Thanks back for softening my rather hardline stance.
You put what I said in much more friendly terms.
You are right that religion has played a huge part in our present conditioning.
Western society, even the
non Christians, are still brought up with Christian ideals on lots of things, it is part of our culture, laws and treatment of each other.
A lot of Christian fundamental beliefs stem from the idea that poverty is holy and somehow divine, and wealth is unholy and evil.
That depriving yourself makes you better than enjoying yourself.
Part of this I think comes from how people in most religious mythology had scarce few physical posessions, however as I pointed out above, these people were far from poor or in poverty. They lived in simple abundance, completely provided for.
But it was the lack of possessions that was focussed on. Not the ubundance they actually had in their lives where their needs were fully catered for.
Jesus never had to shake a tin cup on the side of the road for a loaf of bread, and as far as I can recall Moses didn't have a habit of scavenging through garbage dumps for food. Etc. etc.
The problem that most religions made was they put the effects before the cause and thought they
were the cause.
e.g. Jesus had few possesions and was divine = Having no possession makes you divine
But what if it's the other way around?
When you become divine you no longer feel the need for possessions?
To take away the possessions before you are divine is just resiting your nature and, I feel, making it harder to become divine because you are forcing yourself into something that you don't want to do which creates inner turmoil.
To deprive yourself before you are ready is like taking your scuba mask off before you reach the surface. You don't start breathing, you
drown.
Case in point 2 sex and christianity. Abstinance is certainly doing the Catholic Priests a lot of favours for their divinity... Why don't other religions have this as much of a problem? Oh that's right their ministers are usually allowed to marry and have lovers!
Can't force divinity on yourself is the bottom line.
But that is what most of culture is geared to. Depriving ourselves is somehow seen as more noble than a having a good life.
Seriously though what is the use of living if you are going to deny yourself everything that the world has to offer? Why keep the ferrari if you are never going to drive it? Why spend life trying to avoid and resist 'temptation' and instead just cap yourself now to make the whole process a heck of a lot shorter and less painful.
If you refuse to do more than the absolute minimum with your life, you are quite frankly an
ungrateful git.