Caution: thoughts on religion, including Christianity and Judaism
I can’t fix it doesn’t mean I don’t profit from it.
I have thought about it in the negative context, yet there are also positive contexts.
Negative context – if I was barred from joining the military I can’t fix the military, or problems in the military, or remove enemies from being able to hurt civilians. Can’t fix, can’t ideally work for or die for the cause. Yet I would continue to live, and I would find continuing to live profitable.
That said it feels kind of negative other men and women, younger than me at times die or are injured for status quo that maintains profit in some ways and not others. Heaven would be profitable – not to be confused with I am trying to die. I like music, be able to speak directly with best composers and artists of all time, ask all the questions you want – though having to answer questions all the time might not be heaven, might send me back to earth.
Is the big bang bunk or not bunk? Did you always keep the rules of physic the same or not? How do you know there is not another God in another universe that doesn’t think or act like you do, have the same power you do? You claim mercy will be given to the merciful, is it true mercy to make things so confusing and not let everyone into heaven?
The start of time big bang or created 4000 years ago? I can’t fix it doesn’t mean I don’t profit from it.
Say big bang or some physics theory that we don’t know yet is the start of time. There are ways to profit from it.
Say creation is the start of time. There are ways to profit from it.
I personally find the puzzle about the start of time both interesting and something I don’t feel like I have to ideally solve. Comprehension of time seems to vary, there are ways to fit or not fit pieces to the puzzle. Plausible might not always be right, right might not always be plausible.
Questions combined with the collective knowledge of humanity (which has proven to be right and wrong at times, world is flat to round for example) has not always ideally aligned with faith. I don’t like the idea that faith is completely blind to results, usefulness, imagine no miracles in The Bible, no parting of The Red Sea. Distinct cataclysmic events of God intervening in a world, where as at least in 2025 it sometimes feels like God is absent from, apathetic, uncaring, and divested at times.
I don’t always like the idea of if this then that – if I can’t fix it then I profit from it – seems to establish causality without trying to establish causality. If there is too big of a bully in the room, and they are mistreating someone – imagine Goliath 2x and I am 0.25 David with no sling, and Goliath is running around oppressing people, yet I still need to put food on the plate for my family – does not equate to I want Goliath running around oppressing people or that I can just stop profiting in a way that doesn’t hurt other people. The reason why some profits matter.
Is war profiteering different than peace profiteering? Not getting bombed is profitable, seems like it is useful and enabling of all businesses. If there was a referee for what should be profited from in business and what should not be profited from in business, peace and harmony seems like it should be on the kosher list. Products that hurt consumers, should one profit from those? They don’t reinforce peace and harmony, thus no.
Now there is a more complicated version – imagine someone gets a million dollar kickback every time peace is made – thus there is incentives for letting others get close to war without doing anything and then fixing it. Like a non nuclear power threatening they will build a nuclear program to inspire greater international funding.
10 Commandments as I can’t fix it doesn’t mean I don’t profit from it?
I am not God, can’t say you need an 11th, or need to remove this one or that. Even if I could divergence of the document might be too consequential, might adulterate history too much to be considered valuable, worthy of turning up. 10 Commandments haven’t been all war out over the many years – which might have one starting to ask the question are they enough or are they not enough. Christianity is a bit of a reflection on this that the old laws have not delivered ideally over time. One might venture to say with the devil in the new law and good news hasn’t been as ideal as one would like as well.
All that could be said to be a consequence of not enough amplification and throughput. If the world was all rabbis, priests, and nuns – the world would be a perfect place? If all celibate priests and nuns there might be less future generations – and humanity as not all sin out? Or maybe celibate is just what they say, or would be if the whole world was one or the other? 8 billion people invested in the same cause might be less than ideal steel chastity belts out – creative problem solving not always thought all the way through.
The Bible tries to establish perfect James 4:17, knowing and not doing is sin. If you knew the whole world would be saved and be more perfect if everyone was celibate priest and nuns, is it not sin for Christians to not try and inspire? I seem to take a different route, future generations are valuable, everyone as priests or nuns might not be ideal evil or resentful priests and nuns out, forced to do something you don’t want to do is not all Golden Rule in not all slavery out – I am from USA, we value Freedom.
That said while I value Freedom I do entertain the idea that if we all were more invested in perfection the world might be a better place. Imagine everyone on Earth had to give a talk on the Ten Commandments one time in their life, and if they did we would avoid World War 3. My guess is people would be willing to sacrifice a small amount of their time to stop bombs from dropping on babies. I also think it is unrealistic to think I alone could inspire the right fix (not saying that is the right fix, just saying it is an example that might be perceived as a more perfect world).
I can’t fix the world in ideal ways to prevent the next war, yet I do want to inspire peace, preferably try to stop the next war in advance. I find peace profitable, I find bombs not dropping on babies, on self, on friends, families, coworkers, and fellow citizens valuable.
Less shrapnel in self as an altruistic added bonus?
I can’t fix it doesn’t mean I don’t profit from it.
There is a more convoluted version of this – I jump to extremes in earlier examples to help with contrast and juxtaposition. It will likely make the following point clearer. There are other systems, choices, and ethics that are more gray in life. Just because something hasn’t been fully established as good or bad, consequential or not consequential doesn’t mean it can’t be profited from.
Imagine a set of roads that leaves people stuck in traffic on hot summer days in Texas – slowly breaking down their cars, increasing maintenance costs, potential generating the potential for heat stroke. Yet those roads are the same roads that bring food to the local supermarket, and are very hard to change in a valuable way, further there is limited government funding to maintain or change them. Lastly while catalytic converters might solve much of the immediate global warming caused by the cars, the processes including creation of cars and mining of materials, energy costs all continue to contribute to global warming compounding those problems on the roads as well as increasing harsher living conditions and environments for places in the globe that might be in a hotter region and not first world.
I can’t fix it (I can try to inspire better, yet throughput is necessary for society, turning it off would be evil, and changing direction with limited funding is hard).
Doesn’t mean I don’t profit from it – food brought by those imperfect roads keeps me alive, and we also profit from the many products brought by 18 wheeler, ship, and train.
I can’t fix it doesn’t mean I don’t profit from it.
Turning it off as merciful, not evil? Everyone walking everywhere in the Texas sun? 100+ degree temperatures exactly how we all wish to be treated, add in some mosquitoes and potential for West Nile Virus on rainy days?
As technology accelerates it might be nice to have all solar power cars that require no gasoline. It might be less profit for oil companies though, and might significantly reduce profit margins for convenience stores which might make long trips for travelers more brutal by having fewer stores. Also worthy of note it might redistribute global funding in different ways to countries that have the minerals and mining capacity for solar and batteries. All of that is consequential likely in both ideal and non-ideal ways. Child labor associated with mining to less might help the environmental stride for less Global Warming.
If everyone was riding electric bikes, or regular bikes with limited speed, it might enable those with less access to financial power to have more valid transportation. Yet that likely would not streamline products and food to stores. We collectively profit from a system that might not do ideally right by people with less in society, collectively profit from a system that if changed might be less global warming and thus a better environment for the future.
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