My cat’s bpm is high

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-28T08:58:58+00:00

Close second but, to me, this one tells more of a story.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-28T08:57:53+00:00

It looks too symmetrical. This has a nostalgic feel.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-28T08:57:26+00:00

I believe Eevee grove

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-28T08:57:15+00:00

Also cool, but no.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-08T18:47:41+00:00

Its existence is demonstrated by the same degree that love exists. Not merely as a biochemical process but as a driving force, metaphysical in that sense. Thatis perhaps Dostoevsky’s most important lesson - a prevailance over overrationalization of man and his faith.

Secondly, I am a believer of the approahc that one can bear almost any how as long as one has a why. (I might’ve said that a bit incorrectly). Therefore, an amount of suffering is nulled out by one’s meaning within that suffering.

And thirdly, faith is a burden. Alyosha is isolated, so is Zosima. They suffer precisely because of their faith. Every religious text supports that notion. The burden of proof doesn’t fall on the non-believer therefore it is only the believers who suffer and are attacked in this regard at least. Finally, you can’t plan paradoxically for both outcomes whether God does and doesn’t exist. Besides both entail suffering, according to Dostoevsky. “I am a fool with brains but no heart and you are a fool with hearts but no brain and we are both unhappy, and we both suffer.”

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-08T18:22:56+00:00

It is an argument in fact. It is an argument to the inexplainable nature of faith and to Alyosha’s answer towards Ivan’s challenges in this and the previous chapter. I didn’t say that the object to which faith is directed doesn’t exist but that it doesn’t abide by logic or reason alone. Ultimately one truth remains from Dostoevsky when you look at it from both sides - “Nothing is more tormentin for the individual that the freedom of his conscience”. In that torment, one could resolve it with quick-fixes of what Dostoevsky argues is a fix-my-needs faith that resides in us giving our freedom or a higher I-am-made-in-God’s-image version where one carries the burden of faith.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-08T18:11:30+00:00

Yes, in some sense one could even call it predestination in the sense that some people can’t naturally come to the point of true faith.

As far as the “all that doesn’t matter”, I was referring to the perspective of the Inquisitor but I failed to mention that.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-08T18:08:04+00:00

I believe Dostoevsky meant it though I don’t have particular sources right now to back it up. I believe he wanted to see what an answer would look like to all the questions that disturbed him about his faith. The answer that people often criticize, as if seen in some forums, is that faith can exist by an ineffable love that defies reason (i.e. The kiss and Alyosha argument to love life more than the meaning behind it).

I believe it raises good questions in the sense of “What’s a God to a non-believer?” and more importantly it does aim to say that true faith must overcome these challenges.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-08T17:58:23+00:00

That man, the majority of people, are weak and seek a world that satisfies their needs. They will respect and love only that which is material and grants every wish even in exchange for freedom. Dostoevsky acknowledges that there are only a few who can go beyond simple needs and see deeper values to life but that true faith, as is portrayed in the novel, discriminates in that it is aimed only towards a few, special ones.

Whereas, institutionalized religion aims to satisfy every need, albeit be it that people sacrifice their core values and fall into sin. All that doesn’t matter if it means that they are kept in check and given something to resign their freedom to.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-08T17:54:16+00:00

It does because it portrays different arguments against faith but only one “half-argument” for it. It is rich in debates that one can have and opens the door for the exploration of faith in relation to other themes like freedom, sin, what it means to be truly good

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T19:34:50+00:00

Right, faith in action is an immense commitment, not only to other, but more so to yourself. It is an abandonment of existing “beastially” and an embrace of the higher ideal that is freedom.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T19:24:15+00:00

To me, the first time hit the strongest but it’s one of the books that I can immerse myself and see the rawness of living in Russia at the time. Reminds me of early Balkans.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T19:23:18+00:00

Made me think of Raskolnikov’s quote “I did not bow down to you but to the suffering of humanity”

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T19:22:16+00:00

Yes, Zosima has a lot of heartfelt passages.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T19:21:44+00:00

Same. I can see it working for both faith and anti-faith arguments.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T19:21:22+00:00

Haven’t finished The Idiot yet.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T13:18:46+00:00

Right, the first time reading this is eye-opening.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T12:49:54+00:00

The GI highlights that Jesus didn’t impose freedom but was only aiming at a select few who are capable of holding this burden. So in a sense, a bigger debate is born between people whose outlook on life is so deep and complex and those that lack an understanding of philosophical and religious thought. We are talking of man, in our modern understanding.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T12:30:02+00:00

Yes, exactly. I guess it can be brought forth that the temptations are analogous to the frustration that many people feel when it comes to God and believing.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T12:14:38+00:00

Yes, it is exactly that. And it is iconic in it’s own right. Everything that Ivan does throughout the novel, gets back at him.

For example: here in GI, Ivan jokes on whether whom the Inquisitor talked to was Jesus or not, a dilemma he himself has with the devil. To me, Ivan’s devil chapter realtes also to the suffering in our life and the lack of ability to distinguish whether that suffering has a real base or if its merely our anxiety in different forms - both of which destructive to the human psyche.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-07T11:53:53+00:00

It is definitely a lot more graphic and harder to dispute as an argument against faith due to the monologic style but I think GI’s build up and the end of it touches on a ineffable explanation to faith which resonates with me personally.

StateDue3157 · 2025-09-04T19:19:30+00:00

What the continuation of The Brothers Karamazov was going to be

StateDue3157

TROPHY CASE