The Unconditional Human Spirit

Section topics:

(1) Climate alarmists waging psychological warfare- using fear to manipulate populations. H. L. Mencken, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary” (In Defense of Women).

(2) The single best book ever written: “Ultimate Resource”- evidence on the main resources in our world show the long-term improvement of life, not decline toward collapse and ending;

(3) The single most profound insight ever offered to humanity: Ultimate Reality or deity is stunningly inexpressible unconditional love. This insight overturns entirely all the conditions of religious traditions and ends the pathological mythology of divine threat (dominant in human narratives across history, in both religious and “secular/ideological” narratives). Threat theology has long deformed human personality and society;

(4) Comment on MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying): A further step in human freedom and self-determination, not a slippery slope to a “wretched future”;

(5) How to get to the true state of life: Julian Simon’s Ultimate Resource and his good science of presenting the complete big picture and longest-term trends associated with anything;

(6) Climate physicist Richard Lindzen on “the absurdity of the motivating narrative that demonizes CO2”;

(7) The real crisis facing humanity is not human-caused climate change but human-caused decarbonization and its destructive outcomes;

(8) Root ideas behind apocalyptic cults and crusades;

(9) The greatest religious contradiction ever foisted on humanity- Historical Jesus versus Christian Christ (two entirely opposite persons), and the breakthrough insight of Jesus that God was unconditional reality, contrary to Paul’s highly conditional Christ gospel;

(10) Tribal collectivism versus the common humanity of individual persons;

(11) The loss of general public support for social movements when extremists take over the movements;

(12) Tilak Doshi (Forbes) on “Turbocharged Renewables”- how high energy prices today are the result of government decarbonization policies, not the result of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

(13) Illustrations of Woke Progressive over-reaction to differing speech, and their demonization of differing others with extremist smears. Both sides engage this practise but because “highly illiberal” Woke Progressivism dominates public media and institutions, the threat to liberal democracy is currently coming more from the left/liberal side of society;

And more… Read the rest of the opening comment here

See new material at bottom of this opening section: More evidence of decarbonization destruction as people, desperate to stay warm, are deforesting areas of Europe. This destruction has been driven by intentional policies to block the human use of fossil fuels, thus creating a shortage of critical energy resources in an era of growing demand, and consequently resulting in higher prices and raging inflation. The poorest people suffer the most from this anti-fossil fuel crusade based on an apocalyptic narrative of “climate crisis”.

Also, another “The emperor has no clothes” award goes to Eric Worrall for his good response to a BBC alarmism piece claiming “millions- even billions” of people will migrate to escape global warming. To the contrary, people have always migrated to much warmer areas of the world and adapted well to much warmer climates.

Section topics:

1. The madness of crowds, MacKay;
2. Destruction as good? Comment on the irrational psychology of apocalyptic minds;
3. The destructiveness of decarbonization;
4. Exploding the myth of “climate crisis” with basic climate facts;
5. “The emperor has no clothes” award to Senator Malcolm Roberts for his Submission to the Australian government showing that “There has never been and there remains no factual, scientific basis for cutting or limiting the production of CO2 from human use of fossil fuels… There is no logical, scientific basis for government to introduce policies designed to reduce CO2 from human activity”;
6. Paleoclimate facts (the big picture, long-term context of climate);
7. More on “slay the monster”- Note the contradiction between Historical Jesus (died for protesting against the sacrifice industry) and Paul’s entirely contrary Christ myth (presented as the iconic supreme sacrifice), including posts from Bob Brinsmead on sacrifice;
8. Articles on “De-growth”, “De-development” (more on the destructiveness of decarbonization). The “return to primitivism” crusade of climate alarmism;
And more…

Quotes from “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” by Charles MacKay.

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”

“During seasons of great pestilence men have often believed the prophecies of crazed fanatics, that the end of the world was come. Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity. Prophecies of all sorts are rife on such occasions, and are readily believed, whether for good or evil. During the great plague, which ravaged all Europe, between the years 1345 and 1350, it was generally considered that the end of the world was at hand. Pretended prophets were to be found in all the principal cities of Germany, France, and Italy, predicting that within ten years the trump of the Archangel would sound, and the Saviour appear in the clouds to call the earth to judgment.”

“An enthusiastic philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had constructed a very satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was not a little proud of it. “But the facts, my dear fellow,” said his friend, “the facts do not agree with your theory.” “Don’t they?” replied the philosopher, shrugging his shoulders, “then, tant pis pour les faits— so much the worse for the facts!”

“Every age has its peculiar folly— some scheme, project, or phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.”

