C
CatsAndDogs
Guest
To be alive, we must have beliefs, as beliefs are (at least relative) “constants” which we count on “being there” so that we don’t have to consider everything a “special case”.
When we believe something we are “relatively sure” that it’ll hold true in the future, but we are also a bit “anxious” that it might not hold true, and that “anxiety” is an unavoidable suffering.
Therefore, any belief creates suffering.
To be alive is to suffer from having beliefs. But why do we accept this suffering? Because we know that to not do do so is to not be alive.
The negative result of our suffering for our beliefs is disappointment and fear of the unknown.
The positive result of our suffering for our beliefs is joy of “knowing truth”.
When beliefs are held through time, that is faith, and beliefs are held in faith for a reason. What is that reason? The reason is hope. Hope for what? Hope for the joy of holding a correct belief.
Now, why go through the suffering of holding to beliefs in faith through time when there is no guarantee that that suffering will be rewarded by the joy of “being right”?
Because if that which is hoped for resonates in us as “being a good thing” then that creates motivation to get that which is hoped for, by enduring our suffering.
Thus, we have faith in hope while suffering for our beliefs.
(( You’ll notice at this point that I’ve uncharacteristically not mentioned God yet in this piece of writ. Are you as surprised as I am!?
))
The things that we believe, taken as a gestalt, is our religion. It is unique to each individual. No one holds a perfectly congruent religion with any other person. But we can certainly agree on some beliefs, and in so much as the gestalt of our beliefs are in fact quite largely congruent with another’s gestalt we can say we have the same religion.
But, since we all have SOME set of beliefs, no one can claim that they have “no religion”.
Do we all hope for the joy of being right concerning “the truth”? Yes, we do.
What happens when we find out we aren’t right? We experience disappointment and anxiety (ill-at-ease-ness), instead of joy.
That “disappointment and anxiety” is hell.
The “joy” is heaven.
Does heaven and hell have an “opposite”? Yes. It’s called “oblivion”. The great gray “blandness”.
Even hell is preferable to this “oblivion”. It is the awareness of awareness with nothing to be aware of.
Religion without God is an attempt at actually wanting oblivion in preference to heaven or hell.
God’s mercy won’t allow such a thing to befall one of His creations who are persons.
Why would anyone seek oblivion? Because they are convinced (through deception) that oblivion is preferable to suffering. Why? Because they think suffering is “the unusual case” when it is actually the ubiquitously normal case.
To simply live, and therefore to believe and suffer in hope, is normal and to be endured in faith. To want to not suffer is to want joy without doing the work which is it’s prerequisite. It is the highly “unusual case”.
How do people try to avoid suffering, especially the suffering of hell? By thinking that they can do so by avoiding having beliefs, especially belief in “ultimate joy” (God).
They think that they can simply “create” joy without having to wait for it.
How do they do this? They do it by not understanding that
joy = God, and by imagining that joy = pleasure.
When the “joy” of pleasure wears thin, by “overstimulation”, and the fatigue of habitual lack of hope for the only thing truly worth hoping for makes it too hard to be other than desirous of “freedom from pain”, then it’s an easy trick to convince them that oblivion is preferable to what they wish freedom from.
But God won’t grant oblivion to His creations who are persons, because He knows oblivion is not preferable even to hell.
And when told that this is true, the “hurt one”, the hopeless one, the sinner against the Holy Spirit becomes infuriated, and flails about enraged at those who would be so “cruel” as to keep him from his oblivion, or even tell him that truth.
And the flailing about keeps the hurt one motivated to reject true joy, God, until their time is up to leave the classroom and enter eternity.
So, how do the hopeless recover so as to avoid the result of not choosing true joy over the fantasy of oblivion? By regaining the resonant hope for the joy that is true joy, of course.
Once that’s done, beliefs come, faith comes, true religion comes, and hell goes as God’s mercy needs only the tiny, but firm and resolute, handclasp of us mere puny humans.
:shamrock2:
When we believe something we are “relatively sure” that it’ll hold true in the future, but we are also a bit “anxious” that it might not hold true, and that “anxiety” is an unavoidable suffering.
Therefore, any belief creates suffering.
To be alive is to suffer from having beliefs. But why do we accept this suffering? Because we know that to not do do so is to not be alive.
The negative result of our suffering for our beliefs is disappointment and fear of the unknown.
The positive result of our suffering for our beliefs is joy of “knowing truth”.
When beliefs are held through time, that is faith, and beliefs are held in faith for a reason. What is that reason? The reason is hope. Hope for what? Hope for the joy of holding a correct belief.
Now, why go through the suffering of holding to beliefs in faith through time when there is no guarantee that that suffering will be rewarded by the joy of “being right”?
Because if that which is hoped for resonates in us as “being a good thing” then that creates motivation to get that which is hoped for, by enduring our suffering.
Thus, we have faith in hope while suffering for our beliefs.
(( You’ll notice at this point that I’ve uncharacteristically not mentioned God yet in this piece of writ. Are you as surprised as I am!?
))The things that we believe, taken as a gestalt, is our religion. It is unique to each individual. No one holds a perfectly congruent religion with any other person. But we can certainly agree on some beliefs, and in so much as the gestalt of our beliefs are in fact quite largely congruent with another’s gestalt we can say we have the same religion.
But, since we all have SOME set of beliefs, no one can claim that they have “no religion”.
Do we all hope for the joy of being right concerning “the truth”? Yes, we do.
What happens when we find out we aren’t right? We experience disappointment and anxiety (ill-at-ease-ness), instead of joy.
That “disappointment and anxiety” is hell.
The “joy” is heaven.
Does heaven and hell have an “opposite”? Yes. It’s called “oblivion”. The great gray “blandness”.
Even hell is preferable to this “oblivion”. It is the awareness of awareness with nothing to be aware of.
Religion without God is an attempt at actually wanting oblivion in preference to heaven or hell.
God’s mercy won’t allow such a thing to befall one of His creations who are persons.
Why would anyone seek oblivion? Because they are convinced (through deception) that oblivion is preferable to suffering. Why? Because they think suffering is “the unusual case” when it is actually the ubiquitously normal case.
To simply live, and therefore to believe and suffer in hope, is normal and to be endured in faith. To want to not suffer is to want joy without doing the work which is it’s prerequisite. It is the highly “unusual case”.
How do people try to avoid suffering, especially the suffering of hell? By thinking that they can do so by avoiding having beliefs, especially belief in “ultimate joy” (God).
They think that they can simply “create” joy without having to wait for it.
How do they do this? They do it by not understanding that
joy = God, and by imagining that joy = pleasure.
When the “joy” of pleasure wears thin, by “overstimulation”, and the fatigue of habitual lack of hope for the only thing truly worth hoping for makes it too hard to be other than desirous of “freedom from pain”, then it’s an easy trick to convince them that oblivion is preferable to what they wish freedom from.
But God won’t grant oblivion to His creations who are persons, because He knows oblivion is not preferable even to hell.
And when told that this is true, the “hurt one”, the hopeless one, the sinner against the Holy Spirit becomes infuriated, and flails about enraged at those who would be so “cruel” as to keep him from his oblivion, or even tell him that truth.
And the flailing about keeps the hurt one motivated to reject true joy, God, until their time is up to leave the classroom and enter eternity.
So, how do the hopeless recover so as to avoid the result of not choosing true joy over the fantasy of oblivion? By regaining the resonant hope for the joy that is true joy, of course.
Once that’s done, beliefs come, faith comes, true religion comes, and hell goes as God’s mercy needs only the tiny, but firm and resolute, handclasp of us mere puny humans.
:shamrock2: