See below: Lines of historical descent: Plato depressed the Romans who depressed Paul and the rest of us (notably children) over subsequent millennia
A whole bunch more below, in this opening section, notably on the Jesus versus Paul’s Christ thing- “Honoring the wrong person and the wrong message: History’s greatest contradiction has shaped Western civilization for both good and bad” (playing a bit with Arthur Herman’s research on the influence of Plato and Aristotle on Western civilization).
As oft noted here- History’s greatest oxymoron (two contradictory things held in conjunction) has resulted in history’s most profound cognitive dissonance (holding two entirely contradictory beliefs), this “Mother of all oxymorons” is right there in the mixing and merging of Jesus in Paul’s Christ. Two entirely opposite persons with two fundamentally opposite theologies/messages. As Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy said, “Diamonds/pearls buried in ….…”. Ah,… the Canadian in me wants to be nice.
And some comment on good science versus philosophical materialism’s perversion of science (i.e. the dogmatic demand for materialist conclusions about ultimate realities and other mysteries, and the materialist’s constant crossing of the science/philosophy boundary, just like all others curious about the “spiritual”). And comment on materialism’s conflict with “spiritual” insights, spiritual as in “let 8 billion flowers bloom”, not religious spirituality. And more…
This from Humanprogress.org’s latest “Weekly Progress Roundup” (Sept. 15, 2024), a newsletter worth subscribing to that affirms that we live in the best time ever to be alive on Earth. Life is not declining toward something worse but is on a long-term rising trajectory toward an ever better future.
https://humanprogress.org/easter-islands-population-never-collapsed-dna-study-suggests/
This report responds to Jared Diamond’s tale of the collapse of Easter Island as his warning illustration of the coming apocalyptic collapse of human civilization, based on the fallacy of limited resources. Bill Rees referred to Diamond’s fable to buttress his own version of apocalyptic in his “Ecological Footprint” model (yes, I took most of his courses at UBC). What these apocalyptic prophets missed was the unlimited potential of human minds- the “Ultimate Resource”, according to Julian Simon. And they missed the fact that though varied societies have ended across history, the overall human venture in human civilization has progressed from strength to strength on a grand trajectory of improvement. Place that emergence and rise of human civilization in the larger context of our exodus from animal existence- the meta-story of humanity.
See “From Retaliation to Unconditional love- the story of humanity’s exodus/liberation from animal existence to become human”, Wendell Krossa
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=9809
These quotes from the Humanprogress.org link above…
“The history of Easter Island has long served as an environmental fable.
“The popular “ecocide” theory claims that, during their escalating obsession with building the famous Moai statues, the native Rapa Nui people deforested their once-verdant island, creating an ecological crisis that led to population collapse, cannibalism, and a complete reordering of Rapa Nui society.
“A new study raises serious doubts about this narrative. After analyzing the remains of 15 ancient islanders, researchers found no evidence of the drop in genetic diversity one would expect after a population collapse. In fact, the genomes suggest Easter Island’s population grew steadily until European contact. According to archaeo-geneticists Stephan Schiffels and Kathrin Nägele, “the study concludes that there were never more than 3,000 people living on Rapa Nui — a number close to that observed by the first colonizers and far from a previous estimate of 15,000 inhabitants — implying that the hypothesized collapse was always a fantasy.”
“Clearly Easter Island was deforested, but it seems the Rapa Nui adapted to that environmental change and continued to thrive for hundreds of years. Humanity has once again proven to be more resilient than we give ourselves credit for.”
Malcolm Cochran, Digital Communications Manager
Added note: Bill Rees, father of the Ecological Footprint as “apocalyptic prophet”? Huh? Yes, in a later online discussion with Bill (after I left the School of Community and Regional Planning where Rees was director), I mentioned to him that his views, and EF model, were very apocalyptic in nature. His response: “Well, apocalypse is true, isn’t it”. Sheesh, eh.
This is a stimulating discussion on Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), episode 2201, available on YouTube or Spotify. A discussion with researcher Robert Epstein.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azu8XnZdxeA&t=6122s
The YouTube blurb on this episode of JRE:
“Robert Epstein is an author, editor, and psychology researcher. He is a former editor-in-chief of “Psychology Today” and currently serves as Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. He also founded the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.”
Epstein adds that he is a Democrate who voted for Hilary in 2016.
Epstein presents disturbing research on the bias of Google in presenting tailored information to searching individuals and the political manipulation that goes on with that presentation of information, that is basically, as Rogan says, “interference in elections”, interference that influences millions of votes. Epstein says that due to this secretive manipulation by Google, there have been no free and fair elections since 2012. Our democracies are an illusion.
Epstein says that the people in charge of Google’s tech team, the team that shifted votes in past elections, admitted openly after losing the 2016 election- “We are never going to allow that to happen again”. As Rogan quips, “Never going to allow democracy again”.
Epstein notes that Google is now sending reminders to “register to vote” to Democrats at two and a half times the rate that they send to Republicans. He is urging the adoption of monitoring systems, such as the one that he and his team have created, that expose the bias at places like Google, expose how these companies interfere in and corrupt elections and thereby corrupt democracy overall.
This information needs to be widely disseminated to the public to make people aware, as Jimmy Dore says, that “We are the most propagandized people in the world, and we don’t know it’”. We are the most lied to people and too often unaware of it. I go with Dr. Drew Pinsky who said that he no longer believes anything that news media tell him, or anything that government tells him. That skepticism is necessary to challenge the endless propaganda and outright lying that we are subjected to today.
Remember what the Twitter Files exposed about Democrats working with the FBI to pressure social media companies to censor their Republican opponents, even censor their jokes as Mark Zuckerberg admitted?
Also, Rogan and Epstein offer some interesting comment on how we are surveilled all day by our phones.
Moving along… Around the 1 hour 14-minute mark, Epstein introduces an interesting bit of discussion on transducers in biological organisms like humanity (mechanisms/organisms that enable communication between things). They were discussing consciousness and the brain and Epstein suggested that the brain is a transducer. What I would term “a transmission organism”.
Epstein presents his theory that perhaps these transducers are how humans connected with surrounding invisible realms, where a higher consciousness exists.
He notes how some time ago (30-20,000 years ago?) an elevated consciousness suddenly emerged in humanity and that separated us distinctly from animals, elevated us humans to a new state of being. Others have also suggested that human consciousness is transmitted through us (via transducers, the brain as transmission organ) and hence we are able to experience our limited realm of 4-dimensions. Hmm.
Not affirming all he says, but interesting anyway.
I would also urge Epstein to consider that the sudden emergence of consciousness, in early humanity, could very well have been a purposeful intervention from Ultimate Mind, Consciousness, or Intelligence, not the alien life that he and Rogan speculate on.
Nonetheless, I agree with his rejection of biblical or religious views of God. When noting deity, we are dealing with Something profoundly mysterious but, my opinion, Something best defined by Historical Jesus, contrary to Paul’s Christ myth, as an inexpressibly wondrous “no conditions Love”. The Love beyond love that Campbell similarly expressed with his- “The term ‘God’ points to the God beyond God”. Transcendently better than the best that can be imagined.
They also discuss the amazing phenomenon of dreaming and make some very interesting points on that. Another of the many profound mysteries of this material realm that we inhabit.
I sent these posts to a discission group urging them to watch this episode of Rogan:
“At the 1 hour 30 minutes mark, Epstein moves on to DMT, something he touched on earlier, as well as NDEs. Even Pim Van Lommel noted there was something going on with DMT related to releasing consciousness from the material brain.
“And many people who have done DMT talk about how life-changing it was, similar to NDE transformations. It appears to have something to do with giving people advice that helps them get to the root of personal trauma and problems, through meeting a higher intelligence or love, and thereby that solves issues like depression permanently and profoundly. The healing properties and outcomes of such experiences.
“As Rogan has talked about his own DMT experiences- he affirmed that people on DMT know they were definitely in another realm, a hyper-lucid reality, more real than this realm, “much realer than this realm”, just as NDErs state. The other reality is so much more real than this realm that some NDErs say that returning here is like sinking back into a foggy dream-like reality.”
“Around and after the 2-hour mark he goes into something that Pim Van Lommel also dealt with- memory. And he argues that memory is not stored in the brain. Rogan has a hard time grasping what he is saying. Epstein says neuroscientists confirm there is no such thing as ‘memory in the brain’. Van Lommel suggested that memory may exist in nonlocal space around us, in the other realms surrounding us and we access that memory, maybe with our DNA as our unique bar code. Very interesting.”
“In response to Epstein, Joe exposed his stubborn fallback on materialism, not able to grasp what Epstein was saying about there not being any memory in the brain. Pim Van Lommel did a better job by expressing that memory was stored in nonlocal space around us though Epstein in his own way was stating the same thing.”
I posted this below the JRE interview on YouTube:
“Joe, with all respect, and adhering to community respect guidelines that just warned me before posting this (and speaking in language that you respect and use constantly), please (that’s the Canuck in me) shut the fuck up and listen to what Epstein is saying. You are so married to a materialist view of memory. Pin Van Lommel said it well (Consciousness Beyond Life) that memory may be stored in nonlocal space around us, in surrounding realms, and we access that, perhaps, through our unique DNA as our access code. Epstein is right, there is no evidence of memory stored in our material brains. Where would it be? Little rows of zeroes and ones lined up somewhere in neurons? Never found.”
More on “Creeping totalitarianism”, Wendell Krossa
Two of the best at journalism, Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn go at it again, conversational style, noting the re-signing of the “Declaration of National Emergency” act, on their latest podcast. They state that since 9/11 (2001) the US has been under a proclaimed state of emergency over terrorism.
“America This Week, with ‘Goodbye, My Rights’ by John Cheever”, Matt Taibbi, Walter Kirn, Sept. 14, 2024
https://www.racket.news/p/transcript-america-this-week-september-681
I would add what Taibbi and Kirn discuss is another element that has been an essential part of contemporary alarmist mentality/outlook, and the connections between things are enlightening if there is any concern to solve this problem.
Exaggeration of threat is a dominant feature of public discourse today as in the “climate crisis” narrative that is beaten daily into our consciousness. So also, the alarmism from the exaggerated claims of both sides that their enemies are a “threat to democracy”. Add all the other exaggerations that distort entirely the true state of life- denying the mass of evidence that this is the best ever time to be alive on earth (Humanprogress.org).
I would also point to the Hollywood obsession with the apocalyptic theme in most of their modern era story-telling, an obsession that re-enforces the psychopathology of apocalyptic in the public mind. The apocalyptic mental pathology has long been maintained by our Western religious traditions, the prominent ones (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) all being apocalyptic religions influenced by Zoroaster’s apocalyptic theology.
We are mentally buffeted by endless scenarios of apocalyptic alarmism that incite our survival impulse and thus render us susceptible to salvation schemes that ruin societies. Just as Taibbi and Kirn point out, the persistent panic-mongering over terrorism renders Americans susceptible to giving up their rights to state actors and agencies that have taken control over more and more aspects of life.
As Taibbi notes, all sorts of normal rights and freedoms have been lost. Kirn agreeing on the many “curtailments of liberty”.
“Taibbi: This declaration of national emergencies, it activated about 160 legal provisions that can be set in motion by any emergency. It’s a wide range of stuff that nobody ever thinks about. You can prosecute and punish people who make defective war material. You can waive the application requirements for radio stations, you can release national defense stockpile materials, you can control vessels and territorial waters, prohibit foreign exchange transactions, bank transfers, credit payments. There’s just a whole smorgasbord of stuff.”
This is all about the totalitarian’s formula: “Fear=control”. Meaning alarmism suits the persistent push of elites to unleash their totalitarian impulse. Keep in mind David Altheide’s exposure of news media’s role in elevating alarmism over populations. See “Creating Fear: News and the construction of crisis”.
Discussing the loss of freedom and rights under the “Declaration of National Emergency” and follow-up “Patriot Act”, Taibbi posts the comments of a Richard Posner who defended the giving up of citizen’s rights, even though he faced some opposition from a former ACLU director, Nadine Strossen. Taibbi notes that Posner equated privacy with dangerous “concealment” of crimes. Posner also argued that privacy was some new thing, not deeply embedded in human nature and only culturally specific.
“Taibbi: This is before the ACLU took a turn, but his main opponent publicly was Nadine Strossen, who was the director of the ACLU. Here’s what she had to say about Posner’s assessment of privacy.
“Nadine Strossen: I don’t know exactly what he means by that, even though I have read his writing and I’ve debated him. But if he is saying that it doesn’t exist as a constitutional right, it shouldn’t exist as a constitutional right, it doesn’t exist as a technological reality. I disagree with any or all of those propositions. I would go back to judge that I admire even more than I admire Judge Posner, namely Louis Brandeis in a famous case in the early 20th century who said… He said it far more eloquently than I paraphrase basically that privacy is the greatest right, the one that is most valued by people.
“He had this very encompassing concept of privacy, which I share, but he summed it up very succinctly when he said, “The right to be left alone.” I think that is really a nice way of summarizing pretty much all of civil liberties and human rights, which is that you as an individual have the right to self-determination and autonomy free of intrusion by the government or for that matter, by private sector interlopers, free of intrusion in any way, whether it’s intrusion in watching you, whether it’s intrusion in listening to you, monitoring you, whether it’s intrusion and interfering with your ability to make private decisions for yourself.”
Posner argued that the loss of civil liberties was outweighed by the imagined threats.
Taibbi and Kirn cover the creeping totalitarianism in the state program to extend categories of threat and how so much of this is going on behind the scenes in surveillance of citizens who are deemed threats not because they are “enemy combatants” but because they may have simply and innocently protested a government policy or challenged something, expressed dissent in some manner online or elsewhere.
These state laws and acts claiming defense against terrorism, push the boundaries of criminality/illegality ever further into varied forms of disagreement with state elites. Remember the parents who rightly wanted a say in their children’s schooling but were shut out by woke educators and then were deemed “domestic terrorists” by the FBI.
“Walter Kirn: Well, okay. They not only want to see it perpetuated (“Declaration of National Emergency” act), not only did they resign that particular set of rules just last week, but they want to extend it ever further to now people basically in the United States of contrary enough fuse that they can be construed as terrorist threats. In other words, in a kind of racist way frankly, Americans thought at first, this is only going to be for those, this can only be for those Muslims or those Arabs or whoever is behind these attacks, these Bin Ladens.
“Matt Taibbi: The rag heads. That’s what everybody’s saying.
“Walter Kirn: The rag heads and so on. But it’s an object lesson in not giving into those bad instincts early because now it’s you. Okay. Now it’s people in Ohio or wherever, who are tweeting bad things or thought to be at the gun show having the wrong kind of conversation. It really is. It has blanketed us all, and there have been no real restraints on it because as you say, most of it happens in secret, and you only have a Twitter files opportunity every once in a while when some guy buys a, some billionaire buys a company and lets you go through the records.”
They talk about a new type of personality that has resulted from the extensive government surveillance and threat of being smeared as “terrorist threat”.
“Taibbi: … there is a huge contingent of people now who I think they like this idea. I think they feel very nervous without the cloak of constant government surveillance, that this is new kind of personality that’s developed maybe in the Trump years”.
They note also how journalism changed after 9/11, from the Fourth Estate responsible to challenge state narratives and policies, to blindly supporting the state and its increased assaults on personal rights and freedoms.
Good point on how many of us have become “scared cowards” afraid of what we say, self-censoring out of fear that someone will catch us with some not carefully phrased comment or criticism, and down we will go under Woke hysteria and cancelling as “Nazi, fascist, racist, bigot, right-wing extremist”, or whatever the current meta-smear is.
We have all been shifted slowly toward protecting ourselves as “socially safe, legally safe”, as many more things have been criminalized under the alarmism of control-seeking elites today.
They also note “apologist for the state” Paul Krugman’s comments on “rural rage” that demonizes half the American population as right-wing extremists for their legitimate concerns over what they see going wrong in their country (i.e. economic and cultural issues that are not “racism”). Those people are demonized for daring to express their views. Rural views and dissent are delegitimized as “extremist right-wing rage”.
Kirn says “extremism” is the new smear to extend surveillance and criminalization of differing others. Elon Musk similarly said that anyone to the right of far leftism, even fellow leftists, are now condemned as “right-wing”. All part of the concept creep that has metastasized everywhere and resulted in subsequent criminalization of differing others. Again, part of the creeping totalitarianism unleashed through the “tyranny of the far-left minority”. Jordan Peterson and others have warned that the left inevitably ends eating even its own.
“Walter Kirn: Well, I can write my defense of rural America elsewhere. But what I will say is that this keyword, extremism, which is now slotted into the whole domestic surveillance and law enforcement endeavor, is in the very first sentence of this article about rural people in America. That’s how completely they have been shoved into this category and how completely this rhetoric from our prestige institutions has been accepted.”
And much more in this another good discussion by Taibbi and Kirn. Worth subscribing to.
The new totalitarianism, no longer “creeping”, but in full tidal surge, tsunami-scale even, Wendell Krossa
Over past years we have all watched a new totalitarianism emerge across Western societies. It has been not so much the direct threat from China and Russia (yes, some behind the scenes involvement from these actors) but it is coming more from within our societies, from our fellow citizens. And get this still difficult-to-comprehend element in the mix, it is coming from people who recently identified as liberals, as Democrats, as those who once supported critical “liberal democracy” ideals and features like free speech, equality, diversity, inclusion, people who were previously anti-war.
