I Really Hate The Concept Of Free Will

[Esquilax]

From Swedenborg's Divine Providence -

Certain spirits by permission ascended from hell and said to me, You have written many things from the Lord; write something from us, too. I replied, What shall I write? They said, Write that every spirit, whether good or wicked, is in his own delight; the good spirit is in the delight of his good and the wicked spirit is in the delight of his evil. I then asked, What is your delight? And they replied that it was the delight of committing adultery, stealing, defrauding and telling lies. Again I asked, What are these delights like? They replied, They are perceived by others as offensive odours from excrement, and as the putrid smell from dead bodies, and as the reeking stench from stagnant urine pools. I then said, Are they delightful to you? And they replied, They are most delightful. I said, Then you are like unclean beasts that live in such filth. To this they replied, If we are, we are; nevertheless, such things are a delight to our nostrils.

So, when I die my spirit goes to hell and becomes a convenient straw-unbeliever cartoon character that sounds exactly like the bluntest, most simplistic dishonest caricature a fundamentalist religious whackjob could come up with? I'll essentially become the villain in a Chick Tract?

Now, you also mentioned orgies before as being devoid of intimacy, which I can't help but think of being a result of the same cartoon character logic the above passage is made of. Speaking as someone who's actually been in an orgy (does seven people count as an orgy? I think it does. ) I can tell you that depending on the makeup of the group it can be very intimate indeed. I maintained close relationships with the others in my little group for a number of years, and still count them all among my friends now.

I guess things don't work in simplistic binaries after all! hock: