/lit/ - Literature

>>4155004
>Name
Anoneemoose

>Age
18

>Profession
Student

>Marital Status
Single

>Religion
Agnostic/anti-theist

>Where are you from?
Tennessee, USA

>(1) What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Nothing, I sleep from 2pm-10pm and stay up all night. But what gets me up and out of the dorm in the morning is classes and friends.

>(2) If you could have lunch with one person who has ever or does exist, who would it be? Why?
Chirstopher Hitchens because he's been one of the most influential speakers and writers of my life time, and now that he's dead he would be able to tell me if his conclusions about the afterlife (or lack thereof) were correct.

>(3) Where do good ideas come from/ what does "good thinking" mean to you?
Good ideas come from smart people, good ideas are that which have a reasonable amount of justification for believing/thinking.

>(4) What motivates good work?
The payoff of the work.

>(5) What determines success?
Success is different for each individual, some quantify if in money, others knowledge.It really depends on the individual (sometimes both).

All right, guys. Here's a little thing I've been working on. Interested in opinions.

You'll notice I do not make every reference possible. I don’t want to waste your time.

There are various passages in the Bible/Torah (i.e. Luke 18:19 and Psalms 16:2) that indicate God is without human flaw. However, anger and jealousy are human flaws (for they severely negatively inhibit our ability to think), and God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). Therefore, according to the Torah/Bible, God is in contradiction, and as we know, no being can be self contradictory (note here the difference between cognitive dissonance/dichotomies and contradiction)(and if you try to argue that the Holy Trinity is self contradictory, you're an idiot).

Therefore, either God does not exist, God is either without human flaw, thereby negating parts of the Bible/Torah, or He is with human flaw. One thing that IS certain: The Bible/Torah is not necessarily always accurate and therefore is open to interpretation freely.

Ignore the first, we could spend far too long make arguments for and against this. Assume the last. God has human flaws, and is therefore not a perfect being, and therefore God is not truly the almighty perfect force of the universe. So, assume the second so that we can maintain God.

Jesus, according to the Bible, was the savior, messiah, son of God, and God himself. (Luke 22:70. If not, try John 3:16). But, wait, are we not all God's children (Acts 17:29)? Okay, okay, but we are not God. But wait, God is everywhere, everything (Jeremiah 23:23-24, Ephesians 4:6). God, then, is in the chair upon which you sit, He is in the screen you now stare into, the words I now write. He is in me and you. You and I, then, in a sense, are God. Does this make us Messiah? (Look this one up yourselves, I'm lazy) We cannot all be messiahs, can we?

What is the role of a messiah? To bring peace, to offer redemption, to "save" us all, so to speak, from eternal Damnation, doomed to Live (or die) in Hell. To quote Marcus Aurelius, "Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lives by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have libed a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."

What if the way to "save" ourselves isn't to believe in God, but rather, to lead virtuous lives? But with so many people dying ignorant, idiotic, full of hatred, so many people are damned to... Hell... All you depressed people know, life is Hell. And if this is Hell, we are already Damned. Or, perhaps, when we die, we are... resurrected, so to speak. That is, reborn, reincarnated, back on earth, to live again. Another chance at life, at becoming our own Messiahs, saviors. As many bumper stickers falsely quoting Gandhi have said "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Marcus Aurelius - Meditations.

From the quote it looks like he's onto something.

Is it worth a read?

>>3741207

And as for me, it has to be Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.

>>3571819
Do you even Meditations?