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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 4, 2024

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So let's concede that your faith is not Catholic, Orthodox, or Lutheran-adjacent but a personal interpretation of faith that allows unbaptized Hindu children into heaven. You probably have a lot of theology to do, but put that aside.

The common Christian response to the problem of pain is a wonderful meme attached below. Suffering is God's chisel to sculpt us. (It is a great meme.)

Can you think of a type or manner of suffering that would falsify this hypothesis? That is to say, a Job-like situation of suffering so meaningless that it could not be didactic? And that if you found it to exist, your current paradigm would have to update? If you can't think of one, what does that rationally mean?

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Catholic, Orthodox, or Lutheran-adjacent but a personal interpretation of faith that allows unbaptized Hindu children into heaven.

My faith is LDS, i.e. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The common Christian response to the problem pain is a wonderful meme attached below. Suffering is God's chisel to sculpt us. (It is a great meme.)

Eh, it's alright. I get off the train at step 5 or 6. My religion believes in a somewhat more limited God who did not invent righteousness out of thin air or have the capacity to redefine what Good and Bad are. You could say we don't believe in an omnipotent God, but there are different definitions of omnipotence, and some allow for "omnipotent" beings incapable of changing logic itself.

Can you think of a type or manner of suffering that would falsify this hypothesis? That is to say, a Job-like situation of suffering so meaningless that it could not be didactic? And that if you found it to exist, your current paradigm would have to update? If you can't think of one, what does that rationally mean?

I'm not really sure what hypothesis you're referring to. Can I think of a level of suffering which would force me to update my own position? Sort of--it would be strong evidence against my position anyways, the same way the suffering which I observe is evidence for (but not proof of) my position.