The Eternal Recurrence of the Skirts · 10:51pm Jul 31st, 2020
I'm not obsessed with casual Overwatch. You're obsessed.
Anyways...
First thing's first.
The Barcast Podcast happened. T'was good. I coerced Anonpencil into reading a chapter of Appledashery. The world truly is coming to an end.
In truth, I could have returned for a Barcast interview sooner. Much... much sooner. But I kept delaying it. Not because of some secret blood feud with the likes of Flutterpriest, Anonpencil, Milk, and Dragon Tits. Rather... I did not feel like I was in the right place.
The last two years have been a meandering mountain of meh. Don't get me wrong. I've made friends with really snazzy marsupials. But--creatively--I've been pretty dayum dead. I went for an entire year without uploading a new story to SS&E. And then when I did return, I did so while uploading super niche NSFW stories about the least appreciated EqG character. For all intents and purpose, I have been (and to some extent still am bent on) sabotaging the name and legacy of SS&E.
All of this, of course, amounted to an array of wayward existential fireworks bouncing against the claustrophobic walls of my self-imposed hiatus. I gave up on the only fic in my life that mattered anymore. I knew this. For months, I knew this. For years, I knew this.
To say the least, my confidence in myself was nonexistent. In a lot of ways, it's still down there. Writhing. In the dirt. Where only worms and fertilizer know the secrets to crouch-jumping.
(SS&E's Mindset, Circa Late 2018)
As such, whenever the peops at the Barcast would approach me for coming back for an interview, I'd put on the thespian mask of melodramatic self-loathing and insist that they wait until "I'm in a place to earn it."
Last week, I felt as though I had finally arrived. Am I an awesome lemur writing awesome stuff? Nah. Not really.
But...
I am in a better place.
I'm not exactly writing every day. But I'm still staying pretty dayum consistent. Inspiration hits when it decides to, and sometimes I can still impress myself.
The decision to tackle Ofolrodi when I'm able was for the best, I believe. Noble J00rists are super happy to see it continue. And mesa happy to see them happy. I've maintained the "weekly update" rate that I promised but didn't promise. What's more, some of the stuff that I've stressed for years over--like the introduction of a certain new foil--has gone over quite well, making me wonder why I was so anxious for so long about it in the first place.
On top of that, I find myself being... a bit more social than I used to be. I've opened new chat threads on Discord, finding like-minded marsupials with whom I can share a whole bunch of ideas, thoughts, and prettypinkprissyimage spam. It's done a good number on my sanity, and it's truly invigorating to find kindred spirits out there in the digispunk. I've even taken inspiration to continue/pursue slightly more skirtsian projects. I've almost a mind to resurrect a certain place on Discord.
People have been very kind and generous to mesa. More than I deserve. Patreon continues to help me out greatly every month, and the Ko-Fi reveal was also an advantageous decision. So, much thanks to the powers that be in the universal bae-ness that be.
Anywanks...
There was a reason I started this blargh. I mean... besides the semi-masturbatory declaration of the felicitous place where I'm at and the endorphins encircling such.
A certain marsupial posed a question on the Barcast. It was a purely harmless question, not to mention a very intriguing and thought-provoking one.
However... the Barcast has a certain set of rules in place. These rules are meant to protect the sustainable atmosphere of casual horse hockeying. Despite the best of intentions, even the most thoughtful conversations can melt into irreversible shit!shows when tossing enough fuel onto the rampant brush fires of today's polarized war between trollmongers and cancel-culturists.
So, to that end, a topic with even the slightest inclination of broaching Christianity, Nietzschean fluff, or philosophy-in-general just won't cut it--for a Barcast live stream, at least. Safety first; Lylers Second.
But...
This is a blargh, not a podcast. And the streamlords pertaining have informed me that there's no problem with me addressing questions here that couldn't be addressed there. So, with that in mind, let's take a look at the goodly Mister/Missus marc6117's question (Background Pony spoilers inbound):
This may be a very long comment, and the Barcast may not select this due to its size, but I have a bit of a more serious-seeming question: To what philosophy do you subscribe?
The reason I ask this is my confusion as to what you write in your stories vs what you write in blargh posts.
From what I can gather, you are some form of existentialist, possibly even a nihilist. Nietszche is often referenced in the blarghs as a sort of figure of speech. Whether sincere or not, the emphasis on this particular philosopher has made me question what you actually believe.
I believe it safe to say that in your stories the main protagonists are heroes, self-denying for the sake of others. No doubt is a Christian influence at play like the epic of Pilgrim’s Progress. Scoots in EoP takes on the Entropan avatar, not just to experience catharsis of a lost world but also help her fellow friends and equines. As you’ve said in a blog somewhere yourself, Lyra in BP is a character entirely focused around “sacrifice”. Nietszche would call this “slave morality” as resentment of the weak against the strong.
