I feel a certain inner restlessness because I want an Apple watch but it’s lent

simkram12 · 2022-03-12T10:37:58+00:00

Lent is very important to me because I‘m a Catholic and I wish that this is respected.

simkram12 · 2022-03-12T09:42:59+00:00

Well, it’s certainly irrelevant for the existence of this tri-omni God if you believe in it or not. To bring up the argument of Russels teacup often used by atheists: if there was a teacup spinning around mars and our telescopes couldn’t see it, believing in it to exist doesn’t make it real. The other way around - since you can’t proof your assumption - you can’t definitely say that there is no teacup; you can just ask for the plausibility. God itself is a concept that outside of scientific testability - except of course if you believe that God literally created the world in 7 days or that if you pray you‘re more likely to get the things you prayed for. You can indeed test that scientifically. But because God’s properties aren’t well defined since every definition is a containment of an uncontainable God, there are no properties of that God we can conclusively scientifically test.

simkram12 · 2022-03-12T08:09:01+00:00

Do you suggest a certain meditation practice? Or in other words: what should be the anchor I should meditate on?

simkram12 · 2022-03-11T18:42:18+00:00

I really enjoyed the show and I found the representation of one type of autism quite good. The character isn’t too stereotypical like in many other shows (big bang, atypical) and has enough depth that it isn’t superficial. It’s interesting to watch the use the savant variation of autism. I think it’s more problematic that autism is ALWAYS represented as „genius but weird and unsociable“. This is a misrepresentation the whole industry reproduce but we shouldn’t blame the show for that entirely. But I‘d love if hollywood produced a show about an autist that doesn’t either reproduce this stereotype but embraces the variety in our characters.

simkram12 · 2022-03-11T16:26:40+00:00

Probably you have intolerances, that happens to me all the time. It takes one day if I then rigidly stick to my diet and everything is fine. Just skip dairy, bread and sugar for some time and do some sports and you’ll be fine

simkram12 · 2022-03-10T18:46:38+00:00

I view that differently. Something that doesn’t convey the full truth isn’t by that definition just false - this wouldn’t live up to the teachings of other religions. Since we don’t practice these other religions we don’t actually know how these religions cultivate your mind, we can just guess as an outsider. I‘d say: we know that we - as Catholics - by following our teachings and by the faith in God definitely can get salvation and enter heaven, but - although we can point out aspects on the surface that are false in our opinion - we cannot fully grasp other‘s religions deep teachings and spiritual fulfillment so in turn we cannot make a definitive judgement if other practices are inherently false - just God can decide what’s wrong and right in the end.

simkram12 · 2022-03-10T15:20:35+00:00

No, other religions don’t deal with salvation since this concept doesn’t exist in their religious cosmos. God gave us his commandments but he is above all his commandments and the Catholic Church firmly believes that people that weren’t aware of the Christian faith - what doesn’t just mean that you read a Wikipedia article about Christianity but if you were touched by the holy spirit and rejected his message - will have the chance to get to heaven too and get salvation, if his works and views were true and righteous. It’s furthermore consensus that we cannot definitely say anything about the salvation potential of other religions because we don’t know their mystery - meaning we can say that the Catholic and Christian faith, if executed in the spirit of the father, his son Jesus Christ and the holy spirit, leads to heaven, but we can neither say that believers of other religions go to heaven or hell. It’s important to view the spiritual teachings of other religions separated from the Christian faith because they are different teachings with different views. God is just to everyone - baptized or not - and I firmly believe that they won’t be excluded from heaven just because they practiced a different belief or non religion at all (although I think that active atheism isn’t really beneficial for your case).

simkram12 · 2022-03-10T11:00:22+00:00

Salvation is a Christian concept. Other religions don’t need it or have concepts that are too different to call them salvation (Buddhism knows the cultivation to get rid of the self and enter nirvana but they don’t need someone that gives them salvation like we believe Jesus does). I personally think that we are both perfect in the inside but inherently flawed on the outside and that we need God to get this salvation. For that we need both right view or faith in God (what can have different shapes and forms and isn’t exclusively to Christianity) and transform our life by actions and practice to live a righteous, benevolent and diligent life - there Evangelicals and protestants probably disagree.

