/lit/ - Literature

Ecclesiastes

>>19274287
no because anyone who thinks like that never accomplished anything

>>19274287
I feel like Phillip K Dick explores themes similar to this in some of his later works.

>>19274287
my diary desu

Seriously consider dropping your pride, OP. You aren't as smart as you think.

test to see if I'm still banned

La Bas, by jk huysmans

>>19274287
Kierkegaards Spiritual writings
Augustines Confessions

>>19274287
A Confession by Tolstoy

Houllebecq loves going to mass

>>19274287
all modern christians are larpers

>>19274287
Honestly, I'd find a story about a guy having a desperate spiritual yearning to become a Christian but never being able to on account of being a degenerate too engrossed in the world more interesting

>>19274986
do you have a single fact to back that up

>>19274287
Niels Lyhne?

>>19275189
this board

>>19274287
The character The Misfit in the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find pretty much fits that description to a "T".

Also, to some extent, the character Rayber in The Violent Bear It Away.

>>19274785
I'll second this

the outrageousness of the claims is the point.

it couldn't be based on something incontrovertible as 'water is wet' or there would be no role for faith at all

>>19274287
Same

I feel like I have to accept Christianity, the alternative is just too grim. I've already wandered too far, I've understood things I wish I didn't.

>>19274287
Stop it. You’ve barely read any and you don’t even know what claims you’re exactly referring to.

>>19275406
explain yourself

>>19275189
My diary desu

>>19274287
Godel

>>19274287
Why are you forcing yourself? You should just drop it.

>>19274287
God is not an abstraction, but a person.
You need to pray to Christ for enlightenment if you want to truly believe. Try praying the "atheists prayer" and asking the Lord to enlighten you with faith and for His will to be done for you. If you don't want to change your life from sin towards Christ or you aren't looking for absolute truth then it will be a useless exercise.
Maybe read pic related's Nihilism.

>>19274287
The Quran

>>19275894
If you want the demons then sure

>>19274287
Hell is the Absence of God, by Ted Chiang.

>>19275585
This makes no sense at all. Say that to a priest/pastor and he will laugh at your face.

>>19276316
NTA but it makes plenty of sense to me.

>>19274287
Read Aquinas. He'll refute anything you throw at him and you'll gladly accept the Lord afterwards.

>>19274287
Why believe in a mask crafted by idolaters when you can know the one which is self evident?

>>19275406
This board isn’t entirely Christian and even those that are have only one foot in the door

Barabbas by Pär Lagerkvist.

>Orthodoxy (1908) is a book by G. K. Chesterton that has become a classic of Christian apologetics. Chesterton considered this book a companion to his other work, Heretics, writing it expressly in response to G. S. Street's criticism of the earlier work, "that he was not going to bother about his theology until I had really stated mine".[1] In the book's preface, Chesterton states the purpose is to "attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it." In it, Chesterton presents an original view of Christian religion. He sees it as the answer to natural human needs, the "answer to a riddle" in his own words, and not simply as an arbitrary truth received from somewhere outside the boundaries of human experience.

>>19274287
There's a passage in Dante's Paradiso where he is being tested on his theological virtues, and when asked why does he have faith and belief in God and his word, when the Bible is the only proof of the miracles written in it, he answers that the actual miracle is not the ones told in the Bible but the fact that those unbelievable miracles came to be believed by most of the world.

>>19275585
>>19276430
How does it make any sense? The point of Christian doctrine is to be true, not to give you "a role for faith". You can find many ideas more outrageous than Christianity if believing things on faith is somehow inherently good.

This attitude reeks of fear to me, like you're scared that you'll be forced to accept nihilism unless you carefully censor your own capacity for reason. You won't.

>>19277617
How could faith exist at all were God to make Himself inarguably obvious so that there was no room for doubt?

>>19275875
>it's all about un-belief
There's more to it than radical skepticism. Evolution, a common belief held by atheists, contradicts Christian dogma concerning the creation of man and his fall.

>>19274287
One cannot understand Christian thought without knowing what it evolved out of. I highly recommend you explore Rashi's Commentary on Psalms. His thinking and breakdown of the Tanakh is much more down to earth and would likely be a lot friendlier to your line of thinking, but different enough to help you contextualize the way Christians think and view the world.

>>19276751
I'm going to read this book.

