One thing the Internet has done was to expand the proliferation of armchair philosophy and psychology in simple, catchy words of encouragement.

I realize that many people, who frequently post such phrases are dealing with issues of their own and this is their way of dealing with them. Regardless, it has become irritating seeing these phrases posted all the time, as life is more complex than to be solved by these phrases. Most of the time I just scroll right past them, but today I read this one.

Next time you’re stressed: Take a step back, inhale and laugh. Remember who you are and why you are here. You’re never given anything in this world that you can’t handle. Be strong, be flexible, love yourself, and love others. Always remember, just keep moving forward.

Many times these phrases have religious overtones, as this one does. I can see why they do, because they offer the same simplistic homilies that religious scripture offers.

“Remembering who you are” is obvious referring to the belief that we are children of God. But for me that is no comfort. Even when I was a believer, it offered very little comfort, as it had little to do with rectifying the difficult time that I was experiencing. It only reminded that God was allowing me to suffer. Perhaps, I was even cursed. Beyond even saving. As to remembering why I am here, as a believer, I guess, it would be to suffer.

The next bit is the real kicker. Religious believers somehow believe that God would not allow more to happen to you than what you could handle.

This philosophy has always been a problem for me. I realized that I had social psychological problems from an early age. Why was I different? As a youth, when I would explain my struggles with other believers, often I would only get useless homilies, such as God has a reason and has great plans for me. Well, the great plans never came and the only reason I could come up with was that I deserved to suffer.

This is what happens when you give simplistic answers to complex problems; you set yourself up for a big fall and actually produces the opposite effect, by leaving you feeling completely destitute.

Besides the author of this homily is ignoring the true fact that there are many who have troubles that are greater than they can bear. Often there is nothing they could do to make it better.

What about mental illness? Are they given only what they can bear? Or how about the uncontrollably violent? People with OCD? Or Dementia? Or any of the many other disorders of the brain and mind?

It has only been in recent decades that medicine has been available to control, to an extent, some of these disorders. But what about the billions of people who have lived on this planet without such aid. I would imagine, to large part, their struggles were greater than they could bear.

How about people who have suffered severe trauma, perhaps by torture, war or rape? Many times they can never go back to living a normal life. Could you honestly tell a rape victim that God wouldn’t give them any trial that they couldn’t bear. That would be very heartless and doesn’t make God look very good. There are better ways to give comfort and support that would have more substance than “just keep moving forward.”

Bart Ehrman, who is a religious scholar and author, has written about how the Bible was an ongoing document, whose authors were attempting to deal with and explain why they suffered. Depending on the time period and the author different reasons were put forth. Some of these reasons even conflicted with each other. I highly recommend this book, God’s Problem, and all of Ehrman’s other books.

I think that these simplistic homilies actually do more harm than good. They create a false sense of safety. The Good Shepherd watches out for his sheep or God will not give you a burden greater than you can bear. What happens when this all falls apart? What happens when God does not answer your pleadings for relief? It’ll leave you even lower than you were before; even forsaken.