The Voyage of Life
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
If you'll excuse religion in this secular space, I believe the best thing I can do to help maintain good mental health is to simply accept that many things are out of my control, and that I must submit myself to the divine, and accept that whatever happens is what has been chosen for me. Which is not to abdicate self-determination, only to accept that I can't control everything.
Stoics say things happen, but you can control your reactions. Comedians say shit happens, but you can laugh about it. Religious folk say events occur, but it’s god’s plan. Buddhists say reality doesn’t care about you, but you can accept that it is what it is. Even poker players say that you gotta play the cards you have, not the cards you wish you had.
All the same. Don’t let the framing distract you from the insight.
In the Christian faith alone, there are over two thousand years worth of literature to contend with, much of it concerned with evergreen concerns like how to be a decent person or what our relationship to be to money and possessions should be. That literature is being added to every week: fresh sermons, both populist and abstruse, are written and delivered every week.
Rejection of the keystone of that writing is something I disagree with, but not on any rational basis. Many who do so, however, also admit into their own hearts and minds a false caricature of the religious intellectual tradition. And that is well worth knocking down.
The bigotry of our evangelical childhood is a big part of why my brother killed himself as a successful adult and father.
I don't need patronizing characterization of my rejection as willful ignorance. I am not ignorant, merely decided. If you wish to continue to follow those dialogs do so, but drop the superiority.
We're already well off the rails of the original post here, but I do want to say that I share your anger at evangelicalism. Their fundamentalism has made the name of Christianity synonymous with hate and corruption in the US. So...you will find company in your anger with us, too.
Take for example this: "religious fairy tales" - now, perhaps your categorization of what is and is not a religious fairy tale is logically & epistemically perfect, but it is certainly not true of all people who say or believe such things, something I know from extensive experience conversing with atheists, scientific materialists, etc. I've also noticed that people have a tendency to judge the cognitive errors committed by those within their ingroup more charitably than those who are in their outgroups - not a particularly rational behavior, and plausibly a decent way to form incorrect beliefs, yet few have any interest in the phenomenon, especially sometimes.
I find the bad faith arguments exhausting. If you won't even acknowledge that not all religions are like Christianity and involve a God, then I has l can have this conversation in the comments section of YouTube.
As an aside, I'm a Muslim. It's a sad development that the liberal atheists that used to be my biggest allies, but as of late Ive received more criticism from liberals than conservatives. That stuff is regularly on the front page of reddit now
What if we had no struggle, and everything we wanted we instantly had?
Something tells me that life would be zapped of its meaning and pleasure.
Suffering, even pain, are like the opposite side of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other, so when facing struggles, try to view it as such; the necessary component in a fulfilling life.
This is true to some limited extent, but it seems wrong to think of the distinction between happiness is suffering as entirely or even mostly about contrast.
For example, consider a person who has, through some combination of disability, misfortune, and the malice of others, never had any positive moments in their entire life. If you had the power to do so, would it be unnecessary to help them out of their situation? After all, they have no happy memories to contrast their situation against. If you can't guarantee that they won't return to their previous situation, a contrast-based view implies that you would actually be doing harm by putting their past and future suffering into perspective.
When you have no say over what happens to you, contrasting a painful present with a pleasant past is a valuable coping mechanism, but it's also important to not justify suffering(especially the suffering of others) on such grounds in general terms.
To be clear, I'm not accusing you of doing that, just talking about what I've heard from other people on the topic.
Enjoyed the read. Thank you for posting OP.
It's not paraphrasing, Wikipedia has directly stolen the National Gallery of Art's description. This whole section is copied verbatim, except the last word "nature" has been changed to "the land itself" and "ever more turbulent" has been inserted in the middle to describe the stream:
"Cole's renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal hero along the "River of Life." Confidently assuming control of his destiny and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of "Youth" and its aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries him toward the next picture in the series, where nature's fury, evil demons, and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.
From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the hero's triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole's intrepid voyager also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for both man and"
Even with the disclaimer as a citation, this is plagiarism.
I'm at that stage of life right now, learning that many of the ideals fed into young minds like I once was were, in fact, just ideals and practically irrelevant to the road of life ahead. That the world of humanity is, in fact, not rainbows and unicorns but vicious and uncaring.
The eloquence of his message strikes deep.