Today in class we learned about Neitche’s eternal return which places a person in a constant recycle of their life both the good and bad moments and the person can do nothing to change the past or future. The argument to this is that a strong person would be okay with this where as a weak person would not. I heard a lot of people say how they would not be okay with this because they wouldn't be able to change how things happened. My argument to this is do we not already live in a state where we live our lives through both good and bad times even though we know we can not change what happens. I believe we do. Yes we can see if a decision might be wrong and avoid that kind of situation but we can not always be prepared for what ever life throws at us. I believe as a Christian that everything has already been predestined and that in life their will be situations that I can not avoid and will have to respond to. That is one reason why being a Christian is such a blessing because no matter what life throws at you I know that God is in control of all things. Now these events may be something horrible or something good but being a Christian gives me the strength to continue on through life. When life gets tough I tough it out and when life is good I thank God for it. General Jackson of the Confederate army had a some what similar questioned asked to him after a battle during which he was shot in the hand. The question was how he could stay so calm through the horrors in battle? His reply was that “my religion teaches me that all things have been predestined for the glory of God and that this makes me calm in battle as I am calm in bed”. No one knows what the future holds for them because you could die in your sleep just as easily as if you where in a car wreck tomorrow.
I wouldn't mind reliving life over again either. Now I am a Christian, but I don't believe in predestination. I respect you for your beliefs though and you make a good point that if predestination is real, it shouldn't matter if you had to relive life, since the out come would be the same.
ReplyDeleteI would also live through an eternal return. Of course there are things that I would want to change going through my life again, but at the end of the day I wouldn't because I am glad of where I am in my life right now. You make a really good point about predestination, and I agree that religion is somewhat predestined.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of predestination, I wonder then if Nietzsche would say that Christians are strong since they would be satisfied with the life they have lived or weak because they rely on outside forces . I am not stating that this is my belief, just curious what his response would be.
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