Destruction as good?? Some comment on the irrational psychology of apocalyptic minds. Wendell Krossa

Understand how apocalyptic mythology works to destroy societies (A nod to Arthur Mendel’s conclusion that “apocalyptic is the most violent and destructive idea in history”- in his book “Vision and Violence”).

Apocalyptic mythology terrorizes people with the primal survival threat (“we’re all gonna die”) and that threat pushes people toward irrational thinking and the consequent embrace of insane salvation schemes that destroy societies. The salvation schemes of apocalyptic mythology often become projects of “self-fulfilling prophecy” that propel populations to embrace the destruction of their societies under the illusion of saving themselves (“destroy the world to save it”).

People panicked by apocalypse scenarios will embrace the salvation schemes offered by apocalyptic prophets because the prophets play on human hope for future survival in the restoration of some lost paradise or new utopia that supposedly emerges after the apocalypse.

Further, people are led to irrationally embrace the coming destruction from the apocalypse because they are told that the destruction of the present “corrupt” world is a necessary first stage before there can be the restoration of paradise. The apocalyptic complex of myths states that in order to achieve the salvation into the promised paradise that will be re-created in a post-apocalypse world, there must first be the great violent purging from the world of the present corrupt system, the “evil” system that threatens life (Arthur Herman notes this feature of “violent purging” in his history of Declinism ideology- “The Idea of Decline in Western History”). Read the rest of the opening comment here

Further below: See the latest from climate physicists Lindzen and Happer on their challenge to the unscientific “Endangerment Finding” of the EPA. Understand the physics of CO2- i.e. that it has reached “saturation” in terms of its warming effect and that with increasing atmospheric levels the warming effect of CO2 now declines logarithmically. Understanding the physics of CO2 (and actual observed climate change, not the exaggerations and distortions of discredited climate models) will lead to recognizing that there is no “climate crisis” and no need to tax carbon or decarbonize our societies.

The title above refers to the need to re-evaluate and purge our meta-narratives (religious and “secular/ideological” narratives) of inhumane themes, notably to purge the inhumane ideas that have been projected onto deity or theology over past millennia. Themes that define deity are the most dominating ideas that validate other inhumane themes in our narratives. We have better, more humane alternative insights today to shape our narratives. The feature of “no conditions love” would be a primary feature for creating more humane deity theories (truly human gods). Unconditional should be among the main criteria for evaluating what is truly human or not.

Section topics:

(1) The climate crusade is “profoundly religious” (revised update): How primitive myths have been passed down through history and continue to dominate narratives today, both religious and “secular/ideological” narratives like climate alarmism.

(2) Climate physicists Schmitt and Happer on the conventional distortions re CO2.

(3) There is no need to “address climate change”- the fallacy of “control knob theory” (i.e. the discredited claim that CO2 is mainly responsible for climate change so embrace the unscientific and irrational policies of taxing carbon and decarbonizing our societies in order to “control climate change” and “limit global warming to about 1.5 degree C”.)

(4) Response to Jordan Peterson’s questions: What do belief systems express? And… How to avoid becoming caught up in “madness of crowds” episodes like Marxism, Nazism, and environmental alarmism?

(5) More on the “wonder of being human”.

(6) An Aussie story about oil.

See two new articles at the bottom of this opening section:

(1) Terrorizing, traumatizing children with climate apocalypse tales- a commentary by Judith Curry on the harmful effects of climate alarmism on children (“anti-hardiness/resilience”, learned helplessness, fatalism, despair/depression, nihilism).

(2) Comment by Eric Worrall on Senator Malcolm Roberts’ excellent submission to the Australian government to “prove with proper science that CO2 is a problem”.

Re-affirming site project- slay the monster of all monsters at the root of primal human fears:

This site engages themes from the “hero’s journey/adventure” such as the feature of engaging a great battle against monsters/enemies. The monster/enemy of this site has long been the bad ideas in human narratives from across history, notably bad theological ideas (i.e. monstrous deities). These monster gods have terrorized human consciousness from the earliest creation of human mythologies and have long remained deeply embedded in human narratives, mainly in religious narratives but have also been embraced in the “secular/ideological” narratives of more recent centuries.

One of the worst among the complex of all bad ideas is the myth that deities work through the harmful elements of the natural world (i.e. natural disaster, disease, predatory cruelty) to punish people for their sins. Note that Paul used this myth in his argument with the Corinthians- that God was punishing their sins with disease and death (1 Corinthians ch.10). Environmental alarmism has embraced this same pathological mythology with its own versions of “secular/ideological” deities punishing humanity- i.e. “vengeful Gaia, angry Mother Earth/Planet, punitive Universe, or payback karma”. This mythology adds an extra psychic burden (i.e. human suffering as punishment from deity) to already unbearable physical suffering.

