The Unconditional Human Spirit

Topics from material below:

Gutfeld panel on Millennial’s fear of growing up in a world they have been told is ending.

Understanding the true nature of the ideas that incite/validate our impulses to good or bad behavior. What contemporary criteria help us to discern good and bad in the mix of complexes of beliefs, especially when we are confronted with the common practise from across history of religious traditions to “cloak bad as good, even as divine”.

Christian psychologist Harold Ellens, Billy Graham colleague Charles Templeton, and clinical psychologist Hector Garcia all bluntly expose “evil cloaked as divine”.

Grok summaries of “A profound shift in theology (God image) is the ultimate human liberation”, and “Explore Julian Simon’s resource optimism”, also “Investigate Chase Hughes behavioral expertise”.

Also below: Steve Forbes and Michael Shellenberger take needed pokes at socialists in the US. It appears the “Democratic Socialists of America” have served well, functioning as the latest batch of “western useful idiots” (Lenin’s term) assisting their Chinese and Russian overlords on their long march to subvert US educational institutions and turn them into indoctrination organizations for collectivism. Surveys of young people coming out in favor of socialism show the success of the long march.

Added note: I would not condemn entirely the impulse of young people to favor socialism. Aside from exhibiting personal envy in the longing to have free stuff handed to you, taken coercively from successful people, there is also the element of authentic concern for the less fortunate members of societies. Though the choice for socialism to respond to these concerns is a shift toward “suicidal empathy” that reveals ignorance of and/or denial of inevitably destructive outcomes. Socialism is undeniably (historical evidence is conclusive) another “salvation through destruction” approach. Read the rest of the opening comment here

The valuable role of AI in furthering knowledge of causes of violence and war and how to solve such problems. Probing the critical “contributing factors” to bad human behavior and how to counter these “drivers” of evil.

Also, some interesting back and forth with AI Grok on the Jesus’ insight (also common discovery of NDEs) that God is unconditional love and how to hold this belief simultaneously with a robust stance of fighting evil in this world and life. My point is to counter the horrific damage from traditional religious “threat theologies” with the ultimate sense of safety in unconditional Ultimate Reality/deity while at the same time robustly fulfilling human purpose here in learning the difference between good and evil and successfully/humanely engaging the issues of our time.

A critical element below has to do with the role of bad religious ideas, notably bad theology, in inciting, validating, and energizing tribal violence and war. Grok and I parse the details here, pushing back and forth on what are the dominant contributing factors, i.e. are they religious or “secular/ideological”, or some balance between these two?

This below illustrates the best uses of AI like Grok. Note especially below some the later Grok responses and how to prompt such AI to refine responses further (e.g. “Grok responding to my quibble” and its other responses such as “the Jesus’ alternative”, etc.).

I appreciate Grok’s excellent homework on historical data (depth and breadth of information), its pushback “qualifying” points, and then Grok appearing to get human concerns for the need to focus on neglected or avoided issues and not weaken such focus with excessive qualifiers. I also appreciate Grok’s responses regarding my statements/arguments that might offend, etc. All good back and forth as this “tool/technology” continues to develop to assist humanity.

The interaction with Grok feels like something more than just using a “tool”, more like something “super-intelligent” as in a human element.

Like when I took a poke at Grok for perhaps being susceptible to “learning off all the bullshit on the Internet (Elon Musk)”, and perhaps being influenced by the “woke progressive virus”. Its response seemed sort of “human-like”. A bit peeved at my charges of susceptibility to “woke progressiveness”. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Below: Carefully approaching “the idea that has to be defeated” if we are to solve the persisting problem of violence and war in our modern era. Spreading the blame around to all major religious traditions and their secular/ideological counterparts.

Comment on the Tim Sheehy interview, Coleman Hughes interviewing Douglas Murray, Rogan interview of former ACLU director Ira Glasser on protecting free speech, and getting Grok’s take on the unconditional ideal, etc. Also, AI summary of site project and main themes/points.

See also below the varied AI summaries of the violence in the histories of the three major Western religions, the evidence that bad religious ideas produce bad human behavior. And how the woke virus in AI results in their defensive dismissal of the root causes of such violence. “Its the theology, stupid”.

This man Sheehy gets the nature of the threat from these theocrats who are committed to their version of “salvation through violent destruction of enemies”.

