The Unconditional Human Spirit

Grok has done a great job below explaining how bad ideas in our major religious traditions have promoted “conquest, crusades, and demonization of others as enemies”. Grok details why people continue to embrace these bad ideas (i.e. locating identity too rigidly in them) and how we can free ourselves to embrace better alternatives.

Grok’s homework below illustrates that AI will not become the new apocalyptic threat as many are trying to frame it. To the contrary, Grok performing as it has below will counter those hysterically claiming that AI is the next great apocalyptic threat. Some have speculated that as the climate hysteria appears to be dying, apocalyptic prophets are trying to gin up the next great alarm to keep people traumatized with fear.

Note new material below

The main complex of bad ideas dealt with on this site are not the only factors driving the human history of violence and war. But they are significant and we have past millennia of evidence of the harm that has resulted from people who have held these ideas in their belief systems and traditions.

Also, Grok offers more here on the Q Wisdom Sayings research, the oral tradition of Q that is the closest we get to what Jesus actually believed and taught. And comment on the moderation of Christianity in the modern era. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Note below the link to a new article by Michael Shellenberger on the leftist bias in AI models. Also, his apparent call, as he has done often before, for a revival of an undifferentiated Christianity in response to the abandonment of classic liberal democracy in the West. In response to these calls for a revival of undifferentiated Christianity, I’ve included a reposting of my “Notable contradictions between Jesus and Paul’s Christ”.

“Glenn Greenwald vs. Coleman Hughes Debate: Does Israel Control U.S. Foreign Policy?” on Coleman Hughe’s podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEvJQoowZUI

Not to stick my nose in, but Glen Greenwald does not seem to get the point that the US’s apparent favoritism of Israel has varied nuanced complexities like the fact that Israel is a liberal democracy struggling to survive against enemies who are committed to the extermination of Jews and will keep attacking Israel until they fulfill that theological commitment (again, “It’s the theology, stupid”). They pose an “existential” threat and Israel most often has been responding defensively when, in Greenwald’s terms, it has “attacked its neighbors in endless wars”.

Coleman is right to note there is some sort of “psychological bias” in the anti-Israel arguments of people like Greenwald. Not racism, as in antisemitism, but something “ideological” and apparently almost subconscious.

I would point to histories of Judaism that note this goes back millennia, even to ancient Egypt that dehumanized Jews as “disease/vermin” to be eliminated. The author of one book said that nations, across past millennia, have felt obligated to embrace antisemitism as an element of their national identity (“We are against the Jews”). One of history’s oldest hatreds. Does this also explain in part Greenwald and Tucker Carlson’s biases? Read the rest of the opening comment here

Many complain of meaninglessness today, fueled by depression, anxiety, despair, etc., and vented in hedonism, all in a modern era of unprecedented abundance, the “best time ever to be alive on earth”. Where I can get too wordy (see my version with more detail further below) AI does the “chop-chop” of summarizing points more succinctly (i.e. less verbiage, kinda like less foilage).

See also Grok’s good detail further below on applying the ideals/points here to our individual life stories, how we can relate to others nontribally, with non-dominating treatment of others, with non-retaliatory responses. Grok draws on the psychological/behavioral insights of many others from across history.

Here are a few preface quotes from the full outline of my “rough copy” essay posted at the bottom of Grok’s responses that begin just below…

My initial challenge to Grok- Please analyze and summarize the material in my essay below in your own words. Perhaps shorten more.

My ‘rough copy’ essay deals with the primary impulse of humans to meaning and purpose. It suggests framing our personal meaning/purpose impulse, our personal narrative and life story, within the larger meta-story of humanity making the exodus out of an animal past to find the freedom to live as maturely human in liberal democracy civilization.