These monster ideas have been protected under “the canopy of the sacred” (world religions) far too long. They re-enforce an entire complex of bad religious ideas, and notably they re-enforce the broader narrative of Declinism that dominates the consciousness of most people today (e.g. Environmental Declinism, climate alarmism).

More on “Monster gods terrorizing human consciousness since the creation of the earliest mythologies”, Wendell Krossa–

Pre-historian John Pfeiffer in “The Creative Explosion: An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion” explores the origins of religion in the cave art that exploded some 30,000 years ago across southern France and northern Spain, notably in caves like those at Lascaux. He questions why people went so far into the darkness of those caves to draw the anamorphic art that they had discovered. (“Anamorphic”- i.e. the art appears to change shape or move in flickering candle light or when lamps are held at differing angles to the paintings.)

He suggests varied features of ancient thought and practice that contributed to the origins of religion as exhibited in that cave art. For instance, he suggests that those ancient people believed in the “Master or Keeper of Animals”, exalted beings who provide game and establish the rules for hunting, and punishments if the rules are broken. Such gods (like their eventual Greek offspring) were believed to be “angry and aggressive, jealous… and meddled incessantly in human affairs, punishing… and visiting all sorts of plagues upon mortals”. The Master of Animals is the prototype of all subsequent gods. (Note in regard to the animal Masters, how prominent animals are throughout the cave art.)

The intentional location of the art deep within the caves served the purpose of disorienting people and preparing them via an unpleasant experience (darkness, silence, frightening “anamorphic” art) to be receptive to what the early shaman would tell them.

Fear/terror was a basic point of the cave experience. Those early people probably believed in supernatural beings and their sense of the supernatural as frightening was intensified in the darkness and silence of the caves. The cave experience, and the art, heightened the sense of strangeness, otherworldliness, mystery, and danger.

Further, the early shaman/priests claimed to know the secrets of the invisible world (“knowledge of sacred affairs”) and that was a claim to power and control over others. It was a claim used to gain advantage over enemies/rivals. They claimed to know the secrets of how to appease and please the spirits/gods with offerings and sacrifices so as to avoid punishments (sickness, death) and to gain benefits (survival, prosperity).

The cave art and related ceremonies also suggest the origins of elites in early societies- i.e. shaman claiming special knowledge of the secrets of the invisible realms/gods, and even elevating themselves to god-like status over others. This was a claim to superiority/authority, and a demand for subservience and obedience from other lesser mortals (i.e. the earliest origin of priesthoods as “specially enlightened” and “righteously dominating” representatives of deity). Read the rest of the opening comment here

“I hold undying enmity toward everything that enslaves the human mind” (paraphrase of unknown author).

This site continues to present evidence from varied sources affirming that there is no “climate crisis” and hence no need to tax carbon or decarbonize our societies. Basic climate facts show there is no looming climate apocalypse. CO2 is not the “control knob” for climate change. CO2 is not the main influence on climate but is only a “bit player” among a complex of other natural factors. See, for example, the “Sun-Climate Effect: Winter Gatekeeper hypothesis” reports below that show “meridional transport” is the main influence on climate change. Point? There is no need to abandon the fossil fuels that have enabled humanity to prosper as never before in history.

The real “wonder of being human”

The great wonder regarding humanity is not how far we have “fallen” since some imaginary better past (i.e. the myths of original paradise world, Eden, sinless humans, but then the “Fall of humanity into original sinfulness”, and subsequent ruin and loss of paradise). The great wonder regarding humanity is how far we have risen from our barbaric animal past (Bob Brinsmead).

Get the basics of a true narrative of life right, the actual trajectory of life (i.e. not declining, but improving over the long term). Overturn and correct the continuing mythical distortions in the story of life, whether religious or “secular/ideological” distortions. The basic themes of the old narratives are all the same, whether expressed religiously or ideologically/scientifically. Evidence overwhelmingly affirms a new narrative of life improving, based on the growing evidence of humanity solving problems, improving the human condition, and taking better care of nature.

