(August 30, 2018 at 12:01 pm)polymath257 Wrote:(August 30, 2018 at 11:05 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Poly, may I ask you why? I'm not trying to change your mind or challenge you. I am genuinely curious to understand your perspective.
Hypothetical scenario:
At the moment of your death God appears before you and you realize at that moment that you were wrong about Him. He isn't an evil monster, or a tyrant like you always thought He would be if He were real. Things that you misunderstood about Him would be made clear. You see that He is good and loving. And you see that not only is He good and loving, but that He is literally goodness and love itself. And you understand at that moment that choosing to accept His love would mean complete fulfillment. It wouldn't be boring or bad, like you thought. It would be the ultimate fulfillment - complete joy and love.
Furthermore, choosing to "accepting His love" wouldn't be of any cost to you. All it means is that you reject greed (which is the opposite of love), admit/feel remorse for your wrongdoings and mistakes, and desire true goodness and love going forward. That is all accepting God's love would imply. (Think The Prodigal Son)
Why wouldn't you choose that? I'm just trying to understand why any good person wouldn't.
(Anyone else can answer this hypothetical as well)
You propose a scenario that makes no sense to me. Sure, we could have some powerful entity that is good and loving. But that is quite different than being 'goodness' and 'love' themselves. And those are psychological entities, NOT some all powerful force.
Furthermore, I *already* reject greed, feel remorse for my mistakes, and desire to be good and loving. So it is a question of whether this 'good and loving' entity wants to accept *me* as opposed to the other way around.
But I also don't consider perpetual 'love and joy' to be the same as fulfillment. That is, in many ways, closer to a drug high than reality. I prefer to see the world as it is: full of badness as well as goodness, full of possibilities of achievement, but also failure, complex and not simple. Being blissful is quite distinct from fulfillment, and often is in exactly the opposite direction.
Can you just answer the hypothetical?
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh
