Religiously imposed self-control

[azurelunatic]

There are systems of belief that require that their adherents abstain from doing some activity or other. It could be with the sex thing, it could be pork, it could be using any Microsoft product.

Yeah, it's something you don't want your coreligionists doing. But, if the test is of your self-control, does it not say something more for the self control to have done it and liked it and not do it again because of the faith you have?

Conversely, it says your self-control's for shit if you have done it once and then continue to do it on the grounds that you're already damned. It is possible to reformat your hard drive and reinstall Mandrake.

Put down the AOL coffee coaster.

No one gets hurt.

Comments

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

For a Christian, each day is a new day. Each time one asks for forgiveness for one's transgression, then one begins with a clean slate. Each instance of sin is a new instance, not a continuation of previous sin, but a new choice. Every action is a choice between following the Law and disobeying it, between obeying God and rejecting Him. The very foundation of that religion is that there *is* Law, but that you can be forgiven for your transgression. To continue in the transgression would be proof that one was not truly repentant of it in the first place. For one of that religion to say that one is "already damned" and continue the transgression is the ultimate cop-out.

[azurelunatic]

Dear me.

Did someone not study his theology?

Re:

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

Most of them don't study their theology, no. Why do you think so many people asked M* and I if we were attending seminary, whenever we started talking to them about such matters? Most cultural Christians assume that anyone who actually *thinks* about these things and studies them (because they're *important*, damn it, if that's your *religion*) must therefore be considering the ministry. ::sighs and rolls her eyes::

[azurelunatic]

Actually, to be fair to all theoretical parties involved, someone very dear and close to me is quitting with the sex thing, mostly, trying to ease out of it rather than stopping cold turkey.

This easing out happened, of course, *after* the little identity crisis. ^-^ Who, me evil?

[boojum.livejournal.com]

There's a fairly nice literary explanation of your viewpoint in (of all things) one of Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker books. The basic setup is America at around the time of the Revolution, with lots of low level psi powers everywhere. They call them knacks. The annoying preacher evil guy is arguing that knacks aren't godly and don't really exist, that they're just Satan fooling you, that if you really believed you'd understand they didn't exist, etc. The sister of the Poor Misunderstood True Hero and Savior points out that Preacher Guy doesn't believe they exist, but Sister believes they exist and forgoes the benefits she knows they'll give her because she doesn't think using them is right.

That said, many of the religious abstentions of whatever form can be for purposes other than self-control. For instance, making the believer or the observers of the believer remember and ponder the religion. Another example would be the spiritual equivalent of not eating really greasy food -- abstaining because you don't like the effect on your system.

You already knew I agreed with you on this one, though.

[azurelunatic]

Yep.

Even though I ate ice cream last week, that doesn't mean I have to eat it today too. And I didn't.

Votania avoids pork because a) it makes her physically ill; b) it makes a major drain on the talents availible to her. She knows the effects and doesn't like them.