And this critical warning from Jordan Peterson on eco-extremism…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/28/eco-extremists-leading-world-towards-despair-poverty-starvation/

Topics below:

(1) Rejecting rational science, holding a mythical perspective;
(2) Latest summary of the “Sun-climate effect: Winter Gatekeeper hypothesis”;
(3) Counter facts to the climate alarm narrative (there is no evidence of a “climate emergency”);
(4) The climate alarmism crusade is “profoundly religious” (the complex of primitive apocalyptic themes that shape climate alarmism and environmental alarmism/declinism ideology in general);
(5) The Sun-climate effect: Winter Gatekeeper hypothesis” (“meridional transport” is the main influence on climate, not CO2);
(6) We are in the coldest time of the 600-million year history of life on Earth (cold is the far greater threat today in our world where 10 times more people die every year from cold than die from warmth);
(7) Climate physics (the physics of CO2- i.e. the warming effect of CO2 is now “saturated” in physics terms, meaning it won’t contribute much more to further warming as the warming effect of CO2 now declines logarithmically);
(8) Is climate change really a “serious issue”? (taking a poke at a National Post writer);
(9) Greg Gutfeld: “Common sense can no longer defuse absurd situations” (Woke extremism);
(10) Waiting around to be offended (the deranged psychology of outrage culture);
(11) Media obsession in relating all natural weather events to the alarmism narrative of “climate crisis”;
(12) Despite media’s constant crusade to incite ongoing hysteria over all sorts of weather events, there is no evidence that storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts, or other weather disasters are becoming worse (the endless mantra of “the worst on record”) and, in fact, many show trends of decline due to the mild warming of the past century. Global warming produces a decrease in gradient differences between cold and warm areas of the world means less severity and quantity of storms, fewer and less severe tornadoes, etc. This beneficial outcome is due to “meridional transport” that carries tropical warmth to the colder polar regions of Earth thereby “evening out” climate across the world and explaining the “remarkable stability of tropical temperatures” even when Earth was 10 degrees warmer over the paleoclimate past.; and more…

Get the physics of CO2 clear and that will go a long way to defusing the madness of the “profoundly religious” climate alarmism crusade (i.e. enabling “common sense to defuse absurd situations”). Note particularly the research of climate physicists like Richard Lindzen, William Happer, William Wijngaarden, among others. Read the rest of the opening comment here

“I hold undying enmity against everything that enslaves the human mind” (paraphrase of unknown author).

Section topics:

(1) The most destructive pathology to have infected human consciousness- apocalyptic mythology;
(2) Subjective, personal human experience as a credible tool in the fight against primal fears;
(3) Fighting Fear: the panic-mongering of the “climate crisis” crusade (listen to the good science and scientists that contradict alarmist exaggerations);
(4) The continuing endeavors of the Left to criminalize disagreement;
(5) Basic climate facts (there is no “climate crisis”);
(6) From Retaliation to Unconditional: The narrative of human exodus from animal existence to become authentically human (our foundational story);
and more climate facts…

The most destructive pathology to have ever infected human consciousness: How apocalyptic began, where it came from, Wendell Krossa

The primal human impulse for meaning- i.e. to understand reality/life- led our early ancestors to create ideas/myths that would explain the world and how it worked. Hence, in the earliest human writing (Sumerian, Egyptian) we get, for example, the great “Sumerian Flood” myth, the Egyptian “Return to Chaos” and “Destruction of Mankind” myths, all early versions of apocalyptic mythology that told people of the coming punishing destruction of humanity. The message? Angry, threatening gods would punish bad people for their sins.

That mythology was the result of early thought-constraining logic regarding the world. The ancients believed that there were gods/spirits behind all the elements of the world- i.e. gods of storm, lightning and thunder, gods of trees and animals, sun and moon gods. It was then only logical for our ancestors to view the destructive consequences of storms/floods, drought and fire, earthquake, and disease as angry gods acting through nature to punish people for their sins. All the elements fit the constrained logic of early mythology.

Such themes then became the original models/patterns/prototypes that shaped all human consciousness and narratives that would follow down through history. As Joseph Campbell said, the same primitive myths have been embraced all across history and across all the cultures of the world. The early myths were later adopted by more formal religious traditions like Zoroastrianism that would then in turn shape the Western religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The same myths also shaped the Eastern religious traditions. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Contact: wkrossa@shaw.ca

“Lomborg is right that the Earth is not hurtling towards apocalypse due to climate change, rather, the data shows quite the opposite is true: things are getting better.” (see links to Lomborg articles and data below)

Summary of section topics:

1-2 degrees C more warming is not a collapse into climate catastrophe. For most of the history of life, world average temperatures were 3-6 degrees C warmer than today (i.e. 17-20 degrees C on average compared to today’s 14.5 degree C average temperature). Life emerged, developed, and thrived in that much warmer world with much higher levels of CO2 (1000-1500 ppm versus the 400-plus ppm of today’s “CO2 starvation era”); The “Sun-climate relationship” reports- “meridional transport”, not CO2, is the main influence on climate change; Christianity got Jesus all wrong- summary of Bob Brinsmead’s research on Historical Jesus. Quotes from sources- Jesus was the founder of Jewish Christianity. Paul’s Gentile Christianity (based on his Christ myth) contradicted the message of Jesus entirely on all its main points; More climate facts… Read the rest of the opening comment here

Topics below: Anti-fossil fuel crusade is devastating societies like Britain and Germany; “World Climate Declaration” (There is no climate emergency); The benefits of higher CO2 levels; Irrational panic over ice melting and “Arctic greening”; CO2 is not causing a “climate crisis”; Discussing the physics of CO2 with old friends (discussion group posts); and more…

Exaggerated panic-mongering, as with the climate crisis narrative, incites the survival impulse in populations rendering people susceptible to irrational salvation schemes. We are watching this unfold in the widespread embrace of decarbonization to “save the world” from the “end of days”. And like all apocalyptic movements, climate alarmism has become a self-destructive movement that harms the most vulnerable people the most.

The irrational embrace of self-destruction stems in part from the deeply embedded human feeling that we are bad to the bone, we have ruined an original paradise, and we now deserve punishment and must make some sacrifice or payment for our sins (i.e. the abandonment of the good life for a return to a “morally superior” simple lifestyle).

Apocalyptic prophets tell people that if they embrace the full complex of apocalyptic millennial themes and practices, then they may be able to restore the lost paradise or initiate a new millennial paradise. This is pagan mythology at its primitive worst now unfolding in climate alarmism.

We have been given the warnings for years now that Green anti-fossil fuel policies (i.e. decarbonization) will devastate our societies. We have watched countries like Germany and Britain rushing to wean themselves off fossil fuels in a panic over the discredited climate alarmism narrative (i.e. good climate science shows that there is no “climate emergency”). A series of ongoing reports by agencies like the Global Warming Policy Forum have detailed the massive harm this fear-based policy of decarbonization has wrought on these societies. Pay close attention to the unfolding catastrophe in those countries…

This from the Wall Street Journal…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/net-zero-bankrupts-britain-household-energy-bills-climate-11661523856?mc_cid=8d425871c8&mc_eid=bbd9cad85f

Quotes from above link:

“If you think this couldn’t happen in America, think again. The underlying cause of Britain’s energy misery is its fixation with climate goals, especially the ambition to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. To meet that goal Britain has grown hostile to domestic energy exploration, banning shale-gas fracking and slapping windfall-profits taxes on North Sea oil and gas producers that will deter investment. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hurt, but the U.K.’s policies made its citizens vulnerable to such a global shock…

“This isn’t all that different from the energy policies the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress, California and New York are imposing via the Inflation Reduction Act and myriad regulatory assaults on fossil fuels and favors for renewables. Britain’s inane innovation is a price cap that causes disastrous price increases to happen twice a year rather than continuously.

“To adapt Hemingway, net zero drives you bankrupt gradually, then suddenly. Britain’s sudden energy agony is a five-alarm warning if the climate progressives continue to have their way.”

See also

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/uk-energy-bills-gas-electricity-price-cap-b2153549.html?mc_cid=8d425871c8&mc_eid=bbd9cad85f

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/26/how-governments-cult-net-zero-wrecked-energy-market/?mc_cid=8d425871c8&mc_eid=bbd9cad85f

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-energy-transition-will-fail-11661547051?mc_cid=8d425871c8&mc_eid=bbd9cad85f

Aussie Senator Malcolm Roberts Slams False Net Zero Inflation Claims

Update on “The World Climate Declaration”

‘There is No Climate Emergency’ (1,107 Signatories and Counting)

Main points affirmed by over 1,100 signatories:

“There is no climate emergency.

“Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Note: Some older but still good material on the “dualistic interaction” versus materialism issue can be found in neuroscientist and Nobel laureate John Eccles’ books- “The Wonder of Being Human”, “The Human Mystery”, “The Self and its Brain”, “Evolution of the Brain”.

A “spiritual” thought...

Our invisible conscious self is the most real thing about us, not our physical body. And consciousness may be the most real and fundamental thing in the entire cosmos, with an Ultimate Consciousness giving rise to and sustaining all material reality. Quantum mechanics tells us that we still have no idea what material reality is (see, for example, “Mass: The quest to understand matter from Greek atoms to quantum fields” by Jim Baggott). Mind is fundamental. Matter arises from mind. Philosophical Materialism has this all backwards.