Sacrifice is not an Ubermensch ideal of the self affirming individual. But whether you believe in Nietszche or not, it appears that you write about certain values and tropes that are counter to existentialism, at least for the sake of a good story. Divine beings, creation stories, and objective moral truths are the most obvious in your pony work.
For example, in Chapter XV of BP, Lyra beats up Straight Edge, who is responsible for abusing his family. Yet, this righteous fury and revenge evaporates when it comes to destroying Edge’s horn. No longer can Lyra bring herself to further crippling this sorry excuse of a stallion, not simply out of mercy or pity but out of finding closure the “right way” by giving Snips the opportunity to stand up for himself.
In fact, the entire story and especially ending of BP is centered around self denial and sacrifice. And as it seems that you’ve presented these acts of Lyra’s condition as pretty solidly morally correct or right.
tl;dr
So in short, what philosophy do you believe? If you’re a Nietszchean existentialist, then what’s with all the acts of self sacrifice in your stories? Do you include elements of divine objective morality to make your stories more interesting and enjoyable?Sorry not sorry for the long text throw up. I really hope that you answer this admittedly very long post in the Barcast.
F'naaaaaaaa.
Truly-Truly, I consider this a very thought-provoking question. Well... as far as my mind can be “provoked.” Nowadays it's usually just focused on panties or how to get accretion kills with Sigma.
Once upon a time, I used to be a pretty deep lemur. Or at least I tried to be. That's why I so-often called Background Pony an exercise in “psuedo-philosophy.”
In 2011, I was only... four years removed from college. I guess I still had a lot on my mind then. In the second half of my post-educational brain massaging, I attended a lot of philosophy courses such as Existentialism, Western Ideology, Spiritualism and Love, Korean and Japanese Buddhism. Pretty effing weird, in hindsight, that I used to seriously tackle many braniacal brainy brain stuff. Majoring in English with a side in Creative Writing and Philosophy. Yup. I work at Gamestop.
So anyways, I've had my fair share of days where I attempted to read the stuff thrown before me: Hegel, Kant, Jaspers, Spinoza, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and—yes—Friedrich Nietzsche. In regards to the latter, I read most of The Gay Science and bits and pieces from The Antichrist.
Aaaaaaaaand like most people who've only grasped just a sliver of Nietzsche, I like to pretend to know enough to quote him. Because that edgy “God is Dead” shiet is pretty cool. Makes the Lemur flag raise with flying colors, if ya know what I'm saying.
Let's be real, here. I don't worship Nietzsche. I think he was a great deconstructionist, but I don't particularly remember his affirmative commentary going any further than “let's bury the shadow of a dead god and start pursuing what it means to be good European philosophers.” Nietzsche was really dayum good at tearing shiet down; but he had virtually nothing to put up in its place.
But people get really hung up on the “God is Dead” bit—with that allegory of the madman who can't figure out why everyone around him isn't ready to move on. And I think the edgelords among us really get a kick out of quoting Nietzsche as some form of anti-establishment declaration. They might even go so far as to immortalize Friedrich Nietzsche for his philosophical contributions.
And... I really don't think Nietzsche would desire attention that's tantamount to overglorification... even deification. Cuz my biggest take from The Gay Science is that Nietzsche was terrified by something he described as the “Eternal Recurrence of the Same.” I interpreted this as the tendency for western philosophers to constantly and predictably fall back on an essentialist foundation of morality and the innate dependence thereupon. Over the eons—in miserable self-repeating cycles—philosophers perceivably returned to the vomit of religion/spiritualism as a means of giving a moral compass to their lives. In western society—and Europe, especially—civilization grew further and further from core religious centrism, embracing a more liberal and humanistic ideology. And yet, there's always that fallback—that doubling down on certain essential necessities in regards to embracing God or some nebulously deified place-holder. So, in essence, while “God is dead” or “keeps dying,” philosophers still won't bury his shadow and learn to move on.
I'm probably blowing a lot of hot air in the stuff I'm typing out here, and I fully embrace the marsupial alumni to input corrections or contrasting arguments in the comments section and whatnot. But in terms of how I perceive this so-called “Eternal Recurrence of the Same”—I believe that “God” isn't strictly just the traditional deity as Judeo-Christian-Muslim ideologies would have us establish. But, rather, I believe that the shadow (or grave) encompasses a slot that we fill with lazy explanations that we simply cannot or will not find alternatives to.
