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Allegra
Guest
Where is the love? 
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pensmama87
Guest
Hey, I’m prone to wordiness too. By itself, it’s not the worst thing in the world.
You can take some of the advice to heart, but it doesn’t mean we think you’re a terrible person. Just in need of some guidance. I think the suggestion upthread to see a counselor is probably a good one. It can help you learn how to navigate social situations a bit better, and how to communicate in a way that you’re more likely to be understood.
I’m sure Pitt has counseling services available for students at no cost. I would look into that as a start.
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BoomBoomMancini
Guest
Yeah, OP, please understand: I don’t think you’re a bad guy or anything. But you come across as someone who is desperate to be seen as intelligent and insightful. I’m sure you’re a bright guy, but awkwardly trying to cram as many multisyllabic words into a sentence as possible doesn’t come across as eloquent. It comes across as overwritten and pretentious. Flowery language is like salt. Just a pinch can enhance the flavor. Too much of it and it’s all anyone can taste. Your message gets lost in the verbosity.
And, just in general, if the words “Mein Kampf” appear in a love letter…it’s still in need of editing. Most women don’t find discussions of Hitler to be the most romantic thing in the world.
And, just in general, if the words “Mein Kampf” appear in a love letter…it’s still in need of editing. Most women don’t find discussions of Hitler to be the most romantic thing in the world.
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Brassring
Guest
Wait, am I the only one who wooed his wife with the “Horst Wessel” song?
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FJBSJ
Guest
I ask this question repeatedly because I have never received an answer I want to hear. I lie awake at night trying to reconcile Thomistic Soteriology with what I feel to be just. I don’t want to believe in anything but Catholicism because of St. Thomas Aquinas’ excellent Moral Theology. However the Systematic Theology seems to be an Ouroboros that is consuming itself. I want an explanation that will enable me to truly accept Catholicism without being a Doctrinal Cafeteria Catholic. I reiterate, if the totality of the elect is chosen before the creation of the Universe, whether in the Dominican’s Thomism or the Jesuit’s Molinism, how can those not chosen by God have any chance at salvation. Arminianism offers a solution to all the mentioned problems with Resistible Grace, Conditional Election, Libertarian Free Will, Equal/Impartial/Undifferentiated love for all but the Catholic Church seems to not consider it correct. The inkling of a desire to convert to Arminian Protestantism is welling up within me.
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Irishmom2
Guest
Stop, please. This is not the topic of your thread. You need, on this thread and in life to stay on topic. Unsubscribing.
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FJBSJ
Guest
I apologize for hijacking the thread. I am also sorry if you read something you didn’t want to read. I cannot within good conscience accept an entire way of life if I am not certain beyond a reasonable doubt that it is correct. I trust in the Grace and Providence of God but I sincerely believe he would want us to meticulously analyze His Revelation and determine the truth, nothing less. I want to believe the Magisterium, but until I receive an answer to this Doctrinal question that has plagued me for years, I will not be satisfied.
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BoomBoomMancini
Guest
That’s all well and good, but do you see how that thought just sort of came out of left field with no apparent connection to what we had been talking about? Serious question: has anyone ever raised the possibility with you that you might be bipolar?
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pensmama87
Guest
CAF does have a Philosophy forum. You may find good conversation about this topic there, or additional resources to address this particular issue.
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FJBSJ
Guest
The DSM V might as well be my life story. The therapist that my family’s insurance plan provides turns out to be a nominal Catholic who would rather not consider Doctrinal Issues. I don’t have the heart to ask my Hindu parents to pay out of pocket for a Catholic therapist.
The link between my question and brassring’s analysis of my situation is that I strongly associate that question with the struggle within myself to find meaning for my life.
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Hoosier_Daddy
Guest
To me, it read like it was part resume, part biography, part musing, and part confusing.
Nothing like a love letter at all.
Nothing like a love letter at all.
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Yogi89
Guest
Very confusing
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Xantippe
Guest
I gave it a good hard skim.
I suggest:
–a therapist
–a writing class
It doesn’t matter what the therapist’s religious beliefs are, because the central problem I’m seeing is an inability to communicate, due to not a strong enough filter. (Your style of communication is not uncommon on the autism spectrum.)