“The stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter… we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter”, quantum theorist James Jeans.

Another…

I accept Consciousness as the most fundamental reality, giving rise to all physical reality. But I do not view the creating/sustaining Consciousness as something neutral, such as the laws of nature. I affirm, along with others across history, that the Consciousness that gives rise to and sustains this material cosmos is most fundamentally love, and a form of love that is inexpressibly more wondrous than anything that we experience during our life journeys through this material realm. It is a stunningly transcendent “no conditions love” (non-retaliatory, non-judging, universally inclusive, not punitive or destructive). I find good expressions of this in the attempts of many in the Near-Death Experience movement (a contemporary “spiritual” movement) to tell us of the love and light that they experienced.

Example: “The very atoms of God were unconditional love; the very substance of God was unconditional love”. My conclusion from this NDE insight- If the Ultimate Reality that many call God is the most fundamental reality, the creator and sustainer of all other reality, then that makes no conditions love the most fundamental reality of all realities.

Others from past history have given us the same insight that “God is love” but often their insights were buried and distorted in religious traditions with all their endless conditions- i.e. conditions of correct belief, required sacrifice/payment, obligatory membership in the religion, proper rituals of the religion, and righteous lifestyle identifying one as a member of the given religion.

While I affirm the valued insights and help that religious traditions have given many people, no religion has ever communicated to humanity this insight that God is absolutely no conditions love. Religious traditions have buried and distorted this insight with endless conditions.

A practical outcome of this insight? “We become just like the god that we believe in”. Most people try to model in their lives what they hold as ultimate ideals and authorities.

Note: Pardon me but I have been recuperating from prostate cancer surgery and slow to put new material up.

Note on exaggeration, distortion, inciting panic in populations that leads to irrational response to problems…

From Aug. 4, 2022 Net Zero Watch newsletter (Global Warming Policy Forum):

“London, 4 August — Official data released today reveals that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is in excellent health, with coral cover reaching record levels for the second consecutive year.

“The increase will be surprising to members of the public, who are regularly hit with scare stories about coral bleaching and false tales about a reef in long-term decline.

“A new note, published today by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, explains that the data shows clearly how a handful of coral bleaching events that have affected the reef since 2016 have had very limited impact on overall coral cover. Read the rest of the opening comment here

The list below contains some of the most important information/insight that I would pass on to a new generation. The new themes point to the most profound liberation of all- the liberation of human consciousness at the deepest levels thought, emotion, and motivation… liberation of the human spirit from the most primal fears that have burdened humanity across the millennia.

Wendell Krossa wkrossa@shaw.ca

Intro to the short version of “Old Narrative Themes, Better Alternatives” (long-form version available just below this short-form list)

Joseph Campbell noted that a prominent set of primitive myths has been repeated all across human history and across all the cultures of the world. People embracing these mythical themes in their personal worldviews are subjected to a profoundly distorted perception of reality.

The same mythical themes that have dominated human narratives across history continue to dominate human narratives and distort public consciousness today. They continue to deform human perception of reality, distorting our understanding of the true state of our world.

The mythical ideas that Campbell referred to have long been the central beliefs of the world religions. They are now also embraced in “secular” ideological belief systems like “Declinism” a contemporary version of apocalyptic mythology, the fallacy that life is becoming worse and declining toward catastrophe and ending, as propagated in the ideology of Environmental alarmism/climate alarmism. These ideas have even found expression in “scientific” versions. But at core they are the same old primitive pathologies as ever before.

Note, for curiosity’s sake, that many young moderns today claim self-identities as “secular/materialist… even atheist” and yet continue to mouth the very same themes of the primitive mythologies of previous millennia, no different in substance from Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Zoroastrian, and other ancient belief systems.

You then get this cognitive dissonance outcome: People, thinking that they have freed themselves from mythical/religious ideas and have embraced more secular, materialist, even atheist belief systems, are living in self-delusion because a close examination of the worldviews of such people reveals that the core themes they hold are often the very same old mythical themes as those held across history by fundamentalist religious people.

Psychotherapist Zenon Lotufo states that bad mythical ideas are seriously damaging to human life in terms of unnecessary fear, anxiety, shame/guilt, depression, despair/nihilism, and violence (i.e. his point that Cruel God theories deform human personality- see his book “Cruel God, Kind God”).

