You know, i was reading this answer on Quora which went like this:
It is surprising how difficult this passage is for Christians to understand, although it is straightforward when you read it with an open mind. Paul is saying not to seek revenge against your enemies. Paul makes a vague allusion to Deuteronomy 32:35, saying that any revenge should be left to God. He then says that if we go out of our way to be good to those we consider enemies, helping them in any way possible, we will cause them to suffer burning shame (“coals of fire”) with greater effect than any revenge is likely to achieve. He summarises: Do not let evil overcome you, but overcome evil with good.
Tried to leave a comment, but as usual, comments were disabled, so i thought to post my thoughts on it here.
The part that made it hilarious was where it said that “any revenge should be left to god” – So let me get this straight, you’re asking god – someone that had nothing to do with you or your argument with someone, to enact revenge on your behalf. Are you being serious?
You can definitely choose not to punish for various reasons, like for instance if it’s someone who made an honest mistake, out of stupidity and not knowing, without malicious intent, just from lack of knowledge. But if you’re not punishing someone because you’re expecting that punishment to be done by a god, that has nothing to do with you or your situation, or your actions, i think you’re retarded.
i mean, think about it. You believe you’re a good person by “leaving punishment to god”, but are you really? You haven’t made a choice to forgive or erase the debt. You still have expectation for a punishment, for retribution, to be made whole. You haven’t made a conscious choice to let it go just because you can, you still carry the hate in you, but now they are surrounded by expectations that someone else will enact punishment on your behalf. Someone completely unrelated to the problem.
Now … in a twist of events, we can consider this other case for which “ah leave punishment to god, you be a good man and let those bad men go, because god will deal with them” to be a pretty phrase issued by people using religion to be the bad men in question, but are pacifying everyone in order that action to not be taken against them.
After all, we all know that gods don’t need anyone to sit on their knees and pray to them, but men, often do.
Asking for someone else to deal judgment and punishment and execution on your behalf, for a thing they were not involved in, is a stupid thing to do or to expect.
i’ve read this article which caught my attention, about apparently a drug dealer from Malaysia who was convicted of trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin. Here’s the story:
Nagaenthran a/l K. Dharmalingam (13 September 1988 – 27 April 2022) was a Malaysian drug trafficker who was convicted of trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin in April 2009 upon entering Singapore from Malaysia at Woodlands Checkpoint with a bundle of heroin strapped to his thigh. Nagaenthran confessed to committing the crime, but gave statements claiming that he was ordered to commit the crime out of duress by a mastermind who assaulted him and threatened to kill his girlfriend and his family. He also claimed he did so to get money to pay off his debts before he later denied any knowledge of the contents of his bundle.
Nagaenthran was sentenced to death by hanging in November 2010. However, his execution was put on hold due to a moratorium placed on all hangings in Singapore pending judicial changes of the mandatory death penalty laws, which considered and approved the imposition of life imprisonment with or without caning for drug traffickers who were couriers or had mental illnesses. Despite Nagaenthran’s multiple appeals, he was assessed as ineligible for re-sentencing because he was found not substantially mentally or intellectually disabled, which was also confirmed by the psychiatrists called upon by his lawyers.
Nagaenthran also lost his appeal for clemency, and he was finally scheduled to hang on 10 November 2021 after spending 11 years on death row. However, due to both a last-minute appeal and a COVID-19 infection, Nagaenthran’s execution was suspended for five months, until the dismissal of his appeal on 29 March 2022. After this, Nagaenthran was hanged at Changi Prison on 27 April 2022; he was 33.
You know, for a little bit i kept thinking about the motives he gave and how they might or might not be true, but i quickly realized that is not the point.
i think this is one of the questions that is often asked: “What is my purpose?” “What is the meaning of all this?” “Why are we here?”. And my answer might not be one that you like, because of the way you have been taught while growing up.
We live in a world where words like “purpose” and “meaning” are thrown around like achievement of it would be the Holy Grail, and it puts people on a frantic search, but it’s not true. How can you not see it when you look at the world around you?
Do trees have a purpose or a meaning? Yes, they support life, but is that their purpose? Is that what they are here for? Are they here for anything at all other than being and enjoying the wind, and the occasional dogs taking a piss on their roots?
