its been over 15 years, since a rail road tramp friend of mine, who went by the name "dumpster dave," for real, and a really good friend, we used to kick hacky sack together for hours, and hours... well he told me a story once, of another tramp he met, who was trying to live like Jesus, and because Jesus didn't wear shoes, neither did he. DD pointed out that the duck tape that he'd kept on using to hold his skin together, from all the cuts and gouges, very much resembled shoes, and the dude just broke down and cried.
seriously, from the sound of what you are saying, that you are denying yourself the very enjoyment of "Life," in order to save it.
humans are social creatures, by nature. ambition, assertiveness, aggression, are natural parts of our beast nature, ironically, a nature that you sacrifice, to save?
i'm not saying that is "wrong," far from it. i am totally aware that not eve
Thank you for the reading to the point of understanding. Yes it is a sacrifice that in a twisted way gave me the well being to enjoy life for what it is.
Maybe we are social because its a natural instinct to share what we have and what we know. Unfortunately monetising what we know and what we have has brought a miss trust to social reasoning I fear.
Where is survival in your list of our beast nature? Or have we become that overwhelmed by distillation that survival is either a given or surpassed by living for today?
I was lucky. I walked down the valley of the shadow of death twice (Jerusalem and the internet) and came out the other side. For me my struggle then was when is a mans sacrifice enough? when does he put his shoes on and walk down his own path?
survival? well, thats an interesting question, that actually goes back a little to what i said about levels of exsistance.
with out chemicals, ie preservatives, and refrigeration, a very large chunk of humanity would die from starvation. that combines with the modern supermarket, which thrives on "consumers," certainly, we can do with less consumtion, but denying it entirely... might as well press that big red button, nature would survive a nuclear holocost, and humans would adapt. it'd be quicker, and less painfull than if we where to just cap off all the oil wells...
about less consumption, i work in a landfill, i pull out recyclable material from trash, as the bulk of my labor. i'm very well aware, that a large chunk of things people buy, get tossed, with out being used, or very little use.
so i guess i'd say i'm in the middle ground, that the hippy-survivalist, well, our planet wouldn't be
as far as sacrifice? well, i have very Christian beliefs, and that is to trust God to change the world, rather than do it myself.
i try not to introduce my religion into this game. you wouldn't question my beliefs if i won a game of chess, but because many take this game much more personally, they'll question your character, based on the way you play. where as i see myself playing a game... so i try to avoid religious discussion, on this thread. how ever, your question, with my morals, does not allow me to bypass saying that i believe that any sacrifice, should be done to remove anything that separates you from God, and trust that God is truly all-powerful, that their is an after life, and this world, with all its flaws, and problems, is temporary.
Josias - Let me simply start off by admitting I am a troll here, and that I am unashamed to be one. As you point out you -trust God to change the world, rather than do so yourself - seems to me to be not in keeping with Christian belief. There are two main points to your point here, one that God is active and will intercede, and that this life if temporary whereby the true reward will come later (for the faithful). If we believe, as many do, that God created the heavens and the earth, and that he instructed man to tend it, then aren't we doing a disservice to his gift and charge if we leave the world worse than when we got it? Did God say exploit the animals, waste my gift for ease and comfort and profit? To say that this world has flaws and it is up to God to fix them does not acknowledge the fact that you were put on this earth by Him with freewill. The idea that -sacrifice should be done to remove anything that separates you from God -
