Is This Purgatory?

Well, the problem with posting it on the Philosophy & Debate forum is that, in order for the question to be discussed or even considered, we must postulate that there exists such a thing as 'Purgatory.' While this is an easy concept for religionists, it might prove a difficult pill for philosophers to swallow.

ooo, you just gave me the creeps when I really stopped and thought about this.

Yes, I guess this could be purgatory. We're here getting our souls cleansed or something. It does seem to fit. Creepy though.

And of course we wouldn't know it...they don't exactly announce "Welcome to Purgtatory" when you get there. I suppose you just wake up, and you're there.

Hell, maybe we're in Hell!

But would there be McDonald's fries in Hell or Purgatory?

Doesn't seem like we're in Heaven either, but I suppose that could be true also?

Please don't someone come along and say "ah, Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, its all in your brain state"!

tcis

Ah, Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, its all in your brain state. In my opinion.

Or at least they are all in earth.
Did you ever eat in a McDonald's? It is hell.
Did you ever saw a modern french movie, after having diner in a McDonalds (so you cannot sleep during the movie, because of the fire in your stomach)? It is purgatory.

Did you never eat in a Mcdonald, and never saw a modern french movie? It is heaven.

Re: Is This Purgatory?
One imagines that purgatory is not a place in which one can accrue more karma, either good or bad. However we are more than capable of doing that here on Earth, making it seem a rather odd and perculiar purgatory. Would there then require a post-purgatory purgatory or do we return here yet again? If we return here again and again then you have simply proposed a standard reincarnation model in which we quest for nirvana. The buddhists will have you up for copyright infringement.

Also death (exiting Earth/purgatory) seems entirely unrelated to discharging of karma and rather seems to follow rather natural principles. It would also require presuming a former life in which karma was accrued that we can not remember. Not bearing the memories of karma and being made to discharge it, doesn't seem entirely fair which is the only thing going for the rather foolish idea of karma.

Thus Earth is clearly not a karmic purgatory.

Have you tried accepting it on it's own terms as simply being Earth? Perhaps it would be less purgatoristic if you did.

What if it was. Wouldn't change a thing. Just explain a whole lot.

Wouldn't even explain all that much. Just raise a bunch of new questions.

By the way, purgatory is a concept invented by greedy priests. Has more to do with politics than with religion.

There is only karma. Every action has a reaction, and thus eveyone gets what's coming to them. This process is automatic, and through this process everything is interconnected. Your actions mold you. Karma is in a way causality

You could say that the man who seeks to mold the world to suit his desires is sinking into purgatory, while a man that seeks to mold himself to suit the world is rising out of it.

hmmm...do you believe in reincarnation & karma through various lives?

ie: How do we explain the case of a person born with severe birth defects, paralyzing disease as a chilld, etc.
Did they do something to cause this?

So for example, a person who sells out and goes to work for, for example: a huge corporatation, and he does whatever the company wants of him without a second thought, and he makes big bucks, and the company might be doing some nasty stuff (lets say a tobacco company for example)....this person is rising out of purgatory?

***

Take another person: He looks at world hunger, decides this is very wrong and attempts to mold the world to suit his desire of ending hunger...this person is sinking further into purgatory?

***

(Not really trying to be that much of a devil's advocate above...just trying to be clear on what you're saying. I usually think your posts are right on, but not clear on the last couple...may need to check my brain for mental karma that is getting in the way of clear thought processes).

Extra medium wrote:


To be honest, I have no idea. I do not find the idea offensive though.

I do believe in reincarnation in the sense that your energy will redistribute when you die and when you are born (or concieved) there is an entity that gathers energy and focuses it into what will become you. Nothing I am made of belongs to me. Not my lungs, not the air in them, only the breathing is mine, while it lasts.

As for karma, what's to believe in? I do not believe that there is a transendental scoreboard to keep track of events. There is merely the things you do and the effect it has on you, directly or indirectly, consiously or subconciously. Everything is interconnected, and I have come to think of karma as an extension of causality. Karma is causality's victory over free will so to speak.



In this example and the next, neither. I was thinking of something else. It is easier to fight the cause for fear, the enemy, rather than the fear itself. But the enemy is only the manifestation of your fears, and you can defeat as many enemies as you will. As long as your fear remains it will always manifest in a new enemy.

So if you fight your enemy, or in other words, seek to mold the world to your desires, you are sinking into purgatory.

If you fight your fear, or in other words seek to mold yourself to fit the world, you are rising out of purgatory.

This was the line of thought behind that statement. It's about finding out what's right for you, how you can exist in this world in happiness. You do what it takes and pay the price.