Totally. I'd go one step further and saying that free will, in its simplest formulation, is probably the closest thing to the truth because it conforms most readily to our direct experience of the world. It may be only an approximation of some far more complex divine reality, but we don't see that. We see the approximation.
"All answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain. The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see-small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope-something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are a lens. The picture is a symbol: but it's truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than any mystic's vision) that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom. Witness the doctrine of Predestination which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in which to be real; but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper truth of the two. And wouldn't Universalism do the same?"
I love this. It seems like Aurelius reversed the Fundamental Attribution Error here. I'm not a religious person (but I'm trying) and to me it sure seems like the approach that Aurelius professed might be among the things that would answer the question "What would Jesus do?"
The Stoics were right on the cusp of something like early Christianity, and the early Christians seem to have liked them best out of all the pagan philosophies.
An internal locus of control--even if less substantiated by objective evidence--is reliably the outlook for success.
Believe in yourself. Not because you have overwhelming proof that you're up to the task, but because believing in yourself works better.
Totally. I'd go one step further and saying that free will, in its simplest formulation, is probably the closest thing to the truth because it conforms most readily to our direct experience of the world. It may be only an approximation of some far more complex divine reality, but we don't see that. We see the approximation.
"All answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain. The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see-small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope-something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are a lens. The picture is a symbol: but it's truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than any mystic's vision) that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom. Witness the doctrine of Predestination which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in which to be real; but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper truth of the two. And wouldn't Universalism do the same?"
What is this quote from?
The Great Divorce
Thank you.
I love this. It seems like Aurelius reversed the Fundamental Attribution Error here. I'm not a religious person (but I'm trying) and to me it sure seems like the approach that Aurelius professed might be among the things that would answer the question "What would Jesus do?"
The Stoics were right on the cusp of something like early Christianity, and the early Christians seem to have liked them best out of all the pagan philosophies.
Spence, where do you teach?
NCF!
What is NCF?
New College Florida
Thank you.