it is illogical to praise one's god for the good things while ignoring the bad things One is reminded of such heretical sects as the Albigenians of medieval Languedoc who were massacred in their countless thousands by the Holy Roman Catholic Church for the rather Gnostic belief that all material creation is the work of the despotic demiurge they equated with both satan and the God of the Old Testament. Thus all things are inherently evil, and the only Godly thing is the human soul, herein enslaved in this hellish realm from which, through the purification of bodily discipline and successive incarnations, it might, at last, escape the torments of toothaches, wild beasts, biting bugs, brigands, inquisitors, lusts, diseases, poverty, injustice, Catholics and other such afflictions which are the very punishments of the devil. An attractive idea, as the only way is up! Easy to see why it caught on and the Church felt so threatened as to instigate a persecution of such brutality the Vatican has yet to reveal the full extent of the thing.
|