Nathair/|\ Posted December 3, 2012 Posted December 3, 2012 I've been thinking that mortal life is a rite of passage, and as such it's not supposed to be easy or pleasant. It's like Hell Week at the end of BUDS, the basic training for Navy SEALS. It's meant to prepare us for what comes ahead, to become eternal Gods. 1
The Nehor Posted December 3, 2012 Posted December 3, 2012 I've been thinking that mortal life is a rite of passage, and as such it's not supposed to be easy or pleasant. It's like Hell Week at the end of BUDS, the basic training for Navy SEALS. It's meant to prepare us for what comes ahead, to become eternal Gods. It's a test. No one likes tests. Well, some people might but they are broken in the head. After this things can only get better. Unless you go to hell of course.
volgadon Posted December 3, 2012 Posted December 3, 2012 I've been thinking that mortal life is a rite of passage, and as such it's not supposed to be easy or pleasant. It's like Hell Week at the end of BUDS, the basic training for Navy SEALS. It's meant to prepare us for what comes ahead, to become eternal Gods. Interesting idea.
pmccombs1 Posted December 3, 2012 Posted December 3, 2012 I've been thinking that mortal life is a rite of passage, and as such it's not supposed to be easy or pleasant. It's like Hell Week at the end of BUDS, the basic training for Navy SEALS. It's meant to prepare us for what comes ahead, to become eternal Gods. It seems to me that most theodicies appeal to the thoughtful folk who can appreciate a good deal of adversity from time to time and for whom there is some sensibility of the place of this adversity in the long arc of their mortal existence.If life isn't to be easy or pleasant, is it not to be short and brutish also? What of the shortest, most tortured lives? What sort of test is this, that can't be comprehended by the one who suffers it, that is only ended by death, that is hardly published to the world, that agonizes in solitude?As there is little character to the life of ease and quiet, devoid of any unpleasant landmark, so there is little character to the life of pure suffering that experiences no opposition in a single moment of joy or comfort. Tell me the theodicy of the life that endures for ten minutes or one year in pain--before memory, before learning, before understanding--and then is gone. 1
volgadon Posted December 3, 2012 Posted December 3, 2012 Tell me the theodicy of the life that endures for ten minutes or one year in pain--before memory, before learning, before understanding--and then is gone.No. Isn't for any of us to say, or even to know.
pmccombs1 Posted December 3, 2012 Posted December 3, 2012 (edited) No. Isn't for any of us to say, or even to know.I can accept that, yet it remains a concern for all who feel for them that suffer. Edited December 3, 2012 by pmccombs1
blackstrap Posted December 4, 2012 Posted December 4, 2012 I can accept that, yet it remains a concern for all who feel for them that suffer. Maybe that is part of our test not theirs.
volgadon Posted December 4, 2012 Posted December 4, 2012 I've been thinking that mortal life is a rite of passage, and as such it's not supposed to be easy or pleasant. It's like Hell Week at the end of BUDS, the basic training for Navy SEALS. The IDF motto in general is "the harder the training, the easier in battle."
The Nehor Posted December 4, 2012 Posted December 4, 2012 The IDF motto in general is "the harder the training, the easier in battle."It is only easier because you can die in battle and then you are allowed to take a five minute break.
Nathair/|\ Posted December 4, 2012 Author Posted December 4, 2012 I forgot to mention that I don't think this idea works without the doctrine of the pre-existence and the idea that we signed up for it.
The Nehor Posted December 4, 2012 Posted December 4, 2012 I forgot to mention that I don't think this idea works without the doctrine of the pre-existence and the idea that we signed up for it. I still wonder what I was thinking back then.
pmccombs1 Posted December 4, 2012 Posted December 4, 2012 Maybe that is part of our test not theirs.I've considered that also, yet it is possible that suffering exists which no one ever knows about except for the person or creature subjected to it, and that the afflicted may not possess the capacity to understand the suffering or to develop character from it. In the end, I believe there is no universal theodicy. The problem of evil remains and the trilemma has not been solved. It is against the bleak possibility of the absence of God that we must prop our faith and continue onward.
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