Screwtape - when our ways of thinking are used against us (1 Viewer)

[Isaac]

This is a small excerpt from one of the most amazing, life-altering books of all time, which I strongly recommend reading. A book by CS Lewis called "The Screwtape Letters".

The book is written as a series of letters, written by a Demon who is the Uncle of a younger demon called Wormwood.
Wormwood is assigned to a man.

The Uncle advises the younger demon on how exactly to deceive the man and generally keep him from his calling as a happy, effective Christ-follower.

This portion has to do with how he perceives the Church after he becomes a Christian.

This book is really amazing. I'm reading it "again for the first time", as every time I read it I am absolutely stunned by how precisely accurate it is, and how Satan uses so many ways to frankly trick us quite easily, using our own ways against us.

 

[Jon]

Are you allowed to share the book?

 

[Isaac]

Yes I think so I can upload it here, it is all over the internet. i just read through page 27 and it is amazing too

 

[Isaac]

Edit: Actually I'm not positive I can share the book itself, so I think I'll stick to the few pictures I posted. If you want the book it is widely available for purchase and download, however.

 

[Jon]

I am uncomfortable having a shared book here in case it opens me up to liability.

 

[Isaac]

Agreed, won't share - just recommend

 

[Pat Hartman]

What's wrong with bridge players?

 

[Isaac]

What's wrong with bridge players?

Umm...Yeah .... Actually Pat that was the one place where I "screwed up" my eyebrows too. I have no idea what he meant by that!
It is possible (note - I do not know this for certain, just wildly guessing here), that in his time "fanatical bridge playing" was associated with a gambling addiction. Literally, I have no idea if this is true, just guessing.

 

[Pat Hartman]

There are clubs around the country and the world where you can play bridge for money and I've done it a couple of times. It is a pretty scary proposition since at least in my case, I was playing with/against complete strangers and had no idea what the local "style" was. Also, since the scoring method for playing rubber bridge (which is what you play when you are playing at home or at the club for money) is different from the one used for duplicate or tournament bridge which is what I play, the tactics change. I was amazed that I always came away winning money. It is probably because I was also an unknown and so each different partner (you switch every few hands) was on their best behavior.

I'm not even sure where money bridge fits into the legal code in most cities. Two clubs in NYC had open money games which meant that anyone could cut in so it wasn't like they were hiding anything. Maybe the stakes were low enough (5 cents a point and 1 cent a point for the cheap game) that the police didn't have any interest. I played in the 1 cent game for a couple of hours and won $75.00 which was 7500 points.

There used to be an annual big money game run at the Cavendish Club in NYC. It was an invitational so not just anyone could play and cost several thousand dollars a pair for entry. Then the game started with an auction where each pair was sold and that provided the prize pool after the organizers took their vig. The entry fee was just to cover expenses. I rewrote the software for the process which was pretty interesting. The game ran in NYC for many years and at some point it got moved to Las Vegas because I think the money was getting big enough to run afoul of the local laws.

 

[Isaac]

From your stories it really sounds like an interesting thing to play. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a chance to experience it some time, or watch.

 

[Pat Hartman]

There are a couple of sites where you can play for free. This is the one I use It also runs tournaments which are not free. As I write this at 1:30 on a Monday afternoon, there are 23,789 players on line. Click on the Solitaire button to see the options for playing alone. Mostly people use this to improve their declarer play. There is no auction part of the game. The other three seats at the table are occupied by robots. I am told they don't cheat but since they are programmed to use the information at hand (an auction), they "know" what any real player knows but they don't forget or lose track of what has been played. Is my King of Diamonds a winner because the Ace has been played or is the Ace still out???? How many hearts have been played? Obviously you need to know how to play at least a little.
They also have tournaments you can watch where you will see all four hands (click the vugraph button). Again, it won't make any sense unless you have a little understanding of the game.

Bridge Base Online

You can also go to the ACBL website
American Contract Bridge League • Dealing Infinite Possibilities (acbl.org)
I drilled down the learn bridge section here. This is an over view of how the game is played. There are also options for learning. Teaching on line got really good with the advent of COVID. Developers jumped in and revamped the sorry options that were available previously. Part of the fun of bridge is interacting with your friends but playing on line has huge advantages for improving your game since once the game is over, you and partner can review every bid and every play for every hand. No one can remember that amount of detail so the discussions over coffee after the game always lose something due to memory flaws. My teacher used to have me write down my own hand for each hand we played and that actually helped jog my memory for the discussion but in later years, when the clubs switched to computer generated hands and automatic dealing machines, we used to get a print out of all the hands at the end of the game. And we could get a print out of the score so we knew what the result was for each table but that still left out all the auctions and cardplay which you get with on line bridge.

Learn • American Contract Bridge League (acbl.org)

 

[shadow9449]

This is a small excerpt from one of the most amazing, life-altering books of all time, which I strongly recommend reading. A book by CS Lewis called "The Screwtape Letters".

The book is written as a series of letters, written by a Demon who is the Uncle of a younger demon called Wormwood.
Wormwood is assigned to a man.

The Uncle advises the younger demon on how exactly to deceive the man and generally keep him from his calling as a happy, effective Christ-follower.

This portion has to do with how he perceives the Church after he becomes a Christian.

This book is really amazing. I'm reading it "again for the first time", as every time I read it I am absolutely stunned by how precisely accurate it is, and how Satan uses so many ways to frankly trick us quite easily, using our own ways against us.

Interesting post! I actually own the book, as a Christian friend of mine sent it to me a LONG time ago. I generally enjoy reading CS Lewis (I read Mere Christianity approx. 20 years ago) and I started reading it and at some point, I was just unable to make the time, so it's really been on my shelf mostly unread for ages. Maybe your post will prompt me to open it again "when I have time".

Cheers

 

[Isaac]

Interesting post! I actually own the book, as a Christian friend of mine sent it to me a LONG time ago. I generally enjoy reading CS Lewis (I read Mere Christianity approx. 20 years ago) and I started reading it and at some point, I was just unable to make the time, so it's really been on my shelf mostly unread for ages. Maybe your post will prompt me to open it again "when I have time".

Cheers

Cool! Yes I read Mere Christianity but just loaned it to my daughter. I have to confess I have forgotten much of what it said, I just remember being very impressed by it. The Screwtape letters have the additional "entertainment" factor, though, as a person--anyone really, even if an atheist--will come across enough spots where one thinks Yes! Exactly! That happens to me [us]

Hope you enjoy it!