See quotes below from David Redles on the profoundly apocalyptic millennial nature of Nazism. The very same complex of myths that fueled Nazism have also incited, guided, and validated Marxism, and today are repeated in environmental alarmism. We will continue to suffer the eruptions of destruction from such crusades until we deal with the ideas driving them, ideas that still dominate our major world religions, protected “under the canopy of the sacred”.
A brief history of material reality as “Shadows” pointing to the metaphysical as the “Real”. Point? We have inherited from Plato, passed down through Paul, a complex of religious ideas that depreciate this world and life for otherworldly realities. What used to be expressed as- “Too heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good.”
Plato, using historically previous primitive mythical themes, developed a worldview that this material world was only a “Shadows” reality that pointed to a metaphysical world as the “Real” reality. Plato did not originate the themes in his worldview but picked up on long-held mythical traditions and reformulated them with some unique twists.
AI Overview:
“Plato’s Theory of Forms proposes that the physical world we perceive is merely an imperfect, fleeting “shadow” of a higher, unchanging “Realm of Forms,” which contains the perfect, abstract essences of all things, like truth, beauty, and justice. This is illustrated in his ‘Allegory of the Cave’, where prisoners mistake shadows for reality, and true knowledge requires leaving the cave through philosophical reason to perceive these true Forms, which are the ultimate source of reality.”
He also held the belief that our material body was a prison from which we had to be freed:
AI Overview:
“Plato viewed the body as a temporary “prison” or “tomb” (soma sema) for the immortal soul, a vessel that hinders the soul’s pursuit of true knowledge and virtue by trapping it with bodily desires, fears, and physical sensations. In dialogues like the ‘Phaedo’, Plato describes the philosopher’s life as a preparation to escape this bodily confinement, with philosophy itself serving as a training for death to purify the soul from its material attachments and allow it to return to the eternal realm of Forms.”
In the BCE era construction of his belief system, Plato embraced notable themes from the previous history of mythical beliefs that depreciated this world as an original paradise that had been ruined by early corrupted people- “Fall of man” and “lost or ruined paradise” myths (e.g. the Sumerian paradise of Dilmun ruined by the ‘sin’ of Enki, Adam/Eve in Eden, etc.).
Further to such primitive mythology, life on Earth, post-Fall, was declining toward a worsening state in the future, toward eventual apocalyptic collapse and destruction.
This mythology oriented human consciousness to salvation as escape from this present world, escape from life here as hopelessly corrupted and deserving only to be temporarily tolerated and then eventually abandoned.
The Romans (BCE and CE eras) were besotted with Greek thinking/mythology that had spread across the ancient world. Christianity emerged within that Roman/Greek context and was profoundly shaped by Hellenism just as the entirety of society was. Christians then read their bible in the manner of Greek thinking- i.e. viewing the Old Testament as presenting Shadows (i.e. animal sacrifice) that all pointed to the Real in Paul’s Christ (i.e. the ultimate real Sacrifice). Brinsmead points this out in his essays (links just below).
And hence, Christians also saw the future as escape from this corrupted world and life of shadows. They viewed salvation as liberation into the Real of Christ’s heavenly kingdom.
That Greek mythology shaped their view of this world and life, as not of ultimate concern, not Real. Christ, and life with Christ in next world was the Real. Their concern was then oriented to being saved into the Christ world, the utopian future, into “heaven”. That was combined with depreciating this world for the next life in heavenly realms, in the world of the invisible, the metaphysical.
Quotes from Paul:
We see the depreciation of life in this world in Paul’s frequent reference to being “saved”, meaning saved from the suffering of this corrupted world and life into a utopian future with his Christ.
Insert: This is not to dismiss entirely all such concern for something better than the too-often hellishness of life here for so many. I think of the some 100 billion people who have lived on this planet since our line of humanity emerged. Most survived for only around 20-30 years. Their lives were “nasty, brutish, and short”. So there is also a place for a hope that is oriented to something better than what was reality for so many. And as the NDE accounts tell us, there is something far better coming. But the point is to not depreciate life here and now, as religious traditions have done with primitive myths of this world as “fallen” from an original paradise state (not true), and humanity as also fallen from original perfection (again, not true), and now life is awaiting the punishment of a final apocalypse (not gonna happen).
Our orientation should be toward making some unique personal contribution to improving life in the here and now, embracing this life as the “Real”, as far as we know. And to inform our worldviews with Julian Simon’s brilliant amassing of evidence on the true state of life in “Ultimate Resource”, showing that despite remaining problems, life on Earth over the long-term has been improving toward a better future.
Examples of the emphasis on being oriented to some otherworldly reality, Romans 8: 18-25:
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
1 Corinthians 7: 29-33-
“What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
“I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs— how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world— how he can please his wife…”
And…
Plato also developed views on “philosopher kings” as special elites solely qualified to rule human societies. That was the belief in special people with special abilities, special accomplishments (i.e. military successes, or special talents in arts, sports, etc.). These special people, in Plato’s belief system, were viewed as divine in some manner, or divinely blessed. Hence, these special elites should dominate and rule all others, the ignorant and unblessed masses of common citizens/workers, the “not special” people.
