Dear F,
An unacknowledged "sea change" being worked by Science is that our former view of "will power" is seriously deficient.
It is still important. But for many people it is not decisive.
It is still important. But for many people it is not decisive.
Everyone who is "stuck" with in obession, compulsion, fixation or behavior-altering trauma -- and who isn't? -- is essentially unable to "just say No!" as Nancy Reagan and American conservatives would still have us believe. (At bedrock conservatives prioritize will power to protect their own belief in "free will." Without that belief, their world view collapses or at least requires radical revaluation.)
"Will You Lose Weight?
Take A Look At Your Poop"
Conservative Christians (and their secular counterparts) are in thrall to their need for "salvation assurance" which is to say: "How can I be sure I'm going to heaven and not hell?"
The Thinking Housewife: "We Can Be Pretty Sure That Many Good People Are Roasting In Hell"
http://paxonbothhouses.
http://paxonbothhouses.
"My Gripe With Christianity"
Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Organized Religion And The Everyday Validation Of Violence
The Christian Doctrine Of Damnation... And The Destruction Of Christ-Spirit
The Christian Doctrine Of Damnation... And The Destruction Of Christ-Spirit
"Has America Lost Its Mind?" 1A's Brilliant Interview With "Fantasyland's" Kurt Andersen
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo
Televangelist Jim Bakker Resurrected: If This Doesn't Scare The Bejesus Out Of You, Repent For Your End Is Near!
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo
And when people admit that behavior is routinely beyond willful control, the inter-related complex of responsibility, guilt, shame (and eager assignation of blame) comes undone, and with it the rubrics of "personal responsibility" as commonly understood.
Ironically, people who are driven by personal responsibility are (often) the very people who need to worry about it least.
Indeed, the flip side of fretting-over-personal-responsibility -- and the presumed need for punishment, torment and torture -- in order to instill personal responsibility is why we end up with the following paradoxical truth:
Conservative Christians Delight In The Punishment And Pain Of Others
Punishment Rarely Reforms But Instead Tends To Reinforce Wrongdoing
Christians And "Christians" Choose Between Mercy, Love And Forgiveness, Or Retribution And Punishment
Sure looks like this guy has will power to burn.
"For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate."
St. Paul of Tarsus
Did Paul lack willpower?
America's Passion For Punishment And Torture
The United States Is A Singularly Cruel, Vengeful Nation. Solitary Confinement For Kids
George Will: "The Torture Of Solitary Confinement"
"God Enjoys The 10 Plagues Way Too Much"
What's Wrong With The Abrahamic Religions: Absolutism, Scriptural Inerrancy, Bloodlust
What's Wrong With The Abrahamic Religions: Absolutism, Scriptural Inerrancy, Bloodlust
Pastor John Piper "discusses the vexing problem of God ordering the mass killing of every Canaanite man, woman, and child."
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2012/07/john-piper-on-why-its-right-for-god-to-slaughter-women-and-children-anytime-he-pleases-and-why-i-have-some-major-problems-with-that/
Mistakes In Scripture: When The Bible Gets The Bible Wrong
Pastor John Piper "discusses the vexing problem of God ordering the mass killing of every Canaanite man, woman, and child."
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2012/07/john-piper-on-why-its-right-for-god-to-slaughter-women-and-children-anytime-he-pleases-and-why-i-have-some-major-problems-with-that/Mistakes In Scripture: When The Bible Gets The Bible Wrong
"Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran?"
Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Miscarriage Of Justice And Misplaced Punishment
No comments:
Post a Comment