tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post3018687288921442170..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: How happy days lead on to a spiral of pleasure-seeking miseryBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-66588845297466516072012-12-31T18:26:06.512+00:002012-12-31T18:26:06.512+00:00Thank you, Bruce, for your answer and Merry Christ...Thank you, Bruce, for your answer and Merry Christmas.imnobodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-32178498146302110782012-12-25T05:52:04.610+00:002012-12-25T05:52:04.610+00:00@WmJas - "So have your patterns of happiness/...@WmJas - "So have your patterns of happiness/misery changed significantly since you became a Christian?"<br /><br />Oh yes, of course.<br /><br />Before, it was as if I was trying to be as bad as possible but was irrationally held back from selfish-short-term-hedonism by the love of others, by scruples I could not discard and by instincts I could understand but not master.<br /><br />Now, everything is turned the other way about.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-12890294623034335302012-12-25T03:28:41.195+00:002012-12-25T03:28:41.195+00:00I suppose you know from your inquiries into classi...I suppose you know from your inquiries into classical philosophy that the Greek term for earthly happiness is <i>eudaimonia</i>. It is precisely what Mormons tell their religion promises them: to extend earthly eudemonism into a physical Paradise in an infinite time. I had it confirmed from a Mormon who knows something about philosophy – an erroneous something from a Thomistic point of view, but I believe he has the eudemonism concept right.<br /><br />I answered with excerpts from Maritain’s <i>Moral Philosophy</i> and reposted them on my blog under the title “Eudemonism or beatitude.” Maritain explains this is another Protestant influence through philosophy on the understanding of morality and salvation. Kant pointed out correctly that a certain preaching on morals and salvation (mainly Protestant, but it is also seen in bad Catholic preaching) was in fact a “transcendent eudemonism.” Mormonism high moral standards are certainly to be admired, but their doctrine will eventually cause their church to decay and disappear. As you say, it has many good Old-Testament-like features, but it is still far from the real thing and contradictory to its prophecies.Sylvie D. Rousseauhttp://sylvietheolog.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-39529043101005888692012-12-25T02:56:38.448+00:002012-12-25T02:56:38.448+00:00Merry Christmas, Bruce, lets hope that come Januar...Merry Christmas, Bruce, lets hope that come January, or even earlier, many of those glum faces - and there are a billion or so of them, so lots can find the truth on any given day - will figure out with the Holy Spirit's help the truth you are commenting on here... and I look forward with hope to hearing from some of them, either soon, or in my old age, or later, about how the Lord "restored to them the years the locust had eaten" Joel 2-25 stephen cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-29696153754665897472012-12-25T01:15:54.096+00:002012-12-25T01:15:54.096+00:00So have your patterns of happiness/misery changed ...So have your patterns of happiness/misery changed significantly since you became a Christian?<br /><br />(Of course it will be hard to distinguish the effects of your conversion from those of just getting older.)Wm Jashttp://wmjas.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-55446119234156647792012-12-24T18:35:49.434+00:002012-12-24T18:35:49.434+00:00@Imnob - yes, that is how I regard Buddhism (at le...@Imnob - yes, that is how I regard Buddhism (at least Zen): an attempt to stop suffering by stopping being human through elaborate mental discipline.<br /><br />But most people achieve the same by intoxication or immersive distraction (computer games, TV etc). <br /><br />It would be quicker, simpler and cheaper to have a pre-frontal lobotomy, to eliminate self-consciousness, worry about the future, planning etc. - i.e. just chop-out the bit of brain that is necessary for higher functions distinctive to humans.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-29528006057116601062012-12-24T16:17:03.271+00:002012-12-24T16:17:03.271+00:00It's curious: Buddhism makes the same analysis...It's curious: Buddhism makes the same analysis but reach a different conclusion: since living for attaining earthly happiness leads to unhappiness, you have to kill the desire to be happy. Hence you kill the unhappiness.<br /><br />I guess that you classify this Buddhist way as another way to stop being human (being desire a part of being human). Am I wrong?Imnobodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-10435291300427737102012-12-24T09:41:44.128+00:002012-12-24T09:41:44.128+00:00@s - "Permissive society stepping up the drug...@s - "Permissive society stepping up the drug bit by bit. Liberated from the restrictions of the past."<br /><br />Yes, only by this stepping-up can the societal state of immiseration be maintained and expanded. <br /><br />And the process is, must be, open-ended and 'permanently' transgressive. <br /><br />Which means that it is inevitably self destroying, on the one hand; but also that there is no limit on what it might do, what it might permit, in the insatiable search for an effective fix. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-34167173621758891372012-12-24T08:29:35.070+00:002012-12-24T08:29:35.070+00:00It's the lulling into this false sense of well...It's the lulling into this false sense of wellbeing and affordability which is the true evil.<br /><br />Merry Christmas, Bruce.James Highamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14525082702330365464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-44757714336658012812012-12-24T08:15:28.685+00:002012-12-24T08:15:28.685+00:00I cannot imagine there has been a time, in the wes...I cannot imagine there has been a time, in the western world, where a hedonistic life has been so over-promoted.<br />Permissive society stepping up the drug bit by bit. Liberated from the restrictions of the past.<br />Just another promotion, partner, or perhaps a bit of cosmetic surgery and everything will be perfect.<br />Certainly not the meaning of Christmas, there will be many glum faces by January. stephensnoreply@blogger.com