Plato’s thinking on special elites fed into Paul’s construction of his “Lord Jesus” myth as the most special person of all, divine (or divinely blessed), alone qualified to be the absolute Ruler of all with “a rod of iron” totalitarianism that would be exercised forever in all future realms- whether physical or metaphysical.
Point? This Platonic mythology continued to affirm special elites across succeeding millennia in Western civilization in such things as “the divine rights of kings”, and that entrenched the curse of the “elite/commoner divide” in our societies, the special rights of special people to rule the rest. Classic Liberalism finally brought us the liberation of commoners in liberal democracies where there is protection of the rights and freedoms of all individuals, equally, under systems of common law and truly representative institutions that exist to serve the people, institutions that disperse power away from elites to average citizens.
The returning of power to people (self-determination, freedom for personal choice) is notable in reduced taxation for all (returning choice over dispersal of personal property) and reduced regulations (again, returning choice to individuals away from state elites and bureaucrats). It is notable how significant the issue of taxation was in Magna Carta some 800 years ago. Even then, they were getting the issue of how important individual citizen’s freedom of choice over private property was to liberty in general.
“Under Magna Carta the King cannot impose taxes without the approval of the “common counsel” of the kingdom (1215) | Online Library of Liberty.”
Also, Jared Walczak wrote this below at…
https://taxfoundation.org/blog/magna-carta-and-tax-reform/
“Magna Carta is rarely remembered as an instrument of tax reform; rather, we tend to celebrate it for its ban on fish-weirs, standardization of corn measures, exclusion of the d’Athee family from royal service, and, okay, perhaps also its contribution to the development of the rule of law.
“But even if we don’t usually think of taxes as Magna Carta’s bailiwick (still less the d’Atheés’: “We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks, the relations of Gérard of Atheé…”), the truth is that the Great Charter signed at Runnymede eight hundred years ago introduced important, if still rudimentary, principles of tax policy, requiring the consent of the governed to levy new taxes and curtailing arbitrary and ruinous taxation. The principles were still in their infancy, but they were a start.”
See also this on the importance of this issue to the American Revolution and battle for freedom from Great Britain:
“No taxation without representation”, Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_taxation_without_representation
Note: Any politician who reduces taxes and regulations is not acting like a “dictator, fascist, Hitler, etc.”. The very opposite, in fact. Add that the restoration and protection of free speech is not a dictatorial move.
Finally, note Bob Brinsmead’s research on how prominently Hellenism shaped Paul’s Christology:
“The Historical Jesus: What the Scholars are Saying”
https://bobbrinsmead.com/the-historical-jesus-what-the-scholars-are-saying/
“The Doctrine of Christ and the Triumph of Hellenism”
https://bobbrinsmead.com/the-doctrine-of-christ-and-the-triump-of-hellenism/
The “list of worst ideas” that people have constructed across history, Wendell Krossa
Reposting: “The complex of “bad religious ideas” that have darkened and enslaved human minds from the beginning” (short versions below with Grok’s comments on them)
The list:
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=13571#more-13571
Shorter versions further below.
Historians have documented that these ideas/beliefs were contributing factors driving the worst mass-death crusades of the last century. They were “secularized” in the ideologies of Marxism, Nazism, and environmental alarmism. But, despite being given that new framing of “secular”, the core themes were the same as expressed previously in primitive mythological versions over past millennia.
Sources: Arthur Herman (“The Idea of Decline in Western History”), Richard Landes (“Heaven On Earth: Varieties of the Millennial Experience”), Arthur Mendel (“Vision and Violence” (violent apocalyptic millennial enthusiasm), David Redles (“Hitler’s Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic belief and the search for salvation”), and others…
We are beyond irresponsible to continue embracing and tolerating these psychopathologies in our belief systems or narratives (religious or secular/ideological). We have the millennia-long history of the outcomes of these ideas. Its ugly.
Adding to the egregiousness of continuing to irresponsibly hold such ideas, we have long had the better alternatives, notably the powerful alternative to the most important idea/belief of all- the ultimate reality/ideal that functions as the cohering center of narratives, the “Mother of all Archetypes”. That’s a nod to the “stunning new theology of Historical Jesus” that was subsequently buried in Paul’s Christ myth.
An example of a warning from the historians regarding the outcomes of apocalyptic millennia belief systems:
“The study of Nazism’s appeal, of Hitler’s charisma, belongs to the field of millennial studies… Only then can we identify the key problems… He is not so much the measure of the unthinkably, the impossibly evil, as he is the measure of how, with modern technology and an only partially developed civil polity, a nation, a people, seized by, ridden by a millennial passion, can become one of the great dealers of death in human history”, p. 388, Landes’ chapter on “Genocidal Millennialism” in “Heaven On Earth: Varieties of the Millennial Experience”.
Or the military guy’s warning re ISIS and Hamas-like eruptions of violence- You can crush such eruptions of violence with military force but they will continue to curse our societies until you go after the ideas driving them. He stopped short of elaborating that “the ideas driving such eruptions” are the apocalyptic millennial beliefs of Islam, beliefs that Islam inherited from Jewish Christianity (particularly “Ebionism”). See sources like Joseph Azzi’s “The Priest and the Prophet: The Christian priest, Waraqa Ibn Nawfal’s profound influence upon Muhammad, the prophet of Islam”.
