you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]LarrySwinger2 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Yes. The Old Testament was written before the Axial age, when people were more focused on this world. But Christianity takes away from this message. By the time it develops, you have Paul who hates the body and what not.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

But what do you think and feel about Paul hating the body and everything? Do you agree with Paul on that?

[–]LarrySwinger2 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I find it difficult. It's a view that's very much in line with my own propensities. I've always felt like physicality unto itself introduces a level of superficiality. For example, somebody can be clumsy, and they will be judged for that. We can have deeper interactions if we focus on personality alone. That's what I always loved about the Internet: it lets us interact based on text alone, so that our intellectual parts can come to the forefront. You can get to know someone in a unique way through the Internet. It's also why I detested so much that people were trying to make the Internet like real life, where your actions are tied to your real name and a photo is more or less required. (This is even enforced socially, where people become suspicious if you don't include a photo of yourself.)

As you can see, I care about a deeper life in the here and now, and I agree with Paul insofar as the view promises that. But Paul's view was somewhat different and predicated on the belief in an afterlife: he hates his human body and longs for a perfected body after death. This is problematic because it cannot be falsified and reason doesn't apply to it. Instead, it has more to do with feeling to me. If I try to summarize Paul, it will sound silly, but that's very different from what you get out of it when you actually read scriptures. The state of mind it puts you in when you do can be beneficial even if you don't believe in it in any literal way. That's as far as my answer goes; I haven't really made up my mind about it.