Pardon my French, but what the fuck has happened to these fellow liberals? Where is the affirmation of true liberalism as in Classic Liberalism that protects the freedom and rights of all equally, under common law systems and Classic Liberal institutions that limit elite power and consistently decentralize power back to us common citizens?
And yes, we have to acknowledge the balancing fact (“bothsideism”) that there is always the same threat of totalitarianism from the right- often on social issues such as promoting state intervention in the private decisions of citizens, notably in the free choice for women over their bodies. The state must keep out of that. Just like it should keep out of prohibitions like the drug war. And much more. Keep out of the private decisions of citizens over how to spend their own money by decreasing taxation (a central issue in Magna Carta). And return to protecting the freedom of citizens by radically decreasing regulations at all levels of government.
And note that conservatives today are also just as pro-war as Democrats. What many call the “Uni-party” phenomenon.
But the overwhelming threat of state intervention in a new totalitarianism today is coming from the left (those now identifying as Woke Progressives)- “overwhelming” because the Progressive left controls education (notably at university level), news and social media companies, and intelligence agencies that manipulate populations from behind the scenes.
See the Google research of Rogan guest Robert Epstein in Episode 2201 of JRE and think of both Dwight Eisenhower and Frank Church’s warnings regarding this formerly secretive manipulation of citizens, “formerly secretive” but now more unashamedly in the open. Epstein notes that Eisenhower warned about more than just the “military industrial complex”. Eisenhower also warned about technological elites. Epstein presents some disturbing evidence of how the largest information providers (search engines like Google) are biasing search results and thereby propagandizing populations with behind-the-scenes information algorithms. He points to evidence of significant interference in elections by these media companies.
So also, the left controls many state bureaucracies. This brings to mind George Orwell’s warning about totalitarianism emerging from government bureaucracies. Note Michael Shellenberger’s comments on this in a recent article:
“Freedom Is On A Knife’s Edge Worldwide, As Brazil’s Ban of X Shows: Are we headed toward ‘1984’ or a repeat of the printing press?”, Shellenberger, Public, Aug. 30, 2024.
https://www.public.news/p/freedom-is-on-a-knifes-edge-worldwide
“For many, totalitarianism conjures images of tanks and torture chambers, but it never starts that way. For George Orwell and many other thinkers, totalitarianism is more subtle and banal. He feared future totalitarianism would emerge from government bureaucracies, not just coups and revolutions. In 1984, Orwell characterized totalitarianism as a regime of absolute control. It’s that absolute control that Lula and Moraes now seek.
“Indeed, Orwell was inspired to write 1984 in part by the warning issued by James Burnham in his 1941 book, The Managerial Revolution, which raised the alarm about the totalitarian nature of the professional-managerial class and the alliance between business and what is today called the deep state.
“The totalitarianism that is emerging today around the world is far more dangerous because it has convinced the elites and a significant percentage of voters in every country censorship is necessary to save democracy. Tanks and torture aren’t required if the government can control the information environment. If ruling parties can decide what people can and cannot say and hear, then there is no need to rig elections or overthrow the government.”
This new totalitarianism has come at us through a variety of newish fronts like DEI, ESG, and Woke Racism. “Newish” in that the same old “oppressor/oppressed” division still exists in terms of successful capital holders (successful in creating companies and jobs) who have long been framed as evil oppressors of workers and common citizens (even though common citizens can invest in and share the profits of such companies). ”Newish” in that we now have to add the approach of classifying populations in terms of victimizers/victims based on features like skin color (as in DEI). A revived racism (Woke Racism) is a new feature today for dividing people similar to the old tribal dualisms of Marxism.
Then we have the crusades of leftists against “disinformation/misinformation and hate speech”. But the definitions of these things have been extended (concept creep) and that permits activists to claim more than hate speech as just “incitement to immediate violence” but also to include the differing opinions and speech of political opponents. Even opponent’s jokes, as the recent Mark Zuckerberg letter admitted. Who said the left today has no sense of humor.
Hate speech has now become the leftist’s discomfort with the differing opinions and speech of opponents. “Your dissenting opinions, your differing views and speech upsets me, because you disagree with me, so that is threatening ‘hate speech’ to me”. The tyranny of a minority (formerly known as “squeaky wheel” fringes), screaming loudly and dominating public discourse, cow majorities to back off and give the knee to the new totalitarians.
These fellow citizens, who not long ago presented as “liberals, Democrats” have lost sight of what true liberalism means. They now condemn equal freedom for others as a “threat to democracy” (e.g. Robert Reich), “democracy” meaning- their view of democracy where they remain in power and control what all others can say or think.
As someone said well, the most dangerous people in society are those who believe that they alone are right and will coerce others (through state force) to submit to their views, speech, and policies. They view the freedom of others as freedom to hate and harm with disinformation, as in difference of opinion. And they mix in the legitimate concern to “protect children from online harm” but then thoroughly confuse the issues involved by extending that claimed protection of children to include censoring opponent’s views and speech.
The leftist claim to be acting out of compassion and concern to protect has been well exposed today as too often a virtue-signaling pathology known as “the psychopathology of left-wing authoritarianism or left-wing compassion”. It is presented as “noble cause” activism or a “righteous war against evil”. And it is heading toward the outcome of destroying liberal democracy to “save the world” of leftist domination.
The evidence of pathology in the above claims to compassion and righteous battle, is seen in such things as the surge in Democratic support for censorship of opponents (now at 70%). The “Twitter Files” revelations exposed the fact that this new totalitarianism has been actually operating in the background for years.
It’s a frightening thing how a personal narrative of engaging a righteous battle against evil enemies can deform human consciousness and convince people that they are being heroically good and just as they move toward embracing “exterminate or be exterminated” approaches against fellow citizens (“exterminate” in early stages as in embracing censorship of opponents, criminalization of differences, silencing and banning, cancelling, etc.).
Thank God for the many courageous and skilled researchers now exposing the complex fronts of this new totalitarianism- probing and unravelling the many actors, agencies, and programs involved across Western societies. We should celebrate today’s warriors for freedom- Glen Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Jordan Peterson, and many others.
These courageous voices understand and present well the threat to Classic Liberalism or liberal democracy, the threat that is coming from the left today.
Added note:
This on the repeated outcomes of introducing DEI approaches to educational systems. If some parents disagree and protest the DEI approach, there is often an immediate shift to bullying by the DEI activists, with charges of “bigot… hater… transphobic…etc.”. The bullying can ruin reputations and careers, and it evidences the totalitarian spirit behind such programs, the refusal to tolerate difference of opinion that is actually anti-DEI, as in “no inclusion, no diversity, and no equality”. I substitute “equality” for the Marxist “equity” that demands equal outcomes not equal opportunities.
Eusibius framing totalitarian theocracy for the modern world, breaking the critical safeguard of state/religion separation, Wendell Krossa
Arthur Herman’s account of Eusibius offers another interesting illustration of people following the “behavior based on similar belief” model. He recounts that the Syrian Roman “Eusibius” of the 4th Century CE argued that emperor Constantine had been chosen of God to be the sovereign of Rome (based on Constantine’s dream of a cross).
Eusibius stated that “Constantine… frames his earthly government according to the pattern of the divine original, feeling strength in its conformity with the monarchy of God.”
Eusibius’s argument derives from Plato’s invisible Forms or cave shadows, the perfect ideals that should be manifest in human life and society.
Herman frames this as- “One empire under one absolute God, with one absolute ruler as His image on earth… a new age of political authority had arrived… This was an ideal of government serving divine ends, with God appointing and anointing a ruler to exercise supreme authority in His name… the ruler as earthly image of God Himself… After Eusibius, monarchs are Platonic copies of higher invisible perfection… exercising an earthly version of God’s omnipotence… just as there is one absolute God, so there must be one absolute emperor… he is the image of God and therefore his authority is absolute…”
This descended to the later belief in the “divine right of Kings”. And it illustrates the long-term human practice of basing behavior on belief, modelling human life after what is believed to be the divine reality.
Note in this particular illustration of behavior based on similar belief, the use of a theological myth (i.e. God as King, Ruler, dominating authority) to validate the primitive human impulse to domination of others, p. 171-3 in “The Cave and the Light”.
Eusibius’s argument also revives the equally primitive myth that “humans were created to serve the gods, to do their work, to provide them food, offerings, and sacrifices”. Domination/subservience in relationships, all validated by appeal to divinity.
Another note: Constantine presided over the first universal church council of Nicaea where “religious orthodoxy was made compulsory under imperial law”. Out of this “the empire’s once persecuted Christians were poised to become the new persecutors… the rise of Christian intolerance seemed a matter of celebration rather than regret”, p.175.
This account of Eusibius affirms the critical importance of the separation of church and state to protect the equal freedom and rights of all.
I could add here Richard Landes’ comment on the persistence of the “elite domination of commoners” for organizing human societies across the millennia. We struggle to resist and conquer this primitive impulse to domination. I offer that Classic Liberal principles and institutions have done best for checking this impulse, for offering the best protection against elite totalitarianism.
See the data graphs at the link below… Alarmists have lied to us about a “climate crisis” and consequently pushed via state coercion the “Net Zero decarbonization” scheme that has caused the waste of trillions of dollars and is impoverishing billions with unnecessarily increased energy costs due to blocked fossil fuel development (that should be plentifully available and cheap). Populations are further harmed by state subsidies for renewables, costs that redistributed to impact the poorest people the most. This disastrous apocalyptic crusade is destroying societies to pursue the great lie that we must “save the world”.
“Year 2024 Contiguous U.S. Maximum Summer Temperatures Fail to Reach Levels Achieved 90 Years Ago in the Dust Bowl Era Despite Climate Alarmists Record High Election Year Hype”. Larry Hamlin on Wattsupwiththat.com, Sept. 11, 2024
Quotes:
Hamlin states, “NOAA has released its summer 2024 (June through August) contiguous U.S. maximum temperatures (see graphs at link) clearly demonstrating the dust bowl era period of the 1930’s remain the highest summer temperatures measured in the U.S.
He continues- “This outcome is despite more than 4 decades of failed climate alarmism propaganda claims hyping phony politically driven schemes wasting trillions of dollars based on falsely alleging that we face (what we can now see) is a clearly non-existent “climate emergency”.
“NOAA’s contiguous U.S. maximum summer temperature data (shown below) clearly demonstrates that the decade of the 1930s dominate the highest measured summer temperatures with these outcomes driven by natural climate behavior.
“Additionally, NOAA has released its Contiguous U.S. Maximum Temperature Anomaly data through August 2024 clearly showing that there is no consistent upward trend established by these measurements during the period 2005 through August 2024. This data does not support alarmists’ phony political claims of a “climate emergency”…
Hamlin concludes: “As usual the media climate alarmist hype is erroneous and unsupported by measured data.
“In fact, such highly relevant data is concealed, ignored and completely misrepresented to serve purely political climate alarmist purposes – with heightened deceit in this election year.”
Plugging away, Wendell Krossa
I saw a man pulling a heavy black cord from an electrical charging station near a work site, dragging it toward his pickup truck. I thought it might be interesting to stop and ask him why he suffers that inconvenience of charging his obviously electric truck, perhaps daily.
If I had stopped, I would have asked him if he knew of the research of atmospheric physicists Richard Lindzen and William Happer who are among the best on climate science and particularly on the physics of CO2, specialists on how CO2 actually functions in the atmosphere in relation to making a small contribution to warming climate.
Does he know that the CO2 warming influence is now “saturated”, a physics term meaning that more CO2 in the atmosphere will not add anything further to any possible warming. And does he know that rising CO2 levels are not “mainly from human emissions” (we contribute only some 4% annually). CO2 was rising naturally before industrialization began to ramp up.
And did he know that the 1 degree C of warming over the past century has been a mild recovery from the Little Ice Age that devastated the world from roughly 1645-1715, and the subsequent mild warming has been hugely beneficial to all life. Even polar bears have flourished under such warming (populations rising from around 8,000 some 60 years ago to around 30,000 today.
Does he know that contrary to climate alarmism exaggeration and distortion “both global temperature related deaths and deaths from extreme weather have declined 99%” over the last century? (Linnea Lueken article below)
Just as deaths due to cold have dropped more than deaths due to warming have increased, meaning a net beneficial outcome from warming in world where 10 times more people still die from cold than from warming (Lancet study).
And would he know that more of life’s basic food in the atmosphere- CO2- has been hugely beneficial in the addition of 15% more green vegetation on Earth since 1980, meaning more food for animals and increased crop productivity for humans.
I would tell that man that there is no good scientific reason to tax carbon or decarbonize our societies. Yes, go ahead and own an electric vehicle if you choose but do that, not based on false information about climate, and knowing there is no “existential climate crisis” that you need to help solve. Purchase an electric vehicle on private dime and not dependent on the billions in subsidies that are pushed on the public through state coercion.
And I would urge him to be fully aware of all the damaging consequences of decarbonization that are harming the poorest people the most.
Insert on ultimate ideal/reality and life in this imperfect world: As always- A qualifier to the qualifiers below. Notes on what unconditional means in relation to ultimate reality, as distinguished from the need to exercise common sense in this messy realm of life, even when trying to live by an ideal like unconditional love.
Deity exists in perfection and, among other things, functions as an ultimate ideal (“Be merciful just like your Father in heaven”). Our understanding of divine love, as no conditions love, urges us to reach higher, toward the best of being human just as Historical Jesus urged- “No more eye for eye retaliation toward offenders but instead love your enemy because God does. Be like God who unconditionally and generously gives the good gifts of life- sun and rain- to all alike, to both good and bad people”.
That is how we maintain our humanity in this realm of dualism with its never-ending struggle between good and evil.
And even while affirming unconditional as correctly defining the perfection that is God, we never abandon common sense in this imperfect world. Historical Jesus was not offering dogmatic standards for business practices or economics, or for pacifist versions of criminal justice (i.e. “turn the other cheek” as some universal precept for all situations of violence). His advocacy for unconditional love in human practise was more about the obligation to treat offenders humanely as in restorative, not punitive, justice systems.
Plato depressed the Romans who depressed Paul and the rest of us over subsequent millennia, Wendell Krossa
Primitive mythologies of an original paradise ruined by early corrupt humans, and followed by the subsequent decline of life toward a worsening state, were eventually embraced in another “same old” version of apocalyptic that shaped Greek thinking. That primitive mythology was then transformed into a narrative of “decline toward apocalypse” for the Romans who had unquestioningly embraced Greek views and culture (Rome as copycat culture), not having a tradition of thinking for themselves.
As Arthur Herman finishes covering the development of Greek thought and culture, he then moves on to Roman society, noting that though “the Romans despised the Greeks as people” they embraced a total dependence on Greek culture and especially on the authority of Plato and Aristotle. Herman traces, for example, the influence of the Greek Polybius who based his view of historical declinism particularly on the writings of Plato and Socrates. He taught the Romans a view of history as an inevitable trajectory of decline and collapse.
Plato had earlier argued that political systems that did not live up to ideals eventually became corrupted as they were overtaken by decay and collapse. Polybius “transformed Plato’s cycle (regarding political systems) from a specific theory of government to a general theory of history”, (see chapter 8 in Herman’s “The Cave and the Light”- i.e. “Hole in the Soul: Plato and Aristotle in Rome”).
Polybius taught the Romans that their “greatest empire in the world” would end in doom. His narrative was accepted by Roman elites who uncritically submitted to the authority of Plato and Aristotle that Polybius based his ideas on.
“Rome’s ruling class became obsessed with decline” as they observed the empire’s “slide from virtue to vice… the steady degeneration of its noble character into vice and corruption.” Greek declinism shaped Roman declinism.
Noting the dominance of Greek and Roman influence during the pre-BCE centuries, we can appreciate that the pre-eminence of Greek thought in Rome’s “world-straddling empire” would also have had a significant influence on the emergence of Second Century BCE Jewish apocalyptic and first Century CE Christian apocalyptic.
That was the prevailing environment in which Paul matured and developed his Christian apocalyptic mythology that subsequently became the dominant influence on Western narratives and consciousness (again, note the James Tabor quotes below).
Herman notes that the declinism that was taught by the Greek Polybius then shaped the Roman view of their empire as in decline toward eventual collapse and ending- the Roman version of apocalyptic belief. That belief depressed Romans across following centuries with fatalism, resignation, and despair (p.116 of Cave and Light).
Again, consider how this historical thought trend most undoubtedly influenced late pre-BCE Judaism apocalyptic, and Paul’s apocalyptic Christ myth that was developed within the influence of the Roman empire that was dominated by Greek thought.
Historical Jesus had to stand against that tsunami of apocalyptic mythology with his stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory deity. Non-retaliatory meaning most fundamentally- “non-apocalyptic”.
Illustrations, affirmations of the need to confront the motivating ideas behind crusades of violence, Wendell Krossa
Just as the military guy stated, after ISIS erupted around 2014 in the spread of its caliphate, you can defeat these outbursts of religious violence with force but they will continue re-erupting if you don’t go after the ideas/ideology that drive them. This article below refers to “terrorist ideology”. More correctly it needed to label that the “terrorist religious themes” that motivated and validated their terrorism.
And don’t forget those very same “profoundly religious” themes drive the climate alarmism crusade, and though less graphically violent than ISIS violence, the climate crusade is shaping up to become more destructive overall with its decarbonization salvation scheme ruining societies.
These religious ideas (“apocalyptic millennialism”) drove the similarly “profoundly religious crusades” of Marxism and Nazism.
It might help for us to recognize that all of us are facing the same common enemy/monster behind these crusades- a shared set of inherited beliefs that have to be confronted in all their varied iterations, whether religious or secular ideological, the same foundational beliefs that lead to the same destructive outcomes in human societies. The complex of “lost paradise, apocalyptic, demand for atonement/salvation” is a common enemy of humanity.
Here is another example of what the military guy was trying to focus attention on– the ideas behind such eruptions of violence. This isolates just one theme from the apocalyptic millennial complex.
“Muslim radicalization has increased, not decreased, since 9/11”, Mohammed Rizwan, Raheel Raza, National Post, Sept. 10, 2024
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/muslim-radicalization-has-increased-not-decreased-since-9-11
Quotes:
The authors state, “As we prepare to navigate the almost intersecting anniversaries of 9/11 and October 7, it feels like we have been on this roundabout for 23 years. ISIS-Hamas-Hezbollah-Houthi terrorism… a gruesome, never-ending horror show on loop….
They add that jihadi factions in Pakistan are also playing a role in “promoting extremism and violence”…
“Terrorist ideology did not diminish because supportive Pakistani military elements and their terror proxies in Afghanistan stood to lose….”
They explain that Iraq and Syria did not diminish terrorism because they were “firefighting missions without a clear end-goal. There was no bruising of terror ideology along the way.”
“After more than two decades we see the resurgence and rejuvenation of this terrorist ideology among a visible portion of Muslims…. Despite all these years of attempting to combat terrorism, the radicalization of Muslim populations has become worse, not less, since 9/11….”
They conclude: “Here’s the problem. Due to regressive education systems in the Muslim world, many of their populations live in a perceived glorified past. Many are indoctrinated as being culturally and religiously superior to the West — meaning Christian and Jewish cultures. They want to bring everyone else down so they can maintain their supremacy…
“Fighting wars will not change this mindset.”
National Post
Mohammed Rizwan and Raheel Raza are members of The Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism.
End of quotes.
My response to their last point/conclusion: Their analysis and conclusion is missing critical core elements. This is more than just the belief in a “perceived glorified past”. Admittedly, that is the baseline myth of the apocalyptic millennial complex. Muslims believe (just as all societies across the world similarly believe) that they have descended from a better past- from an originally more pure and strong race, as in the “noble savage myth” that is among the many similar “primitive myths that have been believed by all people across history and across all the cultures of the world” (Joseph Campbell).
Again, there is more behind Islamic violence than the belief in a better past. There is the full complex of “lost original paradise/apocalypse/redemption” themes.
That complex claims that after the ruin of the original paradise, life declined to the impure, defiled world of the present, a world that is heading, under the curse and threat of an angry God, toward the apocalyptic destruction and ending promised by the deity. This motivating mythological background was evident in the ISIS crusade to establish the caliphate in Syria (circa 2014), to instigate the great Armageddon final battle of “exterminate or be exterminated” and thereby incite God to descend and finish the purging of evil from the corrupted world. The salvation scheme of this primitive mythology involves the divine purging of the defiling threat- i.e. the infidel enemy that must be conquered and exterminated in order to remove the corrupting evil from the world.
So Islam, shaped by Zoroaster/Zarathustra’s mythology along with Judaism and Christianity, believes that people must join the “true religion” and fight a righteous battle against evil in order to save their world, to restore the lost paradise, believing that God is on their side, and that they are engaged in a righteous hero’s quest. No different from the similar viewpoints in all religious and cultural traditions.
The author of “God’s Chosen Peoples” (out of print) made this point that all cultures have believed that they were the specially chosen people of God, hence, superior to all others and responsible to convert the differing others, to “save their souls”.
One from Jordan Peterson
Look past his use of an attention-grabbing, perhaps intentionally outrage-inciting term- i.e. “retarded”- to his overall argument about freedom of speech, the point that he is making about freedom. Richard Dawkins praises him for his courageous fight for free speech.
“The organized campaign to shut me up has filed five new complaints: This time because I had the audacity to criticize Kamala Harris”, Jordan Peterson, National Post, Sept. 10, 2024
Peterson explains that new complaints have been filed against him for criticizing Kamala Harris for talking down to audiences in a “demeaning, presumptuous, disrespectful, haughty” manner as if they were stupid children. He was blunt in his response to that treatment of audiences.
He states that the recent complainers are “language police types who increasingly and increasingly demandingly want, first, to appear as though they are good and that they care, without any cost to themselves and, second, to control absolutely everything everyone else says all the time…. (their complaints are) a manifestation of their unlimited desire for power.
He then asks-
“Why should anyone care about any of this? Because our language is increasingly policed. Because the rules associated with that policing are increasingly unclear, and we break them, stated and unstated, at our increasing peril.”
He notes that those complaining about the free speech of others present themselves as caring and compassionate but that masks the psychopathology of “Cluster B, psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian behaviour”.
He warns that “Civilization ends when the envious, bitter and power-hungry gain the upper hand — which they have forever done by claiming victimization…
“Free speech, free thought, freedom of conscience, freedom of association: these do not die suddenly, anywhere they have taken fragile root, with a cataclysmic and dramatic bang, obvious enough to call the requisite rescuing heroes into being. They die, instead, in a series of pathetic defeats, none of which appear to be worth risking reputation to prevent. We are watching them die in front of our eyes. Everyone who is not asleep knows it.”
Peterson bewails how few have the courage to come forth and speak out against this new totalitarianism.
In conclusion Peterson says, “Ask yourself this: are you still comfortable saying what you think in this land, glorious and free — even as comfortable as you were a mere decade ago? And if the answer is “no,” then ask yourself this: under such degenerating conditions, how long will you still be able to truly think? And what inevitably happens to those who cannot or will not think? And what happens to their children — and their societies?”
National Post
Another on childhood anxiety caused by climate alarmism. The most widespread form of child abuse today.
“Climate Reporting is Causing Anxiety in Children, Future Net Zero, Not Climate Change”, Linnea Lueken at ClimateRealism, Sept. 10, 2024
Another good one from Linnea,
She says, “A post at a UK website Future Net Zero (FNZ) claims that climate change is causing anxiety in children. This is false. Since climate change is not perceptible, and weather isn’t getting more extreme, it can only be the constant stream of media scare stories and schools pushing the false idea that the planet is doomed without immediate climate action that is traumatizing children. This makes groups like FNZ and those they quote for their story complicit in harming kids mental health”.
She notes a study that found 70% of children suffered from climate anxiety. Lueken adds that one alarmist urged parents to “keep things positive when approaching climate change” but the alarmist then quoted a person who stated that kids are doomed if her policies are not enacted.
Lueken says the climate crisis narrative is pushed at a time when “the world has never been a safer place to live.”
She adds that because fossil fuels have enabled modern societies to adapt to climate changes, the deaths from heat and other forms of extreme weather have declined 99% over the past century. Also, hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, tornadoes, and floods have not become worse. So why, asks Lueken, are children alarmed that they face a climate apocalypse?
“The answer is simple and obvious: media coverage and propaganda in schools.”
Lueken says that “climate alarmist groups spread misinformation in order to frighten people, especially children”…
She concludes: “FNZ, Save the Children, and the media and educators who are parroting and promoting their climate misinformation, are responsible for kids being terrified about climate change. They are the ones who are telling kids that unless their parents and leaders undertake the radical decarbonization they are demanding, the world will end.”
FNZ and other groups like it benefit from generations of people being terrified. It garners them financial support as well as political influence. It is gross that they harm children’s mental well-being with their own propaganda efforts, only to then use the angst they generate in kids as evidence that the world needs radical decarbonization – it’s for the children after all.
This from Barbara Kay at National Post
“Canadians can’t allow the online harms bill to snuff out free speech”, Sept. 8, 2024
Quotes:
“Parliament resumes sitting on Sept. 16, and the Liberals will urgently seek to pass Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act , now in its second reading.
Kay warns that, “If passed in its present incarnation, this deeply flawed bill will drastically curtail freedom of speech in Canada…
She adds that, “We already have hate-crime laws in the Criminal Code that address advocacy for genocide, incitement of hatred and the wilful promotion of hatred….
“The law would create a new transgression: an “offence motivated by hated” which would raise the maximum penalty for advocacy of genocide from five years to life imprisonment. What kind of mindset considers the mere expression of hateful ideas as equivalent in moral depravity to rape and murder? Such instincts call to my mind the clever aperçu by anti-Marxist pundit David Horowitz that “Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out.”…
“Frivolous or malicious complaints could be made against persons or organizations, granting complainants significant potential for financial reward at no personal cost, win or lose…. This is an open invitation for myriad social malcontents and grievance-mongers to swarm the system, with no regard for the inevitable harm done to those who they target.”
A repost of some important qualifiers to “unconditional” as the critical feature defining the “cohering center of human narratives”: Wendell Krossa
This is in response to a discussion group member who once replied to the advocacy for the ideal of unconditional love with, “Oh, you mean let all the psychopaths go free”. No, no one ever meant or suggested anything so foolish, what progressives have been doing (somewhat at lesser scale) in US cities with “de-carceration, decriminalization, harm reduction drug sites, and no cash bail policies”. All forms of extremist-like pacifism.
I repeat the qualifiers (common sense) to any discussion of Ultimate Reality as stunningly inexpressible no conditions Love- as meaning no judgment, no exclusion of anyone from ultimate Oneness, no eternal domination by some Lord Christ that disregards human freedom, no threat of punitive destruction by being tossed on some Big Barbie down under (“Hell”- for you dummies). All conclusions from the original Jesus message that God was no conditions love. Nothing to darken the brilliant light of that pure love.
But the ideal of unconditional that properly defines “God is love”, while challenging us with the ideal to “Be merciful as your Father is merciful”, does not mean the embrace of dogmatic pacifism as in sayings like “turn the other cheek”. In this world there are natural and social consequences to bad behavior such as obligatory incarceration for violent actions. That is necessary to protect innocent others as the primary obligation of systems of justice. What it does mean is that incarcerated people still deserve to be treated humanely and that is how we maintain our own humanity in the face of evil.
And consequences to all behavior exist because we do not develop and mature as human aside from responsibly embracing and learning from consequences to actions in this life.
Further, the ideal of ultimate unconditional love, as advocated by Jesus, is not a prescription for society-level economic policy or personal business practices. Business owners are responsible to ensure that their businesses succeed in order to protect the jobs of employees who must care for their families. That means making certain that all involved in supply chains pay their bills on time. Legal systems (i.e. the legal basis for lawsuits) exist to guarantee such things.
The free generosity that Jesus illustrated in such stories as the vineyard owner parable is a free choice issue for property owners after their other obligations have been met. Business owners are not obligated to take literally the precepts in their belief systems, like “give to everyone who asks”, if such advice threatens the continuation of their business.
None of this, however, changes the truth of God as inexpressibly wondrous and transcendent unconditional Love. That is the best and highest conception, ever presented, of the true nature of ultimate reality as Love, Good, or Perfection. Whatever other mystery we conceive that to be.
And that reality exists as the ultimate ideal to aim toward, however unsuccessfully we achieve it in this world. It speaks to our purpose here- to learn something of that true nature of love, to express something of it toward others, like a Mandela or a Jesus.
Add that our ideals, as fully humane as we can conceive them, exist to help us maintain our humanity in the face of evil, pointing us toward more humane approaches, for example, in the rehabilitation of offenders (i.e. restorative justice approaches). Punitive justice approaches have a history of subhuman outcomes in the treatment of offenders.
More on apocalyptic salvationism as “Destroy your society to ‘save the world’”.
Another example, as in Britain, so in Germany, California, and elsewhere: The basic narrative themes driving the climate apocalypse crusade that is ruining Germany are the same as those that drove Nazism and its “exterminate or be exterminated” madness, continue to drive resurging Marxism with its “destroy capitalism civilization to make way for collectivist utopia”, and general environmental alarmism with its similar “destroy industrial civilization as necessary to make way for a return to primitive communalist paradise”.
And the results are always the same old- destroy civilization and societies to “save the world”. Bolstered by the primitive belief that one is in a heroic and righteous battle against evil threatening enemies, blinds crusaders to the damage that they are doing.
We counter such madness with Thomas Sowell’s “the test of facts” that show the outcomes.
This from Eric Worrall, “Green German Academic: ‘old… parts of an economy need to disappear for new parts… to happen’: ‘Transformation means change. Change means often consolidation. Companies need to shrink in order to be able to invest and develop new technologies,’”, Eric Worrall, Sept. 8, 2024.
Worrall quotes an article by a German academic- “More job cuts on the way as German economy struggles to recover”, By Liv Stroud.
“German companies have located already a lot of production to China, to India, elsewhere, and this will continue,” Marcel Fratzscher said.”
But Worrall notes that “Marcel Fratzscher, despite his no doubt impressive economic qualifications, has misunderstood the situation.
“The Germany companies aren’t “disappearing” redundant parts of their businesses, they are relocating them to Asia….
“The only thing preventing automobile manufacturers and other energy intensive businesses from prospering in Germany is German politicians…”
Worrall concludes: “There is no chance green energy will ever be competitive, there is no economically viable means to transform unreliable green energy into dispatchable energy, which is what a modern economy needs. The German economy will continue to decline until politicians who have set this disastrous economic direction are replaced by politicians who are less ignorant of real-world economics”.
Interesting research from Ken Haapala- “The Week That Was: 2024-09-07, The Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
“Hypothesis Testing: The work of Willis Eschenbach has been significant in exposing weaknesses in widely accepted papers claiming to support the hypothesis that increases in carbon dioxide concentrations (CO2) cause temperatures to rise significantly…. Earth has four distinct temperature periods: Hothouse, Warmhouse, Coolhouse and Icehouse, which we are in now…. Eschenbach showed that in each of these periods CO2 concentrations varied widely, but temperatures were relatively unchanged.
“Geoscientist Tom Gallagher took the Eschenbach work and showed that changes in the locations of Earth land masses and ocean currents better explained the extended periods of wide CO2 concentrations but little variation in temperatures.”
Honoring the wrong person and the wrong message- History’s greatest contradiction has shaped Western civilization for both good and bad, Wendell Krossa
“Let’s get rid of all this metaphysical bullshit,” a pissed atheist.
Like Herman noting the major difference in influence of Plato and Aristotle on Western civilization in his “The Cave and the Light: Plato versus Aristotle and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization”, so I would offer there has been an equally if not more profound influence on Western consciousness and civilization from these two- Historical Jesus and the entirely opposite Christ myth of Paul.
Preface notes:
My affirmation of the central insight of Historical Jesus is the affirmation of a non-religious person, certainly a non-Christian man as in a person who was entirely opposite to the religious Christ of Paul, and the religion Paul built around his Christ- i.e. “Christ-ianity”.
“Jesus-ianity” would never have got off the ground as another religion. Historical Jesus was a person with a message that was oriented to how to live as human in this world, how to understand and practice love as the highest human ideal and guide for life.
On the non-religious nature of Jesus and his message:
Bob Brinsmead makes this good point- In Jesus’ original teaching, the “Q Wisdom Sayings” gospel, there is nothing about concern for an afterlife, or being devoted to loving and serving some invisible reality. The Jesus narrative focuses us on doing practical good in this world, helping others, and improving this life and world. Becoming fully human in this life. And how no conditions love enables us to maintain our humanity in the face of evil.
Insert: Speaking to the content of “Q Wisdom Sayings” gospel research that is as close as we can get to what Jesus actually taught, Bob says,
“Apocalyptic is the worldview that this world is not our home, but home becomes the one beyond the apocalypse which is called Heaven. Heaven is mythical language. It forms the view that heaven is God’s home and therefore our true home, and therefore our life and our affections have to be centred where this mythical Christ is at God’s right hand. It is all mythical.
“The Hebrew thinking is very different. This world is our home. God is in this place as much as God is in any other place and God is present in this time as much as God will be present in some post-Apocalyptic time. We should cherish this world as our home and make it the best within our powers. This is a good world where we sow and reap, work, play and eat, and a place of rain and sunshine, birds and lillies, and so many things for which to give thanks, to love and to share, etc. To do what our hands find to do, with all our might for we have no other time to make this world what it should be.
“Jesus never regaled people about the next life in heaven or life after death. We know nothing of the beyond. It is God’s surprise, and we need know nothing about it. All speculation of what we will be doing hereafter is in the same category of trying to understand what happened to Jesus when he died- which was the same thing that happened to my grandmother when she died.
“That realm is mythical. Christology is myth. Paul forged the greatest myth in the history of mankind– but unlike the teachings of Jesus which are all focused on this world and how to live in the here and now, this myth of Christ is all focussed on living in heaven rather than in the here and now, as it says, “Let your way of life be in heaven and not on this earth.” (End of Brinsmead comments)
Yet, Jesus did base human behavior on a certain view of God. He used the “behavior based on belief” relationship to make his main point, communicate his central insight. “Love your enemies because God does. God gives the gifts of the natural world- sun and rain for agrarian life- to both good and bad people. Be unconditionally loving like your Daddy”.
Why I don’t “get rid of this metaphysical bullshit”…
My response to the bad theology that we have inherited, via our great religious traditions, is to mimic what Jesus did and offer a better replacement, just as he did. Build on his brilliant theological insight. Replace the threat theology of all religions, that has always incited the worst in humanity, and transform narratives with the central insight of Historical Jesus.
But then, also a big “Yes” to Bob Brinsmead that our focus needs to be, not on metaphysical realities and issues, but on our contribution to improving ourselves and life in this world, to contribute something to making life in the “here and now” better for all. My interest and corrective speculation on ultimate reality has to do with past human speculation, i.e. the bad theology, the inhuman features projected onto deity. That past speculation and projection has wreaked horrific damage on real people across history. And that speculation still exists everywhere in religious traditions and other narratives.