And my persistent argument here, these apocalyptic millennial themes (and the full list of related beliefs) were re-enforced at the very beginning of Western civilization in Paul’s Christ myth. That singularly influential myth has been most responsible for shaping our Western narratives (and hence Western consciousness), both religious and secular, over the past two millennia.
James Tabor in “Paul and Jesus”:
“There was a version of ‘Christianity before Paul’, affirmed by both Jesus and his original followers, with tenets and affirmations quite opposite to these of Paul… the message of Paul, which created Christianity as we know it, and the message of historical Jesus and his earliest followers, were not the same. In fact, they were sharply opposed to one another with little in common beyond the name Jesus itself” (p.xv1).
“Paul is the most influential person in human history and realize it or not, he has shaped practically all we think about everything… the West in particular… the foundations of Western civilization- from our assumptions about reality to our societal and personal ethics- rest in a singular way upon the heavenly visions and apparitions of the apostle Paul. We are all cultural heirs of Paul, with the well-established doctrines and traditions of mainstream Christianity deeply entrenched in our culture. In contrast, Jesus as a historical figure… has been largely lost to our culture” (p. xv11).
“Paul operated with a strongly apocalyptic perspective that influenced all he said or did” (p.15).
“The entire New Testament canon is largely a post-Paul and pro-Paul production…” (p.19).
“The ‘Jesus’ who most influenced history was the ‘Jesus-Christ’ of Paul, not the historical figure of Jesus… Paul transformed Jesus himself (and) his message of a… kingdom of justice and peace on earth, to the symbol of a religion of otherworldly salvation in a heavenly world”, (21).
“The form of Christianity… (that thrived in the late Roman Empire)… was heavily based upon the ecstatic and visionary experiences of Paul. Christianity as we came to know it, is Paul and Paul is Christianity. The bulk of the New Testament is dominated by his theological vision”, p.24).
“Paul’s view of Christ as the divine pre-existent Son of God who took on human form, died on the cross for the sins of the world, and was resurrected to heavenly glory at God’s right hand becomes the Christian message”, (39).
“The Q source is the earliest collection of the teachings and sayings of Jesus… the most striking characteristic of the Q source in terms of reconstructing Christian origins is that it has nothing of Paul’s theology, particularly his Christology or view of Christ”, (41).
Add Harold Ellens’ statements in Zenon Lotufo’s “Cruel God, Kind God” on the impact of bad religious ideas in deforming human personality and societies. Note particularly this summarizing statement of Ellens below- “If your God uses force, then so may you, to get your way against your ‘enemies’”.
Quotes from “Cruel God, Kind God”:
Lotufo points to “the pathological nature of mainstream orthodox theology and popular religious ideation”.
He says, “One type of religiosity is entirely built around the assumption or basic belief, and correspondent fear, that God is cruel or even sadistic… The associated metaphors to this image are ‘monarch’ and ‘judge’. Its distinctive doctrine is ‘penal satisfaction’. I call it ‘Cruel God Christianity’… Its consequences are fear, guilt, shame, and impoverished personalities. All these things are fully coherent with and dependent on a cruel and vengeful God image…
“(This image results) in the inhibition of the full development of personality… The doctrine of penal satisfaction implies an image of God as wrathful and vengeful, resulting in exposing God’s followers to guilt, shame, and resentment… These ideas permeate Western culture and inevitably influence those who live in this culture…
“Beliefs do exert much more influence over our lives than simple ideas… ideas can also, in the psychological sphere, generate ‘dynamis’, or mobilize energy… (they) may result, for instance, in fanaticism and violence, or… may also produce anxiety and inhibitions that hinder the full manifestation of the capacities of a person…
“The image of God can be seen as a basic belief or scheme, and as such it is never questioned…
“Basic cultural beliefs are so important, especially in a dominant widespread culture, because they have the same properties as individual basic beliefs, that is, they are not perceived as questionable. The reader may object that “God”, considered a basic belief in our culture, is rejected or questioned by a large number of people today. Yet the fact is that the idea of God that those people reject is almost never questioned. In other words, their critique assumes there is no alternative way of conceiving God except the one that they perceive through the lens of their culture. So, taking into account the kind of image of God that prevails in Western culture- a ‘monster God’… such rejection is understandable…
“There is in Western culture a psychological archetype, a metaphor that has to do with the image of a violent and wrathful God (see Romans, Revelation). Crystallized in Anselm’s juridical atonement theory, this image represents God sufficiently disturbed by the sinfulness of humanity that God had only two options: destroy us or substitute a sacrifice to pay for our sins. He did the latter. He killed Christ.
“Ellens goes on by stating that the crucifixion, a hugely violent act of infanticide or child sacrifice, has been disguised by Christian conservative theologians as a ‘remarkable act of grace’. Such a metaphor of an angry God, who cannot forgive unless appeased by a bloody sacrifice, has been ‘right at the center of the Master Story of the Western world for the last 2,000 years. And the unavoidable consequence for the human mind is a strong tendency to use violence’.
“’With that kind of metaphor at our center, and associated with the essential behavior of God, how could we possibly hold, in the deep structure of our unconscious motivations, any other notion of ultimate solutions to ultimate questions or crises than violence- human solutions that are equivalent to God’s kind of violence’…
“Hence, in our culture we have a powerful element that impels us to violence, a Cruel God Image… that also contributes to guilt, shame, and the impoverishment of personality…”.
As Harold Ellens says, “If your God uses force, then so may you, to get your way against your ‘enemies’”.
Here again is the complex of basic themes that have influenced all the great religions and today dominate both contemporary religious and secular systems of belief. These are the ideas/beliefs created by our primitive ancestors to validate their inherited impulses that were still more animal-like than human.
Critical- Note that these primitive mythical themes have been “secularized” for the ideologies of our modern era. Richard Landes is good on this point of secularization. We keep embracing the same old, same old, and keep getting the same old results as Landes warned with regard to Nazi violence. “Utopian millennial salvation through revolutionary destruction.”
This preface note on the bad religious idea of fallen humanity and life declining (number 2 or 3 in the lists below). Evidence shows the very opposite- That life has improved over the long-term trajectory and continues to get better, till we are today in “the best time ever to be alive on Earth”.
This from Humanprogress.org:
“Is this the best time to be alive?: Overwhelming evidence shows that we are richer, healthier, better fed, better educated, and even more humane than ever before”, Marian Tupy, Oct., 2023
https://humanprogress.org/is-this-the-best-time-to-be-alive/
Sample comment from Tupy:
“How much progress?
“Life expectancy before the modern era, which is to say, the last 200 years or so, was between ages 25 and 30. Today, the global average is 73 years old. It is 78 in the United States and 85 in Hong Kong.
“In the mid-18th century, 40 percent of children died before their 15th birthday in Sweden and 50 percent in Bavaria. That was not unusual. The average child mortality among hunter-gatherers was 49 percent. Today, global child mortality is 4 percent. It is 0.3 percent in the Nordic nations and Japan.”
And more on the state of humanity, with the main indicator- homicide- showing that over the long-term we have become less violent and more peaceful.
Tupy says, “Homicides are also down. At the time of Leonardo Da Vinci, some 73 out of every 100,000 Italians could expect to be murdered in their lifetimes. Today, it is less than one. Something similar has happened in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, and many other places on Earth.”
As Bob Brinsmead says, the real story of humanity is not how far we have fallen but how high we have risen from our brutal beginnings. See James Payne (“History of Force”) and Stephen Pinker (“Better Angels of Our Nature”).
“This apocalyptic millennial complex is better understood when fleshed out as the larger complex of primitive myths that includes–
“(1) The baseline myth of a lost original paradise- i.e. a better past that “corrupt, evil humans” have ruined. That undergirds the sense of the loss of something good and, hence, now unbalanced justice demands that that the lost good must be restored in order to rebalance justice and righteousness in the cosmos and life. To make things right again.
“Consequent to the myth of a better past that has been ruined, primitive mythology pivoted to (2) blame people, to blame humanity as the evil enemy that must be punished and even exterminated in order to restore the lost paradise and to save life. In contemporary terms- today the evil enemy of nature is greedy, consuming humans in industrial civilization (“humanity as ‘virus, cancer’ on the Earth”). And even more specifically today, greedy humans using natural resources like fossil fuels that enables them to enjoy the good life.
“Then to further re-enforce the narrative that evil humans had ruined divine and pure nature (i.e. Earth as goddess), the ancients added the ongoing threat that (3) life was declining toward apocalyptic ending. And to even further re-enforce alarm, apocalyptic prophets repeatedly set “always imminent” dates to raise hysteria levels and validate the use of desperate measures (elites using state coercion) to “save” the world that is always threatened by the looming apocalypse.
“But also, the apocalyptic alarmists introduced “hope” into the mix, the perverse version of hope that was built on the violent destruction of enemies. And they create salvation schemes where specially enlightened elites lecture the ignorant and unenlightened commoners on what they must do to be saved from imminent destruction and death- i.e. (4) demand some sacrifice/payment. Today’s sacrifice- “de-growth, de-development”, as a return to primitivism as in a return to the more pure and strong existence of “noble savage” life as hunter-gathers with no ecological footprint. Add to this sacrifice/payment element, the redistribution programs pushed in the endless annual climate COPs.
“Couch this madness in a deformed version of the hero’s quest where those identifying as true heroes will engage a righteous tribal battle to conquer and (5) violently purge a purported monster/enemy framed as demonized, dehumanized fellow humans. Cosmic dualism where must defeat and purge evil to prepare way to install utopian paradise.
“And when the enemy is fully purged/exterminated, then (6) salvation is attained in a renewed communal paradise.
“Most critical to understand in this set of primitive themes is- What is the driving Force behind this complex? What is the “cohering center” of this complex that has wreaked so much destruction across history? What validates the rest of the primitive and distorting ideas in the complex?
The cohering center is none other than the “wrathful” deity of all primitive mythologies, the deity royally pissed at humans for ruining his original perfect paradise. Hence, the subsequent threats of divine retaliation toward humanity by violently destroying the entire world in an apocalypse. The mother of all hissy fits. Followed by divine demands for sacrifice/payment/suffering as required conditions to achieve redemption.
“The cohering center of the apocalyptic millennial complex of myths is the violent, destroying God who threatens people in this life through natural disasters, disease, accidents, and predatory cruelty, and also threatens people with after-life harm that adds sting to death. That “monster God” is the central issue to deal with in apocalyptic millennial complexes of myths. This psycho-pathological vision of deity has dominated mythologies and religions across history and has now been transformed into secular/ideological systems of belief to also dominate those. I.e. “Vengeful Gaia, punitive Universe, angry Planet/Mother Earth, payback karma”, etc.
“These deeply embedded themes, long entrenched in human psyches as subconscious archetypes, help explain why emotional satisfaction, not rational evidence is behind our choice in beliefs. Hence, many people simply respond to contemporary apocalyptic millennial narratives, whether Marxist collectivism or climate apocalyptic, because they feel right, good, just, and true. They resonate with deeply embedded archetypes.”
Again, the fuller version of the list:
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=13571#more-13571
Also, a list of alternative themes for narratives (alternatives to counter the above bad ideas list): “Humanity’s worst ideas, better alternatives (Old story themes, new story alternatives),” Wendell Krossa
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=9533
More comment on the list: (reposting)
This on “The Unconditional Human Spirit” project, Wendell Krossa
The project here? To understand and outline the fundamental ideas/beliefs/ideals that have, across history, incited and validated our worst inherited animal impulses to tribal hatred and exclusion, to domination of others, and to punitive destruction of “enemies”, an “evil triad” of impulses representing the worst of being human. Because most people “base their behavior on their beliefs”, seeking meaning and validation for their lives, that makes it important to understand the nature of the ideas/beliefs/ideals in human worldviews.
And most critical in the mix of ideas that form our narratives- understand the most prominent of all ideas or beliefs, i.e. the image of God that people hold. The “theology” thing. Because “we all become just like the God that we believe in.” We become just like the Ultimate Ideal that centers our worldview or narrative.
The project here is about discovering an ultimate ideal that best counters the worst of the ideas that we have inherited from the major belief systems passed down to us from the past. Ideas/beliefs that have incited and validated the worst in us across history. It’s about finding and holding an ideal that counters and shuts down the worst of our animal impulses, that enables us to transcend such impulses with the human.
The ideas (listed below) are the worst of the worst because they deform entirely our understanding of reality and life (i.e. the myth of Declinism that is still the most dominant idea in the modern world- “life and the world becoming worse”). The list below is the “baddest of the bad” because they incite our worst impulses to abuse one another. Like the cosmic dualism and tribal loyalty impulse that many have used to validate violence against others as enemies, blinding us to the fundamental oneness of humanity.
Here again is the list of ideas/beliefs, and the “evil triad” theology that holds the primitive mess together (see full list at link).
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=13571#more-13571
“The original ‘bad religious ideas’ complex of themes that our ancestors constructed to shape their narratives”, Wendell Krossa
These are the more dominant ones that have shaped all narratives religious and now secular:
(1) The past was better and that raises the question of- If so, then what went wrong and who was to blame. If the past was a better world, then justice demands that the ruin and loss of that better world must be corrected. What has been ruined must be restored. Someone has to pay, be punished, etc. If it was created perfect then that is the biggest of all wrongs ever committed, eh.
(2) The myth that early pure humans committed an original error and subsequently became corrupted and ruined the original paradise world.
Original paradise ruined by early people sets off the “blame humanity” psychopathology. This myth starts the long history of anti-humanism, the demonization of humans as essentially “sinful”, corrupt, and the destroyers of the natural world. Few lies have been as damaging as this to human self-imaging.
(3) The myth of “Declinism” that dominates our modern era– detailed by Arthur Herman in “The Idea of Decline In Western History”.
The idea of decline argues that the trajectory of life declines toward a worsening state. Again, due to bad people.
Associated with the general declinism of all life: The myth that humanity is becoming worse, i.e. “Declinism” in humanity- the fallacy of “human degeneration” theory (again, see Herman in “The Idea of Decline”). This anti-human element has been beaten into human consciousness across history in religious narratives of original sinfulness (i.e. Adam “fall of man” mythology, fallen from a previous perfect state). This mythology deforms human consciousness with the fallacy that humanity, not only fucked up really bad at the start, but becomes worse over time.
(5) The myth of the final collapse and ending of life, the complete and final ruination of the world in “catastrophic apocalyptic destruction”. This is the fallacy of the apocalyptic destruction of all life as the final phase in the narrative of “original paradise ruined by humanity with life subsequently declining toward something worse as divine punishment, and cheer up because the worst is yet to come”.