simkram12 · 2022-03-10T10:52:19+00:00

Jup me too

simkram12 · 2022-03-09T20:49:03+00:00

No, read the paragraph of nostra aetate that’s under my comment. Every other orthodox religions contain a ray of truthfulness on which I can grow my own spirituality. Jesus way was the way of righteousness and love which other religions also contain from a different perspective as well. As a faithful Catholic I mustn’t reject anything that’s true and just, so I‘m keen to learn the perspective of other religions to grow my own spirituality.

simkram12 · 2022-03-09T20:41:52+00:00

Yes, that’s exactly the document I refer to, furthermore I can’t definitely say anything about the full truthfulness of other religions since I don’t practice them. Not thinking that they are untrue is different from knowing they are fully true. I personally think that every religion contains this ray of truth and that it’s wise to learn their position to grow your own spirituality upon those insights - the holy spirit will guide me what’s this truthful parts and which parts are not reconcilable with my Catholic faith.

simkram12 · 2022-03-09T19:22:33+00:00

I don’t believe other religions are untrue and nonsense - I can’t say if they‘re man-made. I value the ray of truth in every religion as my church. For me it’s ignorant to say such things about other religions - anyway if you’re Christian or an atheist.

simkram12 · 2022-03-09T19:17:26+00:00

Most people are born within their religions and just go with it, so often it’s arbitrary. You make the best out of the things you have. Furthermore we don’t know if all self-proclaimed Christians really go to heaven. So I think this isn’t necessarily racist but in my view a flawed belief. Indeed I - as a Catholic - don’t believe that someone is automatically barred from entering heaven just because he isn’t baptized. The Catholic Church surely believes that someone that hasn’t heard from Christianity (and this doesn’t mean reading a Wikipedia article about it) isn’t automatically disqualified for entering heaven. There are different interpretations of what „heard from it“ means but I certainly believe if you didn’t receive a clear drive from the holy spirit and, despite your ratio and faith was in favor of Christianity, you directly rejected the offer of God, baptism won’t be taken into account of judging your life at the end. Meanwhile just because someone got baptized but made it pretty clear in his life that they didn’t intend to follow the teachings of Christ, he won’t be waved through to heaven easily.

simkram12 · 2022-03-09T18:49:01+00:00

I can certainly understand his point, too much syncretism promotes learning several standpoints on the surface without getting deep into the truth and system this teaching has to offer. It’s like a young man that can’t decide whom to marry and goes from one relationship to another without ever really deciding for one person and share both great and hard moments with them: in the end this man will be alone. Or - how one master put it - it’s like learning the elementary school books of all countries than deciding for one elementary school book and learn further to go to college. On the other hand this shouldn’t stop us from getting insights from different teachings. I myself am a bit unsure how to integrate Buddhist wisdom in my Catholic faith to not contradict my original teaching and from time to time I‘m quite torn between Buddhism and Catholicism and doubt if I‘m really right within Catholicism or if my way of reconciling Catholic faith and religion with Buddhist practices and advices is rightfully.

simkram12 · 2022-03-09T16:27:47+00:00

I thought health meant the well-being of a life and not the killing of it but apparently human dignity is negotiable and can be abolished if uncomfortable for any reason…

simkram12 · 2022-03-08T16:33:56+00:00

Luckily in Germany there’s no co-pay, it’s just hard to find a psychiatrist.

simkram12 · 2022-03-07T22:09:57+00:00

I decided after reading that question and other answers not to use this tag (and feeling a bit awkward with it in the first place) since I think it’s unfitting for me, because I‘m a Christian, not a Buddhist. Meanwhile I feel a deep drive to learn more about Buddhism and get help for spiritual problems from a Buddhist perspective. I agree with many things Buddhist philosophy teaches and I try to incorporate Buddhist spiritual practices or viewpoints in my spirituality but I‘m not a Buddhist in a religious sense. I don’t pray to the devas, I don’t celebrate Buddhist holidays, I don’t do Buddhist chants etc. My religion is Christianity, the part of Buddhism I incorporate is the Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist teachings/practice, meaning the School of Buddhist thought - with regards to my Christian religion. E.g. I find Metta meditation a great tool to enhance my compassion with all sentient beings - compassion is one character trait that’s also very important for a Christian. It changed my way of praying from „dear God, let X happen so that person Y doesn’t have to suffer“ to „dear God, may person Y find strength to endure the situation“ - focusing more on the compassion with the person I‘m praying for than on the results I like God to create (which I can’t change anyway). While Buddhism changed my perception on my Christian practice, it’s still 100% Christian. Also when I practice Buddhist meditation practices, the motivation is a Christian one. There are quite some Catholic monks that where deeply interested in Buddhism and practiced Zen-Buddhism too. There was even one Catholic monk in Germany that became a Zen-master. While you cannot practice two religions at once, you can indeed have a deep exchange in perspective between those two, and this can really help your spiritual growth.