My arguments here have to do, particularly, with the influence of bad metaphysical speculation in the “behavior based on belief” relationship that has been common to all human thinking and narratives across history.
But then having properly corrected the metaphysical element, the speculation on the nature of ultimate reality (i.e. attributing supreme humaneness to deity as in “no conditions love”), yes, then orient your attention to the practical reality of improving life in this world, making a personal contribution to this life and world.
As stated often before, bad theology has already existed from the beginning and people will always be curious about the metaphysical, so at the least offer better (as in more humane) alternatives. You will never “get rid of all this metaphysical bullshit”.
Another note:
“Theories of Everything” (TOEs) across the past have lacked the most critical element in their endeavor to present a TOE as some form of materialist explanation of ultimate reality. A complete explanation of everything in reality.
I get the limitation of science to the physical realm. And my beef is with the materialist argument that a TOE will discover the final explanation of all things in terms of materialist philosophy. Nah. Stick to your lane, guys. You are crossing the science/philosophy boundary again, as Sabine Hossenfelder argued in “Lost In Math”.
The materialist philosophical argument for a materialist TOE misses the most critical element in the mix- i.e. the “spiritual” core of all reality, the creating Light that is Love- thereby rendering their explanations seriously deficient and incomplete. But I get their struggle with the limitations of physical science that cannot and will not resolve ultimate questions and issues.
And, perhaps, materialists also need to get “rid of all the metaphysical bullshit” that they constantly delve into and speculate on. Materialists, like most people, cannot resist crossing the science/philosophy boundary to speculate on the metaphysical unknowable- i.e. the nature of ultimate reality. Hence, unprovable “multi-verse” theories, or “Self-Organizing Principle”, etc.
Across the entire history of conscious humanity (even the Neanderthals), people were aware of and curiously speculated on ultimate reality as Something more than just impersonal Force or Energy. That ought to suggest something useful to us moderns. Most people across history, and I affirm them in this, have intuitively understood that the “Invisible or metaphysical” is of the nature of a great Self, a Someone having personhood or personality, though of transcendent nature, as is true of all features related to creating deity.
Where I part with the ancients is with the pathetically subhuman/inhuman features that they projected onto the gods that they created. Religious gods that were tribal, dominating, and punitive destroyers of differing others.
Materialists also need to do as Bob Brinsmead recommends, recognize the limits of physical science and focus on the material realm and how to improve life in this realm. Leave TOEs and metaphysical stuff to the philosophers, theologians, and the intuitions of general humanity. Stop with the ‘smarty pants’ stuff of claiming to know better than average commoners across history. Like the early shaman claiming to know the secrets of the invisible world and thereby positioning themselves as specially enlightened elites able to dictate final truth to others. That was the origin of religion and dominating elites in early human societies (John Pfeiffer in “Explosion: An Inquiry Into the Origins of Art and Religion”).
Now my main points…
For 2 thousand years the single most profound insight on ultimate reality ever offered (the authentic final insight into the ultimate TOE) has been lodged at the heart of Christianity, the system of ideas/beliefs that has shaped Western civilization. The single greatest expression of ultimate humaneness- i.e. God as unconditional Love- has been buried in a religious system, buried in the Judeo-Christian tradition that even Richard Dawkins admits makes him a “cultural Christian”.
It’s not fully buried. Its only partly buried, for example, by Matthew’s added statement that incorrectly summarizes the central message of Jesus that he has just documented in his biography of the man. Matthew adds this conclusion, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”. That denies and distorts the central point that Jesus had made that God demands no such perfection but showers unconditional generosity on all alike, including on the very imperfect- “sun and rain given to both good and bad people”. Matthew, when writing his biography of the Palestinian wisdom sage, could not deny the oral tradition of Jesus’ well-known message but he could distort it with his editorial meddling. And he did.
The central insight of Jesus has been further severely distorted by the larger New Testament context that it is embedded within, a context that prioritizes Paul’s Christ myth.
The breakthrough insight of Historical Jesus had overturned the entire previous history of human narratives, most critically overturning the cohering center of narratives- i.e. the God theory that holds the complexes of related religious myths together. Jesus had overturned that consistently centering idea/ideal with his stunning new insight that God was something entirely opposite to all the gods of previous mythologies and religious traditions.
And Historical Jesus did this with a simple reference to the basic elements of the natural world- sun and rain- that were critical to the majority of people trying to survive in ancient agrarian societies.
With his stunning new theology of an unconditionally loving God (“sun and rain given universally without discrimination to both good and bad people”) he had rejected outright all previous mythologies of gods as tribal judges who favored their true believers and discriminatorily excluded unbelievers. Add Jesus’ related comments- i.e. true greatness is to serve, not dominate as the pagans do. That was a direct rejection of Paul’s subsequent Christology of “Lord Jesus” as dominating Lord, King, or Iron Fist Ruler for eternity.
Jesus’ “no more eye for eye retaliation but instead love your enemies because God does” is also the rejection of punitive destruction of the world in apocalypse or hell. He rejected mythologies of divine violence to solve problems as in the divine demand for blood sacrifice and purging enemies who dissented from one’s “true religion or belief system”.
Jesus’ central insight and theme on God as no conditions love, pushes us to make associated conclusions that overturn the most fundamental of inherited religious beliefs. He rejected the entire complex of “lost original paradise, decline of life toward apocalypse, demand for salvation and violent purging of enemies, promise of communalist utopia”, etc.
With the stunning new theology of Jesus there was just the brilliant Light of no conditions love to center new human narratives. His central theme offered a transformation and liberation of consciousness like nothing ever proposed before.
Two decades later (50ish CE), Paul outright rejected that stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory, no conditions God and buried the central insight of Jesus in his Christ myth. Paul re-instated the retaliatory God of all past mythology and religion (notably in his reference to the Old Testament declaration- “’Vengeance is mine, I will repay’, says the Lord”).
Paul re-affirmed deity as dominating (“Lord Jesus” ruling with an iron fist for eternity- Revelation), deity as demanding violence to solve problems- i.e. bloody human sacrifice for atonement, and deity as tribal in the eternal separation and punitive destruction of unbelievers via apocalypse and hell.
Paul subsequently shaped Western narratives with that theology, with the same old cohering center as ever before, a cohering center that Jesus had fully rejected. Fortunately, the insight of Jesus, though almost buried entirely, had some moderating impact on Christian violence over past millennia with its supremely human precepts such as “Love your enemies”. His wisdom sayings were not entirely buried or lost.
The central Jesus insight of two millennia ago had presented people of that time with the opportunity to change everything, to liberate human minds and spirits at the deepest levels of human psyches, the level of subconscious archetypes. To liberate humanity once and forever from the threat theology that had deformed human minds and spirits over previous millennia.
Psychologists Harold Ellens and Zenon Lotufo, among others, have detailed the impacts of threat theology in derailing proper human development and leading to the deformity of human personality with fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, depression and despair, nihilism and even violence. Threat theology damages human personality with unnecessary fear and anxiety just as the threat of apocalyptic in climate alarmism today traumatizes and makes children sick with anxiety, afraid to grow up and become involved with their world.
We have millennia of endlessly repeated evidence of how bad theology deforms human minds, emotions, motivations, and behavior. For a recent example, note the Hamas rape and slaughter of innocents while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar”. Or from the more distant past, note Christians dismembering Muslim bodies in Jerusalem during the Crusades while singing hymns and thanking God that they could take part in slaughtering God’s enemies.
“Men never commit greater evil than when they do it in the name of God”, in the name of pathologically deformed ideas of deity.
The inexcusable tragedy in this is that we were given the fully humane alternative, an alternative that would have entirely transformed human narratives and thereby transformed the impact on human consciousness and life, two millennia ago in the central theme of Historical Jesus.
Returning to my point…
Billions of true believers over the past two millennia have not honored Jesus for who he really was, for his actual message, but have instead honored Paul’s deformity of Jesus in the Christ myth. I wish I could state that in more irenic terms, but my friend Bob Brinsmead tells me to not beat around the bush. Be clear and direct. The issues at stake are too critical.
This site has repeatedly posted the destructive outcomes of Paul’s narrative themes across subsequent history- his narrative of “apocalyptic millennialism”. Historians have traced the impacts and outcomes of Paul’s themes, for example, on Hitler, and how Hitler’s use of millennial ideas (i.e. his “Millennial Reich”) led a society of good people to embrace mass-death at horrific scale.
Paul’s themes have been exposed as distinctly influencing the crusades of Marxism, Nazism, and are now influencing environmental alarmism with similarly devastating outcomes. This is more than just “deformity of human personality” (Lotufo). It is about deformity of consciousness and consequent destruction of entire societies.