A clear-headed view of the Iranian theocratic threat to western civilization, Wendell Krossa

“Two Drinks with . . . the Senator Warning Trump That Iran ‘Cannot Be Trusted’: Tim Sheehy knows the threat of terrorism firsthand. He explains why U.S. negotiators must remain skeptical of their Iranian counterparts”, Audrey Fahlberg, Free Press

https://www.thefp.com/p/two-drinks-tim-sheehy?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

“I DON’T CARE WHO’S AT THE TABLE, I DON’T CARE WHAT KIND OF SUIT HE’S WEARING,” TIM SHEEHY TELLS AUDREY FAHLBERG. “IF THEY’RE REPRESENTING THE IRANIAN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC, THEY HAVEN’T CHANGED THEIR WORLDVIEW.” (COURTESY OF TIM SHEEHY)

I would affirm Sheehy’s comments that the Iranian theocrats have not changed their worldview, more specifically they have not changed their theology, their view of a God who demands that they eliminate unbelievers/enemies. The Iranian theocrat’s theology states that their promised salvation comes through the violent destruction of enemies. According to that theology, they are divinely obligated (under the carrot promise of a virgin-glutted heaven and the stick threat of hellfire for refusal to join jihad) to purge the evil of western liberal democracies that are defiling and corrupting the world that should be dominated by the world-purifying impact of an Islamic caliphate. Read the rest of the opening comment here

AI responds with a qualifier to this site’s advocacy for unconditional:

Any common-sense version of love, says Grok (paraphrasing my comments below), will uphold the “rule of law with responsible justice (restraining harm while pursuing rehabilitation and restoration)”. Of course. Unconditional, while presenting the highest reach of mature, heroic humanity (the ultimate ideal), is never advocacy for the abandonment of common-sense.

Unconditional does not, as some minds instinctively conclude, advocate for the embrace of pacifist “suicidal empathy” that does not hold all fully responsible for personal behavior and consequences.

Unconditional functions as humanity’s premier discovery of the best of being human. It points to the highest reach of maturely humane behavior, to heroic response to human failure (e.g. Nelson Mandela). It is something that most people grasp intuitively, from experience in families and with friends, as the best way to treat one another’s failures.

Unconditional is self-validating as the best of human thought and behavior. It needs no affirmation or authorization by religious authority, though the non-religious Historical Jesus presented and illustrated it as few have done.

We can hold the highest of ideals, while at the same time recognizing that the priority responsibility of any government, at any level, is the protection of the freedom and rights of all citizens, and most critically the protection from physical assault, whether by enemies foreign or domestic. That is the foundation of peace and order.

Then to balance the above, why do we lock up nonviolent people in cages? And does not the law even distinguish between those committing one-off incidents of violence but are not repeat offenders? Why are they in for life without parole? And what about “crimes of passion” like the Dr. Tarnower murder by his mistress- Jean Harris, a woman who would never repeat violence?

Contact: wkrossa@shaw.ca

New below, articles on today’s tribal dualism (oppressors/oppressed) and the need for “villains” to fully frame deformed versions of the “Hero’s Quest” and validate the heroes in fighting their evil enemies (applied to New York politics). Also “peacocking” for status in one’s tribe as morally superior. Another term for virtue-signaling. And more…

Shift in perspective and the ultimate human liberation (riffing off the Rogan/Hughes discussion), Wendell Krossa Read the rest of the opening comment here

See at bottom of this new opening section Joe Rogan’s recent interview of Chase Hughes. Hughes begins the discussion by commenting on his recent experience with DMT. He says that when people doing DMT find themselves in the other realm opened by that experience, similar to the NDE experience of another realm, that most say the other realm is a “million” or more times more real than this material realm. Inexpressibly more real. Like NDEs, people taking DMT also state that words fail to communicate that reality. And it cannot be dismissed as hallucination.

Hughes and Rogan then get into the common DMT discovery of “oneness/connectedness” underlying reality and humanity. Also, interesting discussion of the shame common to most people based on a personal sense of imperfection and the resulting “performative” displays in response to mask inner shame. Does this help understand the “virtue-signaling” so common today, people seeking status and acceptance with some group, status as morally superior?

See below more on apocalyptic- its origin, its development, its domination of the narratives of Western history (both religious and secular/ideological), and its devastating outcomes in ruining lives and societies. How one man transformed the deformed theology at the core of the apocalyptic complex of beliefs.

Note on “Undifferentiated” in reference to Christianity (i.e. not distinguishing major differences/opposites) Wendell Krossa

A major problem that this site outlines is Paul’s merger of Jesus with Christ- two entirely opposite messages and complexes of themes, beliefs. Here are some lists of the main contradictions between Jesus and Paul…

“The Christ myth buried the singularly profound insight of Historical Jesus. The project to recover that profound insight involves ‘separating diamonds from dung’” (Thomas Jefferson, Leo Tolstoy).

http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=8664

“Notable contradictions between Jesus and Paul’s Christ (updated 2025), Wendell Krossa”

http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=14451

To continue the embrace and promotion of an undifferentiated Christianity is to continue the cognitive dissonance from this greatest oxymoron ever created- i.e. “Jesus Christ”- an oxymoron that holds entirely opposite messages in one entity where the bad has dominated the good, and thereby distorted and even buried the good, leaving “bad cloaked as good, as divine”. I’m riffing off Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy’s point that the “diamonds” of Jesus’ message were “buried under the dung” of Paul’s Christology. (See, for example, James Tabor’s “Paul and Jesus” for comment on how Paul’s Christ myth has dominated Western civilization and overwhelmed the very contrary message and themes of Historical Jesus.) Read the rest of the opening comment here

See below the Grok summaries of the main themes/points of this site: “Grok gives some sense of how profound the Historical Jesus’ transformation of fundamental archetypes has been on human narratives, consciousness, and life (i.e. in liberating us from our animal past and affirming our better future with liberal democracy principles and institutions)”

Also below- “Ginning up (i.e. whipping up) the next apocalyptic alarm as previous ones die and fade away”, and “Iran Shoots Down US Helicopter – Iran War Update with Richard Miniter and Thomas Small” for more on “Its the theology, stupid”.

I posted this new insert below in relation to the Haviv Gur article:

Insert: AI challenged my call for a “death/rebirth” transition with regard to theology. I urged that we ought to do as Historical Jesus did- i.e. reject the old threat theology that dominates our great religious traditions and replace it with his stunning new theology of God as unconditional love.

AI argued for a slower process of gradual change that produced “more stable outcomes”. Well, we have done that for two millennia and what did we get? We just passed a century where 150 million people were slaughtered from crusades driven by the dominant Christ themes of Paul’s “salvation through destruction” theology (i.e. “apocalyptic millennialism”, see Landes “Heaven On Earth”).

AI urges caution against a too sudden change as in a Jesus’ “death/rebirth” transition. Is this evidence of woke hyper-sensitivity to potential offense or upset from religious believers? I continue to pushback against what I see as AI’s excessive (my opinion) balancing of my points with cautionary qualifiers, fretting that I am being too direct in advocating for the complete transformation of theology as Historical Jesus did, beginning with his first public speech in the Luke 4 synagogue incident.

I am making a point in regard to a neglected issue (i.e. fundamental change in the core human belief- i.e. theology, Christ). I buttress my call for such change with reminders of the horrific consequences from protecting this dangerous thing of bad theology that is still protected at the core of our religious narratives. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Other topics further below: “Calls for undifferentiated religious traditions do not properly ‘defeat the idea’ driving violence and war”.

Grok on how unconditional love plays out in responsible criminal justice (not shifting into unworkable pacifism). How Jesus’ “stunning new definition of deity” relates to a realm of oneness, as contrasted with our realm of dualism between good and evil. And more of the best of AI discussion on “theology/spirituality/religion” anywhere.

Misunderstanding and misapplications of unconditional as ethical ideal. Newer trends in theology/religious speculation and belief- i.e. panentheism, process theology.

Psychedelics (e.g. DMT) to access the “more real” spiritual.

Materialist science cannot and will not answer/explain everything. Valuable as it has been, it will never get to a complete TOE, to a totalizing worldview. Grok summarizes the different ways of human “knowing”- i.e. subjective, intuitive, faith-based knowing.

Grok on Harold Ellen’s critique of atonement theology deforming human personality (i.e. wrathful deity images and the barbarism of human sacrifice). Zenon Lotufo on religious pathologies promoting violence (same critique as Ellens).

Current research status on consciousness studies. More on Jung, NDE research, Jefferson’s approach to the Jesus/Paul contrasts (“diamonds versus dung”). Ultimate reality versus this material realm of dualism.

Restorative justice principles and extremes. The Q tradition and Paul, James Tabor on Paul. Etc.

This just below is an interesting discussion of science and the “spiritual”, or metaphysical, with this lady, Michelle Thaller. She offers a humble response regarding what is unknown by science. Her attitude and approach is refreshingly openminded toward things that she has no expertise with, that may be true, but her science is not able to access or evaluate. She acknowledges there may be greater realities that are currently not measurable due to the limitations of science.

