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ThomasdelVasto

Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου

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joined 2025 May 20 19:37:18 UTC

Blogger, Christian convert, general strange one. https://shapesinthefog.substack.com/


				
User ID: 3709


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
ThomasdelVasto


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου

				
				
				

				

					1 follower  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2025 May 20 19:37:18 UTC
				


				
					

					
Blogger, Christian convert, general strange one. https://shapesinthefog.substack.com/



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				When the Buddha Failed Me
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Why must God be subject to our conception of good and evil? Humans think of pain and suffering and death as “evil”, but why must God? Maybe He has purposes and intentions that we could not possibly fathom.




God is not subjection to our conception of good and evil. I agree, He is so far beyond us we can't possibly understand it.


There's a great video here on twitter talking about how a superaligned AI would not do things we like, showing people holding down a struggling seal and cutting a plastic net off of it's neck. I think God's relationship to us might be at least somewhat similar.


That being said, I expect God to care because, you know, of Christ. The fact that God told us He cares, directly, and gave His life for us.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				When the Buddha Failed Me
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sigh. See my response to TowardsPanna. I have written quite a lot about my problems with western buddhism, and thought I was beyond clear in the article that I didn’t take it seriously. Not sure why you two are taking so much umbrage at that fact.


https://www.themotte.org/post/3699/when-the-buddha-failed-me/435516?context=8#context


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				When the Buddha Failed Me
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m surprised you’re so mad, where is your equanimity my friend? Usually we get along.


I didn’t write this to appeal to anyone in particular, I wrote this because it is my experience, and a lot of people have asked me questions about it. On Twitter I actually tend to interact with more Buddhists than Christians, and get along with them better.


I wasn’t trying to attack the Buddha or Buddhism - I thought I made it perfectly clear, as you point out, that I failed to engage with Buddhism properly. I’m not sure why it makes you so angry? It’s not as if I said anywhere in the article “Buddhism sucks and the Buddha is evil.” I tried quite hard to avoid that language, as I don’t think it’s true in the slightest.  I have a lot of fondness for the Buddha and his teachings.


Sure the title is a bit spicy, but hey it’s the age we live in!


If you actually read the article without such a strong emotional response, I’d be curious for your thoughts and your take on western Buddhism, and how young people might get such bad misapprehensions of what the Buddha taught.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				When the Buddha Failed Me
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Disagree with this framing of belief. It’s certainly more of an action than a proposition though, and something you can work on.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				When the Buddha Failed Me
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Good question. Do I have a satisfying answer for why people die and why death exists in the first place? Not really. Ultimately I have come to accept that it was my dad's time to go, though. That death exists in the world for some reason beyond my ken.


The official church answer of course is that it's because Adam and Even chose sin, and so death entered the world. I find that unpersuasive, given that God had to have known that this was at least a possible outcome when He created them. So I choose to believe that whatever happens after this mortal existence, in the fullness of Eternity, is worth it. I try my best to trust Him. Perhaps we'll all be reunited in our current bodies in a plane of Paradise; perhaps there will be something even stranger and harder to fathom that happens after death. Either way, I'm slowly coming to trust more and more that God is truly good, and wouldn't allow an evil like death unless there was a greater goodness it necessitated.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				When the Buddha Failed Me
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thank you! Yeah as I mention in the post, I know that I did not necessarily do the 'correct' Buddhist path. Also though, Pure Land seems quite different from most Western Buddhism anyway. From what I have heard it's much more deity focused and less uhhh personal enlightenment.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Found this interesting. Thank you for posting! I hope you get that promotion.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yep! But the private servers are all getting shut down now, rip.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nah I don’t play that TRASH sorry. ;P


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Hah. I’m glad you did this, I was about to do the same thing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 4, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Depends. I believed when I converted, but I do struggle with doubts quite often. Just wrote a blog about it actually: https://shapesinthefog.substack.com/p/faith-and-doubt-during-holy-week


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 4, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Mmm it's a big topic, and I wouldn't say I'm qualified to give serious answers here. If you're truly interested I'd recommend Jordan Peterson's lectures on the significance of Biblical stories. His book 12 Rules for Life is good as well.