Do lions, tigers, and wolves have a purpose? Yes, they balance out the ecosystem but is that their purpose? Are they here for anything at all, other than seeing the sun, hunting prey, and enjoying their moments with their families, and the occasional human friends they make that give them belly scratches and stroke their fur?
You see i believe this search for purpose and meaning, is rooted in the fact that we live in an unnatural society. i know the word doesn’t sound great – “unnatural” but it is how it is, we don’t take inspiration from nature in the way we lead our lives. (notice i didn’t say: we don’t “follow” nature) because nature is not something that needs to be followed in my opinion, but like everything around us, used as something to draw inspiration from, and make our lives better.
i have kept trying to do some things. i have knocked on doors, the doors of the people that have what i need, that they could give it without breaking a sweat, and without it being a stress on their lives. i have asked, because although we live in a world of taking, i believe asking is the right way to go, at least for me, even if that means i don’t get to accomplish my work. Even if that means the world doesn’t get to see a different way of doing things, so i guess in a way the current lifestyle is deserved.
As a reminder, the current lifestyle is that you are born, for whatever reasons, often the reasons are that “time is ticking, you need to make babies”, then by the way society is modeled, parents need to go to work, so you need to go to kindergarten and spend the majority of the day without your family, then you go to school, and then to university, then find a job, to make money to be able to survive, and then you work for 40 years, sometimes doing what you love, other times doing what you need to do in order to survive, and then you retire and chill when you’re old, and then you die. And that was it. The grand life of a slave, because it is a society of modern slavery regardless of how “free” and how much “opportunity” you have.
Yes you are “free” – but you are free to choose from the options that will lead you onto the same path of work until you die, doing what you may or may not like.
Yes, you have “opportunity” for education – but it’s education that educates you on the same topics that lead you to the same path, doing the same work that you may like or that you just need to do in order to survive.
The reason for the existence for this article is that i have children, and i know they haven’t chosen to be here. And i think of the world i am putting them in. i think that i am participating in this process of turning them into cog wheels of a broken system. Is that how you fix a broken system? By adding more cogs and wheels and components and making it even more complex, or you address the issues that make it broken in the first place and build on top of that?
My answer for all this is that purpose, meaning are things that require something to follow. i guess sometimes we like to turn off our brains and just do what we are told, but maybe that’s cool only for a little while, because extending this over a lifetime, it becomes a burden. Maybe it’s a rhythmic dance of following-leading where we all need to figure out when we can take a step back, and then to know for certain when we should put ourselves forward, and in such a system, putting ourselves forward would be supported by the people who are taking a step back at that time. Like water, like waves.
Maybe we should try to be a little bit more like water.
vorbim in gand, vorbim in ceata, vorbim in luna si in stele, a noastra viata’n nestemate, cantari de soare si durere. avem un dor, ce’ngana’n gand, un soare peste a noastra viata, din iele mereu povestesc, tristetea ce’i mereu povata.
avem si chin, avem si-o soarta, ce mereu ne’nconjoara, si vantul bate printre pini, si seara ne’nfioara
prin versuri vechi ce-adie’n gand, ne-aduc uneori de veste, cu glasuri mari, rasuna-n stele, ecouri de poveste
tot stele’avem in gand, si luna, soare si cocori, si cand la cer ne inaltam, dansam prea-liberi printre nori avem un vis, un fulg de nea, si raza ne inalta, si-apoi la ea tot ne trezim, mereu de dimineata
si ata curge tot arzand, cu’un foc ce’ncet mocneste, si ascultand, incet incet, cuvintele sopteste sa vii la mine tot mereu, plecand mereu in zori, si sa m-astepti pe nori zambind, prin miile de culori
Ladies and gentlemen, i address to you from the mud, because that’s the only way to look at the sky. Back against the earth, Hands stretched wide, Feet firmly sat upon the ground, Water flowing freely, upside down.
i’m here for a check, i’m here for a reason, Not once shall i ever consider the word treason. i’m here for a carry, i’m here to say, i’m here not to worry, i’m just here to play.
Shall we have a night, when we’ll entertain, one gentle lady, or one gentile man.
i am here to find, your finest young ladies, a kind gentle soul, that’d open your purses so i could fulfill some of your wildest dreams, you could dash in amazement, maybe`ven cry some tears.
Have an old magician, say what he’d want, a couple of pennies, some beads on a strand.
