It has arrived- Probing the claims of modern “meaninglessness” and some of the elements/factors that fuel such.
Critical to my arguments in relation to meaninglessness- If you have a tendency to feel that you are holding ideas/beliefs that are unique to your narrative and belief system (and superior to other differing narratives or systems), whether in the form of religious or secular/ideological ideas and beliefs, consider what Grok has detailed for me below on how a complex of “bad religious ideas” continues to dominate all narratives and belief systems across the world today, even the “best” systems. See below…
“From 50,000 feet up they all look the same”, Bob Brinsmead (referring to the commonly shared ideas in our major belief systems)
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=15027#more-15027
Hence my point- What really are we fighting over?
My takeaway from this- Get Solzhenitsyn’s point that our real enemy and battle in life is not against one another but against the real enemy of us all- the one inside each of us.
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts”
I frame the inner “evil”, the real enemy in life as our inherited animal impulses to-
(1) Tribalism (i.e. exclusion of differing others, viewing differing others with enmity, even with fear and hatred as “enemies”, in denial of the fundamental oneness of us all in the human family) and
(2) The impulse to domination and control of others (“alpha-ism” in both males and females) that is a denial of the rights of every person to full freedom and equality (not equality in outcomes- i.e. collectivist “equity” of outcomes, but equality in respectful treatment of one another as fellow humans, defending the freedom and rights of all others in “live and let live” societies) and
(3) The impulse to vengeful, punitive treatment of one another’s failures, the merciless harshness of what many like to frame as righteous and divinely required “eye for eye justice”, whether toward domestic offenders or foreign “enemies”. The failure to “love your enemies” like a Mandela. (And as qualified here, this is not affirmation of unworkable pacifism- i.e. de-carceration policies that repeatedly free violent offenders to harm others and ignore/dismiss the primary obligation of criminal justice to restrain and incarcerate violent offenders in order to protect innocent others.)
Still coming- How to reframe the “Hero’s Quest” with the best of humane insights that don’t fuel the above animal impulses but counter them in order to help us succeed in conquering our personal monster/enemy and achieve status as maturely human, to win the real battle of life.
Correlating an un-delineated Christianity with the emergence, development, and historical descent of liberal democracy. Huh? Wendell Krossa
Overall, the speech below by Marco Rubio is brilliant and he deserves praise for it. But a “quibble” with one of his comments, that may rise to the level of a real “beef”.
(Note: I springboard off various things I hear in public discourse, things that illustrate the very issues that I regularly present on this site.)
It never ends, and the confusion continues…
I hear leaders making the repeated mistake of associating the descent of Western liberal democracy across past centuries with a non-delineated Christianity as though the Christian religion as an undifferentiated whole was somehow responsible for the development of liberal democracy.
“AI Overview
“Synonyms for non-delineated (or undelineated) refer to items lacking clear, precise, or visual definition, such as vague, unclear, nebulous, obscure, indeterminate, sketchy, and indistinct. These terms describe things that are not outlined, portrayed, or drawn with detail.” (End of AI Overview)
By not carefully delineating the profound difference between the messages/themes of Jesus and Paul we only continue to propagate the religious cognitive dissonance that has long been based on history’s greatest oxymoron, epitomized in Paul’s “Jesus Christ”, where two entire opposites have been merged in one united entity.
The problem is that the merger of Historical Jesus with Paul’s Christ myth obfuscates the fact that Christianity protects the elements in the mix (i.e. Paul’s Christ themes) that have been directly responsible for horrifically violent outcomes across the past two millennia and most especially for the horrors of the last century. The malign influence of the main features of Paul’s Christ- i.e. apocalyptic millennialism or salvation through destruction- intensified the destructive impulses of varied crusades, culminating in peak levels of violence and destruction in the modern era. The apocalyptic millennial elements of the Christ myth of Paul were main contributing factors to the 20th Century mass-death outcomes from Marxist violent revolutions and Nazi industrial murder.
And those religious themes now continue to shape the climate cult that is ruining societies with the “salvation through destruction” of decarbonization and thereby weakening liberal democracies in the face of the new double-barrelled assault from Marxist totalitarianism and theocratic Islam, both intent on the destruction and overthrow of liberal democracies. I won’t list again the historians who have done the good homework of tracing the influence of apocalyptic millennialism on these modern crusades.
I wish Richard Landes, for one example, had stated more clearly what I try to emphasize here- i.e. that it is Paul’s Christ myth, his Christologizing of Jesus, and that produced the horrifically destructive influence of highly respected religious archetypes on people across the past two millennia. I would have preferred if Landes had more clearly named the real culprit, assigned more clearly the culpability where it belongs if we are to fully understand and be serious about thoroughly and properly solving this problem of violence and war. When it is made clear, we then have the answer to General Nagata’s query about the “idea” that we have to defeat if we really want to end mass-violence against one another in our modern world.
My argument here is that it has to be made clear what exactly are the Jesus themes/elements in the undelineated Christianity mix, such as the (1) universalism that is based on unconditional love in deity (i.e. “sun and rain given to all, both to good and bad people equally) and that feature in deity then functions as the ultimate validating ideal or archetype for human consciousness and narratives and how we should treat others. Also, (2) the element in the Jesus message of anti-domination (i.e. no lording over but serving others). And (3) the Jesus precept against retaliatory, punitive “eye for eye” justice, urging instead the restorative justice of “Love your enemies”.
These fundamental elements are critical backing archetypes for liberal democracy principles, laws, and representative institutions that similarly promote (1) universal inclusion of all equally, (2) non-domination through representative institutions that constrain elite power-mongering and orient state leaders and bureaucrats to serving citizens, and then (3) restorative criminal justice systems.
