Baby Dyke

more of my bug (fate)

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

Important definition: grace is the state of being allowed entry to Heaven at some point in the future in this context. IANACA (I Am Not A Catholic Anymore), but in the Catholic context, sin is acts that cause one to fall out of the grace of God, and reconciliation allows you to reenter grace. It is assumed that everyone will sin, because humans are inherently imperfect and so confession is done at least yearly, very often more frequently, to ensure one remains in the good graces of God. Confession removes the risk of Hell, but you're still responsible for the temporal punishment (time in Purgatory perfecting yourself) associated with your sins. A less sinful life, therefore, allows faster access to Heaven upon death.

Purgatory is a whole thing that I won't get into here, but essentially if Heaven is perfect, then nothing imperfect can enter it, meaning that souls with a tendency towards sin (most human souls) need to have that tendency removed, and that comes through purification, often depicted as a painless (or painful but ultimately worth it) cleansing flame. To quote Benedict XVI, "Purgatory is not, as Tertullian thought, some kind of supra-worldly concentration camp where man is forced to undergo punishment in a more or less arbitrary fashion. Rather it is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God, and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints."

Lutherans (and protestants generally) actually hold that contrition (recognizing that what you did was wrong, and a genuine desire to do better to be more like God) and faith restore one to grace, without the need for the Sacrament of Penance. (this is Sola Fides)

But like, in the actual Bible, ARE fallen angels a thing? Thats a legit question, I am also Jewish and do not go here. But I am fairly sure that Lucifer being a fallen angel is from Paradise Lost, not the Bible. Are there other examples of fallen angles in the Bible? Because IF an angel could be considered to "fall," then I think it would be worth considering if or why not a demon could not "rise" or be redeemed.

That's different than a human person being redeemed.

if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars

literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that. Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?

you don't have to read more deeply if you don't want to (but i'd recommend it, i genuinely think it makes you a better person)

if you want to learn to read more deeply, the resources are out there. try to find critical literature (that is, academic writing that analyzes the text) on works your familiar with so you can get a sense for how to do that analysis too

learning to deep read literature can help you deep read many areas of your life

genuinely feels like this sums up so many online interactions

In light of some of the many things happening across the world this year, I thought this Pride Month needed a special illustration.