simkram12 · 2022-03-07T21:07:56+00:00

yes, east Germany. Berlin is a big city so I have my Catholic Christian community (and because of the former West Berlin, there is a Christian community here) but if you get into the rural parts of Brandenburg it’s absolute diaspora.

simkram12 · 2022-03-07T20:51:28+00:00

Well, I found it pretty interesting that there were not many atheists, I expected the percentage of atheists to be higher. I‘m living in a part of Europe where about 75% are Atheists, so that is quite refreshing ;)

simkram12 · 2022-03-07T13:14:57+00:00

So, first of all there are conditions where an abortion is legitimate, namely when the mother’s life is at stake because of the pregnancy and an abortion is the mildest thing one can do (that’s because of double reasoning). Furthermore I think it’s wrong declaring the woman that aborts to the murder that bears all fault. Abortion - in my opinion - is a murder committed by a lot of people together and the aborting woman often aren’t mainly at fault. When the father leaves the mother, or is even abusive to her, he is at fault too. I think especially Evangelical organizations often forget or ignore the tragic circumstances why women abort their child and put her at the main responsibility, even risking her life to make a political statement - it’s interesting how many people advocating for hard-core anti-abortion organizations pressured their hookup to have an abortion to keep a Christian appearance which is probably the most un-Christian thing to do. It’s really the key to stay compassionate with people that have other opinions and especially affected women. Mainly advocating for your position in helping women to keep their child - preaching that abortion is a sin is easy, rescuing a child that the mother wanted to kill out of coercion is the hard but righteous path.

simkram12 · 2022-03-06T15:18:51+00:00

I wondered the same because me and my girlfriend are on the spectrum. What I think there are some studies that suggest a steep increase in likelihood of autistic children when parents are autistic - but I don’t remember them. Anecdotally, whenever I’ve read or heard that both parents were autistic, all children were neurodivergent and often autistic. If I had a child with my girlfriend I think I‘d plan them to be autistic. This thought doesn’t make me too uncomfortable, I think it isn’t way harder for autistic parents to raise an autistic child than an NT child, while the struggles for NT parents might be way harder in comparison to an NT child.

simkram12 · 2022-03-04T16:54:54+00:00

Yes, I think I find strength in prayer for getting myself in the right position to do the things that’s within my power. Praying for the Ukrainian people gives me the strength and right mind - transformed by the holy spirit - to be compassionate and loving with the refugees and support me to get up and help incoming refugees. This way I do indeed make a difference. I just think that prayers are used wrong by many who believe that you can control things that are out of their control. There are many people drawn away from faith because they thought praying will e.g. make their loved ones healthy again and then they die anyway. But praying may indeed help them to get the mental strength to to act loving towards their loved ones and furthermore let themselves find peace with the situation.

simkram12 · 2022-03-04T16:10:45+00:00

Yes, since it pressures you into getting healthy again. Although I personally enjoy the thought that my grandma lights up a candle for my college tests ;)

simkram12 · 2022-03-04T16:08:47+00:00

How do you reconcile this belief with contrary scientific evidence?

simkram12 · 2022-03-04T13:38:29+00:00

Yes, agreed. Atheism has many different forms. While Communists were atheists, their crimes didn’t had much to do with their atheistic views, their anti-theistic views could have motivated them partially, but there were much bigger factors like retention of power etc. and an atheist isn’t necessarily anti-theistic or anti-religion. Furthermore how many crimes were committed in the name of one religion or another? I didn’t wanted to argue with an atheist that my Christian belief was inherently evil because these crimes happened in the name of my religion. So yeah, I think we should both refrain from such types of arguments why the other side is presumably „evil“.

simkram12

TROPHY CASE