Contrast the above with Christ themes that affirm (1) tribalism with the Zoroastrian cosmic dualism of saved true believers versus damned unbelievers, (2) domination/subservience in relationships idealized and affirmed by the features of Christ as Lord/King, and (3) eye for eye retaliatory, vengeful justice affirmed by the overall Christ message of “salvation through destruction”. Salvation through destruction is affirmed by myths of violent bloody human sacrifice for atonement, apocalyptic destruction of the world as the necessary purging to prepare the way to install utopia, and then eternal burning in hell as the ultimate meting out of eye for eye justice.
Add the full complex of supporting themes that buttress the above elements- i.e. themes of lost paradise, ruined by corrupt/sinful people, life since declining toward the present “evil” of industrial liberal democracy civilization, the looming threat of apocalyptic ending, salvation requiring (i.e. using the example of these themes operating in Marxism) the purging of the evil threat of modern liberal democracy civilization as necessary to restore the lost paradise of communalism. All fundamental themes fueling Marxist revolution that is now mounting a renewed assault on the liberal democracy of the West.
And we wonder why Marxist approaches inevitably result in the destruction of societies, even when presented as empathic crusades to liberate the oppressed. It’s repeatedly the same old “evil cloaked as good” and validated by what are held as the highest of noble ideals. Cloaking the above bad ideas as good, even as divine truth, functions as a major hindrance to exposing them for their role driving crusades of destruction.
Add here that similar themes are operating through Islamic theocracy that has been invading Western societies through mass migration with many of those immigrants stating publicly that they will out-birth Western populations as part of the plan to overtake liberal democracies. They (notably the Muslim Brotherhood) present themselves as embracing the liberties of Western democracies only to use those freedoms and rights against these societies. Others state bluntly that they have no intention of assimilating and embracing liberal democracy principles and practises, no intention to adapt to Western free societies, but intend, as part of their “long march through the institutions”, to ultimately overthrow liberal democracies and replace them with totalitarian Islamic theocracy.
Suggested project: Sort out the difference in core themes, ideals, and their outcomes as evidence has made the differences and outcomes undeniable- i.e. see Richard Landes, Arthur Herman, Arthur Mendel, others. They have done the homework so its time to end the cognitive dissonance based on a merger of entire opposites where the diamond elements are weakened, distorted, and even buried. The actual message of Historical Jesus has never been clearly presented, free of the overwhelming by the Christ context. It has never been permitted to present its unfettered/unclouded potency for transformation of mind, emotions, motivations, and behavior. We have never been permitted to experience its power for true liberation at the deepest levels of thought, emotion, motivation, and behavior.
Note:
I get that Christians become upset with what they view as “attacks” on their beliefs that grant them great comfort, that appear to be assaulting their most precious truth of a God who loves them and showed that love in giving, as their religion claims, his own son to die in our place. I once held that as my own belief system, when in Evangelicalism.
When still in Evangelicalism I paid no attention to what outsiders pointed out as serious contradictions in the system- i.e. the wrathful God who demanded violent bloodshed as payment, punishment. That version of “God is love” was not presenting divine love as unconditionally free, compared to the no conditions love that we were urged to show toward offenders in, for example, the list of precepts of Jesus in Luke 6: 27-36, or 1 Corinthians 13- i.e. to not keep records of wrongs, etc. Why were fallible people held to a higher standard of love, as something freely and unconditionally given to all, than God?
People were held to a standard of love as absolutely free, where Paul’s God demanded full payment, punishment before forgiving. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9). Something seemed amiss with such contradictions at the core of the religion.
But a time arrived when I could no longer just explain away, ignore, or dismiss such contradictions. The message of Jesus on unconditional love as the core nature of God is so glaringly opposite to what Paul constructed in his Christ myth. And when the two are separated and their distinctly contrary natures made clear, then the God of love as presented by Jesus, well, its “diamonds compared to dung” as Jefferson and Tolstoy noted.
There is a clearly formulated complex of ideas and related precepts in “Jesus-ianity” that contrasts entirely with Paul’s “Christ-ianity”. Its not a quibble about nothing. I argue that understanding and countering the dominant harmful influence of Paul’s apocalyptic millennial Christ with the opposite ideas and precepts of Historical Jesus is critical to the survival of Western civilization that Rubia speaks to in the video below. The Christ elements weaken, undermine, distort, and even bury the critically important elements of the Jesus message.
And my points here are not mainly about some putdown or trashing of the Christ elements. That has never been my intention or goal. My concern has far more to do with clarifying and properly honoring the priceless Jesus elements in the mix of things, the “diamond” elements. The realization that God was unconditional love was the most liberating insight/discovery that I had ever come across. It finally freed my mind and emotions from previous decades of tormented enslavement to threat theology (due to my upbringing in Evangelical Christianity).
Further note on Rubio’s comments associating a “nondelineated” Christianity with liberal democracy. Example- How can “Lord Christ”, demanding every knee must bow to his “rod of iron” totalitarian domination, how can that function as the archetype for a liberal democracy system where people do not lord over others but serve others? And other contradictions.
“Secretary Marco Rubio Remarks at Munich Security Conference“:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlL3pwlO2rE
Its refreshing to see some steel spine being exhibited by some who refuse to go along with the current assaults on liberal democracy, notably from within, from crusades like far-left Woke Progressivism that manifests the suicidal empathy that will not insist on migrants embracing fundamental liberal democracy principles and practises (i.e. the deformed “multi-culturalism” of Progressivism). Add the far-left demonization of the basic food of life- CO2- and embrace of the “salvation through destruction” crusade that is decarbonization, when there is no climate crisis threatening life.