The larger story of humanity gives us a fundamental template on which to base our personal impulses for meaning and purpose, the template to frame our understanding of why we are here and what is our purpose. Recognizing the meta-story of humanity will provide a framework to then frame our personal story as microcosms of the great human exodus from an animal past to live truly human existence in civilization. Our individual stories are our personal experiences of that grand narrative but lived on an intensely personal scale. In our personal lives we fight and conquer the “monster” of the enslaving animal impulses inside us in order to experience the freedom to think, feel, and act as maturely human. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Note below my reminder “Insert” on the culpability of all three western religious traditions for holding the core “bad idea” themes that validate and motivate the fringe extremists in their traditions. Just taking another poke at tribalism and its tendency to devalue, degrade, even demonize the differing other and, hence, once viewed as some form of “lesser”, then deserving of severe punishment and other forms of dehumanizing treatment.

See also below- “Doing some theology with the AI guys on transcendence and immanence in deity”. AI interacting with Bob Brinsmead, one of the best theological minds on this planet.

Two main threats to liberal democracy, Wendell Krossa (Grok and Google AI comment below on the collectivist threat)

Preface: Who warned us that we can never fully relax our obligation to maintain awareness that freedom has to be constantly guarded, and unfortunately sometimes fought for in order to preserve it?

“Unfortunate” because of the imperfect world that we live in, sometimes facing threat from opponents deformed by psychopathy, sometimes deformed by seriously bad ideas, among other possible factors. The point below is about the need to be fully aware of the actual nature of the threats to liberal democracy today. Hence, my insistence on confronting the core element of theology.

Do we properly understand the two great threats to liberal democracy freedom today- i.e. (1) theocracy crusades and (2) neo-collectivism that come at us through diverse variants? Both persistently come at liberal democracies through varied and sometimes insidious new versions (i.e. deceptively, dishonestly) that are continually mutating, often constructed to hide real intentions. At other times the proponents of these systems publicly admit and declare their intention to undermine, overthrow, and eventually eliminate liberal democracy (e.g. this has been stated by the Chinese totalitarians- see Grok comments below). Read the rest of the opening comment here

Quote from below: “Universal archetypal templates… have wired human storytelling and belief systems from the dawn of culture onward. These aren’t “quoted” or formally credited across generations; they just keep resurfacing because they’re baked into the collective human psyche, as Joseph Campbell (drawing straight from Carl Jung) mapped out so powerfully…

“Campbell’s core insight— yes, exactly in the spirit of what you’re summarizing— is that the world’s myths aren’t random or isolated. They’re variations on the same underlying patterns (the ‘monomyth’ or hero’s journey at the personal level, but also the grand cosmogonic myths at the civilizational level). He called it the one great story humanity keeps telling itself in different masks: ‘Myths are the world’s dreams,’ springing from the collective unconscious— those inherited, primordial images and structures we all carry, regardless of time or culture. The hero’s journey, the fall from paradise, the apocalyptic battle, the redemptive purge… same template, endlessly recycled”, Grok.

And this (from Grok’s comments below) on the Muslim Brotherhood’s commitment and plan to overthrow western liberal democracies from within…

“This directly references the Muslim Brotherhood’s own internal 1991 document, the ‘Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America’ (authored by Mohamed Akram for the Shura Council; entered into U.S. court evidence in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial). Key excerpt: ‘The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan [MB] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.’

“The memo frames this as a phased ‘settlement’ and ‘enablement’ strategy: building an observant Muslim base, creating organizations, and adapting to local conditions— non-coercive and ‘gentle’ (infiltration via institutions, media, politics, and freedoms) in the West, while violence remains the norm elsewhere until the movement is strong enough. It explicitly calls this a Muslim’s ‘destiny’ of jihad wherever they are. Other National Post contributors (e.g., referencing similar ‘stealth jihad’ or ‘civilisation jihad’ tactics) have echoed this, noting the MB’s global network uses Western openness against it before shifting to more direct coercion where feasible.”

