Monday 25 June 2012

What makes life worth living? - what makes *your* life worth living?

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Whatever it is, it is inexpressibly precious - and yet without Christ it will all be lost by the loss of memory, by death, by irreversible change in the universe...

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/my-three-favourite-movie-scenes.html

but with Christ all that has been Good in your life will be forever (every last bit of it);

but all the rest (but only all the rest) will be washed away 'like tears in rain'.

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11 comments:

Brett Stevens said...

Only when life is going well do humans worry that it will end irrevocably for all time.

To my mind, we live to make moral decisions, rise above what we were, and advance our level of design. We become more divine as we rise.

While it is trendy for moderns to disclaim any sense of loss in the impermanence of life, it is impossible to be a person with a soul and not intensely feel this tragedy.

For that reason, I hope there is persistence of some kind. If that is the case, Christianity is but one metaphor for achieving that state.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Brett - keep looking. I think you'll find that Christianity is the only one to offer an answer to the question. *Then* you will need to find out whether you believe the answer is true (Only when you have some idea of what is true, can you begin to talk about metaphors.)

Wm Jas said...

Very little is needed to make life worth living; the absence of unbearable suffering is generally sufficient. Life just is worth living. Existence as such is good.

Bruce Charlton said...

@WMJas - I'm assuming you mean that people still strive to stay alive even when life is nothing but an absence of extreme suffering (and sometimes even then).

But that is not what I meant - as I guess you know well enough.

JP said...

Imported cheeses.

B322 said...
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Bruce Charlton said...

@Od'E - Yes, I fail to address the question in a 100 word blog posting instead of the more usual 150,000 word mass market heavily-hyped paperback. Saves time and energy all round.

Anonymous said...

The pagan worldview is irredeemably tragic. Shame is forever. All good things, however beautiful, pass away. Death with honor is still death, and long memory is cold comfort, and that available to only a few.

Hope of something more is a beautiful thing.

Olave, congratulations!

Bruce Charlton said...

@deconstructing...

Well said indeed: that is right. To recognize this is honest, noble and bleak - and it is what Christ came to rescue us from.

B322 said...
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B322 said...
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