Philosophy & Religion Thread

[HacklemanPoke]

I've struggled with fellowship the past few years. Getting divorced in the middle of the pandemic, being isolated, and then moving to Michigan where I didn't know anyone and living alone has had... an effect. I didn't realize how much of an effect it had. I'm starting to deal with it.

I’m sure you have your reasons and a plan but move back to Stillwater. We stay busy year round w sporting events and now the McKnight Center (amazing pac w even more amazing artists and performers). We’ve made new friends w people that have season tickets next to us in different events that have retired or semi retired back to Stillwater. My almost 80 yr old in-laws did this about 7 yrs prior to us and we can’t keep them at home. They go way more than we do

 

[osuwhit]

Oscoda, a town of about 3000 on the shore of Lake Huron in Northern Michigan, well above the population line. I've lived in small towns a long time, but this is the most remote place I've ever lived. It's 45 minutes one way to Alpena to Meijer and Home Depot, and an hour and a half the other way to Saginaw to Guitar Center and Kroger. If you draw a line horizontally roughly through Grand Rapids about 80% of the population of Michigan lives below that line.

The UP rules. I haven't been on the east side though. I've only been to Detroit and Grand Rapids for work. We showed up to Grand Rapids before the work began to enjoy the area. We took a jeep up to Traverse City and that is my UP experience on the west side. Mackinaw Island looks awesome. Not sure if/when I'll ever go back, but it would be cool.

 

[osuwhit]

I’m sure you have your reasons and a plan but move back to Stillwater. We stay busy year round w sporting events and now the McKnight Center (amazing pac w even more amazing artists and performers). We’ve made new friends w people that have season tickets next to us in different events that have retired or semi retired back to Stillwater. My almost 80 yr old in-laws did this about 7 yrs prior to us and we can’t keep them at home. They go way more than we do

If you go see Allison Krause there make sure you don't miss her opener, Theo Lawrence. He is excellent.

 

[RxCowboy]

The UP rules. I haven't been on the east side though. I've only been to Detroit and Grand Rapids for work. We showed up to Grand Rapids before the work began to enjoy the area. We took a jeep up to Traverse City and that is my UP experience on the west side. Mackinaw Island looks awesome. Not sure if/when I'll ever go back, but it would be cool.

The Lake Michigan side supposedly has more money than the Lake Huron side. That’s where the casinos and resorts are.

 

[RxCowboy]

I’m sure you have your reasons and a plan but move back to Stillwater. We stay busy year round w sporting events and now the McKnight Center (amazing pac w even more amazing artists and performers). We’ve made new friends w people that have season tickets next to us in different events that have retired or semi retired back to Stillwater. My almost 80 yr old in-laws did this about 7 yrs prior to us and we can’t keep them at home. They go way more than we do

My only reason for being here is work. I needed a job, wanted a job in the VA system, and this is the one I found. There was one at the OKC VA and I was a finalist, but I didn’t get it.

 

[RxCowboy]

Finding your "soul mate".

There are currently approximately 8.3 billion people on the planet. The idea that there is one person to whom you are perfectly matched and that it is God's will that you seek out and find that person and marry them is pretty preposterous. And if it is true that there is "one person" that it is God's will that you find and marry, well, then having been married twice I am forever out of God's will because I obviously missed it.

The concept of "soul mate" is not a Christian concept. It comes from Platonic gnosticism. To Plato, souls pre-existed in the ether and were mated to one another in the ether. Then when a body was ready the souls were poured into the body. Then it was your mission in life to find the soul that you were mated with in the ether, your soul mate, and finding your soul mate would result in perfect harmonious bliss.

By contrast, the Judeo-Christian belief is not that we have souls but that we are souls... that everything that we are, body, mind, spirit is created in the womb and nothing pre-exists prior to that creation and that these are inseparable except by death when the spirit leaves the body. And what I mean by "we are souls", the term for "soul" that is used in the OT, nephesh, means "living, breathing creature." It is also used of animals. Animals are nephesh, living breathing creatures. They do not have souls, they are souls (Genesis 1:21 So God created the great sea creatures (nephesh) and every living creature (nephesh) that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good).

I'm not on any dating sites any more and haven't been in a good while, but nearly every woman's profile, especially Christian women, says she's looking for her "soul mate". It ought to say "next soul mate" because her last one was her soul mate, at least until he wasn't anymore. This idea that your life is supposed to be perfect harmonious bliss is pretty destructive. It doesn't exist in nature. Life can be good, and it should be. But perfect harmonious bliss? That's why people keep going from one to another.

So, what is "God's will" for finding a mate? That we choose wisely. Which obviously, I haven't.