What is the most depressing book you've ever read?

Why didn't you just come out and tell us why you think the bible is depressing instead of sitting around and waiting for somebody to ask? Is it because a society that routinely sacrificed children was destroyed? I try to think the best of people so I hope you don't think the book of Job is a record of history.

>>9544524
OP knows he's going to burn in hell for masturbating to anime.

>>9544531
No I just think if you put the mercurial and vindictive nature of Yahweh together with the new testament you actually get a very hopeless picture where any possibility of salvation is remote and obscure.

>>9544571
Everyone who gets Yahweh's wrath is an asshole and deserves it.
Perhaps that is the point of the work as a whole?
I know you think your interpretation of the Bible is unique and edgy but countless other idiots have proposed the same thing and it's getting old.

>>9544579

>I know you think your interpretation of the Bible is unique and edgy but countless other idiots have proposed the same thing and it's getting old.

Not only that but it's such a stupid reading of the text. It demonstrates a complete unwillingness to understand what the Jewish authors were trying to convey.

>>9544579

>I know you think your interpretation of the Bible is unique and edgy but countless other idiots have proposed the same thing and it's getting old.

So old it predates the Bible. You'd know that if you were scholarly, rather than dogmatic.

>>9544579
the unfortunate thing is you're an asshole too anon. We all are.

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>>9544579
>I know you think your interpretation of the Bible is unique and edgy

I guess you know no such thing. I find the interpretation so stupid I have to wonder how people have managed to over-complicate it so much. Its more like a guide for antinatalism than anything.

>you are born in rebellion to a wrathful and all powerful being
>maybe if you meet these vague articles of faith then you can avoid going to a place of eternal torment
>I know, I'll have a child so they can share in this duanting trial with me

>>9544651
I literally cannot handle how edgy this post is

>>9544651

The OG christians were a millenarian movement that saw the end of the world as imminent. The entire end goal of Christianity is annhilation of our entire species.

>>9544651

>maybe if you meet these vague articles of faith then you can avoid going to a place of eternal torment

Hell is merely being in the complete and total absence of God. Now if God was so angry and vindictive why would it be torture to be in the state of hell? Perhaps you're not considering ancient Jewish literary traditions like when they ascribe the emotional states of God to represent the relationship between the people and the perfect standard of goodness that is God. The text may say that God is angry or disappointed, but God is not a petulant teenager who can't control his emotions. This is a failing on the peoples part, not the immutable God.

>>9544676
I'd like to see you convincingly refute the position. Its hermetically sealed

>>9544712
Anti-Natalism is so stupid an ideology that it doesn't need to be refuted; it's like talking to a retarded child, you're just talking to a wall at that point.

>>9544720

>going off on a tangent and not addressing the question

typical christfag

>reading a book from when men were men and being depressed

>>9544711
I didn't say God was a "petulant teenager" but a brilliant strawman. Its just kind of sensible, if the people are the source of sin and god hates the sin (and probably the sinners too contrary to popular belief) then its incredibly reckless and lacking in empathy to put someone else in the position of being in this state of rebellion, especially when it results in an eternal suffering if the state of mortal sin cannot be rectified. As notable idiot William Lane Craig would say, its not often we have a knock-down argument such as this one.

>>9544743

You realise that the end of the world and end of humane existence is a good thing to true believers, right?

I don't read books, whenever I try there's always so much annoying fucking redundancy.
I listen to lectures and watch movies with great cinematography instead, you know how "a picture is worth a thousand words", a great movie is worth a hundred books.

Sorry I shouldn't post and just lurk when I'm on this board.
>fuck off pleb

>>9544748
Even putting aside the issue of your "no true" clause, this element of Christianity certainly doesn't seem to proceed from that understanding very sensibly.

>>9544763
>I don't read books,

So why are you here?

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>>9544763
Its a board about books baka. What are you even doing here?

>>9544767
>If I spout names of fallacies at him I'll win
Fucking Christ just kill yourself already you'll always be a brainlet

>>9544743

God creates simply for the joy of creation, and he desires us to love him. This can only happen if we're given a choice in the matter. We can choose to love him or we can choose an eternity in hell, which as I said, is merely the absence of God. Sin is the result of our rejection of God. If sin didn't exist, it would logically mean that we didn't have a choice in whether or not to love God. If God stopped all sin from occurring we would, in effect, be robots, and robot can't love so that doesn't suit Gods purpose.