Example: The “loss of paradise” myth incites a sense of loss, wrong done, grievance, and the felt need to engage a righteous battle to make things right again (i.e. the urge to engage justice as punitive treatment of an enemy’s failure- the enemy blamed for ruining something pure and good- in order to make things “right” again). The actual trajectory of life reveals there was never any original paradise that has been ruined by humanity but, rather, the long-term trajectory of life shows an ongoing rise from a worse past toward a better future. This trajectory of evolutionary progress encourages hope to continue investing in improving the world because, so far, we have done well in making life ever-better (Julian Simon, Ultimate Resource).

Another (related to Lotufo’s points): If we believe that some deity will judge, punish, exclude and destroy our enemies (i.e. send them to Hell) then we will inevitably end up treating our opponents in the same manner (judging, condemning, excluding, punishing). We become just like the God that we believe in. This “behavior based on belief” relationship operates in both religious and “secular” environments.

The alternative ideas offered, taken from human insight across history, speak to the profound liberation that is possible- i.e. liberation of mind, consciousness, and spirit at the deepest levels, a liberation initiated by radically changing the core ideas/themes that have long been embedded in back of human minds, hardwired even in human subconscious. Such ideas shape how people perceive and understand the world, how they feel about things, and influence their motivations to respond/behave in life.

The liberation of human mind by reshaping consciousness with entirely new themes then ripples out to impact all of life and society because we become just like the ultimate ideals/themes that we believe in, the themes that we embrace to shape our worldviews. The alternatives listed below point us in the direction of authentically humane existence. They show us how to become the heroes of our stories, how to “tower in stature as maturely human” (Joseph Campbell).

Insert note: Climate alarmism, with its apocalyptic scenarios and salvation schemes, is a contemporary example of a profoundly religious movement fraudulently presented as secular ideology, even science. Climate alarmism embraces the worst of bad ideas/themes from mythical traditions.

Note to our atheist friends regarding the varied themes below that deal with deity features- Suck it up. You are never going to rid humanity of the impulse to God speculation, to create God theories, so rather than deny this primal human impulse, learn to work with it. One option- Purge deity theories of all the primitive mythical/religious features and reshape God theory entirely with scientific, psychological advances, and insights from contemporary “spiritual” movements like the NDE movement with its primary discovery that the “Light” is unconditional love of a stunningly inexpressible nature. That overturns all religious mythology in one stroke. All religions are systems of conditions- i.e. conditions of correct belief, demanded sacrifice, membership in the “true” religion, and required religious lifestyle that evidences membership in the true religion.

Whether defined as God, Light, Universe, Gaia, Universal Mind, Ultimate Consciousness, Mother Earth, karma, or other, most people continue to embrace some version of Ultimate Reality or creating Intelligence (see again the PEW Research Center’s “Global Religious Landscape” survey). God theories continue to contribute some of the most basic features to human meta-narratives and personal worldviews (both in religious and “secular/materialist” versions).

Old narrative themes, better alternatives (short version), Wendell Krossa

1. Old story myth: The idea of deity as a judging, punishing, and destroying reality. Contemporary “secular” versions of judging, punishing deity include “Vengeful Gaia, angry Planet/Mother Earth, retributive Universe, and payback karma”. Read the rest of the opening comment here

The “climate crisis” movement is a “profoundly religious” crusade, impervious to contrary scientific fact on climate. And that is the true “denialism” in this climate issue. So please end the projection of one’s faults on to others. Detail in sections below.

The critical core issue in the climate debate?- The physics of CO2 and its warming influence (i.e. its logarithmically declining influence on climate warming with rising levels in the atmosphere, and the evidence that CO2 is just a “bit player” among a complex of other natural factors that more dominantly influence the natural climate change that we have experienced over past decades and centuries). See especially the research of climate physicists Richard Lindzen and William Happer, among others below.

This worth a repeat, from…

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/there-is-no-climate-emergency-say-500-experts-in-letter-to-the-united-nations/

“There Is No Climate Emergency, Say 500 Experts in Letter to the United Nations.

“A global network of more than 500 knowledgeable and experienced scientists and professionals in climate and related fields have the honor to address Your Excellencies and attached European Climate Declaration, for which the signatories to this letter are the national ambassadors. The general-circulation models of climate on which international policy is at present founded are unfit for their purpose.

“Therefore, it is cruel as well as imprudent to advocate the squandering of trillions of dollars on the basis of results from such immature models. Current climate policies pointlessly and grievously undermine the economic system, putting lives at risk in countries denied access to affordable, reliable electrical energy. We urge you to follow a climate policy based on sound science, realistic economics, and genuine concern for those harmed by costly but unnecessary attempts at mitigation.”

Points made by the climate experts:

“1. Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming.

“2. Warming is far slower than predicted.