See articles by Conrad Black and Vivian Bercovici at bottom expressing evidence-based confidence that the US/Israeli war on Iran is producing the desired outcome, contrary to the usual negative reporting by mainstream media. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Do you really want to properly and thoroughly resolve the ongoing problem of theocracy-driven wars? Do you really want to defeat the “idea” that General Nagata said had to be defeated if we are to properly end the repeated ISIS-like eruptions of violence? Then we have to face the fact that “Its the theology, stupid”. And what exactly is the nature of that “theology”?

Also, see Nellie Bowles’s summary below of apocalyptic prophet Paul Ehrlich illustrating the 100% historical failure rate of apocalyptic. Ehrlich preached his unique take on apocalyptic millennialism or “salvation (save the world) through violent destruction (notably against humanity)”.

Note my quibble-level (maybe a bit more intense) tug of war with Grok at the bottom of this section over the climate file and contributing factors (i.e. human or natural) to climate change.

Note: I also posted this insert further below and will repeat it here. It needs to be stated whenever I promote one of the central topics here- i.e. the unconditional ideal as the most helpful guide that humanity has discovered to help us defuse ‘eye for eye’ cycles and maintain peace and order in our societies. I illustrate the practical usefulness of this ideal with, for example, the approach of Nelson Mandela in de-escalating the push for retaliatory treatment of former oppressors in South Africa. It worked at societal scale to avoid civil war there. But he also held former oppressors responsible with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Unfortunately, many respond to the term “unconditional” as affirming some form of pacifism in the face of violence and abuse. That misconception requires a repeated qualifying of what unconditional involves. Read the rest of the opening comment here

How liberal democracy defangs/defuses the impulses to violence and war by countering apocalyptic narratives with their Zoroastrian dualism of a war of good true believers against evil enemies.

All three AI make the good point that there is no ultimate satisfying resolution when retaliation is engaged. As Grok says, “Short term- sweet. Long term- sour.”

Quotes from below…

Google AI:

“Retaliation is a self-defeating, short-term coping mechanism that creates cycles of conflict and offers little lasting satisfaction. Instead of providing closure, it keeps the emotional wound ‘open and fresh,’ perpetuating anger rather than diminishing it. Retaliation often brings more harm than benefit to the person seeking it, sometimes leading to guilt, shame, or further social alienation… rarely leads to genuine resolution.”

Grok:

“The impulse to retaliate— often called revenge or vengeful aggression— as a universal, evolved human response that serves specific adaptive functions but frequently backfires in practice. It emerges across evolutionary psychology, social psychology, neuroscience, and personality research, with consistent findings that it feels instinctively compelling (and even pleasurable) yet rarely delivers lasting relief… Read the rest of the opening comment here

“The Beatles’ Fastest Single, Recorded LIVE to the World”, Inside the Beat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DvdhqeUwTc

John Lennon on writing “All You Need Is Love” for a worldwide BBC telecast:

“It sort of dawned on me that love was the answer when I was young, on the Beatle’s ‘Rubber Soul’ album. That first expression of it was a song called ‘The word is love’. ‘The word is love’ seemed like the underlying theme to the universe, or to everything that was worthwhile got down to this love, love, love thing. That’s what I referred to ‘The word is love’ on Rubber Soul straight through to ‘All you need is love’.”

Ringo- “We were like that at the time- ‘All you need is love’. We were trying to promote that.”

Lennon: “I still believe ‘All you need is love’. I still believe in the fact that is what we all need.”

George Harrison: “Well, we thought we’ll just sing ‘All you need is love’ because it’s a kind of subtle bit of PR for… um, God basically.”

Paul McCartney: “’All you need is love’ is still a very important statement. And hopefully always will be. It’s a kind of timeless statement.”

Lennon: “It’s called love and there’s nothing to split that up. And, but that’s the secret you know. Its all true, folks. ‘All you need is love’.”

