Maggie's Farm

This was a so-so article about a really intriguing phenomenon. Thanks for the link, and for encouraging us to dust off our Plato...

The down and dirty way of addressinig such people nowadays is to ask "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy!"

I could relate it to Jesus' words about "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." A righteous exterior, and cruel interior. Many modern Christians tend to likewise loosely label people Pharasaical for being sanctimonious. See this brief outline of the three main sects within Judaism during the time of CHrist to see how simplistic this is...

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/sadducees_pharisees_essenes.html

Phoenix, I would answer your question (hesitantly, as you are more skilled with logic than I am) simply that I don't believe God needs anyone to protect Him. But it reveals our true nature to Him whether we try to or not: "32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." (Matt 10-:32) We need to do so, because that is how we learn the breadth and depth of our commitment to anything. You are willing to defend what you love. Also, although we cannot hurt God, our actions have huge effects on our fellow humanoids, and God cares what we do because He cares about all of His creatures. I wonder if perhaps He wants to see if we get it, if we can proclaim even a rough aproximation of who He is. I imagine Him wincing at the Rabbi Kushner heresy of saying God doesn't create Natural Disasters, but is a kind of cheerleader and comforter (a Cosmic Rogerian therapist!

It's interesting that we are at our most revolting when we are beinig self-righteous. We all fall into this trap. The trouble with the dialogue described is that it implies that only a few people belong to this obnoxious type. In fact, it is part of all of us...

For myself, I find myself behaving in this revolting way most often when reciting grievances to a spouse, elaborating upon his faults and my own virtues. Shameful that I am nastiest to the person I swore to love and cherish, and usually with a glow of being right! God is probably up there snickering at assortative mating, and all but bursting at not sky-writing "Takes one to know one" for my benefit....My flippant point, tho, is that we are all prone to this, and can be quite cruel in the name of being "right."

Rambling even more than usual today, exhausted from running, hiking and working out with the kids. Wanting to be lazy and take a nap but have to go teach Sunday School. They would be more succinct: Nobody likes a Teacher's Pet. Betcha Euthyphro was one.

Phoenix, i was raised by a family who adored everything Greek, and knew my Greek mythology before I read the Bible. But I feel somewhat the same way about reading Plato. Sometimes can revel in it, but others can't stomach it. From an early age found myself irritated by those wordy middle aged Greeks lusting after fair youths...and treating their wives like mules....especially since my own tribe, despite all its faults, was chivalrous, romantic to a fault, and in fact consisted chiefly of matriarchies. At any rate, the women around me were the equals of their men...

Was just bullying one out of shape kid into exercising on the various machines downstairs with me, watching "Troy". I never cease to be amazed how sedentary my kids are by comparison with my generation! Very good exercise movie! Pondering the characters in the story and the quote you shared from Sophocles. And my Brit schoolmasters' reiterated bromide about moderation in all things. Immoderate greed, lust, pride, etc. the cause of so much misery...And yet that "due sense of proportion" can get pretty tedious. Love, lust, cool stuff, adventure, learning new things make live feel worth living... Hence the appeal of gods and goddesses, heroes, myths that can transport us far from our everyday efforts to be good...

In Sunday School tonight having to teach from a mediocre curriculum on John the Baptist and Jesus' temptation by Satan. The curriculum focussed on obedience (John obedient to the call of God, Jesus ditto) My daughter and I (we co-teach) having fun acting out the story for them of a fire and brimstone J the B blasting sin, and miserable, scared penitents. Then asking the kids if they thought that Jesus had the same attitude. "Oh, no," one serious minded seven year old exclaimed "he loves us, and he came to teach us how to do better, so that we could live with Him forever. He might get mad at us when we are bad, but he would never hate us or scare us. That John the Baptist was a mean guy..." Out of the mouths of babes, I thought...

Good night all, I am a very tired dog indeed...Girlchild wants me to take her running at 5 am. My paws are aching at the thought...