Hi folks, I want to thank Jesse for that idea he has about every thought having a father -- either God or Satan. At first I thought this was a dumb idea -- like, way to be overly reductive about a complex world.

But I kept thinking about it...he's 100% right. This world is eager to confuse us. To get us so frustrated with the complexity of this situation and that one, that we exhaust our ability to judge for ourselves. Then we look to others to tell us what things mean.

Jesse's idea here puts *you* back in charge. If you accept the responsibility of finding out the father of the thought, idea or action, then you need to be awake, and ready to untangle the tangled threads.

And if you do it, you *will find out* why you did that thing. Why didn't you call her back? Why was that guy pissed off? Etc.

Keep the lamps lit. Anyway, thanks for the chance to communicate back and God bless y'all.

@rohangulur totally agree with you about porn.. It's also clear that lots of "devout" people indulge in it. I think it's a kind of "mother of many sins" because it's about elevating pleasure to a high throne in your mind, and you get the idea that you can do this secretly. Secretly, you are imaging some women in a degrading situation. Secretly, you are the king of all things.

It's a kind of IKEA furniture store for furnishing the mind with pre-digested fantasies, to get you off to a "good start." It increases the "pace" of falling into lower floors of the fallen state.

One small upside: this is become so danged obvious, that it finally has an inoculation effect. Like the sunglasses in "Them." Once you see, you can't unsee.

Thank you @Japheth that is true. If somebody consumes "success porn," he'll improve himself, sure. But all overreliance on imagery to "strengthen" the mind eventually becomes movement away from God. You build a separate camp. You presume to know better.

Music is like spirit...comes in through the ears, goes directly to work on consciousness. Really liking Apocalyptica "Farewell" at the moment...

Vocalists can make perfect intervals together. I guess stringed instruments without frets can do this too. I like an ambient composer Robert Rich, he does synth stuff but pays lots of attention to the quality of the intervals.

Not a foreigner, but live in a foreign country. 😅

Thanks y'all for the pointer on Lee Podles...I've been asking myself why the churches are empty (I live in Europe...they seem to be museums).

JLP asks the question: "and why does it take God a long time to change you, if he can act in the twinkling of an eye?"

Podles answers like..."well, we don't really know. God acts in history. Takes a long time," (etc).

I think there is a super obvious answer:

It takes a long time to transform because you are resisting.

You grow old and you decay through your willful stand against God. Sure, you don't see it that way. Probably, most of the "good transformations" that make you a bit more perfect are simply because you finally dropped some outcrop of your overweening pride that began to look tacky, even to you (lol, think hairpieces).

I dunno...does that make sense? God has to operate "in time" because we create ever more time in which to live out our fantasies. He has followed us into time, in His kindness.

Thanks for trying Coon Fu Master!