As a christian, I really struggle with the stuff that goes on in my mind. Most of the time I think pleasant thoughts, or deep and meaningful wonderfulness :) But alot of the time stuff comes into my head that has no business being there. Its not normal. As in, well, its might be normal to think things like this, but its not what i consider normal or decent. Its quite the opposite. I really hate it.
Every time it happens I have to try and stop myself and change what I am thinking about. Its an ongoing battle. How can you have normal relationships with people when you are constantly battling foul and disgusting thoughts about them or other people? You cant.. and I suspect thats why the world has gone so far to pieces.
Changing topics slightly... I was just reading up on existentialism.
One of JP Satre's tenets is this:
Existence precedes essence: This is a reversal of the Aristotlean premise that essence precedes existence, where man is created to fulfil some telos and life consists of fulfilling that goal. Unlike tools that are created to fulfill a purpose (e.g. a pair of scissors is created for the express purpose of cutting things), Sartrean existentialism argues man exists without purpose, finds himself in the world and defines the meaning of his existence.
I agree with this to an extent. However I believe that the Bible teaches that humanity originally DID have a purpose (to represent God), but at the fall, we lost the ability to represent God. This is because this form of "representing" relies on relationship in order to function. When Adam and Eve chose to rely on themselves rather than God, they lost the ability to relate to God.
Since then, all humans come into to the world with no purpose, because they can not fulfil their created purpose.
However....
By relying on God for all things, one can restore ones purpose in the world. Existentialism points to the problem, purposelessnes. The bible points to the solution: complete and utter reliance on God.