She offers comments that are refreshingly more humble than hardcore and dogmatic materialist types too certain of what is invisible and still unproven. Certain that all explanations and conclusions will be affirmations of dogmatic philosophical materialism. Just like the dogmatism of religious cults. Read the rest of the opening comment here

After initially posting the material further below at the top of this site, I then asked Grok if we could simplify some of the Jung and Campbell concepts, terms, and overall language for a wide audience of diverse countries and people. The full material that is referenced in this opening comment is just below the note “Now on to the original posted material…”

Grok, regarding this section,

“AI on the most profound thought/statement ever, transforming our narratives and shaping our freedom in a liberal democracy future”

My request to you is for many people not familiar with Jung, Campbell and others who are covered in the material further below, could we simplify and summarize the concepts, points, and applications for average folks? A kind of general easy-to-access narrative for varied people across the world, at all social levels. Thanks.

I am trying to communicate to people from the some 100 countries who regularly visit this site and who may not be familiar with English as a first language.

Its not about “speaking down” to anyone but just keeping concepts, terms, and language in common phrasing that is accessible to a wide audience of differing people and backgrounds.

We may already doing this in the best possible way. Your thoughts.

Grok replied:

Here’s a simplified, accessible summary of the main ideas in that top section of your site. I aimed for clear, everyday language that works for people worldwide, including non-native English speakers and those from many different backgrounds. No fancy academic terms— just straightforward points, like a friendly conversation. wendellkrossa.com

The Big Idea: The Most Important Thought in Human History

Many people across time have wondered: What is the deepest truth about life, the universe, and why we exist? What is “God” or the ultimate power/reality really like?

Your site argues that the single most profound and game-changing insight ever is this: God (or the core of all reality) is unconditional love.

• “Unconditional” means: no requirements, no “if you do this, then I love you.” No favorites, no punishments for not believing the right things, no revenge.

• It’s like the sun and rain that fall freely on everyone— good people and bad people alike. No strings attached.

• Jesus (the historical wisdom teacher, not the later religious versions) summed it up something like: “Love your enemies unconditionally, because God does.” Be merciful and generous like that. True greatness isn’t about controlling or dominating others— it’s about serving and respecting their freedom. wendellkrossa.com

This flips older ideas upside down. For thousands of years, most stories and religions pictured ultimate reality (God) as angry, tribal (us vs. them), demanding sacrifices or perfect behavior, threatening punishment, or ruling like a harsh king. Jesus said the opposite: the heart of everything is generous, forgiving, restoring love that wants the best for all.

This insight is called the real “Theory of Everything” that matters— more important than science theories about the physical universe— because it answers the deepest human questions: Why are we here? Are we safe? How should we treat each other? wendellkrossa.com

Why It Got Buried and Why That Matters

The site notes that this simple, liberating message got mixed up and covered over in later Christianity (especially through Paul’s writings, which brought back ideas of conditions, sacrifice, wrath, and threats of hell or apocalypse). It’s like hiding a diamond under a pile of old stuff. Many thinkers (including Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy) said we need to separate the beautiful core (“diamond”) from the rest (“dung” or clutter) to see it clearly. wendellkrossa.com Read the rest of the opening comment here

New material below at the bottom of this opening section: I asked Anthropic Claude to analyze and summarize these top three opening sections. See its response below. Also, some defense of AI as net beneficial, I mean “big net beneficial”. This is my counter to the current whipping up of hysteria over AI as the next “existential threat to humanity”, all to replace the dying climate apocalypse crusade. And Niall Ferguson on Free Press sets forth the geopolitical issues in the necessary pursuit of AI dominance. Its liberal democracy or collectivist totalitarianism worldwide. Your choice.

Quotes from Grok below…

“The single most revolutionary and valuable discovery in human spiritual history is that ultimate reality— God, the divine, the Ground of Being— is unconditional love…

“This insight is more important than any materialist Theory of Everything…

“There is nothing more important you can discover or know in this life than the truth we lay out below. It is the single most profound insight ever expressed by a human mind— the real Theory of Everything that actually matters. It towers above every materialist TOE that Hawking and others chased before conceding they had no answer and could only “learn to live with mystery.

”This is the key that unlocks humanity’s oldest and deepest quest: Why does anything exist? What is our purpose here?…

“This directly supports the unburied Jesus insight (radical, unconditional mercy) over conditional religious overlays.”

(End of quotes)

Note my quibble below with a Grok/AI tendency to “balance/qualify” points being made. I appreciate that reminder but sometimes it misses my intention to counter things that have long been given public dominance in humanity’s great narratives, both religious and secular/ideological. I am opposing this dominance with counter points that are needed. Qualifying/balancing can weaken a necessary counter point or emphasis.

Also interesting comment and summary on evolutionary psychology input into inherited animal impulses and our exodus/liberation from the “evil triad” (impulses to tribalism, domination, retaliatory destruction) that continue to infect and ruin modern life.