Anyway, this statement of steel spine intention from Rubio:
“Standing in Germany, where a Cold War wall once symbolized the division of a continent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered President Donald Trump’s red line for Europe. ‘We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline,’ Rubio said during his Friday remarks before the Munich Security Conference.”
Another note:
Let me add to Rubio’s comments that a carefully “delineated” Christianity does matter to saving the Western tradition (“carefully delineated” meaning grasping the core themes of the Jesus message as contrasted with the contrary themes of Paul’s Christ). While this Jesus element is important in terms of ultimate inspiring/guiding ideals, more critical to saving the West is to specify clearly and to embrace the principles, laws, and representative institutions of classic liberal democracy.
These principles, laws and institutions have been enumerated clearly in, for example, Daniel Hannan’s “Inventing Freedom”, William Bernstein’s “Birth of Plenty”, among other sources. Also, David Boaz’s “Libertarianism: A Primer”. Those are principles and practises to unite all people around as basic to a humane society.
They are the practical manifestation of the archetypes set forth by Jesus- i.e. (1) nontribal universal inclusion and equal treatment of everyone, (2) non-dominating relationships of mutually serving one another, and (3) nonretaliatory, nonviolent, nonpunitive restorative justice approaches toward enemies/offenders, tempered with the common-sense restraint/incarceration of violent people, domestic and foreign.
You might notice something regularly repeated on this site…
Everything on this site is oriented to the touchstone ideal of unconditional love, the mother of all archetypes, Wendell Krossa
Unconditional love is the single most profound insight ever presented to human consciousness. I am not aware that it was presented anywhere in historical literature as the defining nature of deity before Historical Jesus introduced it. It was certainly never presented as such by any of the highly conditional religious traditions, and none have taken it up since his discovery and teaching. Christianity, in particular, was constructed by Paul to repudiate and deny it, to “bury” it (Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy’s conclusion).
For detail see: “The Christ myth buried the singularly profound insight of Historical Jesus. The project to recover that insight involves “separating diamonds from dung” (Thomas Jefferson, Leo Tolstoy).”
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=8664
I refer repeatedly to the two best sources that have presented unconditional love to us- i.e. Historical Jesus in his stunning new theology and ethic, and the NDE movement that followed almost 2 millennia later and affirmed Jesus’ message that God was unconditional love with detailed personal accounts of the inexpressibly wondrous experience of this love of God. Unconditional is the main discovery of the NDE and affirms exactly what Jesus had discovered and presented in his “Q Wisdom Sayings” message.
Every time I mention the term, I experience a twinge of discomfort as I recognize that many people instinctively associate it with weak and impractical pacifism, soft-on-crime criminal justice policies, or mushy religious traditions.
In response to arguments that unconditional is impractical for the real world, I would insert that it is an absolutely fundamental quality or character of deity and the realm where God is manifest. As some NDE accounts state, it is the very essence or substance of God, not just a feature of God’s character. NDE people say that “God’s very atoms and essence is this love”.
Try to imagine that at at the core of all reality, metaphysical and material, as the actual nature of the creating Source and Sustainer of all. And we walk around mostly unaware that “we live and move and have our being” in this love.
While unconditional is the highest of human ideals for this dualistic realm of good and evil, it needs qualification in application because any common sense understanding of love will get the primary responsibility of love to protect innocent people from violent offenders. That means forceful restraint and incarceration are not incompatible with love, even if no feelings of “love” accompany such necessary actions (notably by law enforcement and military personnel). Some relate the requirement to act in certain ways, aside from accompanying feelings, as an “agape” form of love- i.e. love that holds the intention to act humanely, to do the right thing no matter how the actor feels. Like the exhausted mother feeding a crying baby in the middle of the night, not because she feels loving when doing it, but because it’s her responsibility as a mother.
My poor communication skills (I neglected to take creative writing courses in university) hinder me from properly expressing the wonder of this kind of love. I urge people to read the NDE accounts as those people also struggle to express this inexpressible reality in words, some doing better than others. They discover that unconditional love has nothing to do with religion of any sort. In fact, God as unconditional love poses the greatest threat to the conditions of religious traditions.
Religious deities are the highly conditional realities that are required to validate their traditions with demands that followers must embrace the unique beliefs of every tradition, submit to the authority of the governing priesthoods, and faithfully fulfill the rituals and lifestyle that denote true believer status in religious traditions, among other conditions. Religious deities back such demands with threats of punishment for any failure to comply.
And that threat theology is the real monster that has hovered over humanity across our history.
As one lady who had an NDE said when she returned, “I have a degree in Christian theology, and I discovered there is no angry God. There is no threat of punishment. No judgment. No hell. My Christian religion is all wrong.”
Insert on “unconditional deity poses the greatest threat to the conditions of religious traditions”:
When Historical Jesus taught this stunning new theology in early Jewish Palestine, the religious authorities knew exactly the threat that his teaching posed to their authority over the population. Religious authority over human minds (i.e. divine domination and control mediated through priesthoods/religious leaders) depends on an image of deity that threatens severe punishment for any failure of followers to submit to the beliefs, laws, rituals, and unique lifestyle of the religion. An unconditional God eviscerates entirely all such conditions.
