I mean when the Lord’s intent is that we learn how to choose good for ourselves for no reason but because we recognize its inherent value as the act of choosing good, it kinda does shake out that most if not all random moments of shit and horror and people being able to do horrible things are by intent. Sure doesn’t make such an observer happy, but it would be going according to their overall plan so long as the long arc continues to bend towards justice.
Free will isn’t just compatible with a Creator’s intent, the current state of the world would suggest that for a hypothetical creator of us, it was the entire point.
Organized religion CAN be a tool of mass control, but when Marx called it the opiate of the masses, he was speaking on how it is the only reprieve the working class has from the crush of the capitalist grind.
Spirituality has been an important component of movements of labor solidarity and liberation as much as it’s been a tool of oppression and atrocity, because it’s a tool, it does what the wielder wants it to.
Again we’re at the point where we’re talking about parts of it that aren’t the point though. The point is to be a community that encourages folks to be good to each other, and then individually to understand the value of projecting goodness to the world around you, if you get that without belief, right on man, but for some folks the experience is something that warrants a spiritual connection, and we shouldn’t treat them as less than because that’s what gets them to the food bank or the library volunteer line.
I mean when the Lord’s intent is that we learn how to choose good for ourselves for no reason but because we recognize its inherent value as the act of choosing good, it kinda does shake out that most if not all random moments of shit and horror and people being able to do horrible things are by intent. Sure doesn’t make such an observer happy, but it would be going according to their overall plan so long as the long arc continues to bend towards justice.
Free will isn’t just compatible with a Creator’s intent, the current state of the world would suggest that for a hypothetical creator of us, it was the entire point.
Organized religion CAN be a tool of mass control, but when Marx called it the opiate of the masses, he was speaking on how it is the only reprieve the working class has from the crush of the capitalist grind.
Spirituality has been an important component of movements of labor solidarity and liberation as much as it’s been a tool of oppression and atrocity, because it’s a tool, it does what the wielder wants it to.
Again we’re at the point where we’re talking about parts of it that aren’t the point though. The point is to be a community that encourages folks to be good to each other, and then individually to understand the value of projecting goodness to the world around you, if you get that without belief, right on man, but for some folks the experience is something that warrants a spiritual connection, and we shouldn’t treat them as less than because that’s what gets them to the food bank or the library volunteer line.