| Topic: |
Sociology > Depression |
| User: |
"Bodhisattvacat" |
| Date: |
03 Sep 2004 01:18:30 PM |
| Object: |
"If your eye tempts you, pluck it out" |
Jesus said, "If your eye tempts you, pluck it out." I suggest that that
is a poor way to go through life. Temptations are to be understood; to
be seen through to their conclusion. The nature of what tempts must be
considered, thought about, studied if necessary, and then either
accepted if it is for the good - or discarded, with full weight of
intellectual understanding, if it is for ill.
Someone might say that all temptations are for ill. I say that is not
so; I say that beautiful things can be arrived at through intelligent
handling of what is tempting. It is very well be possible that what
tempts you is good; that the outer beauty of something might reflect
its inner beauty, or correlate with it. A woman who is good inside,
seeks to be her best - and that may very well mean, among other things,
looking her best and having a beautiful soul. It is very well possible
to be led through that which is good and legitimately tempting to good
outcomes. Which good outcomes become impossible to attain if one plucks
out one's eyes.
Even the bad things can be for the better; for they may add life
experience and wisdom. Once again, wisdom becomes impossible to attain
if one were to pluck out one's eyes. The New Testament command to "be
wise as snakes and gentle as doves" demands a way to attain wisdom -
life experience, intelligent analysis, experience of others. I
therefore consider that statement of Jesus to be incorrect, and I would
be willing to defend my position at the Last Judgment.
An acquaintance of mine used to be in the Outlaws bike gang. He gained
tons of understanding from all he has been through and all he has seen,
and when he raised his kids he was able to tell them precisely the
consequences of different things they wanted to do. Because they
understood the consequences, they were able to intelligently resist the
temptations for bad things and became very successful people. I
consider this way of raising kids - through knowledge, through engaging
the mind of the child and telling him the facts of life gained through
one's own or someone else's experience - to be a far superior way to
raise children than authoritarianism or tearing down the children's
self-esteem; one that makes their minds the ally, not the enemy, of
their upbringing, and lets them develop themselves through intelligent
guidance rather than bludgeoning into intelligent, responsible,
successful people who know the consequences of their actions and
intelligently choose to do what is good.
Then what is my view on God? I believe in a relationship with God that
is intelligent and synergistic - that involves a give-and-take, within
the framework of goodwill and respect, and involves both one's thoughts
and Biblical wisdom. God has not always been right; there was time when
He wanted to kill off the Jews, and Moses convinced Him not to do it.
Man's perspective supplements God's and completes it. For as long as
you know that you are man and God is God, He is willing to listen to
you and reason with you and consider if you have a thought that He had
not known before. Which original thinking, given that we are made in
God's image, is a part and birthright of being a human being. I reject
Luther's stance that people are maggots and filth and that women's only
purpose is to have children; I reject the idea that all people in power
are there by will of God, or that women have to be silent because Eve
had eaten the forbidden fruit, or that the best people can do is
obedience. Rather, I embrace a collaborative relationship that gives
human thought a place in supplementing God's.
It is through this combination of man's and God's wisdom that the
Western civilization has been able to get from medieval ugliness to its
present state. Man's mind is a cornucopia of creative, inventive,
explorative resources that, being made in God's image, contains great
treasures and can go a long way toward improving people's lives. For as
long as you stay in touch with God and honor Him, your thoughts can be
an excellent addition to the world we live in. The caveat, is to be
able to think through things intelligently and be able to defend one's
decisions in light of what is said in the Bible. In this manner
intelligent, volitional creatures can relate best to God and the world.
Ilya Shambat
http://www.geocities.com/drr0cket
.
|
|
| User: "dennis" |
|
| Title: Re: "If your eye tempts you, pluck it out" |
03 Sep 2004 12:19:38 PM |
|
|
On 3 Sep 2004 11:18:30 -0700, (Bodhisattvacat)
wrote:
Jesus said, "If your eye tempts you, pluck it out."
way too much to read snipped.
When I wa in utah there was a news report of an arm being found in a
dumpster. police were searching for the rest of the body and clues to
the killer. about 10 am there was a new report. the man was found
walking across a bridge with a bloody bandage on his arm. when police
asked him what happened he quoted, "if thy right hand offend thee, cut
it off"
.
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
