When Stoics Compete With Christians For Who Gets To Be The Bigger Cunt

 

The quoted commentary
is not even CLOSE to a rational and fair assessment of:
 Epicurus words,
nor of
the objections being made by non-believers when they quote those words.

NOR does it accurately address 
actual reality.
---
Now, if (anyone) might just happen to be a sociopath, I can totally understand the general notion of "so what?" in response to just how horrible suffering sometimes is for humans (and other animals).

Also, if someone has led a very sheltered life, maybe they don't even know about that. So then they might naively say it's just never THAT bad for anyone.

But let's be honest here.

What Epicurus was talking about is:
extreme suffering.
[Although, we should extend this point to include all injustice, and all forms of tragedy]

The more extreme the suffering is,

and the more prolonged it is,

and the more it's caused by the will of (other) sentient agents, ...

the more relevant it is to what he was talking about.

Meanwhile,
even cases of suffering caused by NO ONE (ie. natural disasters, parasites, bacteria, etc) would count as something caused by the will of an intelligent agent, within the context of theistic narratives.

I realize a lot of people just harp on Abrahamic theists for this, and give deists a free pass. But they shouldn't be giving deism a free pass. Because:
With great power
come great responsibility.

A "God" who just doesn't give a damn is still as guilty as a deity who has a "plan" where all the suffering is part of the plan.

Frankly, I'm disgusted with both ancient and modern "Stoics", for how much they LOVE to blame ~suffering persons~ (no matter if that suffering is the result of other people, or other lifeforms, or chance, or any theoretical "god(s)") for literally all the suffering which they endure (or fail to endure).

It's beyond STUPID. It's willfully ignorant,
to paint with such a broad brush, to say things like "there isn't any form of suffering or setback which cannot be overcome",
or
"suffering is always a choice (made by the sufferer)",
or
"a victim is just a person who chooses to see themselves that way".

Psychopaths reason that way.
Decent people do not.

Go read "A Boy Called It", and "The Girl In the Box".
 Go visit someone on a respirator who has to struggle for each-and-every next breath; never getting enough air, not having anything they can say, or think, or do which would "overcome" the disease which took away their ability to breathe.

Or lose a young child to an unknown kidnapper, and then spend every waking moment for the rest of your life wondering if your kid was tortured, and if they're suffering has ended, or if they might show up at your door someday.

----
Now, ...

Imagine yourself as a father ...

who sits,
in the shadows,
WATCHING,
as little kids are tortured (physically, psychologically, sexually),
because he reasons it would be "wrong" to interfere, because "IF they survive this, it MIGHT make them stronger, and then they might mentally claw their way up and into
a "higher consciousness".

In this case,
we're talking about an alleged "Father"
who just happens to BE all-F'ing-knowing.

As such,
he always knows in advance 
every time a victim WON'T survive it,
or
will be broken because of it,
and made weaker,
and forced to struggle,
and ultimately do worse in life.

But "that's ok", in the eyes of Stoics and other Godeologues because:
"that only happens when the person decides, as a "free willed choice" to be "spiritually lazy" to think of themselves as a victim".

That way, all the responsibility for how anything EFFECTS every person (no matter what) is all their responsibility and all their fault.

That way, there's not really any such thing as a predator.

Per that view,
a predator is just a word used by people who want to ROB the GLORY away from suffering-inflictors ... who was being used by the universe, 
or used by a "God"
 to give the suffering-persons some suffering to RISE ABOVE.

This would mean, of course that
we really should get rid of literally all of our laws.
 Those are for "progressive losers" who refuse to see how self-correcting the universe is;
- as every single source of pain is a teacher, and every "victim" is just a student who chose to fail the real test.
---

So then this is ME 
once again,
putting psychopaths on notice.

To everyone who reasons that way,..

No matter what flag you're waving. 
 
"Enlightenment"
isn't what you think it is.
---
https://youtu.be/Z1BzP1wr234