Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I am not a Christian. I am a Westman and as such I feel obligated to use this day to contemplate what has been the primary religion of my ancestors and the great mass of my kind for the past 1000 years. In doing so, I acknowledge and honor the most recent thousand years of religious practice of the 10,000 years of my known ancestry.
I was raised Catholic, but I could never quite believe it. Still, I found that the basic Christian teachings are good and useful.
Lately, I've discovered Stoicism. From reading Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus, I see that you can get a lot of good and useful advice from them as well, but without the need to believe in any fixed dogma. These Stoic teachings heavily influenced early Christianity and Western culture.
From Seneca I learned that you should live your life the same way whether there is or is not an afterlife. If you deliberately live a life of virtue, wisdom, and self-control, you'll be happy in this this life as well as in any life to come.
Hey! It was good to meet you last weekend, I like your work so far brother.
I was raised Catholic, but I could never quite believe it. Still, I found that the basic Christian teachings are good and useful.
Lately, I've discovered Stoicism. From reading Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus, I see that you can get a lot of good and useful advice from them as well, but without the need to believe in any fixed dogma. These Stoic teachings heavily influenced early Christianity and Western culture.
From Seneca I learned that you should live your life the same way whether there is or is not an afterlife. If you deliberately live a life of virtue, wisdom, and self-control, you'll be happy in this this life as well as in any life to come.