You might ask why god doesn't limit the amount of evil or suffering that exists, but evil in this sense is a relative concept. If the greatest evil that existed in the world was a stubbed toe, and we had no real concept of the sort of evils that actually exist in our world, we would still be wondering why god allows stubbed toes. It only really makes sense to limit evil entirely or not at all.

>>9544769
>>9544773
I still like what the essence of any one great book has, I just want/need to hear the big picture, I usually don't need the "superfluous" explanations.
I fucking hate circumlocution with a passion, I've yet found a book without it, excluding fact/informative books of course.

>>9544815
Yes, I see the irony in this post.

>>9544579
King Uzziah was given leprosy because he felt the "sick urge" to want to praise Yaweh by burning incense, the common ceremonial practice used in worshiping him, because its the priests prescribed job to do that thing.
Moral of the story is slave mentality. You must stick with the job you have been forced to have or face consequences.

>>9544851

Uzziah entering the temple was an attempt to supplant God, not honor him. He knowingly rebelled against God express commands of how worship was to be conducted in the temple. Uzziah in his pride tried to change rules he no authority to, this is the exact same sin of Satan.

almost anything by palahniuk but specifically haunted and lullaby I think

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>>9544921
>I'm going to supplant god by burning incense to worship god
If this is the sin Satan is guilty of then Satan sounds like a pretty kind well meaning guy.

>>9544958
>hey don't do this
>okay
>but wait what if I just actually do do this but like totally for the right reasons is that cool
Literal teenager detected

>>9544987
>no matter how many lives you save or people you help, if you broke a rule that literally impacts no one but is technically illegal you deserve to be punished punishment

This leads to really fucked up consequences in the USA where really dumb laws result in people who harmed no one ending up spending decades in prison.

>>9544786
>If I accuse him of doing things he didn't do while doing them myself then maybe I can convince him he's wrong

Well I guess that's in keeping with Christian morality.

>>9544711
So god is the effectively the collective feelings of jews and how well they are religioning.

Why do nonjews believe in this god again other than to be slaves to the chosen ones?

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>>9544786
>blasphemes Lord while defending him

You're a baptist I suppose?

>>9545030

You didn't understand what I wrote and I no longer have the patience for this thread.

>>9545045
Oh, so god is a literary device to describe the state of Israel throughout history. Now I get it.

>>9544787
No I had no qualms with the problem of evil. I think its just the eschatology that is an issue. Let me put it in perspective. Infinity divided by any number is still infinity. Okay so the bible basically says because everyone has general revelation they are without excuse and are ingrates who fail to worship the Lord. That's all well and good but even putting Calvinist doctrine aside, we cannot say that nobody is predestined to hell because clearly many people have been cut off from any means of ever hearing the gospel. Now as this means their entire existence consists of their time in hell, ironically enough, they have nothing to be grateful for. I can certainly understand when people personally and deliberately reject God but most of the people who ever lived have been put in this unfortunate position.

>>9544571
>didn't get the Jesus part
You suck, anon.

>>9545079
This is just a problem with trying to extend a tribal religion to the rest of the world. It wasn't designed to be consistent since they didn't even know other peoples outside their own world existed.

>>9545084
No it just puts a muzzle on all the apologetics. We basically all meet the standards of a "rich man" and have a much higher standard of living than he does while people across the world are just as poor as Lazarus ever was. Secondly are we going to be able to meet that standard of abandoning all concerns, even our own kin to devote our lives to God? Thirdly I'm not even certain that the call to cast off limbs and pluck out eyes in atonement was really even as metaphorical as everyone seems to assume given the events and various decrees of the OT. I mean if you're going to believe in the justice of eternal torment why not also chop off a few limbs as prescribed by Jesus?

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>Books without pictures
>Current year

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>>9544487
this beautiful book

>>9544487
Maybe The Wisdom of Life, or Parerga and Paralipomena. General Schopenhauer stuff. In terms of fiction however, The Stranger was the most realistic portrayal of depression and alienation I've ever read.

>>9545079
>Okay so the bible basically says because everyone has general revelation

I don't think is true. There's a sort of natural law that's ascribe on every man's heart which gives him the ability to know right and wrong but this alone is not enough to allow every man on Earth to make an informed decision on the question of whether or not to accept Christ. This is why some virtuous non-Christians may enter heaven, if they aren't introduced to Christ they can't be culpable for rejecting him.