Likewise with a writing class–in your shoes, I would take an inexpensive writing class with a focus on editing until you learn to tighten your writing.
You need to think a lot harder about the questions:
Who is my audience?
What am I trying to communicate to them?
Is this bit necessary?
I suggest:
–a therapist
–a writing class
It doesn’t matter what the therapist’s religious beliefs are, because the central problem I’m seeing is an inability to communicate, due to not a strong enough filter. (Your style of communication is not uncommon on the autism spectrum.)
Likewise with a writing class–in your shoes, I would take an inexpensive writing class with a focus on editing until you learn to tighten your writing.
You need to think a lot harder about the questions:
Who is my audience?
What am I trying to communicate to them?
Is this bit necessary?
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BoomBoomMancini
Guest
Why would your therapist’s religious beliefs be relevant in the slightest? The purpose of a therapist is to treat any mental health/social interaction issues, not debate doctrinal issues. If you want to discuss theology, seek out a theologian. Presumably you wouldn’t abstain from going to the dentist just because the dentist won’t discuss Thomist theology with you.
The fact that you think it’s normal to attempt to discuss theological/doctrinal issues with your therapist is itself evidence that you need a therapist.
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FJBSJ
Guest
Thank you for the responses. I want to begin by saying what I am going to post is heretical and contains graphic imagery and any one who does not wish to read objectionable content should not.
I very well could be on the Autism Spectrum, but I stopped believing in the DSM when I learned it used to classify Same Sex Attraction as a mental disorder. I could go into an entire debate about how psychiatric classifications, while they have much good, lead to great stigma and harm.
I understand the decorum of normal human interaction. I have used Aristotelian-Thomistic Virtue Ethics, similar to Cognitive Behavior Therapy, in order to try to force myself to act more like a normal person. I always wondered if it was virtuous not to discuss the truth simply because it was too hard to handle. If it was virtuous to not talk about Theological issues because people either weren’t interested or were inimical towards my viewpoints. Are we not to evangelize even if it fosters discomfort?
I was 18 years old and newly interested in Catholicism. I tried to convince my parents that it was what God wanted for them. My dad said he would not believe in a God that damned portions of their humanity because of the circumstances of their birth and upbringing. I tried to tell him that St. Paul said that all men are responsible for knowing about God because the natural world affirms it. Does the natural world really affirm in a sufficient to manner to show the destitute Untouchable Caste in India that God is Jesus, or was it the Charity that Christians provided that does this? My mom asked me whether I would be content letting her and my Father to burn in hell. I convinced myself that there was the Beatific Vision of God to provide me solace. It was the most heartless thought that ever entered my mind.
I do not have the heart to blame the man raised in Saudi Arabia, fed anti-Semitic and anti-Western lies by the state controlled government. He follows Islam, but is there any other choice.
From Wikipedia: The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: مطوعين), or Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (i.e., the religious police) prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam.
In Chaim Potok’s masterpiece, there is a boy struggling to reconcile the truth of his family’s Hasidic Judaism to himself. He sits at the library for hours trying to see if there is truth in the words of his father, who is a Hasidic Rabbi. This Rabbi is said to acutely feel the suffering of his entire congregation, whether in their New York community or trapped in the Holocaust Centers. Ultimately, that boy leaves the faith. That boy is who I am now and the father is who I want to be, regardless of faith.
I am at a crossroads. I can either accept Father Robert Barron’s “Reasonable hope that all men will be saved.” This is completely counter to any mainstream Christian Tradition however. The other option for me is Secular Humanism.
I very well could be on the Autism Spectrum, but I stopped believing in the DSM when I learned it used to classify Same Sex Attraction as a mental disorder. I could go into an entire debate about how psychiatric classifications, while they have much good, lead to great stigma and harm.
I understand the decorum of normal human interaction. I have used Aristotelian-Thomistic Virtue Ethics, similar to Cognitive Behavior Therapy, in order to try to force myself to act more like a normal person. I always wondered if it was virtuous not to discuss the truth simply because it was too hard to handle. If it was virtuous to not talk about Theological issues because people either weren’t interested or were inimical towards my viewpoints. Are we not to evangelize even if it fosters discomfort?