Probing the ideas that shape Western apocalyptic millennialism involves going to the “Mother of all roots of a problem”, to the most fundamental of ideas, to the main contributing factors that are critical to evaluate and resolve in regard to the alarmism movements that destroy societies.
With his central insight, theme, and message, Jesus had for the first time in history elevated the human ideal of love to its highest reach of humaneness- i.e. no conditions, defining it in terms worthy to function as the supremely humane guiding principle that points us toward authentic or true humanity.
He had rejected the previous tribal versions of limiting religious love, love that discriminatorily favors fellow true believers over differing others, religious tribal love that validates the domination of others in the denial of individual freedom and equality, the “eye for eye ‘love’” that advocates the punitive destruction of differing others.
Historical Jesus replaced that inherited deformity with the highest reach of love imaginable- ultimate no conditions love for all. Reaching beyond natural love for family and friends to the supernatural- “If you just love those who love you, what credit is that to you?… reach much higher and love your enemies”. That is becoming like God in this world. “Be unconditionally merciful just as your Father is unconditionally merciful”.
And, while appreciating and affirming his breakthrough insight, we are obligated to maintain our grip on common sense in this world. We can hold the distinction that, while unconditional love is the true nature of God, and presents the ultimate ideal for us to aspire to, practical reality in this life requires that we hold everyone responsible for the consequences of their behavior as in incarceration of violent people. Unconditional in deity does not translate to pacifism in this world- i.e. as in “turning the other cheek” in the face of violence or other forms of evil.
This qualifier is always necessary in light of the response of many to unconditional- “Oh, you mean let all the psychopaths go free”. No, no one suggests anything so irresponsibly lacking in common sense.
Other insights help us to position this Jesus insight in proper perspective with other concerns… i.e. to balance it with common sense in this world.
We can embrace the truth that ultimate reality is a realm of “oneness” with no dualism of good versus evil (no heaven or hell), no tribal division between believers and unbelievers as in the ultimate and eternal class division portrayed in Revelation, sheep separated from goats with two very differing eternal existences. Tribalism taken to its ultimate extreme.
And we embrace varied insights to further understand things- such as…
Why then this world with its horrific divides between good and evil? As some have suggested, this realm of dualism exists as a learning arena where we come from oneness to temporarily experience good in contrast with its opposite- evil. We only know authentic moral good as the outcome of genuinely free choice against evil.
And through the struggle between these two opposites, we develop and mature as human persons, we are enabled to become the heroes of our quest to conquer the greatest monster and evil of all- the dark inherited impulses inside each one of us. What Solzhenitsyn stated was the real battle of good against evil that runs through the center of every human heart.
Post notes: More on my “let 8 billion flowers bloom” project.
The project here is very much about the outcomes of ideas on human personality, narratives, and societies or life overall.
The ideas repeatedly confronted here- i.e. the “lost paradise, decline of life to apocalypse, demanded atonement involving sacrifice/payment, suffering as redemptive, and violent purging of enemies, promise of future communalism paradise, etc.”- this complex of myths has to be confronted and changed. And most critical in this complex is the central idea of deity that functions as the cohering center supporting the related complex of themes. These ideas have to be challenged and changed because the damage resulting from them has been so horrific across history and continues into our modern era, validating our worst impulses to harm one another under the approval of these bad religious ideas.
The ideas of the above complex incite the worst of our inherited impulses (the “evil triad”) to tribally view differing others as enemies instead of embracing the truth of the human family in oneness. These ideas affirm the impulse to the domination of differing others, to punitive destruction of differing others.
Our inherited narratives, both religious and “secular/ideological”, have an ugly history of deforming our consciousness, personality, emotions, motivations, and behavior. They have to be confronted and changed, radically so, and most critically, we need to change the cohering center that holds the entire mess together- i.e. views of God as tribal, dominating king, punitive destroyer of enemies. And stop the equivocation as we were long ago given the transformative alternative.
We continue to see the same old eruptions of these themes and related destructive outcomes in resurging Neo-Marxist collectivism, Islamic terrorism, and environmental activism to ruin societies. They are behind the repeated violence of Islamic apocalyptic today just as were behind Christian violence over the past.
My argument is to go to the root source of these destructive movements, to the root contributing factors and solve the problem at that level properly and for the long-term future. At least give this a try, along with other useful responses to the psychopathologies behind anti-human crusades (i.e. confronting the psychopathology of left-wing authoritarianism).
We are responsible to isolate where bad ideas come from, as difficult as that may be for true believers in religious traditions. We are obligated to confront pathologies in our belief systems and correct them, because bad ideas have shaped Western narratives for two millennia new and incited endless episodes of harm in the history of our civilization. Challenge and radical change are still critical because deeply embedded bad ideas are still working damage today. The research has been done and is undeniable. Note again the “apocalyptic millennial” studies regularly posted here.
Of particularly critical importance- The project of distinguishing the human from the inhumane in our narratives, the good from the bad. Consequences mean everything. Thomas Sowell’s “Test of facts”.
And yes, a nod to believers in the Christ, we acknowledge the good themes in the Christ mix.
Other concluding notes:
My comments on science as not able to answer the big questions of ultimate reality and its nature.
This is not a depreciation of good science that knows its limits, the limits of its methodology and sticks to its lane. That version of science has been a huge benefit to humanity. My comments are more a poke at the arrogance of philosophical materialism which I see as an abuse of science, for taking science to unwarranted conclusions and looking down its snoot at all the others who “irrationally” seek answers in “spiritual” understandings and beliefs.
My comments on philosophical materialism are my counter to people like Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins who argue that the final explanations will be materialist explanations in physical terms. Dawkins claims, for example, that the “little mystery” of life’s origin will be a materialist explanation. So Dennett also claimed that the mystery of consciousness would be resolved with a materialist explanation.
As Freeman Dyson responded to Dennett’s usual spiel on that, “I don’t think so”.
And as Jack Symes said when Jordan Peterson responded to Syme’s question about the mystery of evil, Peterson stating that we need more time to explain that one, Symes then said, “You have had lots of time”. But no final answer. Well, embrace the same response to all these “promissory materialism” claims that the final answers to consciousness, to life’s origin, and more, are just up ahead a bit and they will be the materialist’s “God of gaps” explanations.
There is no evidence pointing in the direction of materialist conclusions, but rather pointing to increasing divergence between science and mystery. Two rails that show no evidence of converging up ahead. As Jim Baggott said about quantum reality in his book “Mass”-
“Modern science has revealed the extraordinarily rich structure of our empirical reality, a reality consisting of things-as-they-appear and things-as-they-are-measured. But it would be naïve to think that this extraordinary success has drawn us closer to comprehending a reality of things-in-themselves. If anything, the richness we have discovered would seem to have dragged us further away. To paraphrase the philosopher Bernard d’Espagnat, our understanding of the basic structure of physical reality is an “ideal” from which we remain distant… we are a great deal more distant from it than our predecessors thought they were a century ago”. Meaning, the uncovering of ever more profound mystery at the core of everything. More pointing in the direction of the “Light that is Love”. The creating Source of all that is more than just force fields or energy. The Ultimate Reality that has personhood, just as most humans have intuited across history, even though they messed up badly in then projecting pathologically inhumane features onto that mystery.
And based on all past human experience, the most logical and coherent explanations are that some superior intelligence has played a role in the origin of the cosmos, the origin of biological life, and the emergence of human consciousness in humans.
Not the Christian God of Stephen Meyer (The Return of the God Hypothesis) but Intelligence, nonetheless. Just as the scientist in Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” stated when he saw the structures on that planet, “That does not happen in nature”. Meaning- Some intelligence was involved. So also with the three great emergences of cosmos, life, and consciousness. Logic, rationality, and coherence leads us to assume that creating Mind or Consciousness was involved. But not a religious Mind.
So my comments previously are not a dismissal of good science but rather comment that science has a limited lane to stick to and does best in that lane. And to affirm Sabine Hossenfelder’s point that scientists, like all curious humans, keep pushing across the science/philosophy boundary to speculate on metaphysical realities that are necessary to explain what exists. No different from the curious spiritually-minded people who cross the science/religion boundary.
But then wrongly try to claim that there is nothing of humanity in the nature of ultimate realities (i.e. nothing of human qualities like love at the core of reality). That is just the nonsensical nihilism of the meaningless randomness in materialist philosophy.
And one more on Paul’s Christ:
I am not questioning the good insights in the Christology of Paul, but noting that the problem, as always, is the larger context of subhuman themes that deform the good elements in the mix, rendering them as something less than what they really are. E.g. religious love as a limiting tribal version of love (favoring true believers, excluding unbelievers), not the inclusive unconditional love that Jesus advocated.
The overriding issue- We have been given the liberating alternative. Why the hesitancy to embrace that and to make fundamental changes? We have had the consciousness-transforming, life-altering option for two millennia. We have long possessed the ultimate reach in what it means to be human or humane, what love- our highest ideal and primary identity marker- actually means as unconditional.