From a deeper, more philosophical standpoint, David Bentley Hart's The Experience of God, and Tom Holland's Dominion are great there.


That being said, the short answer for me from a rationalist perspective is that religion works. There's a famous post back on LessWrong that asks, if rationalists are so rational, why aren't we winning? The answer, to my mind, is that obviously rationality cannot model everything in the world. Rationality a great servant, and an awful master. When it comes to the deeper/broader questions of life, especially moral and value hierarchies, you need a more complex and flexible structure.


Traditionally morality has been taught in a narrative or symbolic structure, via stories, complex images with much encoded information, and embodied ritual. Sarah Perry, one of the writers credited with starting the 'postrat' movement to some degree, wrote a great blog post on ritual here.


If you're curious about more writings that moved people out of pure rationalism and into something like 'post-rationalism' I'd recommend this blogpost from eigenrobot.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I stand corrected.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's not that men's clubs are outright illegal, they are just socially out of favor. A harder battle to fight.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I used to drink quite frequently and heavily in my 20s. Nowadays I have slowly tapered off, drink 1-3 times a month for celebrations, ideally with friends out of the house. My hangovers tend to be fine if I do that, if I'm drinking alone or just with the lady at the house then my hangovers are terrible.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I love random effort posts like this. Thanks for putting in the time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Also he didn't mention us here at the Motte or the CW thread spinoffs at all. Total Motte erasure!!!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Reacting to this video explaining the different rationlist communities specifically on the post-rat section, which I'm most affiliated with at the moment.


Post-rationalism basically came out of a lot of more rigorous critiques of rationality and utilitarianism as systems for modeling the world. It essentially concluded that a huge part of the human experience cannot be legibly modeled, at least with our current understanding of the world, and that trying to do so leads to a ton of major failure modes.


For instance, he mentioned the repugnant conclusion earlier in the video, which is one of the major issues in utilitarianism, along with the idea of the utility monster. Those made a lot of people start questioning rationalism, including myself, along with other famous problematic thought experiments like the trolley problem, etc.


But of course, as he does mention, there is also a lot of meditation and drug use, especially psychedelics, in the post-rationalist community, and that definitely plays into people realizing that rationality and legible statistics have major limits when it comes to describing actual reality.


There is also a heavy overlap with the sort of evolutionary or vitalist strain of thought championed by Peterson and earlier Carl Jung, where the idea is that from an evolutionary perspective, religion has a lot of power because even if it is not strictly true in an objective or rational sense, it leads to more fitness and better outcomes. Therefore it is superior, even if under one frame of mind it is not strictly explainable or coherent.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Faith & Doubt During Holy Week
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
No rush, thanks for the heads up.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Faith & Doubt During Holy Week
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Truly He is risen!


Thanks brother. I actually love that book, a good friend lent it too me a few months back and I was obsessed with it. Definitely helped strengthen my faith.


I love Hart as well, generally a fan of his approach though the deeper theological stuff confuses me. Universalism makes a lot of sense, I must say. As for Lord of Spirits, I've tried it a couple times but hasn't clicked with me. I may go back at some point.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Faith & Doubt During Holy Week
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well said. I relate. It's a hard time to live, spiritually. Materially we're blessed, of course.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Faith & Doubt During Holy Week
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
We have an organ as well, and have a unique somewhat Westernized choir that I'm a part of. I love it, our music is beautiful. We also still have chanters and we trade off different parts of the Liturgy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Faith & Doubt During Holy Week
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yep. We're American Greeks baby. We do it different.


The nearby Antiochian church has chairs as well.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Faith & Doubt During Holy Week
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Hah no human is puny my friend. Glad to hear it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Faith & Doubt During Holy Week
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think Christ is saying that you can't pray with others at all. The earliest Christians, even Christ and His disciples, prayed together often, sang hymns together, etc. Corporate worship as a whole is definitely never outlawed by almost any Christian sect I've ever heard of.


It sounds to me like you are overly scrupulous. I have similar tendencies. Ultimately there are many contradictions within Christ's message if you take everything literally and try to follow all of the rules. The Orthodox talk a lot about how interpreting scripture is tricky, and you have to have the right mindset or phronema to understand. That's why we tend to defer to the early Christians and Fathers of the church when it comes to interpretations.