/lit/ - Literature

>>21259848
Stop posting blasphemous images and develop a life of prayer, even if you think that it feels silly at first. Ask and you shall receive

>>21259857
I think I've come across a similar idea from Pascal.
“Kneel down, pray, act as if you believe, and belief will come by itself."

Any books about prayer, conversion, or noobs experiencing God?

>>21259866
The bible and catechism

>>21259875
Nevermind. I'll try reddit

>>21259848
Unironically study NDEs and realize that there actually is an afterlife and that we are eternal and will go to heaven unconditionally when we die. Of course, believing NDEs is not the same thing as being Christian, but once you believe in _some_ form of spirituality, or rather actually know that the divine is real, it may be easier to accept whatever tweaking or branch of Christianity you want to adhere to. And unlike the Bible, the literature on NDEs is so convincing that no serious investigator has not been convinced by it (pseudoskeptics never actually read the literature, they just assume that it must be false because their worldview, usually materialism, must be correct).

Of course, nothing gets normies and NPCs more uncomfortable than the idea that NDEs are ACTUALLY real, and that there are valid reasons to think that they are and that we should take them seriously.

Here is an extremely persuasive argument for why NDEs are real:

https://youtu.be/U00ibBGZp7o

It makes a huge deal about the fact that NDErs are representative of the population as a whole, and that when people go deep into the NDE, they all become convinced. As this article points out:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mysteries-consciousness/202204/does-afterlife-obviously-exist

>"Statistics collected show that the "deeper" the NDE the greater the percentage of those who come away certain of the existence of the afterlife. Among those with the deepest experiences 100 percent came away agreeing with the statement, "An afterlife definitely exists"."

Since NDErs are representative of the population as a whole, and they are all convinced, then 100% of the population become convinced that there is an afterlife when they have a sufficiently deep NDE themselves. And so would you, me, or anyone, including the most dogmatic atheists and skeptics, because it is VASTLY more self-evidently real than this brief little experience of life on Earth we have now. When you dream and wake up, you instantly realize that life is more real than your dreams. When you have an NDE, the same thing is happening, but on a higher level, as you immediately realize that life is the deep, deep dream and the NDE world is the undeniably real world by comparison.

>>21260168
>there actually is an afterlife and that we are eternal and will go to heaven unconditionally when we die
So there's no criteria? I can pillage and plunder and do that other thing too? And—poof—instant access to heaven?

call local parish and priest will give you full guidance. Don't bother with protestantism or evangelism. Catholicism is fullness of faith and truth. Start with small prayers, read some books (about saints or whatever). Calo Acutis, young saint might be an inspiration. Its a short and easy read. You might learn a thing or two about faith.

>>21259879
Retard

>>21259848
read the bible in ancient greek

>>21260245
you shouldn't judge people or be hypocritical.

>>21259848
Why would you want to convert to Christianity?

>>21260825
Just stating a fact is neither of those things

>>21259857
fpbp

You can't understand so you may have faith but have faith so you may understand

Read up on miracles. Once you realize how undeniable they are and their surprising abundance, you will begin to accept how diminished the modern conception of reality it.

>>21261179
>if the canonical just-trust-me stories weren't doing it for you, here's more!
lol, lmao even

Here's a quick summary that got me to intellectually accept Christianity.
> TAG refutes atheism
> Monism is illogical and incoherent
> Dualism is illogical and incoherent
> Christian trinity is logical and coherent
So in the end, it's a choice between the Christian trinity or abject skepticism/agnosticism. Since the latter is not really a position and can't be argued for or sustained, that leaves only the Christian trinity.
Where I'm at now is having accepted Christianity intellectually, the theology, the ethics, the morality, the dogma, but not sincerely believing in my heart or feeling intuitively. I'm working on that, but it's hard.

>>21261201
>well, there can't be one thing
>and if there isn't one thing, there can't be two since we'd need two of the one's
>that must mean... one thing is three things
bravo christers, I guess this is what happens when half-literate provincials do neoplatonism

>>21261201
I guess thinking about it, it's a presuppositionalist argument. I think presuppositionalist arguments easily demonstrate why atheism, monism, and dualism don't make sense. As for Christianity, the premise of believe is a revelation, but it's what specifically that's being revealed that makes acceptance of revelation logical. A lot of people seem to not get that last bit.

>>21261221
This is a strawman. I did not say the things you suggested I did.

>>21259848
Unitarian? So nothing.

What do you get when you mix a Unitarian and a Jehovah’s Witness?
Someone who rings the doorbell but doesn’t know why.

