/theology/

Luther on Retroactive Prayer — Can you pray for someone in the past?
I was thinking about praying backwards in time when I was praying that something that had already happened, but that I didn’t know the outcome of. I think it was someone else’s driving test. ... posted 7d ago with 4 replies 11 11

Luther on Retroactiv 11 11

FWIW, the Catholic idea of prayers for the dead is that it is only applicable to souls in purgatory, i.e., souls of those who died in a state of grace, and so are destined for heaven, but are still in need of spiritual purgation. The prayers help to facili... 3d ago 2 2

FWIW, the Catholic i 2 2

The devil's argument against the falseness of eden, and God's reason for evil
I have been bothered for some time by the idea that Eden is either coherent or desirable. This idea is implicit in the problem of evil: we see that reality is different from Eden in that it includes a bunch of scary dangerous uncomfortable stuff we would r... posted 4w ago with 6 replies 7 7

The devil's argument 7 7

The point of the story isn't that the devil is good or even that the devil was right. It’s that this creation (physical reality) is the good one, the pain in it is part of a greater plan and beauty, and the paradise imagined by bronze age semites is fake... 1w ago 5 5

The point of the sto 5 5

How I came to believe in the goodness of God
I was raised on what my mother called "natural history". The story of creation was one of billions of years in layers of bedrock. The story of life was the struggle of genes for resources and reproduction. When I met christians, they were the unsophisticat... posted 5mo ago with 21 replies 19 19

How I came to believ 19 19

Thank you. Sounds like Lasker goes on the infinitely expanding list of books i ought to read. Any new angles on Gnon theology are highly valuable at this point in our program. 5mo ago 3 3

Thank you. Sounds li 3 3

Why religions are good but we need new ones
I think people in modern times do not understand religion and are far too quick to dismiss them, probably because of defects they can point to in existing popular ones. Like the tenets of the popular Abrahamic religions. Sure, Abrahamic religions do have l... posted 13mo ago with 6 replies 4 4

Why religions are go 4 4

Take it up in the materialism thread. >>1754 12mo ago 3 3

Take it up in the ma 3 3

On Religion
IMO, the #1 insight I've absorbed from our general sphere is a far better grasp of the holistic significance of religion and theology within human society. In this regard, I found Wolf's article on Abraham especially insightful. I especially owe him for hi... posted 13mo ago with 13 replies 9 9

On Religion 9 9

Glorious. Right on. With respect to the other transcendentals, I've recently been thinking the way we should launch this philosophical movement is radicalizing around the natural law ("The Idea") operationalization of Truth. Beauty is very charismatic, but... 12mo ago 3 3

Glorious. Right on. 3 3

The Structure of Exoteric Ideology
Zero HP Lovecraft wrote a series of post called "Toward a Functionalist Understanding of Religion" that culminated in a proposal for a "Christian-Nietzschean" synthesis. I'm not much interested in the latter. However, in the first post in the series, he sk... posted 14mo ago with 5 replies 5 5

The Structure of Exo 5 5

I like this reframing. It's very much in the spirit of what I was thinking when I (re)posted the reference. 14mo ago 2 2

I like this reframin 2 2

Six Sufficiencies of "Religions"
I really wanted to like Religions. There were philosophical cores there that no one else was anywhere close to. They were ambitious, elite, curious, systematic, and utterly unashamed. That's what drew many of us in. ... posted 1y ago with 11 replies 9 9

Six Sufficiencies of 9 9

I will reformulate your six points as I see them from the Nietzschean perspective, especially as articulated by Dr Alamariu: ... 1y ago 5 5

I will reformulate y 5 5