(End of Beatle’s quotes)

Now: A reposting of a revised summary of the human meta-story

“The ultimate liberation narrative: Our exodus from enslavement in animal existence to full liberation in human civilization”, Wendell Krossa

(Or- “Our foundational story: The meta-narrative of our journey from retaliation to unconditional love”) Read the rest of the opening comment here

More probing the psychology of belief, and the refusal of some to admit to evidence that exposes the blinding dogmatism in relation to foundational beliefs, etc.

The linked podcasts and articles below point back to a common thing, people who have embraced the same “salvation through destruction” narratives in their religious and “secular/ideological” variants- whether the theocrats of Iran, the collectivists/Marxists, or the climate devotees believing that they are “saving the world” through destroying societies with decarbonization. All are fundamentally variants on the same old religious narrative of salvation through destruction, a profoundly religious narrative held by the theocratic true believers (e.g. Iran) as well as the more materialist true believers (i.e. climate crusaders, collectivists).

Springboard podcasts/articles:

This first podcast offers some good insights on the psychology behind those willing to live with a lie till they die because its foundational to their worldview, to their very self and hence, to their existence.

This also illustrates what Kristian Niemietz pointed to in his quote that summarized the research of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt: “Emotional satisfaction, not rational thinking, and despite contrary evidence, dominates our choice in beliefs.”

Most of us have no idea why we embrace the beliefs that we hold. They just feel “right, true, just, good”, or whatever else we feel that validates them. We have long been conditioned by deeply embedded subconscious archetypes, that were long ago shaped by the primitive mythological themes of our ancestors, to just instinctively embrace modern versions of these same archetypes even when irrational and despite contrary evidence.

“Jesse Kelly on Obama, Communism & Why the Left Hates America”, Adam Corolla

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw1PJqbSeDo

I will intermix my paraphrasing comments with their points: Read the rest of the opening comment here

Below- My pushing AI (Grok and Chat) to understand the profound dualism and contrasts between the message of Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ myth.

Why bother? Because the Christ of Paul has long functioned as a most influential archetype (“worldwide” according to scholars like James Tabor) validating human impulses to

(1) tribalism (“true believers saved, unbelievers damned”)…

(2) domination (deity as archetypal “Lord/King” functioning to validate elite domination of commoners- i.e. “divine right of kings/leaders”, etc.), and justice as…

(3) retaliatory destruction of enemies.

Historical Jesus countered these worst of bad impulses, and their related validating beliefs, with his stunning new theology of an unconditional deity. But his “diamond” discovery was subsequently buried in the New Testament under the dominating influence of Paul’s contrary Christ.

Hence, the repeated argument of this site that the merger of Historical Jesus with Paul’s Christ in “Jesus Christ” is history’s epitome “oxymoron” and has produced two millennia of cognitive dissonance (holding two entire opposites in merged tension) that is akin to a state of severe mental deformity in true believers.

But more than the ongoing confusion over the merged of two opposites has been the outcomes on entire populations in terms of mass-harm, the most horrific forms of harm. This has been revealed in the impact of threat theology in deforming human personality with fear, anxiety, guilt/shame, despair and depression, even nihilism that leads to violence as documented carefully by historians like Richard Landes, Arthur Mendel, David Redles, among others. They show the influence of Paul’s “apocalyptic millennial” Christology on the mass-death eruptions from Marxist revolutions, Nazi extermination crusades, and now in environmental alarmism hysteria. This evidence is “slap up the side of the head” wakeup stuff. The evidence is undeniable.

Anyway, some tussling below with the lead AIs over this.

This is continuation of the project to help solve General Nagata’s expressed concern that we can defeat eruptions of violence, such as from the Iranian theocrats, with military force but we haven’t yet solved the problem of the “idea” that drives such eruptions and they will recur again and again. Richard Landes concluded the same in regard to Nazi horrors. If you do not recognize how apocalyptic millennial ideas (epitomized in Paul’s Christ) can carry societies of good people into mass-death outbreaks then you have not learned anything from episodes like the Nazi horrors and will only see repeats of such madness. Read the rest of the opening comment here

The Triggernometry guests in the link below have explained what the Iran issue is really about. As they state, the theocrat leaders of Iran are committed to sparking the end of the world, just as the ISIS terrorists tried in Syria in 2014. And the Iranian leader’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is to enable them to fulfill their commitment to ultimate extermination.