Once upon a time, hunters and gatherers saw lightning dance in the sky and they likely thought “Oh, Gods!” Nowadays, someone films a floating orb in the sky with a potato camera and they think “Oh, aliens!” The tragedy here is that both God and the aliens are one in the same—an eternal recurrence of dependence on sublimely-personified concepts where there lacks an explanation, logically or philosophically.
And I like to believe—giggling in a bittersweet cadence as I do so—that atheist edgelords who quote Nietzsche left and right aspire to put the German philosopher on that same depressing pedestal as God and aliens. They've got no explanation for the reason life is what it is or does what it does. Never mind the fact that Nietzsche didn't have one either; they'll put that sunovabitch up high on Calvary and proclaim “this guy gets it!”
So... I like to imagine a future... a future and a universe where Nietzsche is unabashedly and shamelessly deified like a messiah. Because that would be the true “bad end.” That would be the manifestation of the Eternal Recurrence of the same, only Nietzsche himself has occupied that shadow's grave, forever unfilled with dirt or worms.
But then my head likes to go somewhere beyond that. And—in post modernist fashion—I like to envision a future's future where a Nietzschean “religion” has imploded on itself, and now even that isn't sacred and Nietzsche's name—much like God's or Christ's in our time—is being habitually stated in vain.
That is the reason for why I've constantly substituted “Nietzsche” for “God” or “Christ” in all of my years of lemur!blarghing. It's not because I actually, seriously, legitimately deify the dead German bastard. But, rather, it's the inside of the inside of a deeply obscure inside joke: that the Eternal Recurrence of the Same would repeat like a burning glass onion upon its own head so many times that someone like Friedrich Nietzsche could pokeevolve from philosopher to messiah to household cuss in the blink of an eon. I find it all to be one big sad joke. Like life.
Still, it made for a good line in a song someone once wrote.
However, marc6117 isn't strictly concerned with nihilism or Nietzschean philosophy. They bring up Christianity and self-sacrifice. And, yeah, these are things Nietzsche wouldn't quite gel with. Frieddy boy—from what I recall—oftentimes brought up “slave religion,” which he used to label Christianity (and Buddhism) quite frequently. This wasn't used strictly because Christianity was oftentimes adopted by slaves, but rather that the concepts of “love your enemies” and “forgive those who persecute you” enable enslavement. The very idea of self-sacrifice as a daily-applied virtue is tantamount to en-shackling oneself. It's not considered very pro-active, to put it lightly.
And while I consider myself a “nihilist” in many respect, the truth—as stated before in other blarghs—is that I did indeed have a Christian upbringing. An ever-so-slightly sheltered one at that. And—to this day—I have it built in to my brain bone that self-sacrifice is matter-of-factly a very noble, righteous, and virtuous thing. There truly is no greater price to be paid than laying down one's life for another(s).
Now... where the modern-day nihilist Skirts comes in is that I don't objectively believe that self-sacrifice matters in terms of the Infinite. The virtue of self-sacrifice is completely subjective—meaning, one's act of sacrifice is only “virtuous” or “divine” or “noble” so long as there are people around to acknowledge it. And—furthermore—so long as people remain capable of remembering it.
True acts of virtue, in theory, are committed for the very sake of the goodness and well-beingness that is intended for those who stand to benefit from one's sacrifice. The sobering reality of this is that most true acts of self-sacrifice stand to be forgotten. Unknown. And unsung.
Art by Another_Pony_Artist
These core beliefs were channeled into the horse word narrative when I threw my chest vacuole into the creation of Background Pony. In that story, Lyra Heartstrings is all about sacrifice. In the first friggin' chapter, she sacrifices her hard-earned bits to buy a musical instrument for Derpy's/Ditzy's daughter. Throughout the fic, she gives up things in the hope that it will improve the lives of the ponies around her. At the end of the story, she gives up the Nightbringer so that she won't finish the Nocturne of the Firmaments (which, if finished, would have undone all the good she's done for Ponyville and Equestria abroad). Lyra then commits the ultimate sacrifice by agreeing to forget her love of music, so that she wouldn't retrace her steps and undo the previous sacrifice.
Like... Christ on a pogo-stick... Lyra has the biggest Messiah complex since Ellen Ripley through her alien-pregnant self into a fire pit. But—as we who have read Background Pony know—all of Lyra's good works are forever unsung. Nopony knows about them. In fact, it's a damned cheat that the readers know about it. In theory, no living thing should be capable of reading Lyra's journal entries. Because the Nocturne—and any knowledge of Princess Aria—should have made the content completely blank and forgettable. It's always been my theory that the fact that the fic exists and people can read it is some meta confirmation that Lyra ultimately broke the curse... or at least found a way out that isn't explicitly stated in the narrative.
