Spirituality
12 Jun 21
14 Jun 21
@sonship
A few notes on Mark Twain:
Among Twain’s many controversial stances on religion, he did not believe in the existence of heaven and hell, the immortality of the soul nor the divinity of Jesus Christ. He was highly skeptical of the Bible’s contents, and although he professed belief in God, he frequently questioned God’s motives.
https://catholicreview.org/mark-twains-autobiography-renews-debate-was-he-anti-christian/
It seems like Mark Twain wanted some of his views not to be too public until after his books sales sored. Mark Twain enjoyed a huge degree of contemporary appreciation. The poor kid grew up to be very wealthy and addicted to living lavishly. I think he could have had a lot to thank God for material benefit.
He had a balance of hard knocks and great fortune too. Basically his wit eloquently expressed a lot of thoughts people of the world had.
It’s doubtful, then, that the aunt would have enjoyed Twain’s current autobiography or two additional volumes that have yet to be released. According to Kiskis, these works contain Twain’s most cutting remarks yet known on the subject of religion. A large part of this commentary is aimed at God himself, especially a running complaint that God has the power to alleviate human suffering and elects not to do so, Kiskis said.
“The notion of compassion is one (Twain) wants to believe in, and the problem he has is sometimes the works of God are not entirely compassionate, not upfront — why do bad things happen to good people?” said Kiskis, who edited “Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography: The Chapters of the North American Review” (1990, University of Wisconsin Press), an anthology of 25 Twain writings that were first published in 1906 and 1907.
Kiskis observed that Twain knew his harshest views on religion might taint his image; thus he didn’t want them to become public in his own lifetime.
“Twain didn’t want his debate with, or interrogation of, God to diminish his sales,” said Kiskis, who teaches at Elmira College, home of the Center for Mark Twain Studies, which includes many Twain-related exhibits and artifacts.
This ad hominem doesn't affect the validity of the quote BigDoggProblem provided though, does it?
14 Jun 21
@sonship saidAd hominems aren't very effective anyway, sonship. Maybe they are effective when you're in one of your echo chambers like the 'discourses' seen in those Local Churches videos you posted. But with an independent-minded poster like BigDoggProblem, you scrabbling about for an ad hominem instead of just engaging genuinely is unlikely to work out for you. It's just as well you deleted it.
Folks I erased my submission upon reading it again myself.
I did not erase it because anyone I knew read it or commented on it.
I decided quoting part of the article was not helpful to the discussion.