>>21261230
If monism and dualism are wrong, why would a trinity be correct? Why not a quadrilogy for instance? Is there any... reason? And getting this right is of gnostico-soteriological importance because?

>>21259848
I’m sorry but you will never experience true, joyous and genuine Christian faith like people in the past. Science and the industrial revolution destroyed such faith.

>>21259848
https://archive.org/details/Philokalia-TheCompleteText
have fun, this is 1700 years of knowledge from Mt Athos

whats the best version of the bible for a catholic

>>21261201
Sorry anon, I'm living the quad life. Far more adventure in my 4x4 then a trike.

Mere Christianity and >>21259857 this

>>21259857

>>21260278
Is there,s a remaining copyof that ?

>>21261179
seems like an interesting book

>>21261195
>just-trust-me stories
None of the Gospels were written as "juat-trust-me" stories. Like especially goes out of his way to establish his credibility. Likewise, the miracles in the biok have been extensively documented and investigated. Atheists are more often than not the ones accepting or dismissing things without proof, hence their deference for dubious "expert" proclamations.

>>21261240
Monistic and dualistic doctrines can't justify their own doctrines. In a monistic or dualistic view, true knowledge should be impossible. A triadic conception is the only one that can give an account for knowledge. The Christianity is just the most coherent and consistent conception of triadism. So when you ask how Christians know what they know about God, they actually have an answer that doesn't contain fallacies, while no one else does. In the end, that's what we're dealing with here, the nature of God, ultimate reality, and religion has to be able to account for its claims somehow. Otherwise, you can choose to believe, but you'd have no reason to. 3 can't be said to be reducible to sets of 1s or 2s without also being 3 (three 1s is actually 3) while every number beyond 3 is reducible to 1s, 2s, or 3s (4 is just two sets of 2 and not actually it's own distinct thing) thus anything beyond 3 would actually just be a monad, a dyad, or a triad. I think you can find some trace of this argument in Augustine iirc.

>>21261241
>Science and the industrial revolution destroyed such faith.
Only for the incurious midwits who takes everything "experts" say at face value.

>>21261780
>Atheists are more often than not the ones accepting or dismissing things without proof,
The Roman surgeon Galen, almost two thousand years ago, in his writings jokingly referred to Christians as persons who accept claims without evidence. This is very much your problem and not mine and has been that way for some time.
>>21261784
Of course you'd be able to find traces of it in Augustine because he is doing a bastardized form of neoplatonic theology, except instead of relying on Homer or Hesiod (or Orpheus, for those in the know) for his fabulized dogmas he is instead relying on Judaean literature.

>>21261813
>Freud
>pre-fedora
Just another incredulous atheist taking the unsupported conjectures of a pervert jew at face value.

>>21261786
Another idiot on Twitter who doesn't understand science. Color me shocked.

>>21259848
In my experience, you can't read yourself into Christianity. You can read arguments that convince you into belief in a God but that alone probably won't get you what you want. Being a Christian requires you to be part of a community, to actively practice the religion and to have some kind of relationship with God. I'm not saying a book can't help but without knowing where you are in life, it's hard to know where to start.
>were you raised Christian/do you have any baseline knowledge of Christianity?
>Are you starting as an atheist or theist?
>Do you have any kind of academic background in science or philosophy?
>Why do you think you might want to be a Christian?

>>21261786
How can someone be so outrageously misinformed? Is he doing it with malicious intent?
In what fucking way is a man who has androgen insensitivity closer to a woman? What the fuck

>>21261838
Freud is of the same... background... as your bible authors you retarded christer

>>21261911
Edomites aren't ancient israelites.

>>21261919
I'm going to take it at face value that if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's definitely not a river otter, and river otters didn't write the Bible.

>>21261946
>I believe what edomite "jews" say at face value
Scratch an atheist, find a good goy.

>>21259848
You don't need to read anything. Just open your heart to Christ and the rest will work itself out. Then read the bible.

If there is such a book, I haven't found it yet.

I suspect no book or argument will. Only some spiritual or transcendent experience can. But no one seems to have a reliable method for inducing such a state.

Cs Lewis is great if you don't really want a rational argument for Christianity but more an emotional one and a rundown on the basic tenants of the modern faith which may be hard to grasp from the bible alone.

>>21261955
I'll admit I am a little confused here. You do worship one of "them," who went by an older form of the name Joshua—lots of men with that name in a New York phonebook I'm sure—as the absolute creator, judge, and redeemer of the universe. And your reasoning behind this is that because the Romans executed him and he rose from the dead to spite them, therefore he must be the "messiah," or "Christ," prophesized in the Hebrew literature... so why are you such an anti-semite?

>>21262040
>the basic tenants
you ought to be evicted from this place

>>21262042
https://christogenea.org/podcasts/exactly-why-jesus-christ-not-jew

>>21259848
Listen to lectures from Neville Goddard; he has an interesting way that he interprets scripture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Z3hxMisyU

>>21262079
Do any of you ever put things in your own words or it's all just a matter of citing this and that left and right? I mean, it's like you're some kind of...

>>21261505
RSV CE or RSV if you can't. St. Ignatius press is great and has a leather bound for RSV CE.

>>21259848
Read Ellul.

>>21262097
>Prove Jesus wasn't a jew.
>Okay read this.
>NOOOOO! YOU HAVE TO TYPE IT OUT IN YOUR OWN WORDS!

>>21262368
Your lack of communication skills does nothing to further your point. I'm not listening to an entire podcast about why water isn't wet.

>>21262411
All the necessary information is written up right there on the page, you lazy nigger.

>>21261919
>>21262079
There was no widespread steppe or WHG ancestry in the Levant during Jewsus' time. His ancestral components would still cluster him away from Europeans.

>>21262419
I'm sure it's highly deceitful. If he wasn't one of them, why was he learned in their religion, descended from their royalty, living among them, debating their priests and clerical authorities, citing their scriptures to them, and presenting himself as the son of their god? Was he a schizophrenic Greek instead? Perhaps an Egyptian wizard?

>>21260202
No. Nobody except for people like Mother Teresa or St Francis get “instant access” to divine Providence. Laypeople have their soul cleansed in purgatory as needed. So if you raped, pillage and plundered your whole life and then really, truly sought reconciliation and felt true remorse for your sins then you would be afforded a rather long tenure in purgatory, which is basically hell-lite. After which you would be in heaven.

>>21259848
Par Lagerkvist - Barabbas

>>21262548
It sounds like you're saying none of this life-on-earth stuff matters since we're all going to the same place. Bit of a weird message but you do you

>>21262563
>
If you want to get to heaven you have to
1 Have faith in and love God, but there are cases where someone is so good that they are afforded heaven without believing in God
2 Be a good person
3 Repent

Or hellfire and then nonexistence. It’s really that simple but for some reason it filters many including (You)

>>21262597
You dogma preaching assholes with your literal interpretations have done more damage to people than you will ever realize.
The pain you have caused will not be forgotten; you have to pay for that in this life or the next.

>>21262443
Funny how you never entertain the possibility that the jews are lying.
>>21262603
You happy faggots have damned billions through complacency

>>21262443
You are confusing classical era Israelites who worshipped at the temple (and Christ denounced) with modern day Jews who follow the rules of the Talmud (which didn't even exist yet.) Christians are one branch of Israelite, Jews are another. Christian continue the old testament, and their traditions and written works are even slightly older than talmudists. Jesus was a Judean, not a Jew.

t. Hindu

>>21262603
>filtered
Maybe you should read the CCC? Or at least the pre Vatican 2 CCC. Anyways, the Church pretty much carried western civilization on its back and kept people from inbreeding their intelligence away like Muslims. Things only started to go wrong with the rejection of the faith, especially within the Church, then with Humanism and all of its consequences. It’s easy to gather that you know very little from your vague and blindly accusatory remarks so I suggest never posting on this topic again

>>21262597
So let me get this straight: the "rules" are broken on a mysterious whim for edge cases? Meanwhile everyone else is encouraged to follow them, but per your earlier post, they will all get to the same destination eventually? Is there any reason to take such rules seriously if you can be rewarded for not following them, either instantaneously or in the long-run? Who are they even for? The most capable and the least capable are fine without them; does that leave behind a code for midwits?

>>21262608
>lying
If "they" are lying, why take their scriptures seriously or worship their god as you do?

>>21259866
Have you tried going to church? You will probably learn more there than from a book. Christianity is a lifestyle, you can't understand it without living it.

>>21262612
>ducks are waterfowl, not birds

>>21262615
>the Church pretty much carried western civilization on its back

>>21262630
Interesting you choose ducks, as they are the most evolutionarily distant type of bird (along with geese) from all others (passerines). But since you like biology metaphors, what you are doing is creating a confused paraphyletic group. If anything you might say Jews are a type of Christians being Christians are older. However neither is true. Christians and Jews are both a type of Israelite, but neither is a type of the other.

>>21262678
>both a type of Israelite
That's fine, changes nothing about what I've said earlier except for the vocabulary. I am fine with you considering yourself to be the real ones and they the heretical ones. That's an even more forceful identification of you and your beliefs with them than I was making myself.

