debate-points, cultural-identity, christianity, advice, spiritualityThere is a post over on fitness.SE talking about mental toughness. One of the answers is talking about the link between spirituality and mental toughness, linking to his own blog with a post about being good.
Personally I find it hard to see the link between spirituality and mental toughness - surely an Atheist can be just as mentally tough? Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to deal with such a situation? What points can I use to debate this?
Uncertainty is terrifying and we will do nearly anything to get rid of it; any means of explanation which generates familiar feelings of strength and health will do. As Nietzsche writes in Twilight of the Idols:
“First principle: any explanation is better than none. Because it is fundamentally just our desire to be rid of an unpleasant uncertainty, we are not very particular about how we get rid of it: the first interpretation that explains the unknown in familiar terms feels so good that one “accepts it as true.” We use the feeling of pleasure (‘of strength’) as our criterion for truth.”
So the most straightforward way to consider this might be to examine the link between physiology and psychology. The point being that the familiar feeling of strength (spiritual or otherwise) is generally sufficient for human beings to call whatever interpretation they’ve latched onto true. It has little enough to do with reality.
Some people are wanting to believe that having faith, or being able to maintain a strained relationship, is a sign of strength. They transcend themself and their situation by identifying with the strength they compel themselves to believe they have.
Asking someone who lives with spousal abuse, physical or emotional, will quickly disperse these illusions. Unfortunately, if you question the person who is abused and or say that the abuser shows them no love, they will assert that you simply cannot understand Him. Trying to assert that there is strength in leaving a failed relationship doesn’t sell well unless the person you’re talking to has already achieved that feat. Spouses who were abused are the only ones who know truly how hard it is in the relationship, and how much harder it is to leave.
Assuming you have picked up on my metaphor here, I will just say that it’s not your job to get the spouse out of the relationship. But, letting them know that the relationship doesn’t really do them any favors, and dispelling any illusions they have, isn’t a bad start. Can you explain away ‘mental toughness’ on a Q&A board for the benefit of the deceived? Probably not.
I guess you can not measure spirituality, nor mental toughness, so there will no prove for your opinion, as well as no prove against.
Why should you debate the topic at all? Maybe by answering that question successfully, you get enough mental toughness to never get impressed by any such questions. Or you challenge the idea of mental toughness at all.
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