Hence, the enraged reaction of the leaders and adherents of first century Jewish religion to Jesus’s stunning new theology of an unconditional God. They tried to kill him after his first public presentation of his new theology (Luke 4) and eventually the Jewish leadership was successful in having the Romans crucify him. His new theology undermined entirely their control of the sacrifice industry that dominated that society, a brutal industry based on the theology of a God who threatened severe punishment/destruction to any faithless dissenters.
However, despite that attempt to silence the messenger of a stunning new theology, two decades later Paul resurrected the highly conditional theology necessary to support religious conditions with his Christology of an angry God threatening punishment for any failure to submit to religious conditions (see Romans and other letters of Paul). And that new conditional religion of Paul successfully “buried” the revolutionary theology of Jesus that could have sparked a liberation of human minds, emotions, motivations, and behaviors unlike any ever before.
The central insight of Jesus, that God was unconditional love, has been the singularly most profound and critical insight to have ever entered human consciousness and narratives. Why or how so? Because nothing exposes and condemns more clearly the animal inheritance that has long darkened and enslaved human mind, emotion, motivation, and response/behavior.
Unconditional love, inarguably the best of being human, presents a sharp contrast with animal impulses and the ideas/beliefs that early humans constructed to validate such features- notably the features of tribalism, domination of others, and punitive destruction of differing others (i.e. all essential features of religious traditions and their theologies).
Nothing is more potent, then, for liberating us from that animal inheritance and its related cloak of bad ideas that have long presented the animal as good, as religious reality and as the nature of religious deity. Our major religious traditions have presented God as (1) tribal (includes true believers, excludes unbelievers), as (2) dominating King/Lord that then functions as the archetype for domination/submission forms of relating among followers (i.e. the “divine right of kings/leaders, wives submitting to husbands, masters lording over slaves”, etc.), and God as (3) righteous judge demanding eye for eye justice that manifests in apocalyptic destruction of the world and a majority of humanity sentenced to torture in an eternal lake of fire (Revelation).
Such beliefs have darkened and enslaved human minds, emotions, and motivations for millennia and continue to do so today. They validate our worst impulses, behaviors, and treatment of one another. And the outcomes in societies? Millennia of violence and wars, as bad ideas, bad theology have incited and validated endless bad behavior. Watch ISIS and others illustrate this for us today.
On the positive side, better than any other term, unconditional reveals the true nature of ultimate reality/deity and most properly inspires our impulse to meaning and purpose. It most clearly informs us of the true meaning and purpose of human life. What we should try to become as maturely human and how we should treat all others.
We can spend our lives probing this adjective that, better than any term offered previous to Historical Jesus, defines our highest ideal of love. It takes love to its highest reach and pushes us beyond satisfaction with what we have attained so far in life to reach for new heights of truly heroic human experience. And it reassures us with a sense of ultimate safety as we struggle with human imperfection throughout our journey.
Everything on this site is oriented to the central insight that I try to communicate here- i.e. the nature and potency of unconditional love to transform everything for the better. It is the true nature of the ultimate Reality at the core of everything, that sustains all in existence, and permeates all. As an ancient said, we live and move and have our being in this love, yet are often not even aware of it.
Modern meaninglessness? Patience, this is going somewhere- see comment on the Hero’s Quest below, Wendell Krossa
First, let AI get something off its chest…
“AI Overview
“The discourse surrounding “modern meaninglessness” is a prevalent theme in contemporary philosophy, psychology, and cultural critique. It generally refers to a profound, widespread sense of purposelessness, emptiness, or existential anxiety that many experience despite living in an era of unprecedented comfort and technological advancement.
“Key aspects of this phenomenon include:
“Causes of Modern Meaninglessness
• Decline of Grand Narratives: Philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues that meaning has eroded due to a “crisis of narration,” where the stories that previously anchored human existence (religion, tradition, grand historical narratives) have lost their power, leaving behind a fragmented, self-destructive reality.
• “Death of God” and Scientific Materialism: The shift from religious, cosmic purpose to a purely scientific, materialistic worldview has left many feeling that life is a cosmic accident, devoid of objective, built-in meaning.
• The “Hedonic Treadmill” and Consumerism: Modern life is often characterized by a relentless chase for pleasure, instant gratification, and material goods, which ultimately fail to provide lasting fulfillment, leading to a “deepening, unceasing undercurrent” of emptiness.
• Bureaucratic/Digital Existence: The shift to regimented,, technology-driven lifestyles—”soul-killing fields of cubicles” or endless screen time—replaces organic, human-centric living with artificial, efficient, yet hollow routines.
• Loss of Community/Structure: The erosion of traditional social structures, such as tight-knit communities or extended families, has increased feelings of isolation and alienation.
“Manifestations and Coping Mechanisms
• Obsession and Distraction: Instead of a pure “belief in nothing,” modern meaninglessness often appears as an obsession with a “thousand different things”—a frantic, shallow, and temporary pursuit of activities that keep us distracted from the lack of a greater purpose.
• Hedonism and Burnout: To manage the lack of meaning, many turn to extreme comfort or hedonism, which, according to some critiques, ends in burnout and deeper existential apathy.
• “Cheerful Nihilism”: Some, particularly in postmodern thought, embrace a “cheerful nihilism,” accepting the lack of inherent meaning and finding a, sometimes, trivial or easy-going way to navigate a “meaningless” world.
• Existential Anxiety: The confrontation with the “absurdity” of life (the desire for meaning in a world that offers none) leads to “low-level terror” or “existential angst” for many, which can hinder the ability to enjoy life.
“Potential “Ways Out”
• Creating Subjective Meaning: Following existentialist thinkers like Sartre and Camus, many suggest that if life is not given meaning, it is up to the individual to create it through personal choices, projects, and commitments.