>>21262620
>So let me get this straight: the "rules" are broken on a mysterious whim for edge cases?
Edge cases so rare that they are insignificant
>Meanwhile everyone else is encouraged to follow them, but per your earlier post, they will all get to the same destination eventually?
People who sincerely share the love, values and a life of God are all entitled to heaven, which is the destination. What ultimately matters is the journey. One part of the journey there is worldly life, the second is purgatory. Your actions in life determine your time in purgatory. Someone with a life nearing perfection like St Thomas Aquinas wouldn’t spend very long at all in purgatory, while a God-fearing, repentant mass murderer would be spending a long, long time. Purgatory sucks, but it’s fairly easy to limit the time spent in that state.
>Is there any reason to take such rules seriously if you can be rewarded for not following them…?
Following these rules (though they go way deeper so please don’t take this at face value) is essentially being closer to God, which is Truth, and the origin of all good in the universe. Every action we take is striving for good, by coming closer to Him, we can begin to align our intentions of good with our actions.
TLDR God is good, that’s reason enough.
>Who are they even for? The most capable and the least capable are fine without them; does that leave behind a code for midwits?
You’re half right, most people don’t believe in and love God to escape hell, which I find can often be a midwit trap.

>>21262635
Still no argument to be found

>>21262735
>Edge cases so rare that they are insignificant
This is really the best part of Christianity, the admission that it is for the worst people

>>21262754
Explain

>>21262760
I was being sarcastic. If the goal of Christianity isn't even to produce saints but herd around low quality people why should anyone who isn't low quality bother with it?

>>21262772
Low quality of what? Of morality? Of intelligence? Of faith?

>>21262718
>t. Hindu
I thought that would make it clear I'm someone else.

Jesus is not a Jew. There have been two thousand years of divergence. Between him and Freud.

jesus christ just be a good person and feel happy because you are good. it's not that hard

>>21262840
I don't really believe you. I think you're extremely online and your grandparents were Protestants. Regardless, if both groups are just "Israelites," the quarrel they have is intra and not inter. So to someone who agrees with neither, the insults one heaps upon the other are laughable. "Don't trust Freud because he's a"... a what? The red parrot doesn't like the blue parrot—imagine that? Well what if I don't listen to parrots anyway? Should I now prefer one to the other? Bird brains.

>>21262848
>Just be a good person
You faggots are the reason civilozation is in the fucking toilet. You just redefine "good" to whatever the current thing is, you gape-mouthed reddit piece of shit.

>>21262848
Based and coomer pilled

>>21262876
Modern jews are edomites, not Israelites.

>>21262877
hmm okay. i guess calling someone a gape-mouthed piece of shit is morally acceptable to you, the authority on moral behavior.

>>21262882
>I may be a degenerate faggot, but you used mean words.
To denounce the evil and the indolent is morally right.

>>21262881
So much pilpul from you

>>21262883
i am evil?

>>21262884
Jews are the ones using pilpul to hide the fact that they are imposters. The synagogue of satan. Why are you citing Freud's pilpul as an authority?

>>21262887
Yes. You promote an evil philosophy and blaspheme. You have set yourself against God.

>>21262893
okey doke artichoke

>>21260168
Does Christianity being true predict that we will go to heaven when we are aaaalmost dead, then be cast back into our bodies, live a few more years, then go to heaven again?

>>21262890
Suppose you had a member of the NYPD and a member of the LAPD together in front of you. Is only one of them employed by a police department? You may have some esoteric theory about how LA isn't a "real" city and does not therefore have a legitimate police department, while everyone knows New York is "the city" so their police department is, but I don't care about your theory because it's nonsense. Quack quack.

>>21262876
You don't believe I'm someone else? You are right, if off by a generation, my great grandparents were protestants. Their children converted, to a cult, in the sixties then their children moved away from the Hindu David Koresh and became more orthodox. I'm not a guenonfag if that's what you are suggesting.

The other thing you are suggesting is the differences between sunni and sufi are unimportant. Which is as foolish as calling Egyptians and Indonesians the same because the are both Muslim.

>>21262927
>calling Egyptians and Indonesians the same because the are both Muslim
They both read the Koran yes? So they are both Muslims. Just so for those who consider a certain testament with a certain volcano demon to be holy scripture.

>>21262947
I understand now. You are a mental defective. Sorry to have troubled you. Was that your picture in OP? It is very cute.

>>21262876
>Bird brains
Birds are actually very intelligent and self-aware creatures, especially parrots.

>>21262428
Sus lack of Ireland there