But... that's just a cop-out. The whole point of Background Pony is that while many of the world's worst things are out in the open... the best qualities and the best actions of humanity exist entirely in secret, and we unknowingly live on the backs of unsung heroes, hidden everywhere, forever forgotten in spite of all of their labors and sacrifices. You can save the world from a thermonuclear apocalypse and still never ever become a household name.
So, what—then—is the point of some noble or divine moral code if adhering to it may go eternally unrewarded? Why sacrifice yourself if there is no heaven to spend ruminating about it or no audience of observers to mentally record it? Is the “inherent goodness” entirely what you—the potential sacrificer/sacrificee—make out of it? And if all of our bodies and minds eventually turn to dust against the incalculably monolithic grind of time, then what even is the point?
This is where I like to think How to Disappear Completely comes in. For a potential work of “psuedo-philosophy,” HTDC isn't nearly as intelligent or thoughtful as Background Pony. But it is nonetheless relevant.
After his casual odyssey to and from Equestria, teenage Flash Sentry becomes hell-bent on casting off all of his inherited worldly responsibilities and going off on some penniless ascetic journey of self-discovery and moral righteousness. He considers himself becoming apart from the world, removing himself from the grid, detaching himself from the shackles of social media and herd instinctual predisposition. In his heart of hearts, he's going off to find out how he—as an individual human being—can go out and positively influence the lives of those around him because just sitting on his ass and being a “part of society” is simply enabling the endless recurrence of apathy and ambivalence that has led to so much misery and depravity in the modern world.
There's a lot of “noble” things about what Flash wants to be and aspires to accomplish. It's very noble to just drop everything and move out of line, endeavoring to break the formula of the system that has otherwise angled him to be another piece of the problematic jigsaw puzzle. Yes, he's going in blind—but it's in good faith that doing something is better than accepting nothing. Just try to imagine if everyone everywhere simply dropped what they were doing and forcefully adopted a different system... one that was altruistic and aimed at helping the fellow man, even at the expense of oneself?
Flash Sentry leaves at the end of the fic, becoming one with the shadows of everything. He is everywhere and nowhere. If he manages to accomplish any good, one likely will never have noticed. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the good deeds have not been done.
Now...
What do I believe is the fate of that Flash Sentry?
I'm pretty sure he's now lying dead in a ditch somewhere. What he's done may be noble and righteous. But it's stupid. He's tried accomplishing everything, but his most logical fate is accomplishing nothing. For at the end of the day, he's just one man. And the accomplishments of one man only truly hold merit in Hollywood. It's history and dumb luck that affords us heroes. Nothing else.
I find Background Pony and How to Disappear Completely to be two halves of the same coin. You could aspire to accomplish many things—even to the point of self sacrifice—but at the end of the day the chances you have of making a positive impact is up to the coin flip itself. And then—when time itself is put into true consideration—nothing really ever matters in the long-term. Even the coin will someday be pulled apart, atom by atom, under the thoughtless throes of entropy.
So, yes, I admire self-sacrifice and the altruistic pursuit of moral goodness... but the nihilist in me acknowledges that it only matters as far as you can throw it... or if there are people around to even catch it.
If someone was to ask me—straight up—what “philosophy” I subscribe to, I think it would honestly be hedonism. Eat, drink, and be merry... for tomorrow—long past the clop fic's afterglow—you and everything you consist of will be forgotten. Until then, pretend to be a good philsopher. Fill God's grave with flowers, because—if nothing else—it may improve the quality of life for everyone who stands to eat, drink, and be merry.
Because even in a pointless universe, the Golden Rule still applies. So—like—wry not?
Also panties. They might someday return to stardust, but they'll be pink for a short time of it.
-SS&E
I'd def buy those.
Also, it's up to you if you wanted to bring that discord group back. It'd be nice, if only just to have somewhere to store all the pink stuff. I'm only really in it to get that role back, tho
Apparently Starlings, or at least some avien species, makes for a fantastic UFO event if you only glipse a fraction of it.
Brilliant flashes of light in the open sky where nothings visible? Thats the feathers of teh bird reflecting reinforced sunlight at exactly the correct angle for you to be able to see teh light in contrast against the sky, but be unable to see the far dimmer tiny body of the bird.
If you see the whole event, from visible bird, to flash of light, to bird, twice from different locations and angles within a few minutes, it gets even better.
After all, no sane surveilance company would ever dare build a stealth system that stupidly reflective.
<3
Nietzsche was a great edgelord and his quotes are cool as shit.
i.pinimg.com/originals/2d/05/33/2d05338f38d48171e43589ecbdfa4804.jpg
i.pinimg.com/originals/1b/8b/bd/1b8bbd3a8620a52ff8f0666d70258bff.jpg
Nietzsche would be mortified that people have built him up to be the lord of Nihilism. Which... in turn is poetic, because the glorification of ideals just for the sake of having ideals to glorify is exactly what he was fighting against. He stared into that abyss of glorification, and it stared back. And thus he became what he beheld.
Now, what I beheld, were some nice leopard print panties. Now... I don’t think they’ve looked at me... well... maybe they did... into my soul. They reside there now, along with all the others.
As usual it's always a treat reading through your posts, skirts. However after reading this one I feel that I must say a few things about some ideas that you brought up even if I'm sure I'm in the minority for holding these views here. Almost any of the topics I bring up here could be entire lengthy posts in their own right. So unless someone asks for more specific details I plan to keep my words here more on the broad side.
The five most consequential questions in life are these:
1. Origin: Where did we come from?
2. Identity: Who are we?
3. Meaning: Why are we here?
4. Morality: How should we live?
5. Destiny: Where are we going?
How these questions are answered is extremely important. And to a degree they all depend on the existence of God. If God exists, then there's ultimate meaning and purpose to your life. If there's a real purpose to your life, then there's a real right and wrong way to live it. Choices you make now will not only affect you here but will also affect you in eternity.
On the other hand, if there is no God, then your life ultimately means nothing. Since there is no enduring purpose to life, there's no right or wrong way to live it. And it doesn't matter how you live or what you believe since your destiny is dust.
I believe that Christianity answers these questions better and more satisfyingly than any other school of thought that there is.
This very thing is partially why I find Atheism such an unsatisfying conclusion to reality. If it can't answer those five questions listed above in a way that brings a fulfilling conclusion to those questions then I have to wonder what good it is at all.
These quotes somewhat all tie together. If all moral actions are futile either due to the inevitability of time or a lack of incentive to do them then what is their worth at all? This is actually one of the biggest problems of a worldview without God as why bother with anything? Why be kind? Why be moral? None of it matters anyway and you sure aren't getting anything for it most of the time. Heck, if anything usually it's an inconvenience to you (at best). At worst, it can have far higher costs if you decide to purse the moral path.
Christianity strongly disagrees with this. Just for one quick example Matthew 10:42 says "And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded."
God sees all actions and even all thoughts. Nothing escapes his notice and even the smallest kindness will one day be rewarded. This means that all those little inconveniences and sacrifices both large and small do have long term consequences and are of significance.
I see this as actually pretty much describing Christianity (though it cannot be forced onto anyone) even if I, and many other Christians, can sometimes be very lousy at living this way. It's a lifelong journey: living and learning to love as Christ does.
If Christianity is true then everything, EVERYTHING, that you do matters. What we do has eternal consequences whether or not they are perceived by us. Our actions are seen, our actions are known, and our actions quite frequently have far reaching effects we could never have envisioned.
I don't have the answer to every question but if anyone has questions I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. I have no problem having civil discussion with opposing viewpoints. If anyone would prefer a really lengthy and deep discussion I'd prefer private messaging over a ton of back and forth comments here clogging this thread.
Shell, probably. But I like our new steel faced overlord, he sounds like a fun guy until he kills you which could be any day now.
An inside joke about an inside joke, all us audience members laughing along as if we know what it means. I like it because it makes me feel immersed in your world building, if an author-reader "relationship" was a world.
I find it ironic that a good portion of my personal philosophy stems from MLP fanfiction, predominantly Background Pony. But another portion of it comes from the writings of an obscure, cryptic forum user only known as "adaptive systems". At first glance he comes across as another internet edgelord, but in his writings he lays out Nihilism, self-sacrifice, asceticism, genetic fatalism, evolution, and the aspiration towards a higher intelligence in these brief, brilliant flashes of lucidity:
Is that more in line with your flavor of "hedonism"?
(If any of this is of interest to anybody then do yourself a favor and read the book right now.)
Skirts… You really are too kind. Thank you so much for this blargh. Methinks it be good to tickle the brain bone every once in a while. At least when spirits are looking up. If not to the heavens, then to the future, eh?
I guess I should’ve known better than to spike the controversial question on the Barcast. But with the lemur’s and the Barcast’s blessings, my musings and words get to be immortalized on the internet by one of my favorite pone authors, so it totally all worked out fine, I guess. Consequentialism, yay?
It would be heresy to say that lemurs are primates and not marsupials, right?I’d have to mull over this blargh a bit more to give some decent commentary. I feel that I have some misgivings about a few of your assertions, but I know that you certainly give every one of your philosophical ideas plenty of thought and maybe a few scruples too.
Really, thank you for allowing this lemurfest to exist. Your transparency, openness, and tolerance of this discussion are pretty inspiring. Not many writers today would let this stuff fly, I’m sure. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t become a dumpster fire.
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“We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”
- (not) Marshall McLuhan
It’s weirdly funny in a circular way that you chose this phrase because it reminded me of this short “game” on itch.io “We Become What We Behold” and its description lines up with the idea behind the Eternal Recurrence of the Same.
a game about news cycles, vicious cycles, infinite cycles
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No offense to the author or to you, but the pedantic side of me feels as if in this instance "adaptive systems" is not using the right term "nihilism" to describe their philosophical stance.
Just so the marsupial community can have a few definitions and relationships to see where I'm coming from.
Definition of nihilism:
i.imgur.com/gdKbdKT.png
From the Wikipedia article on Absurdism:
i.imgur.com/szEDulg.png
Does mattering need any other definition than that the sacrificee believed it was worth it though?
Gosh I never know what to expect from your blarghs.
I agree you making that post in written form here may be the best possible way to approach that question, and it's rather humbling that you took the time to bare your thoughts. I knew about the Christian(-motivated) angle in your stories. That said, I think you make a fairly compelling case for it standing up to non-religious viewpoints, whether it be only due to your upbringing and college time or not.
As far as I can tell, acknowledgement and remembrance is a good enough sales pitch for most people on this earth to engage in self-sacrifice and altruistic pursuit of moral goodness to a fault. In absence of something better, something that escapes the eternal regression to (pseudo-)religious absolutes, it's at least a partially satisfying answer, satisfying enough to live by at the very least.
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I have a curious question that probably fails to get anywhere productive, so please don't take that as a challenge to argue, but merely as a curious question that doesn't warrant a deep, thought-out response. I may have strong feelings about meaning (I mean, doesn't everyone?), but not about any certain school of faith. When facing posts like merc's, skirts, and your, my thoughts suddenly feel very tiny and ignorant.
Assuming it is true, it doesn't remove the bitter taste of finality when facing death. How can a finite period of actions be enough for a judgment leading to infinite reward (or infinite punishment, for that matter)? How can consequences be considered when they are above one's ability to foretell?
I ask because it doesn't seem feasible to me to act without the doubt that what I do could be wrong and people would be better off without me acting the way I do. Even if you try to gauge the very immediate consequences of your actions -- the consequences for your peers living in the same time as you -- your capacity to judge them are fairly limited, and some decisions inevitably will have no obvious good answer. Naturally, the consequences of my actions extend way beyond my sphere of knowledge, because life after me must matter too.
Life would be easy if one could only knowingly do evil, but truth is that a lot of bad things happen in absence of foresight. The idea that I, a mere human, must act without knowing whether I act for good because something greater than my own life is at stake, is not encouraging me to do good, but paralyzing to do anything in the first place. A more humbling, if not naive, version of it would be "Harm is evil so I'll do my best to avoid anything that could cause harm even if it restricts me in my capacity to do good or live well". And while I'd say I mostly live that way, I do not think it's a good way to live, most prominently because its logical extreme would be not to live at all unless it's not good enough not to do evil, in which case the question is "how much good is good enough" and again, as a human being, I cannot have the faith that anything I ever did could be good enough when it's consequences aren't clear. The only two way I see out of this is a willfully ignorant wager on me being the final, absolutely correct judge of what is moral good until God may judge otherwise, or to renounce the idea that I could possibly make the right choices and just live for the sake of living, and forgive myself for the mistakes that occur along the way.
This is why I think Deism does not provide the full answer (for me), and thus, finding purpose without God must be possible for everyone. In other words, Christianity doesn't answer these questions well enough (for me), so there has to be another better one.
This is still mostly about my first (two) question(s), though. I didn't mean to ramble so much, and I hope you understand.
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Hey no problem. Honestly, I felt just as small when I first read skirts' post here. Thank you for your reply and I will answer as best I can here as these are fairly deep questions.
Except from the Christian perspective death isn't final at all because we believe everyone will live forever. What we believe is the difference is where they will live forever. Heaven, or hell.
This is a very deep question. To understand how this works from the Christian perspective there are a few things that have to be understood. Mainly the gravity of sin and the nature of forgiveness offered by Jesus.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Not some, not just the really bad criminals, all. Everyone. And since everyone is a sinner what are the consequences of sin?
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death,
Specifically this is referring to eternal death; hell. Now of course you brought up the point about a finite period of time (your life on earth) and the deeds done here and your eternal fate not being a fair trade. Like, a small amount of sin shouldn't be worth eternity in hell, right? The problem here is misunderstanding the magnitude of God's holiness. Again, I will try to explain.
God is infinitely and perfectly holy to the point that sin cannot even be in his presence. So any and all sins, no matter how minor, are equal in terms of what they lead to. The Bible also says that sin completely corrupts people. To get a picture of this think of a glass of water but then someone comes and adds one drop of super lethal poison to it. Suppose that person then says “Oh don’t worry. It was only one drop. It’s such a small thing. The water is still safe to drink.” But you know better. That one drop has infected the entire glass of water. It isn’t 99% water and 1% poison anymore. It is now 100% poison. Sin is much the same way in people. One sin taints a person entirely. It is not something that can be ignored or overlooked. This is why just one sin, no matter how minor, is enough to warrant eternal punishment in hell and separation from God. Because of his holiness and righteousness God cannot turn a blind eye to our sin. It has to be punished. This all may sound extremely bleak but this is where Christianity starts to really break through. Because God is not just full of holiness and justice but also grace, love, and mercy.
This is where Jesus comes in. Because God loves us and wants us to be with him he did the only possible solution that would satisfy his holiness and justice. God became human in the form of Jesus. And Jesus died in our place. He took the punishment that was due to us for our sin. Now that all our sins (past, present, and future) are paid for we no longer have to be separated from or punished by God. Instead we can be with him for eternity because there is no sin tainting us. Earlier when I quoted Romans 6:23 I intentionally left that comma on the end of it, because that wasn't the whole verse. The whole verse reads:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And of course, John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Eternal life. This is the gift that God offers everyone. But it is a gift that has to be accepted by you. You can reject it. You can reject him. But by rejecting God's gift you reject his payment for your sins and so you will pay for your own sins. And this is not something you can be neutral on. If you do not choose to accept God's gift then by definition you reject it.
These two sections somewhat tie together. It is true in that there are unforeseen consequences in life and a lot of gray situations with no clear right or wrong answer to them. That's life. Paralysis is a possibility if you dwell on all the things that might happen if you really take it that far. However, the Christian can rest in the knowledge that if they mess up, they will be forgiven. Their sins (even future ones) are paid for. And God looks at the heart: at your motivations for your actions. He knows if you did something and did not know or mean for it to turn out in a bad way. He knows we're human and that we can't get everything right and so he still forgives us and loves us anyway. This doesn't mean that there may not be consequences but that from an eternal standpoint those consequences will not hurt our relationship with God.
And this. This right here is also part of the whole message of Christianity. This is where Christianity differs from every other school of thought. Everyone else basically says "Do this list of good things and avoid these bad ones and this will lead to to heaven, nirvana, whatever you may be pursuing." Christianity is the only one where God says (in essence) "Your good deeds can't save you. You can't even consistently do good deeds. My standard is perfection and you cannot afford the price for your sins." But then only in Christianity does God basically say "So I will pay the price for you."
This is a huge relief and a massive weight off our shoulders. We don't have to be running around trying to do enough good deeds never knowing "how good is good enough" because we know we can't be good enough. And so God, in Jesus, has been "good enough" for us.
From the outside Christianity may look like a religion of good works but the motivation for us doing them is entirely different. Others do good works to try to earn those good deed points on the scale to earn their way to whatever they may be pursuing. Christians do good works out of a sense of gratitude toward God. As he showed grace, love, and mercy to us so we desire to do the same to others.
So Christians shouldn't run around like joyless nitwits, sucking up everybody's fun and wielding the law of God like some kind of rhetorical hammer. We're too sinful ourselves for that. But Christians also shouldn't run around like licentious hedonists, affirming everyone's dysfunction and cheapening God's mercy and grace like it isn't grounds for repentance. We're too captivated by God's love for that.
Skirts, the 28,430 drops of Blood Jesus lost on the way to Calvary was perceived as a wicked man’s righteous torture. It wasn’t. Only three people understood what that self-sacrifice meant. To you that became an inspiration or at least a foundation which’s philosophy had caused you to write one of the greatest unsung works in fanfiction literature ever produced in poniword history and has made you evolve several longform epics widthstanding the test of time giving you countless of fans who wish to be your true friends, making you the number one writer and person on Fimfiction for more than eight years in a row, counting, without dropping, without fail. Yet at the time of the Passion there were zero people amongst the thousands of soldiers and bystanders who had the slightest clue that your existence along with the countless testimonies of people who’ve said how much BP had changed their lives and helped them to become better people noticeable by others knew that this was its merit. Skirts, nobody else. Not many even today. Yet, 2,000 years later, aren’t you still here? Which would have been more interesting, Shortskirtsandexplosions having written Austraeoh and Appledashery and End of Ponies and Background Pony, or Imploding Colon having written Austraeoh, and Appledashery by Just Essay? Skirts—how many people knew that IC was SS&E and that Just Essay was SS&E until how many months later? Wasn’t every of us doubting? But yet isn’t Austraeoh still the greatest pony epic and Appledashery the most deserving? Wasn’t the fruit of that toiling of a brand new account suddenly being featured for the first time with the most cryptic of all descriptions and mother of Fimfic quotes much more fruitful to you than just having one account and one personality doing it? If it was fruitful enough to have been done in secret at least even for one single time then won’t any other thing that you do in secret also give you more pleasure: give you time to rest after having written an Experience: increase the actual awareness: increase amount of interest: increase merit of magnitude: increase virtue of dedication; increase love—by; because holy scott Skirts, the reason why you made IC was to give respect to the Marsupials who were going to be flooded with notifications from the angsthorsewordery—hadn’t even just the conception of the idea also increased your love for us? Skirts, Lyra Heartstrings of the Swell Hoodie and Green-Balled Depression is proof that the most terrible things—like Straight Edge’s abuse and the silence of Snips, the existence of the Firmaments and it’s non-existence in ponykind’s and the Sisters’s hearts and minds; even Lyra Cheese-Heartstrings herself who was such a secret that made the entire foalhood relationship between Twilight and Moondancer disappear within the span of one week and one chapter and 10,000 words, are the things that are done in absolute secrecy? And shouldn’t the fact that Rainbow Dash from Appledashery had in fact saved the entire livelihood of the family who had slept on the soil of an uncharted random land that will later serve to be the home of the ponies we love; save the forgotten goat and the mountain buffalos, saved Trixie Lulamoon, saved Sunset Shimmer, destroyed the Manehattan empire of Don Canter, saved Photo Finish, saved These Black Eyes Jr. and Best Zecora Ever, brought Lyra and Bon Bon together; consoled Caramel, taught Listing Breeze a lesson, gave hope to Gilda, saved Stu, saved Applejack, saved Epcot, saved Lancie, showed that the good things done is secret are as equally loving as much as the terrible things are in hating? Skirts this is FRICKING F I C T I O N. No—that does not fricking mean it’s exaggerated, why; isn’t it still undeniable of the still-prominent existence of not even the Catholic Church of which I am talking about right here: but the countless of people WITHIN IT who have given up their lives lain down and dead in the service of the poor through charity centers, the inexplicable example of all the saints who’s lives are based around the inner-mortification and their acclamation of how this is able to save souls such as St. Therese of the Little Flower who’s greatest works are unknown because of how simple they are and yet how glorious the merit of their actions were to the people around her who did not understand the sacrifice, tell you of the possibility that even thinking a good, unknown thought towards somebody, can instantly increase your chances to love them? Doesn’t it also sound plausible to you that there are many other souls out there who are supporting the backbone of this entire Passion, all the prayers in the world and all the little acts of mercy and all the acts of charity continually moving even if only one single person of the benefit then to the next person after that saved soul of the benefit and then to the next person after that saved soul of the benefit just to to encompass the whole world, had possibly caused either your or a reader to be in a state where you could write philosophically or that they could reader ponderously had very slowly Butterfly Effected to to the point that just a small-time-hobby part of your life had been so vastly honored and elevated like a magic trick had now brought to you this morning, by their completely unsung sacrifices such as how making a decision to reduce and swallow your pride by once saying how many countless of authors out there were far greater than you so as to have the humility to ask for help when writing BP—which you know you couldn’t do without them—allowing you to call theworstwriter a “writer extraordinaire” while having the love to take heed of his idea had made you write one of the most iconic shortfics of Shortskirtsandexplosions? Skirts, He died for you, and you didn’t know of it until the time you had the ability to comprehend words, lest write, but by then, you were alive, and by your upbringing you are now sitting here wearing Tinkerbelle panties and excess body fat in front of the monitor, but most lemurifically and regally.
Skirts, if you look back into your life right now you will see countless of things you did that weren’t seen by others but had improved at least something about the air of anything. And you will realize that most of the things that had ever happened to you as Shortskirtsandexplosions and the many many many iterations of yourself before, are who they are right now, because of countless unknown people who chose to read a story about time travel and made a decision to stick by with you even after you surrendered, because of these few little people who decided to take a gander or the mother of all cryptic descriptions and not ignore it as much as people would buy a book that has no cover description, because of a certain circle of friends whom you haven’t talked to in years had decided to help you with the utmost of Rarity generosity in their hearts in writing Background Pony, because of the fact that you are alive, loved, and Loved. If not, then you’ll look at where you are right now, and still you will realize that even opening up to old people in Discord and falling down the rabbit hole of the Ambitionpocalypse and going back to writing Austraeoh and getting practically handed-to-you PoTGs, has not been making you truly happy.
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Thank you very much for explaining your perspective and answering my questions. I will mull over it for a while.