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Source? Not very familiar with Twain, but fallen creation has been in the Judeo-Christian sphere for a long time. I assumed that's what he would have been influ

Source? Not very familiar with Twain, but fallen creation has been in the Judeo-Christian sphere for a long time. I assumed that's what he would have been influenced by.

I_Am_Nous 3y ago
Twain was mentioned in the article a couple of times with various works more or less stating "God apparently made everything like this on purpose: >In Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth (published posthumously in 1939), Satan sends a series of reports from Earth to the archangels Michael and Gabriel. In Letter VI, Satan marshals the evidence to call God a “malevolent lunatic”: ... >The Christian begins with this straight proposition, this definite proposition, this inflexible and uncompromising proposition: God is all-knowing, and all-powerful. >This being the case, nothing can happen without his knowing beforehand that it is going to happen; nothing happens without his permission; nothing can happen that he chooses to prevent. >That is definite enough, isn’t it? It makes the Creator distinctly responsible for everything that happens, doesn’t it? . . . . >Then, having thus made the Creator responsible for all those pains and diseases and miseries above enumerated, and which he could have prevented, the gifted Christian blandly calls him Our Father!
- aliasxneo 3y ago
  My fault for not reading the article fully. For the curious reader, C. S. Lewis wrote a great piece on this called, "The Problem of Pain." "We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Of course, there's hundreds of more writings on this, but Lewis is always an easy place to start.
  - I_Am_Nous 3y ago
    No worries, the article is huge. I also agree with Lewis, in that this world is incomplete as we are not fully one with God as we were created to be. So we recognize that lack as pain, and things we do to cope can lead us into further pain. In a world where we must eat every day to be healthy, the pain of hunger drives us to food. One could argue spiritual pain is intended to drive us to God in a similar way.

Source? Not very familiar with Twain, but fallen creation has been in the Judeo-Christian sphere for a long time. I assumed that's what he would have been influenced by.

I_Am_Nous 3y ago

Twain was mentioned in the article a couple of times with various works more or less stating "God apparently made everything like this on purpose: >In Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth (published posthumously in 1939), Satan sends a series of reports from Earth to the archangels Michael and Gabriel. In Letter VI, Satan marshals the evidence to call God a “malevolent lunatic”: ... >The Christian begins with this straight proposition, this definite proposition, this inflexible and uncompromising proposition: God is all-knowing, and all-powerful. >This being the case, nothing can happen without his knowing beforehand that it is going to happen; nothing happens without his permission; nothing can happen that he chooses to prevent. >That is definite enough, isn’t it? It makes the Creator distinctly responsible for everything that happens, doesn’t it? . . . . >Then, having thus made the Creator responsible for all those pains and diseases and miseries above enumerated, and which he could have prevented, the gifted Christian blandly calls him Our Father!

aliasxneo 3y ago
My fault for not reading the article fully. For the curious reader, C. S. Lewis wrote a great piece on this called, "The Problem of Pain." "We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Of course, there's hundreds of more writings on this, but Lewis is always an easy place to start.
- I_Am_Nous 3y ago
  No worries, the article is huge. I also agree with Lewis, in that this world is incomplete as we are not fully one with God as we were created to be. So we recognize that lack as pain, and things we do to cope can lead us into further pain. In a world where we must eat every day to be healthy, the pain of hunger drives us to food. One could argue spiritual pain is intended to drive us to God in a similar way.