Today I decided to go out and have fun for once, because it was a Saturday night. I went to a pub for a drink. The music was so annoying that I had to get up and leave. I wanted none of it. Patrons were blathering nonsense and I wanted none of it. I paid and left, and I made my way through all these people who were dressed up nice to party, because it was a Saturday night. There was a huge crowd of people in front of the rows of drinking establishments. Girls in makeup and a miniskirt. I used to look at them but this time I just wanted to get out of the crowd. I knew there was this very small chapel across the street, unlit and quiet, right between the lights and bustle of two pubs. I passed it once as a bunch of teens were laughing and peeking inside, and it wasn't a good moment to get in, but I thought that I had to get in there. I walked a bit further up then I went back and I go in. It was empty. I just sat there for a little while, and somehow I filtered the music and laughter that were beating outside although the door was open. Then I decided to kneel and I managed to genuinely pray for a while. I just said a few Pater Noster because it was all I knew my heart. I felt like crying while I was praying. I thought that I wanted none of what was outside ever again. This was the only place that felt real among all these people and all that noise. Felt a bit like a retard for praying at possibly the silliest time of the week to walk into a church when I left. I hope nobody noticed me.

The only way Christianity continues is by teaching it to little kids because they're dumb and naturally will believe it easily. This is the redpill Christians don't want you to know and the real reason they're so protective of children and family structure. Many kids who grow up this way, perhaps even the majority at this point, naturally grow out of it at some point but regardless growing up Christian changes you in a certain irreversible way for life. Trying to convert adults doesn't really work and it never has as evidenced by many bloody conflicts throughout history. If you think you want to become Christian as an adult you likely have a fundamental misunderstanding of your real desires. I'm not saying it's impossible but it takes a very special kind of person.

>>19277876
I'm >>19277870 I was raised in a hard left, anti-clerical household. My father was an atheist and I was an atheist after him. I never believed a word during catechism as a child and I thought of it as something like a school exam. I collected maybe hundreds of fedoras while discussing religion in the past years on this site. Yet somehow this is happening to me.

>>19276430
that's because you are already a secularized bugman.

>>19277956
>being this far off

>>19274287
Chrisitanity is different in regards to the role of God but also the value of charity in human life. Try to see how important God is and start to make sacrifices in your life for others and you'll embody christianity.

>>19274287

You might try a book called Spiritual Journeys (Robert Baram, ed.). It's currently out of print, but here is a link to reasonably priced used copies:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003YIZDR0/

Do not neglect to pray, anon, for it's all a matter of grace.

Ask God to enlighten your mind, and *keep* asking. Cf: "Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Mt. 7:7. Note that the verb tense of "knock" is the present imperative; it could be fairly translated as *Keep knocking*. So, keep knocking.

Here are a few other good books:
- Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

- Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

Pic related: An interesting conversion story. Although he does not use the word, I think it can be fairly inferred that Fr. Kars, at one time, and not unlike yourself, considered all Christian claims as nonsense.

But you must pray! Ask God to enlighten your mind, to see the truth. Trust God, put your trust in God, when you make this prayer - even if it is only a kind of provisional trust.

That "desperate spiritual yearning" may indeed be his prevenient grace already at work in you.

>>19274287
You're too much of an arrogant midwit to recognize yourself. You don't need books.

>>19277800
>inarguably obvious
There is nothing in this category, other than "I am". Refuting e.g. the evil demon argument boils down to axioms accepted on faith. Faith is required of you. This is the condition of not being omniscient. The value of faith is that it makes belief of any kind possible.

Love is more important than faith. This is well established in scripture and tradition. And it's pretty hard to love something when you have to shut off half your brain while thinking about it.

It seems like you're saying that God wants faith as an end in itself, instead of aa a necessary means towards love, and I don't really understand where that perspective is coming from.

>>19277059
I have always felt that this was a weak argument. Islam has miracles, I presume, and even more people believe in them at the moment. And yet as Christians we believe that those were either falsified or demonic deceptions.

>>19278451
(1 Corinthians 13 is about this, btw)

>>19277813
Evolution is merely a form of unbleief in Christ and His revelation.

>>19277843
>Rashi's
>11 century
>what Christianity evolved out of
Lol. Nice try, rabbi.

>>19277870
>silliest time of the week to walk
Well, it was technically a liturgical Sunday (days start from the evening) so that is the most proper time to drop all worldy fun and dedicate yourself to worship.

>>19278462
That’s because Islam builds on Christianity and might be the true religion? Ever thought about that, retard? They literally have the same God.

>>19274467
And? Are you?

>>19279703
The most bullshit thing I've heard this week, congratulations anon. Lit is truly wonderful sometimes.

>>19274287
Good to know that I’m not the only one who has felt a strange yearning to be a Christian, but can’t be because I have a hard time believing in the supernatural.

>>19276718
Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg. Greatest Swedish novel there is.

>>19274467
based

>>19274287
"Prelest."

>>19274467
*whether
fucking retard