Personal Developement

[vulcanlogician]

I can agree with you somewhat. There is a certain strain of anarcho-pacifism inherent in Christianity. If it is interpreted liberally, and practiced with a high degree of conscience, Christianity can be a force for good. One may even argue that it was, in pagan Rome, for a hot minute... until the Christians themselves came to power. Then it was almost immediately a bloodbath. There is just too much baggage in the scripture. And besides, as far as I'm concerned-- IT'S WRONG. There is no deity who led the Israelites to the promised land and bestowed upon them hundreds of bizarre laws. To think so is pure delusion.

But if you are interested in the pacifistic portion of Christianity, try checking out the first three chapters of Tolstoy's What I Believe... He also has a neat take on what I would call Christian existentialism in Confession. (thousands of times easier to read than Kierkegaard). If you tend to view the peaceful aspects of Christianity charitably, as I do, you might want to check those out. And before I forget, three good books to start with for Nietzsche are:

1. Twilight of the Idols (easiest to read)
2. Beyond Good and Evil (will open your mind RIGHT the fuck up)
3. Thus Spoke Zarathustra (most poetic and interesting)

[notimportant1234]

Thank you for the book references. I don t know that this is true or just ehat they teach now but the monk sayed to me that the Old Testament should have been used until Jesus( to keep the primitive people in line or something like that) and after Jesus only the New Testament should be used. The Old Testament is what made me dismiss all religions firstly.

[vulcanlogician]

Yeah, even the New Testament is messed up. If you like some of the teachings, and wish to incorporate them into your life, read it like I read Plato. Sure, Plato was wrong about a ton of stuff, but he had some really good ideas too. Use your conscience and proclivity toward wisdom to discern what is valuable. Be like the wise ant (as the Eastern fable goes) who finds a grain of sugar stuck to a grain of sand. The whole thing is cumbersome and hard to carry. But what he eventually does is cut the grain of sugar away with his pincers and carries it back to the colony, leaving the grain of sand where he found it.

EDIT: It would be QUITE absurd to take a book of Plato's and treat everything in it as truth and live your life that way; don't do that with any book.

[notimportant1234]

Well this is the way I aproach every book , trying to get the good ideas out of it. Even if the guy is a genius hr still has emotion and can't help himself to be subjective on some topics.

[vulcanlogician]

I think you'll dig Tolstoy. I'm a fairly hard-nosed atheist and I found it meaningful.

[notimportant1234]

I have a lot of things that I need to read but I have to concentrate on college for a few weeks , but I'll leave on a voyage for 6 months and I plan to use that solitary time to read .

[vulcanlogician]

Where to?

[notimportant1234]

Commercial navy , I'll be on sea the rest is unknown. In order to be an officer you need to have 12 months of practice on a ship.
About folowing Plato word by word , in the case of Nietzche you will be doing exactly the oposite of what he intended to acomplish with his work.

[vulcanlogician]

You are correct about that. Nietzsche outright says it. Anyway, man. I'm heading off here... Nice chat. Good luck with everything. PM me if you ever wanna chat, especially about books.

[notimportant1234]

Good luck to you too , I'll keep that in mind.