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Nonc Hilaire wrote:HP, you are confusing Christianity with stoicism and epicurianism.
Which Christian author are you reading is espouses this rejection of pleasure? I think it is simply a misperception on your part.
Have to admit, my knowledge of theological field very limited, have not read anything in that field.
But, a very keen observer
Nonc Hilaire wrote:Typhoon wrote:Lord make me chaste, but not yet.
~ Augustine of Hippo
Great quote, and one I can identify with.
The question is does Christianity reject pleasure, and the answer is absolutely no.
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NH, facts on the ground, many facts, unfortunately, attest "Christianity reject
(physical) pleasure".
I have been in all European Cathedrals, have even written a paper about them, non gives you a feeling of joy or happiness, cold fearful sad places .. Not so historic mosques.
Reason is in the heart of the matter .. Islam is not a "spiritual" or Philosophical "religion", that bit spirituality and philosophical dept Islam might claim is entirely from Persian Philosophers who tried to "spin" a "primitive" Arabian tribal movement into something more .. Rumi comet to mind.
Islam an Arabian (as good as you can get with that folks) "Confucianism", earthly rules for a society, from top to bottom, everything pretty much "regulated", regulation for doing business, taxes (flat rate, 20%), marriage, birth, burial, responsibilities of (and how to treat) wife/husband, a very big chapter (even in Koran) dedicated to SEX, sex practices, when, how, do and not do (don't know of any "not do") and Joy of life, having fun and and and
Funny - mad mullahs now trying to push up Iranian birthrate, marriage, have introduced SEX education .. many clips in uTube, mad mullahs giving SEX advise in front of girls and boys (probably new wed) .. also .. woman give SEX advice to (religious) woman in Mashad (all in Farsi) .. I have not seen such explicit sex talk, point blank saying unbelievable stuff, in detail advising the colour of lingerie and tung and BJ and and and .. BJ is not "Haraam" and swallowing is OK , anal is not "Haraam" too .. between man and woman, pretty much everything is welcomed .. and .. funny part is, always citing Moh what he supposedly had said to that subject, Moh for sure was fun guy
Christianity on the other side is much more philosophical ..
Suffering can lead to salvation .. central of this thinking is, we all sinners, Jesus suffered for our sins, and, achieving "salvation" is through "suffering"
A Persian (mongul) king, a devote Muslim, built a "Slide" in his Haarem, his wives standing in line to slide down the slide, him sitting at the bottom end of the slide legs apart waiting for the BANG .. this not quite exactly
Opus Dei
Agree, this not the norm, but, spirit and direction of things quite clear.
The reason for all the above is the essence of this .. Moh just came to "regulate", "clear cut" laws .. zero to do with salvation or morality or spirituality .. Jesus on the other side, Christianity, afaik, does not have any "regulation" (those silly things RCC introduced just their own making), it was more morality.
That leads us to how "AND WHY" Christianity came into being ..
IMVVHO, the story goes as follows : A few very smart Rabbies, realized Judaism has not the potential to become "cosmopolitan" (it was a tribal religion) .. Judaism, very similar to Islam (Islam being a copy of Judaism), is a tribal religion, basically all "regulation", and, lack of any Spirituality and philosophical dept (not so Zoroastrianism), there is no "conversion" in Judaism (4get that rubbish "reform Judaism", it ain't), you must be from the Hebrew tribe.
The wise Rabbies are those Saint Peter etc etc .. that was the intention and the theory
But, Christianity we know today, is Christianity of Middle Ages .. and that is a different story .. the crooks hijacked it, otherwise colonialism, slavery, Hitler and many other things of that sort can not be explained.
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