The threat of divine retribution in the violently destructive ending of all life incites the human survival impulse to hysterical heights and that renders people susceptible to irrational salvation schemes where apocalyptic alarmists/prophets claim that the destruction of life and civilization is required to “save the world”- i.e. the demand to “violently purge evil enemies” in order to save your world, the horrific fallacy of “salvation promised through destruction”. This mythology validated Marxist revolutionary violence to overthrown industrial civilization, Nazi purging of “polluting Jews”, and now incites/validates environmental crusades to overturn industrial civilization.
(6) Salvation as some form of sacrifice/payment, notably salvation through the slaughter of humans and animals. (Again, Arthur Mendel’s point that apocalyptic millennial belief systems promise salvation coming via destruction/death.)
(7) The deforming of the “hero’s quest”. The myth of a divine demand to heroically engage a righteous battle against evil enemies that must be purged, even exterminated as irredeemably evil. People who are demonized as too corrupted, defiled, and existentially too threatening to life to allow them to continue living.
This derives from the Zoroastrian cosmic dualism myth (i.e. a Good God warring eternally against an Evil Force/Satan). Based on this cosmic dualism myth, early people believed that there was the follow-up divine demand to join the true religion of the true and good God (Ahura Mazda) and to fight the false religion of the false Spirit (Angra Mainyu). The Zoroastrian fallacy has fueled endless tribal enmity and conflict among people across history who frame their conflicts with their opponents in such irredeemably oppositional terms.
(8) The false carrot-stick hope stirred by the promise of fulfilled salvation in the restoration of a paradisal communalism/collectivism (Acts 2-4). Or salvation in a new utopia of a millennial kingdom (i.e. Nazism, Christianity). The same salvation is promised in the environmental vision of a return to the falsely imagined “strong, pure” existence of hunter-gatherers more connected to nature (Arthur Herman in “The Idea of Decline”, also “Hitler’s Millennial Reich” by David Redles).
The Ultimate Ideal, the “evil triad” theology that holds this complex together, is that of a “monster God” image framed by deity as (1) tribally exclusive (God favoring his true believers, damning unbelievers outside his tribe), (2) domination- God as Lord, King, Ruler in the line of the Platonic philosopher kings, the elite “enlightened” rulers who must dominate and control the society of ignorant commoners, and then (3) punitive destruction of enemies as “true justice”, the way to salvation.
These features shape Paul’s Christ myth as something entirely contrary to the actual message and life of Historical Jesus who was nontribal, nondomination, and advocated the nonpunitive treatment of enemies (no more “eye for eye”). No wonder he was buried in the Christ myth. He protested the main themes of all previous mythology and religion.
(End of “bad ideas list” comments)
Human narratives need an alternative core ideal that supports non-tribal universalism and inclusion, non-domination that respects the freedom and rights of all individuals, equally, and that supports non-vengeful, non-destructive treatment of opponents/enemies, what some call “restorative justice” as opposed to justice as punitive vengeance.
No one across history has gone so directly to the issue of the core ideal for human narratives, as effectively as Historical Jesus, the wisdom sage who was someone entirely opposite to the distorted reconstruction of him in Paul’s Christ myth.
Jesus went right to the central narrative ideal- the “Mother of all ideals”- the theology or God image that functions as the cohering center of all human narratives (the “ultimate reality” or ideal in “secular” narratives). Jesus presented his stunning new insight, that of unconditional love as the defining feature in an image of deity, entirely unlike any theology ever before imagined or spoken.
As always, the necessary qualifier when dealing with the term “unconditional”- It’s not the irresponsible pacifism of “suicidal empathy” in the face of brutality and violence. It’s not a prescriptive “divine law” for running a business or an economy. Its an ideal to aspire toward, an ideal of true humaneness, the highest reach of love, what inspires us to reach toward heroically mature humanity, where we tower in stature as maturely human.
The Jesus insight on deity is about how to shape human attitude with truly humane ideas/beliefs that then guide behavior toward responses/actions that do the least harm and the most good in life, especially in situations where life goes to hell, as in war. It’s about what we orient our minds to that then influences all else in us. How we feel, what motivates us, how we respond and act in our lives. How we treat others, especially enemies.
It’s about the singularly humane ideal that has fed into the stream of historical innovation and humanization of narratives across history that has led to the contemporary result of liberal democracy as the best way to organize human society and produce the most humane conditions for all humanity.
The Jesus ideal of unconditional inspires the best elements of our human nature, our humane impulses to universal inclusion, to treating all as equals as in respecting the freedom and rights of all individuals (self-determination, personal control of life).
His central insight on unconditional was buttressed with other elements such as the nature of true greatness in “serving others”. His ideas fed into the historical stream of more humane ideas descending down through history that eventually fed into the modern era development of government institutions oriented to serving citizens, constructed to preventing elites from lording over others.
And his unconditional insight fed into the promotion of truly restorative justice that restrains violent people as necessary to protect the innocent, but justice that is non-retributive and thereby helps us to maintain our own humanity in the face of evil.
Think through the varied potential impacts of holding “unconditional love” as the central human ideal shaping our narratives and lives. How that counters our long history of narratives centered around retaliatory, dominating, tribal deities, or related ultimate realities/ideals.
I refer to what psychologist Harold Ellens noted about the God image of Paul’s Christianity where that monstrous version of God solves problems with violence (i.e. killing his son as “substitutionary” retribution against human sin, and how that punishing of the innocent satisfies angry deity). As Ellens says, that deeply embedded image of God using violence incites/validates our use of violence toward others to solve problems.
Ellens rightly notes that such monstrous images of deity deform human personality and life. Think of the outcomes of such imagery in the validation of violence across history in crusades, inquisitions, persecution of heretics/witches, religious wars, etc. Incalculable misery, suffering, and death.
With the Jesus theology, the stunning new divine image of unconditionally loving God, you get no more validation for tribal hatred of differing others, no validation of domination or punitive destruction of enemies. If you want to continue nursing and feeding such impulses, then with the theology of Historical Jesus you are on your own in terms of divine validation. You no longer have a God backing you in treating others in such inhumane manner.
With the Jesus ideal you won’t have the old threat theology backing your worst impulses to tribally exclude, dominate, or punitively harm others. This is about narrative transformation that amounts to death and rebirth, disintegration and reintegration around something entirely new and life-affirming, love-affirming.
Such fundamental transformation of narrative themes also goes to the root of human fears across history, our primal fears. Early shaman, then priests of later societies, on top of normal fears of harm from nature, they added the metaphysical fear of angry deity behind the natural world punishing us for our sins. Such was the core of early religion as an institution using fear to manipulate and control populations, an institution that validated the rise of elites in societies (priestly rulers), and the burden of religious conditions- i.e. religious belief systems, sacrifices/payments to priesthoods, demanded ritual and religious lifestyle, etc.
Further, add the fear of afterlife judgment and punishment in hell. This horrific threat theology goes to the deepest roots of all, to the related subconscious archetypes that are based on such theology, archetypes that still arouse feelings that many can hardly comprehend or express but that render people susceptible to ever new religious alarmism crusades. Note the many affirming the apocalyptic climate crusade, a profoundly religious crusade like all before it. So also, many continue to affirm the latest versions of apocalyptic millennialism in neo-Marxist crusades like far-left Woke Progressivism.
Threat theology, as primitive as the earliest versions, still lingers everywhere now in secularized versions like “vengeful Gaia, angry Planet/Mother earth, punitive Universe, and payback karma”.
The stunning new theology of Historical Jesus, his diamond insights on unconditional Ultimate Reality, overthrow entirely the old complex of bad religious ideas that have enslaved human consciousness for millennia. That consciousness-darkening background of deeply embedded archetypes is wiped away with his central theme of unconditional, once it is pulled out of the deforming context of Paul’s Christ myth.
Sources: General Search for Historical Jesus, Jesus Seminar research, Q Wisdom Sayings gospel research, research on the history of mythology and religion, etc.
A list of better alternative themes for narratives (alternatives to counter the above bad ideas list): “Humanity’s worst ideas, better alternatives (Old story themes, new story alternatives),” Wendell Krossa
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=9533
Grok’s comments on my list of bad ideas. Yes, he/she/it agrees with me.
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=13644#more-13644
Then this post from a relative:
“Here is a question I have and maybe I am just naive or obtuse but…,
“Brene Brown and many others say that ‘We cannot adequately love others unless we first love ourselves’. Having said that, I have yet to pin down what these observers of humanity mean by loving ourselves.
“So my question is: How do we know we love ourselves?
“Any and all ideas welcome.”
My “sage” advice in response to big Sis:
Ideas that come to mind. Stop beating ourselves up like priests flogging themselves to punish themselves for bad thoughts and urges.
Start by realizing as the lady with a degree in Catholic theology did, after her NDE, that there was no angry God, no threat of punishment, no hell… only love, stunningly unconditional love for everyone. That love is behind all reality and life.
“Bask in that for yourself and then extend that out to all others.
“And recognize that we are not essentially bad to the bone (i.e. primitive religious mythology of fallen humanity and inherited sinfulness”. We are not “sinners”. Imperfect yes. But we are most essentially love at our core.
“What about all the bad stuff that we feel and think? As Jeffrey Schwartz said – We are not our brains. Our brains emote that bad stuff, including a lot of negative self-talk about how bad we are. And that produces “imposter syndrome”. Feeling that if people find out how rotten I am inside, they will reject me.
“No- That negative self-talk from our brain is not the real us. We are something far better. So we have to learn how to respond to the negative inner talk that puts us down all the time. Recognize it for the fraud that it is and have an alternative to respond with, “I hear you but you are wrong and this is how I choose to think about myself as something better.”
“Intention to do such things, and persistence in that, will eventually be followed by emotions to back it up. So, it doesn’t matter how we feel about this stuff, just do it and let the feelings follow. Persist in recognizing the great love behind all reality and life and that we are one with that love, it is in us, it is our core self. We are most essentially Good, love at core. And over time, holding onto that better view of ourselves works into life in all areas.”
Nother note: “That ‘bad’ in us has mainly to do with the inherited animal impulses, emoted from the animal brain, impulses to tribalism, domination of weaker, and punitive destruction of differing others. Again, that is not the real us, not the essence of our human spirit or human self with its most essential impulse to love that defines us as human.”
More coming…
Some quotes/paraphrasing from the Introduction in David Redles’ book (“Hitler’s Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic Belief and the Search for Salvation”) on the religious ideas that fueled Nazism. This illustrates how these essential Christian ideas (Paul’s apocalyptic Christ myth) have functioned across history to incite mass-death outcomes, in Marxism, Nazism, and environmental alarmism.
He opens stating, “(This) is a book about the myth of the millennium and the correlated myths of apocalypse and the anticipated coming of a world-saving messiah.” Terms that originated in a Judeo-Christian context.
He notes that apocalypse commonly refers to the end of the world and “entails visions of a final battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil”.
Apocalyptic millennial movements arise in situations of change where it appears that life is degenerating into chaos and people are feeling a profound sense of loss. But it is not just the sense of ending that incites the arising of such movements, but also the hope for transition to something new and better.
“Apocalypse… means destruction and end for some but transformation and redemption for the chosen”. Within this context, a messiah-figure may appear inspiring hope for salvation, to bring order to chaos, salvation from apocalypse.
“The messiah/prophet knows all truth, knows exactly what must be done to achieve salvation. He often is a warrior figure who will lead the righteous into battle against the minions of evil and immorality… who has the vision of the ‘new way’, or ‘new path’, the ‘new view of reality necessary to re-order society from chaos’”.
Then Redles hits the critical point on how such myths/beliefs incite violence and mass-death outcomes. He says that the signs of the imminent apocalypse and promise of a coming better world, signals to millenarians to “induce the apocalypse”.
“Believing themselves chosen… to help bring (the end-times) to fruition, some true believers consciously or unconsciously induce the apocalypse, ‘forcing the end’ as the ancient millenarians termed the actions of impatient messianic movements”. The signs tell them, says Redles, that now is the time and they have been chosen for a special mission and the apocalyptic event must occur in their lifetimes.
In this stirring of apocalyptic millennialism there is “the image of perfection that can never and will never become real”, says Redles. But millenarians will attempt to realize the unrealizable and when ultimately frustrated, that has led “some millenarians to commit horrific examples of inhumanity on a grand scale. For when the millennial New Age is not achieved… millenarians often resort to coercion in an effort to quickly and irrevocably bring it about… true believers attempt to induce the apocalypse themselves, through mass suicide or mass murder.”
Redles then moves on to Nazism itself, stating, “Nazism, in its apocalypticism, and Hitler, in his role as prophet and messiah, are not unique in history but simply another variation of the apocalyptic complex.” He says that in this book he will demonstrate that many in the Nazi Old Guard along with significant numbers of Germans “were indeed attracted to the millennial and messianic beliefs of the Nazis” and therefore National Socialism must be viewed in terms of its “religiosity”.
He adds that there is a growing body of literature that points to the importance of millennialism, messianism, and apocalypticism in the Nazi world view. This is shown in Nazi literature and speeches. “Nazi messianism and apocalypticism were central to the Nazi construction of reality… National Socialism, led by its messianic Fuhrer, held the key to salvation, not simply an economic and social miracle but a genuine spiritual transformation of Germany”. Millennialism affected not just the Nazi elite but also the general population of Germany.
He closes the Introduction stating, “What follows… is a study of myth. In particular, it is a study of how the apocalypse complex helped shape Hitler’s messianic self-perception, propelled the formation, growth, and success of the Nazi movement.” The evidence is found in published speeches and writings of the Nazi elite, and confessional writings of the Old Guard, along with Hitler’s monologues, and prophecy sessions recorded by others, etc.
Redles, along with scholars/historians Arthur Herman, Arthur Mendel, and Richard Landes have exposed the undeniable and profoundly religious nature of the Marxist, Nazi, and environmental alarmism crusades. They affirm my repeated point here that the apocalyptic Christ of Paul has been the singularly critical myth that re-enforced apocalyptic millennialism in Western narratives and consciousness, to horrific outcomes over the past two millennia.
And that Christ myth buried entirely the anti-apocalyptic, anti-millennial message of Historical Jesus.
And this…
He is a well-educated person (PhD) and has extensive experience in high level international banking and business so why the ongoing mess that is Canada today? Because at his core Mark Carney is a cultic zealot, trapped mentally within the climate alarmism cult and unable to break free of that “profoundly religious extremism crusade”. That crusade is defined by primitive myths such as looming apocalypse, and the need to join the true religion (i.e. true ideological cult) and fight against the evil enemies that threaten your world, as per Zoroastrian cosmic dualism.
“Evil enemies”? Yes, all those who wish to see life and civilization continue to improve, assisted by formerly inexpensive fossil fuels that have now been demonized by the cultists as threatening life. Hence, Canada stalled under Trudeau 2.0. Carney was a major advisor to fellow climate alarmism zealot Justin Trudeau.
“Trudeau is gone so why does everything still feel broken?”, Lee Harding, Winnipeg Sun, Aug. 23, 2025
https://winnipegsun.com/opinion/harding-trudeaus-gone-so-why-does-everything-still-feel-broken