I was 18 years old and newly interested in Catholicism. I tried to convince my parents that it was what God wanted for them. My dad said he would not believe in a God that damned portions of their humanity because of the circumstances of their birth and upbringing. I tried to tell him that St. Paul said that all men are responsible for knowing about God because the natural world affirms it. Does the natural world really affirm in a sufficient to manner to show the destitute Untouchable Caste in India that God is Jesus, or was it the Charity that Christians provided that does this? My mom asked me whether I would be content letting her and my Father to burn in hell. I convinced myself that there was the Beatific Vision of God to provide me solace. It was the most heartless thought that ever entered my mind.
I do not have the heart to blame the man raised in Saudi Arabia, fed anti-Semitic and anti-Western lies by the state controlled government. He follows Islam, but is there any other choice.
From Wikipedia: The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: مطوعين), or Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (i.e., the religious police) prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam.
In Chaim Potok’s masterpiece, there is a boy struggling to reconcile the truth of his family’s Hasidic Judaism to himself. He sits at the library for hours trying to see if there is truth in the words of his father, who is a Hasidic Rabbi. This Rabbi is said to acutely feel the suffering of his entire congregation, whether in their New York community or trapped in the Holocaust Centers. Ultimately, that boy leaves the faith. That boy is who I am now and the father is who I want to be, regardless of faith.
I am at a crossroads. I can either accept Father Robert Barron’s “Reasonable hope that all men will be saved.” This is completely counter to any mainstream Christian Tradition however. The other option for me is Secular Humanism.
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BoomBoomMancini
Guest
Medical science used to believe that leeches would drain sickness out of the blood. As recently as the 18th century, doctors would attempt to cure stuttering by cutting off half the patient’s tongue. The fact that there were some kooky ideas in the past does not mean that medical science as a whole should be discarded.
So too with psychiatric medicine. The fact that the DSM has evolved does not mean that psychiatric medicine is useless.
I strongly urge you to seek some treatment. I’m not saying that you’re crazy or you need to be locked in a padded room. But I do think you’d benefit from talking to someone professional and seeing if some treatment might be advantageous to you.
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Xantippe
Guest
Right.
And actually listen to them.
If they say, don’t talk about St. Thomas’s theories about predestination while buying stamps, don’t talk about St. Thomas’s theories about predestination while buying stamps.
Also, if you want some pointers about evangelism, talk to people who know you in real life who are actually good at it and see what they advise.
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FJBSJ
Guest
You are both completely correct about Medical Science and I was wrong to disparage it. But is it wrong to yearn for a world where everyone can be a Theologian. The unfortunate circumstances of the inequality of our births and upbringing prohibit this of course.
I will of course refrain from discussing Theology that openly. I have never tried to convince anyone other than my parents to accept a certain viewpoint. In the past, I may have behaved like a demagogue on this very same forum. However, the goal of this thread was not to convince anyone of anything. I just figured it was a place for discussion about topics of interest because it is Catholic Answers Forums. From now on, discussion will be confined to the appropriate sub-forums. I apologize for forcing the reader to be my sounding board. In all honesty I feel better than I have at any time in the last three years. If that was to the detriment of anyone please feel free to let me know and I will be happy to start discourse with anyone.
I will of course refrain from discussing Theology that openly. I have never tried to convince anyone other than my parents to accept a certain viewpoint. In the past, I may have behaved like a demagogue on this very same forum. However, the goal of this thread was not to convince anyone of anything. I just figured it was a place for discussion about topics of interest because it is Catholic Answers Forums. From now on, discussion will be confined to the appropriate sub-forums. I apologize for forcing the reader to be my sounding board. In all honesty I feel better than I have at any time in the last three years. If that was to the detriment of anyone please feel free to let me know and I will be happy to start discourse with anyone.
S_A_M
New member
i’m your counter-part. i almost didn’t read all the title, instead.
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faithsmind
Guest
Why would you discuss doctrinal issues with your therapist?
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