“3. Climate policy relies on inadequate models.

“4. CO2 is not a pollutant. It is a plant food that is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: additional CO2 in the atmosphere has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.

“5. Global warming has not increased natural disasters.

“6. Climate policy must respect scientific and economic realities.

“7. There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

Section topics further below:
Green policies ruining societies,
The real “righteous battle” of life takes place inside each of us,
Endless eruptions of hysterical outrage,
YouTube discussion- Jordan Peterson with Africa Brooke,
All human beings are imperfect- forgiveness in our stories,
Metaphysical basis of equality?,
Posts to old friends on climate facts,
One post on some features of the dying process (personal story),
The SEC disclosure rule and the Lindzen/Happer (climate physicists) exposure of the unscientific basis of the rule,
True egalitarianism,
Study: Cold in China kills 45 times as many people as heat,
Pushback against ESG undemocratic infiltration of the business world,
Joseph Campbell’s insights on human development,
Bjorn Lomborg on cold killing far more people than heat,
Defining themes of profoundly religious crusades like climate alarmism,
Scientist Lennart Bengtsson: “There is no climate crisis”.

Green policies ruining societies with the decarbonization crusade, Wendell Krossa

An apocalyptic/millennial narrative, a doom story, has possessed our world. The story of “climate crisis”. And despite claims of climate alarmists that their story is scientific, it is actually thoroughly anti-science, a quite profoundly religious story, no different from myriad similar apocalyptic stories across human history that also led societies to self-inflicted ruin (see, for example, Richard Landes’ “Heaven On Earth” for detail). Read the rest of the opening comment here

Section topics below:

The insanity of endless apocalyptic alarmism;

Father of modern environmentalism, James Lovelock’s late-in-life apology and rejection of climate alarmism;

The cost of opposing and restricting US fossil fuel resources;

Climate alarmism: A profoundly religious crusade based on unscientific/mythical assumptions;

Site splainin: Explaining my persistent focus on the single greatest breakthrough insight of humanity re unconditional reality (the cohering center of a new meta-narrative);

Project: Basic themes of a new meta-narrative;

ESG ideology dominating financial institutions and ruining economies;

Encourage empathy: The irresponsible panic-mongering over natural climate change is traumatizing and destroying the lives of children (loss of hope, nothing to live for, no future), so think about and try to feel what you are doing to children with exaggerated climate alarmism;

Origins of apocalypse myth (Notes on Pfeiffer’s “Explosion: Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion”);

Media obsession with affirming the climate apocalypse narrative;

The true state of climate;

Some of the 6,000 essential products based on crude oil derivatives, many essential to human well-being;

Great Replacement Theory;

My Jefferson/Tolstoy view of the New Testament (only for those not afraid of a blunt assessment of Christianity);

The liberating potency of love in alleviating fear;

Affirming love in human life (the great discovery of unconditional);

End the panic-mongering- free people from fear; and more…

Endless exaggerated alarmism distorts the true state of life on Earth. Alarmists frame even manageable problems with exaggerated extremist terms like “catastrophe, existential crisis, looming disaster” and this distorts our understanding of the real nature of those problems. Note this in regard to the mild warming that we have experienced over the past century- roughly 1 degree C warming in a still too cold world where 10 times more people die every year from cold than die from warmth. As for extreme weather events- heat waves, droughts, storms, floods- they have not become more frequent or severe and even the IPCC admits this. Yet this normal, natural climate change has been seized upon by apocalyptic prophets as portending the end of the world.

Alarmism has become a shrill note in the background of daily life, bleating mainly through news media, and dangerously inciting the survival impulse in populations. That aroused fear opens people to irrationality in response to life’s problems, making them susceptible to irrational salvation schemes like decarbonization. Alarmed people readily fall for scam saviors that promise to lead them out of purported danger and into a restored “lost original paradise” or some millennial utopia.

We counter the endlessly erupting alarmism of our current age by seeking good data sources on the main indicators of the world- i.e. soils, forests, land species, ocean species, the atmosphere, etc.- indicators that inform us about the true state of life. Julian Simon gave us the template on how to do this in his brilliant Ultimate Resource. Others followed- Greg Easterbrook in A Moment On Earth, Bjorn Lomborg in Skeptical Environmentalist, Indur Goklany in The Improving State of the World, Desrochers and Szurmak in Population Bombed, and varied others like the folks at Humanprogress.org. They provide good evidence that, while problems remain, we (humanity) have done well in tackling the problems and maintaining life on an improving trajectory toward a better future over the long term. As Julian Simon said, we have done well. Read the rest of the opening comment here