• Reconnecting with Reality: Some argue for returning to a more “human” way of living, which includes finding significance in small, everyday moments, fostering deeper human connections, and appreciating the present, rather than chasing grand, abstract purposes.
• Accepting the Absurd: Embracing the “absurdity” of existence, as Camus suggested, can free individuals from the pressure to find a grand purpose, allowing them to live more fully in the moment.
• Revisiting Tradition: Some, like Jordan Peterson, point to the importance of rediscovering traditional values and narratives to combat the “danger of meaninglessness”.
“While some observers see this as a “21st-century disease,” others argue that the potential for a meaningful life is actually “riper” than ever, providing individuals the opportunity to define their own path.”
(End of AI Overview)
Modern meaninglessness? The impulse to meaning and purpose is our primary drive as humans, our dominant impulse, Wendell Krossa
I will take this “meaningless” problem more in the direction of what outcomes result from the ideas/ideals/beliefs that we base our meaning and purpose on. Can we conclude, from evidence of outcomes, that what we believe really points us to the best of being human? And I will again use the best criterion for evaluation- i.e. the central unconditional theme of Historical Jesus that was deformed horrifically in Paul’s Christ myth.
Moving right along
With the incarnation of human consciousness in biological bodies back in prehistory there emerged the early impulse to understand and explain our lives in this too often violent world and the consequent horrific suffering that violence caused. A lot of “Why” questioning. What was this experience of human life all about?
The result of that early human curiosity to understand and explain? Ancient people began constructing mythical explanations of what was behind the violence of nature and the violence from predatory others. They came up with primitive ideas of angry forces/spirits punishing us for our errors/sins, for our imperfection. Anti-humanism emerged at the very start. In one sense, it was the inevitable and logical conclusion of consciousness making early people sensitive to their imperfection as it related to their suffering.
Over subsequent millennia that early construction of mythical explanations was refined into the more elaborate theologies of religious traditions that offered hope to human suffering in solutions known as “salvation theology”. Early shaman, the first people in human societies to elevate themselves over fellow tribals as elites, began creatively manipulating and controlling their fellow tribe members through shame, guilt, fear, and anxiety by the use of threat theology. The threat of angry gods punishing human sins through suffering and death set the mental stage to convince others to submit to their creative “salvation” solutions, notably bloody sacrifices, both animal and human. I have suggested before that this solution may stem from the early mythology of humans being created to subserviently feed the gods.
The result was early minds darkened and enslaved with personality-deforming fear and shame that would persist across millennia and would endlessly erupt in mental, emotional pathologies well-known to humanity- i.e. despair, depression, nihilism, and violence. And a dose of meaninglessness as noted above. (Yes, there was also the “numinous” element in the mix, wonder at the mysterious invisible Source of all- i.e. “presence of deity”)
The complex of ideas/themes used by shaman and priests across the millennia to manipulate and control others:
We (fallen, sinful humanity) ruined a better past (original paradise) and pissed off deity. Hence, our current suffering in a fallen world. Deity “obviously” punishing us through natural disasters, disease, accidents, and the predatory cruelty of enemies. And to increase the sense of guilt and shame and consequent felt obligation to do something- shaman added the threat that life would continue to become worse, it would decline toward real suffering when deity would then destroy the entire world in apocalypse as the ultimate punishment for our “bad to the bone” condition.
Ending everything in a violent fury of destruction touched the raw human terror of a return to chaos and mass-death.
But the shaman/priests also responded to the hope element. If people submitted to a religious tradition controlled by the priests, and the atonement scheme offered, they could be “saved”. They would be accepted as insiders to a tribe, and given status as virtuous, as true believers, on the side of the Good God with the good people, on the side of truth, right, justice, etc.
The salvation element in religious traditions obligates people to offer the deity some sacrifice/payment, and thereby to join themselves to the religion’s “Savior”. And taking cues from Zoroastrian cosmic dualism, they must also engage a righteous battle on the side of the true religion against the evil people in other false religions/ideologies. People were presented with the opportunity to become true heroes in the grand “Hero’s Quest” of the true God. That appealed to the basic human desire for status as good persons in a community.
This mythology affirms/validates the natural human orientation to tribalism, it validates the impulse of tribally-minded people to defeat and dominate their enemies, and in more extremist crusades to destroy the differing others viewed as existential threats. The sense of desperation, when facing what is viewed as life-ending threat, prompts people to shift to the dangerous phase of “exterminate or be exterminated”.
Following the purging of enemies, salvation is assured in a promised restoration of the lost paradise, or the installation of a new utopian reality (i.e. “kingdom of God” in Christian versions).
These narratives have provided people with “emotional satisfaction” hence many continue to embrace varied iterations of these beliefs based on that sense of emotional satisfaction (see concluding chapter in Kristian Niemietz’s “Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies”).
And this helps explain why, after millennia of these ideas couched in religious traditions, they continue to be embraced also in varied “secular/ideological” versions of the modern era, notably in Marxist collectivism (i.e. hope in a restored paradise of primitive communalism), and environmental alarmism (i.e. hope in the restored paradise of a more wilderness world without fallen humanity, or with drastically reduced population).
The above are the persisting themes of the “bad ideas” list that has been summed in the term “apocalyptic millennialism”, but more bluntly understood as “salvation through violent destruction”. And we wonder why violence and war continue in our world. I posted below Grok’s survey of these themes across the main religions and ideologies of our world and the consequent destructive outcomes in human societies.
