison.
Schopenhauer believed himself to be reflecting authentic Christian teaching, but at the same time fusing it with the metaphysics of Hinduism and Buddhism. Basically, he said that earthly life has more suffering than joy, that no earthly happiness is permanent, that desire makes people unhappy, and that the way to redeem oneself is to follow a path of self-denial, and not placing any hope in worldly things. He said also, that all of us, as fellow-sufferings, owe each other compassion and tolerance.
Now, Schopenhauer is not a philosophy are person ‘chooses’ to like. At least I didn’t. I read him, and realised that what he says is basically true. Even if he makes some mistakes- here is a man who is perfectly honest. That was when I was a mere youth, and I no longer read Schopenhauer much. But, his view of mortal life is quite accurate. To say that “this mortal life is a valley of tears” is something so obviously true, that to state it is a mere unhelpful banality, and possibly boring and in bad taste. It is better, I feel, just to assume silently it to be the case.
Schopenhauer’s view of the world and human life is not really any different to that of Thomas a Kempis, or that of Eccelsiastes. They arrive at different philosophical-religious positions, true, but they both start with the suffering and futility of earthly life, and end with compassion and self-denial.
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Elizabeth502
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No. It is both miserable and joyful, corrupt and redemptive. At the Final Coming, there will be A New Earth; when Christ will transform it. In the meantime, we are not to reject God’s gifts of joy when they do come to us, while working at the same time to relieve the suffering of others to the best of our ability. (Another teaching which Pope Francis has been very clear about, and has repeated: the acceptance of God’s gifts of joy.) It is always an insult to reject a pure gift, and a rejection of the Giver.
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tonyrey
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I don’t believe any Christian has declared that it would be better if life had **never **existed on this planet. How could God then be a loving Father who cares for all His children?
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tonyrey
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To claim misery outweighs joy in this world is to ignore Christ’s words “**I am with you **until the end of time”.
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oldcelt
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So we were created for his entertainment, his fulfillment? Those are selfish reasons for human parents that I think are all too common {relates to the OP}. Looking at history does not paint him as a particularly loving father, following the Christian model.
I think that if you were to conduct a survey of everyone on the planet you would find a sizable number who would choose the non-existence option. You would be none the wiser, much like death that ends right there
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Qoeleth
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No, of course not. But Schopenhauer tells only part of the story- he gives a totally honest picture of life without the Resurrection, as if the Gospel had ended on Good Friday.
Maybe he can be appreciated as a John the Baptist type figure- to clear the way of the Lord, not by offering any saving truth, but by dispelling illusions.
If I was beaten up on the side of the road, like the man in the parable, and famous philosophers were walking past, I would expect Schopenhauer, more than any of the others, to stop and help, without asking questions and without offering advice.
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Robert_Sock
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Please keep in mind that this is not what I’m saying. I’m saying that this life has a Divine purpose in that it leads us to eternal happiness. Miserable and corrupt, yes, but purposeful.
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