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I was born into a Christian cult, I'm familiar with the doctrine.

"Five minutes after birth, they decide your name, religion, nationality and sect. And you spend the rest of your life defending what you did not choose."

⇒Arthur Schopenhauer

FikaTimeBooks.com 2w ago 💬 2

I could be wrong, but it sounds like it caused you some pain and that's not good.

The way God created you and all people to work, as opposed to a "Christian" cult (which if it truly is a cult simply isn't from God but from deeply unhealthy and dysfunctional people who don't know God) , is encapsulated well by this quote from Victor E. Frankl:

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

God's heart for you is freedom and growth through your choices relative to your innate design, reality, people, and Him.

Not control, fear, shame, arrogance, condemnation, ostracism, coercion and manipulation that unhealthy and dysfunctional people in that cult represented to you.

As you may already know, you alone get to choose who you become.

And God doesn't make your life choices for you.

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Discussion

HannahMR 2w ago 💬 1

Christianity is an abusive relationship model of the universe.... love me or I will make you suffer.

FikaTimeBooks.com 2w ago 💬 1

I understand your position on Christianity. What's your position on God?

HannahMR 2w ago 💬 2

Well I certainly don't believe in a biblical vengeful sky dictator. I often think about the concepts in this meme.

For sure there is so much more to the universe than we are currently capable of perceiving, and so I know that we can’t know. The below clip lives in my head rent free nearly every day.

https://youtu.be/x-tSZiu5qoU?t=428

HannahMR 2w ago

Sorry the time stamp on that didn't seem to work. the clip is at 7:08 into the video.

https://youtu.be/x-tSZiu5qoU?t=428

FikaTimeBooks.com 2w ago

I appreciate your sharing and this interaction.

I don't believe in a biblical vengeful sky dictator either, which sounds like a natural extension of the cult you grew up within, and one or more male leaders who may have been in your life who would fit something like that description, since people often get their impressions of what God is like from their father.

I need to move on from this interaction, but I want to leave you with some thoughts. The universe and reality are entirely knowable and God, who is perfect love and is good, picture the perfect father, kind and truthful, loving and just, compassionate and merciful and faithful and intimate, and the most humble and powerful of all, ready to serve, wants to know you and restore you completely, without making your life choices for you. He wants you to be maximally free, and free to be who you are. He wants to help you make your life Heaven on Earth. I know this will be hard for you to hear and believe, but it is true, because I know Him, having overcome something not totally unlike the impression you have of Him.

And He waits for you with open arms.

Bless you Hannah on your journey.

Lady Dialla 2w ago 💬 2

People demand something, instead of tolerating nothing or making their own.

What competing alternative would you propose to replace it?

HannahMR 2w ago

I think we all have to have our own "religion" or sens of purpose. That's just a part of growing up.

Lady Dialla 2w ago 💬 2

What about Hedonism, but without sacrificing medical health?

HannahMR 2w ago

Nah, wholeness > hedonism.

Lady Dialla 2w ago 💬 3

Do you see growth towards this 'wholeness' being achieved faster, through a habit of adversarial competition & thrill of winning against each other in shared interests, compared to not?

HannahMR 2w ago

No I see wholeness as best achieved by embracing the inherent volatility of this universe and learning to focus on who you want to be and how you want to respond to the challenges that the volatility will inevitably throw your way.

Lady Dialla 2w ago 💬 1

Do you see waiting for the universe's inherent entropy that serves these challenges at its whim, as more preferable than seeking out one's hidden falsehoods to put under the blade, so as to become better equipped if not more self-aware of one's limits, when answering entropy's calls?

HannahMR 2w ago

Not sure what you mean. But just the fact of existing in physical form in time and space requires us to make choices about what to do and who to be every moment of our waking lives here. ...that's plenty!

Lady Dialla 2w ago

Did I at least succeed at becoming that inherent volatility of the universe convincingly, in your other thread about being 'disgustingly self aware'?