RE: Jesus' Mission....
November 13, 2019 at 5:58 pm
(This post was last modified: November 13, 2019 at 6:08 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
It doesn't matter what other superpowers a god is alleged to have, or doesn't have. Doesn't have to be a god, either. The dilemma was best expressed in another myth by reference to a precognitive human female. Cassandra was cursed. She knew what was to come, but it being -what was to come-, she could not change it. In her case, because no one believed her. The lesson of the story is simple..when Apollo wants to grab you by the pussy, you let him.
It's an incompatibility between a future state of supposed choice, and the necessity of fatalism in the hypothetical knowledge of that future state.
Technically, it doesn't even matter whether or not a god or anyone else actually knows the future, only that the future can be known.
If that much is true, no matter who or what knows it, how, or if no one knows it, or how.....if the future "choice" between vanilla and chocolate is fixed from some point in the past, then it is not a "choice" at all. More like a selection. The same thing a vending machine does when you hit the button. Just one automaton poking another automaton, fumbling around in it's orifices. Not entirely unlike Apollo's plans for Cassandra. No choices between the lot. The god was always going to desire the woman, the woman was always going to fail to change the outcome of events, the vending machine was always going to dispense the snickers....and you were always going to "choose" that candy bar.
The christian counter to this is not to reassert the same set of circumstances that manufacture the dillemma, but to reject them both. God is "omniscient" in the sense that it knows all that can be known. Leaving wiggle room for human choice. Mooted, somewhat, by the deprivation of "sin", which constrains your choices.
It's an incompatibility between a future state of supposed choice, and the necessity of fatalism in the hypothetical knowledge of that future state.
Technically, it doesn't even matter whether or not a god or anyone else actually knows the future, only that the future can be known.
If that much is true, no matter who or what knows it, how, or if no one knows it, or how.....if the future "choice" between vanilla and chocolate is fixed from some point in the past, then it is not a "choice" at all. More like a selection. The same thing a vending machine does when you hit the button. Just one automaton poking another automaton, fumbling around in it's orifices. Not entirely unlike Apollo's plans for Cassandra. No choices between the lot. The god was always going to desire the woman, the woman was always going to fail to change the outcome of events, the vending machine was always going to dispense the snickers....and you were always going to "choose" that candy bar.
The christian counter to this is not to reassert the same set of circumstances that manufacture the dillemma, but to reject them both. God is "omniscient" in the sense that it knows all that can be known. Leaving wiggle room for human choice. Mooted, somewhat, by the deprivation of "sin", which constrains your choices.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