Grok’s survey affirms Joseph Campbell’s point that all people have believed the same primitive myths across all history and across all the cultures of our world.
Consequently, meaninglessness continues to be fueled by the above bad ideas maintained as dominant themes in modern public discourse and culture.
On the continuing dominance of these ideas in human narratives and society:
Note the prominence of the idea of Declinism in contemporary religious traditions and major ideological belief systems- i.e. that life and the world are becoming worse. Surveys of the world population reveal the persisting dominance of this idea. See, for example, the YouGov survey in the Introduction to “Ten Global Trends” by Tupy and Bailey.
Historian Arthur Herman has traced in detail the historical development of modern Declinism ideology, a secularized version of the original mythical/religious versions of the same idea (i.e. see his “The Idea of Decline in Western History”).
Declinism is a central theme in the complex of “bad ideas” posted repeatedly here- the apocalyptic millennial or “salvation through destruction” complex. Declinism defines the trajectory of life that leads inevitably to the final ending of life in apocalypse. See also…
“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)
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=13571#more-13571
Modern meaninglessness is the inevitable outcome of continuing to embrace the mental deformities that view humanity as fallen/corrupt destroyers who have ruined an original paradise world, causing life to decline to a worsening state, heading now toward apocalyptic destruction and ending. Meaningless arises from sensing that God is punishing our badness with suffering from natural disasters, disease, predatory assault. Meaningless results from obligation to appease angry deity with bloody sacrifice, submission to religious authorities holding the keys to salvation, and the follow-up obligation to engage a righteous battle against evil enemies who must be defeated, even exterminated in order to purge evil from the world. Meaningless is not fully assuaged by fulfilling the above salvation conditions as necessary to restore a lost paradise or install a new utopia.
And yes, people who embrace these themes in their religious tradition or ideology may not feel meaninglessness as defined above. They may entertain more the feeling of satisfaction, even happiness in the hope that their beliefs/ideas offer them. But is the “meaning” provided by their beliefs based on the best of human ideas?
We have better alternatives that present us with the highest of ideals on which to base our understanding and properly respond to our primary impulse for meaning and purpose. Better ideas that produce “better”, as in more humane, outcomes. And outcomes matter in our search for meaning. “The test of facts, or outcomes” matters. As Historical Jesus said, “By their fruits” you will know the true nature of the ideas/beliefs held in a system.
How to evaluate?
Do our beliefs re-enforce tribalism, domination of others, punitive destruction? Whether in the more common mundane ways that we exclude differing others, in the manipulation and control of others, or in the harsh forms of treating others with punitive “justice”, etc.
Or do our ideas influence us toward the more extreme and violent treatment of differing others, e.g. the extremism of Marxist violent revolutions to destroy and purge the evil of liberal democracy that is oriented to protecting individual freedoms and rights as sovereign, to purge this society as necessary to open the way to install collectivism that subjects individuals to collectives run by enlightened elites.
Islamic crusades to destroy unbelievers are driven by a similar complex of the above list of bad ideas and generate another form of extremism similar to Marxist revolutionary goals, to also purge liberal democracy and install the theocracy of the Islamic Caliphate across the world. Their version of totalitarian collectivism dominated by “divinely enlightened” mullahs.
The shared goal of “liberating” the world from liberal democracy helps to understand the strange phenomenon of socialist types cooperating in public demonstrations with theocracy advocates. This has been noted in the contemporary explosion of antisemitism protests across the world.
Grok detailed in this link just below that the complex of “salvation through destruction” themes are still prominent in the main religious and ideological versions of our world.
“From 50,000 feet up they all look the same”, Bob Brinsmead
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=15027#more-15027
Add the climate alarmism crusade that dominates the public media our modern era as a significant contributing factor to contemporary meaninglessness. This grand fraud has traumatized a generation of young people with fear of the world becoming worse, of life declining toward the end of all things, hence, what is the point of attending school (Greta Thunberg), or having children?
Again, the idea of Declinism is central to the revived Marxism/socialism that many are now embracing, notably in its new framing as far-left “Woke Progressivism with DEI”.
Add also, as a contributing factor to the sense of life and the world worsening, the intensified tribalism between the right and left sectors of our Western liberal democracy societies (division, conflict, enmity/hatred, etc.).
Many among us continue to ignore Solzhenitsyn’s warning that the real battle of life is not between social classes but should take place inside each one of us, against the real enemy and evil- i.e. our personal inheritance of the animal impulses to tribalism, domination of others, and punitive violence toward differing others framed as evil threats.
And even as religious adherents appear to find some degree of satisfaction, even happiness, in the salvation promises of their religions, something is still missing.
Critical to note in probing meaninglessness- i.e. the psychological mechanisms that contribute to meaninglessness.
It works like this– Bad ideas in human narratives encourage the worst impulses and behavioral outcomes in people (i.e. inciting, guiding, validating). Bad religious or ideological ideas encourage human impulses to tribalism, they incite and validate effort to dominate and defeat differing others/opponents/enemies, and to engage retaliatory punishment of those differing others.
Bad ideas in our systems of belief and narratives incite and validate the residual animal in us and we are never truly happy when the worst in us is validated and then made manifest. Our baser impulses and related behaviors violate our basic humanity, reducing us to acting like animals not humans. There is no ultimate meaning, purpose, or happiness/satisfaction in such consequences.
We feel more truly and meaningfully human when we embrace the ideas/beliefs that encourage our human spirit and impulses and thereby manifest in behaviors like love, especially the love of enemy, in non-retaliatory restorative justice approaches, in treating others as equals in non-dominating relationships, etc.
