LIFE IS FRAGILE - BOURDAIN

[BillyOblivion]

It isn't really discussed directly in Scripture IMO. I think people like to force their theology on topics, make them fit, and declare it as truth,

Not to derail things, but the Christian attitudes towards suicide are largely from the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). The scriptural basis does seem a little thin, but the RCC has this notion (put loosely) that God can speak through The Pope on some issues, so they don't really need a scriptural basis for everything.

Kinda handy that.

This may provide a bit more light on the RCC's position: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/v...ontext=ndjlepp

I'm a bit divided on the subject. I think one should bear their burden as long as they can. But we all know that "as long as you can" is a combination of physical, mental and spiritual.

Being in constant discomfort is very, very sapping. You take someone like Awerbuck who lived a physical life and had to have a fairly high level of pain just from old injuries (I have those, and I didn't live the life some of y'all did), and now tell him that for the rest of his life things are going to get worse, with no relief, and only death at the end, and that for that whole time you'll be spending what you worked a lifetime to accumulate?

We know so much more about the brain and the mind than our forefathers. We can "see" inside the brain in some ways, and see the impact of genetic predispositions on things like dopamine and serotonin production and uptake, we have the ability (fMRI) to watch the brain action at a gross level. Much of it is still a mystery, but we know that "choice" is often a very tenuous thing. It's still a choice, but the options to choose from narrow in many ways.

[Gabriel Suarez]

Any group can claim their leader speaks for God. When I see that all I see is another extremist in a mandress leading other extremists. Sorry kids. That said...I have yet to meet a Catholic that actually believes the Pope speaks for anyone divine.

There are also plenty of...as brother Sua Sponte called them...Christian Taliban. They make the Pope seem like an international playboy by comparison. At my place in life I have no room nor tolerance for extremists...specially religious ones.


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[jesselp]

Life is indeed fragile - I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

On November 11, my best friend since middle school was killed when his Cessna 172 crashed killing him and his flight instructor.

Glen was on the top of the world at the time of his death. Within the past 18 months he had sold his company, written a book, and - believe it or not - flown to the edge of space on a Blue Origin rocket with William Shatner sitting next to him.

And now he is gone.

I'm not going to lie. Sometimes life is unfair and just sucks. I'm not sad for glen - he accomplished everything he ever set out to do and then some. I'm sad for the rest of us who don't get to spend time with him anymore.

It's been a very rough few weeks.

[62-10]

Life is indeed fragile - I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

On November 11, my best friend since middle school was killed when his Cessna 172 crashed killing him and his flight instructor.

Glen was on the top of the world at the time of his death. Within the past 18 months he had sold his company, written a book, and - believe it or not - flown to the edge of space on a Blue Origin rocket with William Shatner sitting next to him.

And now he is gone.

I'm not going to lie. Sometimes life is unfair and just sucks. I'm not sad for glen - he accomplished everything he ever set out to do and then some. I'm sad for the rest of us who don't get to spend time with him anymore.

It's been a very rough few weeks.

Sorry about your friend. That said, there are worse ways to go.

[Gabriel Suarez]

Sorry about your friend. That said, there are worse ways to go.

And perhaps that is the theme here. Blessed are those who get a good way...but also those who get to choose.

[jesselp]

And perhaps that is the theme here. Blessed are those who get a good way...but also those who get to choose.

Agreed. Every one who knew Glen could not imagine him slowly dying of a prolonged illness. This was the right way for him to go - just way too soon.

[Francisp]

Agreed. Every one who knew Glen could not imagine him slowly dying of a prolonged illness. This was the right way for him to go - just way too soon.

I am sorry for the loss of your friend Glen de vries. I hike the area he crashed here in New Jersey all the time.

[BillyOblivion]

Any group can claim their leader speaks for God.

Most of them do claim that. My understanding of the RCC is that it's a little more nuanced than that.

And I think I've been clear enough in the past where I stand on the whole church issue. My only point in bringing that up is that until the Great Schism there was only the RCC (not quite perfectly true but close enough) and until Martin Luther Rome was the center of Christian thought, and much like Protestant Christianity is the substrate for Western European thought, Catholic Philosophy was the underpinnings of Protestant Christianity.

I should have been more straightforward in that post. The point I was trying to get across was that not everything in Christianity is supported directly from the bible because for around a thousand years the Pope could speak ex-cathedra and was considered to be speaking with God's authority. There's a big different between Theology and Faith.

When I see that all I see is another extremist in a mandress leading other extremists. Sorry kids. That said...I have yet to meet a Catholic that actually believes the Pope speaks for anyone divine.

My mother's family has a few. Of course they're confused about a lot of things.

There are also plenty of...as brother Sua Sponte called them...Christian Taliban. They make the Pope seem like an international playboy by comparison.

I suspect that a lot of these extremists--Islam, Christian, Communist, whatever, are mentally ill and wrap themselves in their religion to excuse their behavior.

[jesselp]

I am sorry for the loss of your friend Glen de vries. I hike the area he crashed here in New Jersey all the time.

Thank you.

[45Smashemflat]

Good discussion. As has been noted, sometimes the “why” is obvious. Sometimes it’s not.