NaClhv

(This post is a work in progress. Come back later when it's done.)

How do we learn to do good? What happens when we do wrong? Our minds run on neural nets, and there is but one way to train them: we reward the good, and punish the bad. And God has seen fit to provide us with the means for this training: if we do right and follow the path of life, at his path are pleasures forever. This is understood well enough.

But on the flip side, I find a great deal more confusion about the punishments. After all, we don't talk about it as much, as in the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. Our society, in particular, can't seem to rationally discuss the necessary steps in such reinforcements. We misuse our wealth and privilege to construct delusions that shield us from the good and necessary measures of chastisement. And so, when we're confront words like "punishment", "guilt", "shame", "illegal", "law enforcement", or "consequences", many of us are unfortunately left with only a jumble of unpleasant feelings, without being able to put them in any constructive context.

But the Bible has many stories that are useful for correcting wrongdoing, which are useful for understanding the Bible and guiding our society. I believe they can be used to organize the different levels of reinforcement as follows.

These stories are, in fact, our starting point - the ones in the Bible, and the more modern stories that are inspired by them. They inform us from our childhoods, so that even before we take any action, we know what's right and wrong before we encounter any rewards or punishment. Those of us who are blessed with a childlike faith perpetually perhaps never need to fall beneath this point.

But if we forget these stories - if we do not fear God and fail to meditate on his laws, or if we entertain corrupt stories that are not aligned with God - then we may take a false step. In fact, this is how the story of Exodus starts: there came a new Pharoah who did not know Joseph or the God that he served, despite the good they had done for Egypt.

Of course, mere forgetfulness

Of course, the more severe deviations from the right path require stronger corrections.

broad gate to destruction

Ignorance/Neglect/Folly/"did not fear God"

ex. 1

Guilt

ex. 2. The pharaoh's daughter knew.

Shame

Ex. 4. God calls out Moses on his reluctance

Ex. 5 Moses entreats Pharoah, enumerating the consequences.

Ex. 5. The people complain to pharaoh.

Law

Ex. 2. Moses kills an Egyptian

Ex. 5. Pharaoh make a decree to make bricks without providing straw

A good degree of back and forth

Reality

The ten plagues

The movies get this wrong - it's a slow process.

Hell

maybe things will get so bad that only God can save.

Reversal in the Gospel