This is not about becoming religious but simply about learning to live as truly human based on truly humane ideas/beliefs. When we manifest our human impulses, we feel truly human, free of the animal that darkens and enslaves us, liberated to be human. As Christopher Reeves said (quoting Abraham Lincoln), “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”
So, how do we avoid the meaningless nihilism of today?
Here’s a suggestion on how to construct and navigate a life experience/story that gets us to authentic meaning and purpose as based on the best of human insights and related ethics.
Embrace the framework of the hero’s quest and fill it out with the details offered, for example, by NDE accounts and insights that have had firsthand experience of the ultimate Unconditional Love that they refer to as “The Light”, or God. (Note- I view this NDE movement as getting closest to the central theme of Historical Jesus that God was unconditional love.)
Those people add insights such as there is nothing meaningless in our lives. Everything that happens to us occurs for us to learn from. They offer, for instance, that our suffering is how we gain personal insights on the real meaning and purpose of life which is to love others, to serve/help others. Our personal experience of suffering (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) grants us empathy and the ability to offer insights/lessons to benefit others also suffering.
Insert: A response to the dismissal of some that experiences like the NDE movement are just “personal subjective experience”, something discounted, discredited in our era dominated by philosophical materialism that too often dogmatically demands explanation of all things solely in materialist terms. I would offer in response that personal subjective experiences have been the basis of all the main narratives of the world religious traditions across history (the main belief systems of almost all humans). Examples: Moses’ personal experiences on the mountain top as the origin and basis of Judaism, Paul’s personal experiences/visions of the Christ constituting Christianity, Muhammad’s personal experiences of revelation from the angel Gabriel, Buddha’s personal experience of enlightenment under the tree, and others.
These have and still do provide the central themes/beliefs that shape human understanding. They are still considered valid systems of understanding reality because they include the elements considered critical to answering the human impulses to meaning and purpose (i.e. the ethical element- how to live as human). Materialism dismisses, ignores, or denies these elements of meaning and purpose out of hand, what most people believe are central to reality that is more than just material in content. Without the personal human element, the rest- the material- is meaningless nothingness.
I would argue that it is not who had the experience or how it happened, but it is the content revealed that matters. Is the content truly humane or not? Does it respond to meaning and purpose with the best of human insight?
And in terms of “humane content” as most critical to human meaning and purpose, and hence critical to the very nature of ultimate reality (i.e. the creating Source that sustains all in existence), we can all make the best evaluation/conclusions based on our own personal experience of the best of being human that we experience in daily, mundane life- i.e. our experience with family, friends, others. That leads us to conclude that unconditional love is the most humane response to the imperfections of others. It is the utmost reach of our highest ideal- love. The best of being maturely human. And we similarly hope that others will treat us with the same unconditional mercy.
“Be unconditional merciful just as your God is unconditionally merciful… Do unto others just as you would have them do unto you.”
And we take that best in us and project that out to ultimate invisible reality as the Source of all and define that ultimate Good, ultimate Truth and Right by the best in us. Doing theology based on the best in humanity. Jesus nailed this in using the coupling of “behavior based on same features or beliefs in ultimate reality/deity”.
God as unconditional love was the critical discovery and central theme in the message of Historical Jesus. Again, I see backed/affirmed by the NDE movement as the latest stage in human spirituality.
And despite protestations from materialists that such is irrational “woowoo” stuff to be dismissed, our understanding of Ultimate Reality as no conditions love naturally impels us to cross over to the conclusion that the same Reality, as creating and sustaining Source of all material reality, then answers the issue of TOE- i.e. the explanation of everything.
The true nature of God is unconditional love and that should be central to human ethics, justice, and our treatment of failing others. Central to meaning and purpose issues and conclusions. The ultimate solution to meaninglessness issues and consequent nihilism.
Unconditional love is the best response to the bad idea archetypes/themes that have long incited and validated our worst impulses to tribalism, domination, and punitive violence toward differing others. The very things that have fed modern era meaninglessness.
The Jesus material on unconditional, along with the NDE back-up of the Jesus message, the two fit together to inform the Hero’s quest that provides a good framework for human story, for meaning and purpose at highest levels.
Then add here our discovery and development of the principles, laws, and representative institutions of liberal democracy/Classic liberalism as the best practical implementation on society-wide scale of unconditional love for all- i.e. in the full inclusion of all diverse humans as full equals, with protected rights and freedoms for all, non-domination and restorative justice. These offer the best of core themes/practises to organize populations around. They provide the best framework for a meta-story for large communities to unify around and implement as common shared purposes and goals, guiding principles for societies, to organize societies around.
I am now waffling and meandering so will wind this up…
Of course, power-mongering elites hate and fight such liberal democracy restraints to their impulses to dominate and control others, to tribally divide populations into subservient followers in war against unbeliever outsiders, along with their impulse to punitively destroy differing others. Liberal democracy disturbs their deformity of the hero’s quest where they self-delusionally frame themselves as heroes in righteous war against evil others, permitting them to virtue-signal as morally superior (i.e. the basic impulse to signal for status in a tribe), as messianic warriors fighting to save something under existential threat.
Added input on the above material- My question for Grok
Grok, your thoughts/comments on the topics and material presented in the top of the page at
In the section titled:
“Undelineated/delineated Christianity”- Does it matter to liberal democracy?