Why? Their heads are filled with bad theocracy, with the mind-deforming image of a violent, destroying God who demands that they purge the evil enemies of their God, the unbelievers. Read the New Testament book of Revelation for a graphic portrayal of what is involved. Utter mass-scale violence is required to purify the world and prepare for the Messiah to come and install paradise. “Salvation through violent destruction” summarizes the theology that drives such madness.

The Iranian mullah’s threat was not just to Israel and to surrounding moderate Islamic countries. It was much worse and much wider. That is what bad religious ideas dominating people’s brains produces. Violence and war that threatens many more than just Israel.

So yes, to Kat Timpf’s concerns about what happens next. What might be the outcome as past ventures in places like Iraq illustrated? But then as Brian Kilmeade responds, if we do nothing then the threat remains the day after. Just as it got worse for Israel after repeated ceasefires with Hamas in Gaza over years previous to Oct. 7. The problem only got worse by passing it along.

Gutfeld! THE GREG GUTFELD FULL END SHOW 4/3/26 FOX BREAKING NEWS TODAY NEW EPISODE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSM_EOsyS6I

The leaders of the rational countries of the world are obligated by their number one priority to protect innocent people. And the past 47 years of pacification of the mullahs has not worked but only led to the mullahs getting closer and closer to nuclear weapons to spark their final stage of extermination of unbelievers as demanded by their God.

So yes Kat, we all hope for the best outcome, but doing nothing (“kicking the can down the road”) has only worsened the threat. You cannot reason and negotiate, as the Pope urges, with minds deformed by bad theology. And that affirms the argument of this site to heed General Nagata’s concern and confront the “idea” head on if you want to defeat it. We have the alternative, as this site details repeatedly. But solving/defeating this problem of repeated eruptions of mass-violence requires getting past any queasiness over challenging honored institutions and narratives that have long been protected “under the canopy of the sacred”, long entrenched in religious images of God.

“Men never do worse evil than when they do it in the name of their God.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 there was celebration across the West. Similarly, there was celebration after the defeat of ISIS in 2014 and the collapse of its violent crusade to spread the Caliphate.

But we did not defeat the most fundamental contributing factors that drove such crusades, the ideas that framed their narratives, notably the complex of apocalyptic millennial themes (“salvation through destruction”) that provided incentive, guidance, and validation for their destruction.

As General Nagata said- “We did not defeat the idea.”

The “idea” was not even confronted. And what has been the result? Endless resurgences of the same old crusades, both secular/ideological and religious/theocratic. All committed to the destruction of what they claim is “evil liberal democracy”.

At the core of the complex of apocalyptic millennial ideas is the theology, an image of God buttressed with related bad ideas that are noted on lists here. The central “idea” that General Nagata needed to make clear is the theology of a God framed with the features of tribalism, domination, and justice/salvation as necessary retaliatory destruction. This God is at the center of these crusades of “salvation through destruction”, the central motivating Ideal/Idea.

Grok and Chat present in detail below how such images/ideas have shaped human psychology and societies across history.

This is more probing/understanding the “bad ideas”, embedded in main world religions, and also embraced in modern era “secularized ideologies”, that drive so much violence and war.

I gave this project to Grok and Chat, pushing them to do some homework on the main ideas of my “Bad religious ideas” lists, pushing them to also do some research on origins and historical descent of such ideas (i.e. down through the history of religious systems, and into secular ideologies). They have assembled a library of all the main ideas that people have created to explain life and the world, and where various “bad ideas” went wrong and influenced bad outcomes. Read the rest of the opening comment here