Why I Am A Stoic, Why I Am Not A Stoic

Ever since Evangelicals in the U.S. became lackeys for Trump, I have distanced myself from the institutional (not organic) church. I am conservative and most of my tribe gives more allegiance to Rush than Jesus. Rush just died. So, I am sure Hannity is licking his chops on the prospects of being top dog on Right Wing Radio. I would not be surprised if Trump gets into talk radio hosting now that Twitter has banished him for good. It would fit his mendacious and lying red meat style.       

In that church void, even before COVID hit, I have delved quite deeply into the ancient philosophy of Stoicism. Stoicism is not stoical in the sense that emotions are embraced but not over-indulged. A good example is the idea that if you cannot control something, like the weather or a traffic jam, there is little reason to rant and rave. Venting won't do much to alter the outward situation. Instead, change your response. Like wear a raincoat or turn on the radio in your car to some music that you enjoy and make the traffic jam an opportunity to relax versus ratcheting your stress level up.

So, Stoicism gets a bad rap as if its adherents are statues. We are not. We just attempt to be economical  and use our time and energy for things that we can actually change or at least influence towards agreeable outcomes. But, this brings me to where I disagree with Stoicism.

Death. The Stoics see death as the end of existence. There may be some exceptions to this rule but most I have come across, both ancient to modern, see death as the end where Christians see it as a beginning. Stoics don't stress about death, at least theoretically, because there is not a lot we can do to not die. We can prolong life through right living perhaps but death will come knocking regardless. We Christians don't deny physical death. That is a fact. Yet, we affirm that the grave is a portal to the eternal world. I hold to traditional beliefs that God's blessing or wrath awaits all of us for eternity. 

When the Apostle Paul was in Athens (Acts 17:18) his talk of the resurrection of the dead, both the Stoics and Epicureans-normally at odds with another-agreed that he was babbling some strange ideas. Both camps held that death was the end. And disagreed about most everything else up to that.

God, through Paul, was showing those philosophers in Athens, the deficiency in their beliefs, that this  world is all that there is. Although it is a complicated argument, if this life is all there is, Nihilism is the  only authentic response. Everything else is illusion. Skeptics dismiss this argument but it is based on sentimentality and nothing more. If you doubt this, we can have a debate. I will win just to give you a heads up. I always find it ironic that disbelievers accuse Christians as being fools for believing in more than this. Based on the evidence, the probabilities are that life continues. Thousands of years of biblical history asserts it.    

So, life is either much more or much less than what the Stoics believed. Play these cards wisely and well.