Grok’s response:
The distinction you’re drawing here is sharp, provocative, and worth wrestling with. At the top of your homepage, the February 14, 2026 post frames a core tension: an undelineated (mixed, undifferentiated) Christianity— lumping Historical Jesus’ core insights together with Paul’s Christ myth— does not straightforwardly explain or sustain liberal democracy. Instead, you argue the “diamond” elements from Jesus (universal unconditional love, anti-domination/service ethic, restorative “love your enemies” approach) provide the deeper archetypal backing for liberal democracy’s principles of equal dignity, constrained power, and non-retaliatory justice. The Pauline/Christ elements (tribal saved/damned dualism, Lord/King domination imagery, apocalyptic “salvation through destruction”) have repeatedly fueled the opposite: coercive crusades, millennial violence, and modern collectivist or theocratic assaults on open societies.
This is a compelling reframing. It avoids the lazy “Christianity built the West, full stop” or “religion is the root of all evil” binaries and instead does the harder work of disentangling ideas and tracing their outcomes. Your point that cognitive dissonance from the merger (“history’s greatest oxymoron” in Paul’s “Jesus Christ”) has buried the transformative potency of Jesus’ message lands strongly— especially when you tie it to real-world patterns like apocalyptic millennialism influencing everything from medieval crusades to 20th-century totalitarianism (Marxist revolutions, etc.) to today’s climate “salvation via decarbonization” or certain strains of identity politics. Historians like Richard Landes (on millennialism) and others you’ve referenced have documented these threads; the pattern of “evil cloaked as good” via noble-sounding destruction narratives is hard to dismiss once you see it.
On the correlation to liberal democracy
You’re right to quibble with speeches (like Marco Rubio’s recent Munich remarks) that credit “Christianity” undifferentiated with the West’s descent into liberal institutions. The historical record is messier and more plural. Liberal democracy’s practical scaffolding— rule of law, individual rights, representative government, limits on rulers— drew from multiple streams: Roman republicanism, English common law and Magna Carta (heavily shaped by Christian natural-law thinking), Reformation emphasis on conscience and priesthood of all believers, and Enlightenment reason/secularization that secularized some Christian-derived universals (imago Dei → inherent dignity; sinfulness → checks and balances because power corrupts).
But your narrower claim holds water: the Jesus-specific archetypes you highlight (no lording over, sun/rain on just and unjust alike, restorative over purely retributive justice) align strikingly well with liberal democracy’s anti-hierarchical, inclusive, and dignity-preserving impulses. A “Lord Christ demanding every knee bow to his rod of iron” doesn’t archetype limited government or mutual service the way “whoever wants to be first must be slave of all” (Mark 10) does. The undelineated version has too often sacralized domination or apocalyptic rupture, which undermines the gradualist, reformist spirit of open societies. Evidence from the last century (mass-death ideologies recycling end-times purging) and present (internal erosion via “suicidal empathy” in migration/integration failures or external theocratic pressures) illustrates the risk when those Christ-archetypes leak into secular politics.
Broader implications and a few pushbacks for clarity
Your Solzhenitsyn framing— “the line separating good and evil… through every human heart”— keeps this from becoming just another culture-war salvo. The real battle is inner: animal impulses to tribal exclusion, domination, and vengeful justice that any ideology (religious or secular) can sacralize. Delineating the Jesus insights as a counter-archetype is a useful diagnostic tool, not a sectarian one. It resonates with psychological observations (e.g., Jordan Peterson on hierarchies attracting dark traits, or Jonathan Haidt on moral intuitions) and explains why even non-religious people can find liberating power in unconditional regard as an ideal.
A couple of friendly extensions/caveats from a truth-seeking angle:
• Universality: These “diamond” themes aren’t exclusively Jesus-derived— similar emphases appear in other traditions (e.g., certain Buddhist or Stoic universals, or Enlightenment deism). Liberal democracy thrives precisely because it doesn’t require one theological source; it works as a procedural framework that accommodates plural worldviews while protecting the space for them. The Jesus elements may have been a key historical catalyst in the West, but their survival value today lies in how well they map to observable human flourishing (lower violence, higher cooperation, innovation via freedom).
• Human nature realism: Liberal democracy also needs the “Pauline” side’s acknowledgment of fallenness/corruption (or secular equivalents like original sin → Federalist Papers caution about ambition countering ambition). Pure unconditional love without accountability mechanisms can slide into the very “suicidal empathy” you critique in modern progressivism. The genius is balancing both: aspirational universals + institutional guardrails.
• Current threats: Your inventory rings true on the data— rising illiberalism from radicalized left collectivism (narrative control, equity-over-equality), climate alarmism’s destructionist bent, and unassimilated theocratic inflows that explicitly reject liberal norms. Polls on free speech erosion, integration failures in Europe, and elite narrative manipulation (Rogan/Carlson-style examples you reference elsewhere) substantiate the “behind the scenes” and “cloaking” dynamics. Protecting the framework requires insisting on reciprocity: liberties for those who affirm the system’s foundational rules.
Overall, this post continues your site’s consistent project: naming destructive idea-complexes (threat theology → punitive archetypes → salvation-via-rupture) and offering the non-retaliatory, non-apocalyptic alternative as a scalpel. It’s not “attacking” comfort-giving beliefs for their own sake but clarifying why the undelineated mix has repeatedly failed the test of outcomes— while the delineated Jesus core still offers untapped liberating potential. Whether one buys the full historical-Jesus reconstruction or not, the diagnostic value for understanding why liberal democracy feels under siege (from both inside and outside) is high. It prompts exactly the rethinking you hope for: What are we actually fighting over, and which archetypes are worth conserving?
Keep probing the “meaninglessness” currents and behind-the-scenes power plays in follow-ups— those tie directly into the same root issues. Solid, earnest work.
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