Ari: It's a parable. A rich man opens the paper one day. He sees the world is full of misery. He says, "I have money. I can help." So he gives away all of his money. But it's not enough. The people are still suffering. One day, the man sees another article. He decides he was foolish to think just giving money was enough. So he goes to the doctor and says, "Doctor, I want to donate a kidney." The doctors do the surgery. It's a complete success. After, he knows he should feel good, but he doesn't, for people are still suffering. So he goes back to the doctor. He says, "Doctor, this time I want to give it all." The doctor says, "What does that mean, 'Give it all'?" He says, "This time I want to donate my liver. But not just my liver. I want to donate my heart, but not just my heart. I want to donate my corneas, but not just my corneas. I want to give it all away. Everything I am. All that I have." The doctor says, "A kidney is one thing, but you can't give away your whole body piece by piece. That's suicide." And he sends the man home. But the man cannot live knowing that the people are suffering and he could help. So he gives the one thing he has left. His life. Gus: ...And does it work? Does it stop the suffering? Ari: You live in the world. What do you think? Gus: So he killed himself for nothing? Ari: Did he? Gus: Well, I mean... You're saying... What are you saying? Ari: Only a fool thinks he can solve the world's problems. Gus: ...Yeah, but you gotta try, don't you? —Fargo, "The Six Ungraspables"

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1. djsumdog (djsumdog@djsumdog.com)'s status on Sunday, 24-Dec-2023 14:02:03 JST djsumdog

   in reply to

   Being all of God's children, makes human beings equal under God. We can only be equal under God because we are inherently unequal. Interpreted one way, do not covet because your father will reward you in heaven (Book of Job story). The Marxists claim this is an an opiate so people don't fight for good now. The ultra-progressive wants actual equality for humans that are unequal: equity. They want the equality God promises in the afterlife, but right now when it's not deserved. It's really interesting to look at and understand that balance.

   As far as rich bad/sell all your possessions: Jesus is the idea of the perfect. No human being can help every homeless person on the street. Even church ministries will tell you there are some homeless people they have to turn away, because they will not follow the simplest rules, and pull everyone else down. Jesus is the ideal that was never real, because it cannot be real. But it's what humanity aspires to as the ultimate ideal. Unfortunately, it's tempered by that Parable from season one of Fargo (pictured below)

   Christianity certainly did give us the modern idea of victimhood being virtue. But it was in the context of suffering refining people like a stone being rounded in the stream. The post-modernist raises up the victim, but without all the other stuff to temper it.

   I agree, the idea of being a slave to sin and redeemed by God to be kinda fucked up; as well as the atonement of blood sacrifices. At the same time, rituals help us deal with doing horrific things, like killing other animals to eat, or infanticide (killing what society cannot take care of).

   I don't think Christianity alone can survive in its current form another thousand years, but I am curious what it could be supplemented or replaced with. You don't get to chose not to have a religion, only which religion to believe in.