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To: Mrs. Don-o
There's always fame, fortune, amusement, excitement, comfort, pleasure and ease.

There's nothing wrong with any of those things, and none of them are exclusionary to "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Show me one that contradicts the other.

113 posted on 11/24/2008 11:52:59 AM PST by GunRunner
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To: GunRunner
No, no, I didn't say that "fame, fortune, amusement," etc. are necessarily exclusionary to "patience, faithfulness, self-control," etc. But when one comes in conflict with the other, a religious person has the additional element of supernatural hope to motivate actions which are, in this life, sacrificial of their interests.

I had a similar argument with a Benedictine nun once, who averred that even if there were no God she would act as she did, because "it's just a good way to live." That's as may be --- for her -- but for me, it makes no sense to live in voluntary poverty, chastity, and obedience for a lifetime if "you only come this way once" and therefore it's up to you to "grab all the gusto."

Our loves are as great as our hopes, and the thorough-going atheist has no hopes of anything other than a 100 mph crash into a solid brick wall. And in the long run --- if he cares to think of that which he will never see --- the long sigh of entropy in the heat-death of the Universe.

131 posted on 11/24/2008 12:47:01 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("It is our choices, far more than our abilities, that show us what we truly are. " -- J.K.Rowling)
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