(February 6, 2020 at 11:22 pm)ColdComfort Wrote: My own personal view is pain in this world often does not matter. A lot of it is just random and meaningless. Like other animals I avoid it. But it's temporary. It comes to an end.
Not chronic pain which can last for decades. It is estimated that over 40% of Americans suffer from chronic pain and one fifth of them will suffer it for more than 20 years. Chronic pain affects more people than cancer, heart disease, and diabetes combined. It can be hugely debilitating.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
