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Apparently this phenomenon predates video games: "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I

Apparently this phenomenon predates video games: "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Paul of Tarsus, circa 57 a.d.)

bdefore 8y ago
Reads like a prologue to the new offering in town around then (Jesus Christ)
- nyokodo 8y ago
  It's an Epilogue. Paul of Tarsus is St Paul the author of many letters in the New Testament of the Bible. The text is from Romans 7:15-24. Verse 25 says "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
  - rsyring 8y ago
    Thank you for finishing the quote. It's arguably the most important verse as it offers the solution.
    - sooheon 8y ago
      It asserts a solution.
pmoriarty 8y ago
"if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me" That's one way of looking at it. Another is that there's more than one "you", or at least more than one part of you. A part that wants one thing, and a part that wants another. Sometimes the one part gets the upper hand, sometimes another. The part that gets the upper hand might even be fully unconscious, so as far as you're aware you fully want only one thing, yet do something completely different that an unconscious part of you wants (or that you want without being aware of it).
narag 8y ago
Apparently this phenomenon predates video games... I think Ovid would agree: Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor.

bdefore 8y ago

Reads like a prologue to the new offering in town around then (Jesus Christ)

nyokodo 8y ago
It's an Epilogue. Paul of Tarsus is St Paul the author of many letters in the New Testament of the Bible. The text is from Romans 7:15-24. Verse 25 says "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
- rsyring 8y ago
  Thank you for finishing the quote. It's arguably the most important verse as it offers the solution.
  - sooheon 8y ago
    It asserts a solution.

pmoriarty 8y ago

"if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me" That's one way of looking at it. Another is that there's more than one "you", or at least more than one part of you. A part that wants one thing, and a part that wants another. Sometimes the one part gets the upper hand, sometimes another. The part that gets the upper hand might even be fully unconscious, so as far as you're aware you fully want only one thing, yet do something completely different that an unconscious part of you wants (or that you want without being aware of it).

narag 8y ago

Apparently this phenomenon predates video games... I think Ovid would agree: Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor.