So, since I pretty much can't prove anything, Can I still be convinced of anything?
The Following heart-felt snapshot of a confession is taken from The Brothers Karamazov. The scene takes place at a monastary:
Confessant: If everyone has faith, where does it come from? And they say that is all came originally from fear of the awesome phenomena of nature, and that there is nothing to it all. What? I think, [if] all my life I’ve believed, then I die and suddenly there is nothing? …It’s terrible! What will give me back my faith? Though I believed when I was a little child, mechanically, without thinking about anything… How can it be proved? I’ve come now to throw myself at your feet and ask you… Surely no one will answer me for the rest of my life. How can it be proved, how can one be convinced? I look around and see that for everyone else, almost everyone, it’s all the same, no one worries about it anymore, and I am the only one who can’t bear it. It’s devastating, devastating!
Father Zosima: No doubt it is devastating. One cannot prove anything here, but it is possible to be convinced.
Confessant: How? By what?
Father Zosima: By the experience of active love. Try to love your neighbors actively and tirelessly. The more you succeed in loving, the more you’ll be convinced of the existence of God and the immortality of your soul… This has been tested. It is certain.
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Me:
Is it even possible to love your neighbor?
What if they’re annoying, ungrateful crybabies who smell like cabbage?
What do you when they don’t accept your love?
Or when they take advantage of your love?
Can the concept of active love become a living reality? Can it survive the odds?
Has anybody experienced or encountered any kind of active love?
Active love? What about passive love? Is there such thing as passive love?
What’s the difference between passive and submissive, being tolerant and being a push-over?
You: ...
Confessant: If everyone has faith, where does it come from? And they say that is all came originally from fear of the awesome phenomena of nature, and that there is nothing to it all. What? I think, [if] all my life I’ve believed, then I die and suddenly there is nothing? …It’s terrible! What will give me back my faith? Though I believed when I was a little child, mechanically, without thinking about anything… How can it be proved? I’ve come now to throw myself at your feet and ask you… Surely no one will answer me for the rest of my life. How can it be proved, how can one be convinced? I look around and see that for everyone else, almost everyone, it’s all the same, no one worries about it anymore, and I am the only one who can’t bear it. It’s devastating, devastating!
Father Zosima: No doubt it is devastating. One cannot prove anything here, but it is possible to be convinced.
Confessant: How? By what?
Father Zosima: By the experience of active love. Try to love your neighbors actively and tirelessly. The more you succeed in loving, the more you’ll be convinced of the existence of God and the immortality of your soul… This has been tested. It is certain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Me:
Is it even possible to love your neighbor?
What if they’re annoying, ungrateful crybabies who smell like cabbage?
What do you when they don’t accept your love?
Or when they take advantage of your love?
Can the concept of active love become a living reality? Can it survive the odds?
Has anybody experienced or encountered any kind of active love?
Active love? What about passive love? Is there such thing as passive love?
What’s the difference between passive and submissive, being tolerant and being a push-over?
You: ...