>>9545090
Oh I agree, I'm just saying Christians are basically ignorant or they have no sense of empathy. I think its a truly solipsistic interpretation to view this as a book about the redemption of mankind rather than what it actually depicts which is the mass-trashing of human cancer. Taxi Driver was more uplifting than this shit.

>>9545123
there's no biblical evidence of works-based salvation or universalism so...

>>9545138

Oh okay

>>9545105
I'm afraid I've never heard of it my arthropod friend.

I think Dan Fante's autobiographical short stories and novellas are just so fucking depressing: it's like watching a friend destroy himself in slow literary motion, making all the worst choices while you silently scream at the pages...

>>9544593
>It demonstrates a complete unwillingness to understand what the Jewish authors were trying to convey.

>Implying that the bulk of the old testament wasn't written by one of David's wives.

>ctrl+f 'my diary desu'
>0 hits

anon... I

>>9546398
I was about to post it
Y-you ruined it baka

>>9544679
>The entire end goal of Christianity is annhilation of our entire species.
lmao
post-modernism was a mistake, there really is something in the water supply. no one can be this retarded to symbolism and metaphysics naturally, you gotta have some sort of fluoride excess or something.

you probably think shiva = gotta murder my wife to impregnate her lmao

>>9544487
If you want to have a real discussion on the topic of depressing books, you absolute faggot of a fedora, don't start a flame war about the Bible.

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>>9547672
>this is what Christians actually believe

>>9547844
That post had nothing to do with Christian beliefs, you brainlet. It merely made the observation that OP presented a topic of discussion (books that make the reader depressed) and used a picture that immediately derailed the thread. It's like posting a serious topic for discussion and using some half-naked chick in a seductive pose in the pic, which often leads to a lot of commentary on the feminine assets and little commentary on the actual topic.

>>9547867
The topic was entertaining the idea about a book that outlines the eternal damnation of practically all of humanity and whats more, asserting this as nonfiction, that the Bible (which is also fraught with all manner of morbidity) might in fact be the most depressing book imaginable.

>>9544571
>>9544651
behold the enlightened modern man with his supreme methods of history and philology and his affinity with tragedy, ready to purge all the errors of the past

>>9547886
The problem with any discussion about the Bible is that it is instantly taken over by religious illiterates. Because it seems that even the most ignorant person believes they just by magic have all the competence in the world to explain what the Bible really teaches. So it is a worthless discussion on a board like this from the point of view of anyone who has even elementary knowledge and discernment about 1) what books are in the Bible, 2) how the books differ from each other, 3) what the Bible is and what the Bible is not, 4) what the Bible teaches, where, and how it is applicable, 5) how doctrines have evolved and why, 6) how Judaism and Christianity differ, and a bunch of other topics for elementary knowledge 99.9999999ALI-G percent of people participating in related discussions here do not have. When Christopher Hitchens, one intelligent man championed by atheists as a beacon of knowledge and intellect, gives a short and utterly cringeworthy presentation about Christian beliefs while being convinced he is absolutely right in what he says, how on earth is a discussion here going to be constructive in any way when the average fedora is an ignorant chimp even in comparison with Hitchens' own chimpery on the topic? Whether or not I had any kind of faith in Biblical teaching, it could certainly never depress me at all in comparison with the utter idiocy that is the common atheist discourse about the Bible.

Also, if you were a Christian, you wouldn't find the Bible depressing in any way, quite the opposite. You would melt into gratitude and humility for being graced by the love of God despite all your weakness, lowliness, and evil, that all the dirt in the world will be washed away when you turn to God in sincere contrition. All your burdens are lifted, your heart cleansed, there are not enough tears of gratitude in man when a conversion of the heart takes place, it is such an undeserved gift that truly no one could possibly ever be worthy of such a great blessing, and yet there it is waiting for man to ask for it and he shall receive it. It is the most beautiful thing in the world. This total love is as far away from depression as you can possibly get. On the other hand, if you don't believe in the Bible, how can you possibly be depressed about the things you cite or anything else in it? Surely it's all poppycock to you. It should be like being depressed about Greek gods to you.

>>9547993
>muh salvation

Yes its like I said before. Solipsistic douches with no sense of empathy can get something positive out of it.

>>9548110
Case and point

My holy... i want more desu