Hello.
From another thread, I came up with a question…
Could contradicting teachings cancel each other out in minds of believers and cause lack of passion or idleness? Or worse, cause destructive, counter-productive actions?
For example, I was thinking about
- “love your neighbour and preach the good news to all corners of the world”
- “this world is ending, perhaps any day now. there will be very few saved, the gate is narrow”
You are positively motivated for action only to be told your efforts might be all in vain as total global destruction is imminent.
You’re pushed and pulled at the same time.
Since we know that our mind is way more susceptible to the negatives than the positives, fear has stronger grip on us than love, could it be that such contradicting teachings best to be avoided?
For example, would you write to all churches in the world the following? “Stop teaching the end of the world Right Now! Start teaching possibly a 100,000 year future ahead of us! Every human being eventually hearing the true gospel by our hard work! The Christians one day comprising the 100% of the world’s population!”
Well, that would get you going, what do you think? Not that there isn’t verses that you can base this updated teaching on.
Not “it’s all going to burn” and “no matter what you do, a narrow gate is all we’ll have”… Such ideas are like killing the drive.
It’s like hiring an employee and telling them, “You’ll earn $100k a year but the tax man is arresting our accounts next Friday”… Would you be all hyped up about the $100k income labouring like a bee or rather sit on your hands pretending to be working till your next and only weekly paycheck?
So if we say in math terms.
———————-
Given:
Idea 1 = I1
Idea 2 = I2
I1 and I2 are natural numbers
Human Action = A
A = I1 + I2
Positive idea: + Ix > 0
Negative idea - Ix < 0
Neutral idea Ix = 0
where x ∈ {1,2}
Possible outcomes for A:
1) I1 and I2 both positive
A = + I1 + I2 > 0
Positive human action, its value is greater than each individual idea
2) I1 and I2 both negative
A = - I1 - I2 < 0
Negative human action, its value is lesser than each individual idea
3) I1 is positive and I2 is negative
there are two possible sub-outcomes:
a) If I1 > I2, then
A = + I1 - I2 > 0
Positive human action, its value is lesser than the positive idea I1
b) If I1 < I2
A = + I1 - I2 < 0
Negative human action, its value is greater than the negative idea I2
From another thread, I came up with a question…
Could contradicting teachings cancel each other out in minds of believers and cause lack of passion or idleness? Or worse, cause destructive, counter-productive actions?
For example, I was thinking about
- “love your neighbour and preach the good news to all corners of the world”
- “this world is ending, perhaps any day now. there will be very few saved, the gate is narrow”
You are positively motivated for action only to be told your efforts might be all in vain as total global destruction is imminent.
You’re pushed and pulled at the same time.
Since we know that our mind is way more susceptible to the negatives than the positives, fear has stronger grip on us than love, could it be that such contradicting teachings best to be avoided?
For example, would you write to all churches in the world the following? “Stop teaching the end of the world Right Now! Start teaching possibly a 100,000 year future ahead of us! Every human being eventually hearing the true gospel by our hard work! The Christians one day comprising the 100% of the world’s population!”
Well, that would get you going, what do you think? Not that there isn’t verses that you can base this updated teaching on.
Not “it’s all going to burn” and “no matter what you do, a narrow gate is all we’ll have”… Such ideas are like killing the drive.
It’s like hiring an employee and telling them, “You’ll earn $100k a year but the tax man is arresting our accounts next Friday”… Would you be all hyped up about the $100k income labouring like a bee or rather sit on your hands pretending to be working till your next and only weekly paycheck?
So if we say in math terms.
———————-
Given:
Idea 1 = I1
Idea 2 = I2
I1 and I2 are natural numbers
Human Action = A
A = I1 + I2
Positive idea: + Ix > 0
Negative idea - Ix < 0
Neutral idea Ix = 0
where x ∈ {1,2}
Possible outcomes for A:
1) I1 and I2 both positive
A = + I1 + I2 > 0
Positive human action, its value is greater than each individual idea
2) I1 and I2 both negative
A = - I1 - I2 < 0
Negative human action, its value is lesser than each individual idea
3) I1 is positive and I2 is negative
there are two possible sub-outcomes:
a) If I1 > I2, then
A = + I1 - I2 > 0
Positive human action, its value is lesser than the positive idea I1
b) If I1 < I2
A = + I1 - I2 < 0
Negative human action, its value is greater than the negative idea I2
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