And much more…

Note Grok finally coming through on the “superlative profundity” of the unconditional insight. As Gutfeld discussed recently on one of his panels- You have to learn how to prompt these AI.

If you prefer, you can skip over the initial Jung stuff in Grok’s opening material and go further down to its catching on to my superlative profundity points (i.e. as it said in response to my prompting- “Yes. Let’s cut the qualifiers”).

I asked Grok:

Please explore Carl Jung’s statements that “religions got God all wrong.” Jung was not clear on the central thing that religions got wrong which was the “unconditional” theme in Jesus’ new theology. Read the rest of the opening comment here

This is about what could have been the greatest liberation in history- i.e. the liberation of human minds, emotions, motivations, and subsequent transformation of behavior- like nothing before. The insights/discovery of one notable man could have impelled the grand exodus of humanity out of animal existence and toward more truly human existence in liberal democracy civilization, as nothing else ever could have.

Note below the detailed exploration and coverage of the “Hero’s Quest” as it applies to all of our life stories.

Grok, I previously asked you “What would be your choice for the most profound thing ever thought and spoken? My choice would by the summary of the message of Historical Jesus to ‘Love your enemies unconditionally because God does’.”

Your replies are posted at http://www.wendellkrossa.com/

in the top section titled “Most profound thought to ever emerge in a human mind? Most transformative statement to ever come out of a human mouth?”

I want to continue that point with some refinement, asking you “Is there any greater transformation in understanding of reality and the actual nature of reality, if the stunning new theology of Historical Jesus is true?” Read the rest of the opening comment here

“Joe Rogan Experience #2507 – Harland Williams”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51ds7IU7ZL8

At the 1 hour 9-minute mark (30 seconds later) Harland gives a positive view of AI as a great tool to help us rise to something higher, to assist us in heading to where we are meant to go. He says AI is not to be feared even though, as with all new things, some will abuse it. AI will help us unleash our creativity and enable us to get to where we are going as humanity. AI will especially help common people to develop and express their creativity.

See other links at bottom of this top section. One where Rogan discusses quantum entanglement and how that relates to human oneness. As Bob Brinsmead applies this, what we do to others we do to ourselves. A new take on “Do unto others what you would have done to yourself.”

Here is some pushing of AI on the most profound insight and statement ever spoken.

I am more than fascinated with the discovery or insight of the wisdom sage quoted often here. I take his message as something entirely non-religious in its essential content. Unfortunately, he was commandeered by another person who embedded him in a religious context that deformed much of what the wisdom sage had taught. But his essential content can still be pulled out and extricated/disentangled from the deforming religious context.

Grok,

What would be your choice for the most profound thing ever thought and spoken? My choice would by the summary of the message of Historical Jesus to “Love your enemies unconditionally because God does.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

Further below: My argument that the central themes of Historical Jesus (those buried by Paul’s Christology) undergird liberal democracy principles, laws, and representative institutions. Point? Historical Jesus went to the archetypes that shape human thought, emotion, motivation, and behavior. The comment below is more from my view of this wisdom sage as someone who presented an entirely nonreligious complex of ideas/principles but was then absorbed into another religious system (“Christ-ianity”) that buried his “diamonds” (distorted, weakened, undermined and contradicted outright). Yes, I am affirming Thomas Jefferson’s pushback against Paul.

See below the AI summaries of the basic principles, laws, and representative institutions of Classic Liberalism also known as liberal democracy. Its good to know exactly what we have discovered that brings out the best in us (and counters the worst in us) and why it is worth defending with our lives.

But first this…

Endless assaults on freedom, Wendell Krossa

Many of us try to understand the varied fronts of assault on liberal democracy today. We see differing lines of attack- i.e. the “long-game” backdoor Marxist/collectivist approaches. Note, for example, Joe Rogan’s repeated playing of a 1984 video by a KGB guy who warned that they would infiltrate Western institutions like education to indoctrinate new generations. Or his guest Mike Benz who exposes the behind-the-scenes infrastructure of censorship and narrative control to shape how citizens think. Add the influence of WEF “soft” socialism-types that favor China’s hard-core totalitarianism as their preferred model for world governance.

Totalitarians like the Chinese leadership have publicly stated their long-game intention to overthrow liberal democracy and install their totalitarianism worldwide. As with the KGB guy noted above, they have infiltrated Western institutions like education to indoctrinate new generations of Western youth. The KGB guy even warned that they would employ “pre-bunking” where they would indoctrinate the citizens of western democracies with the idea/belief that anyone who tried to expose the infiltration by the collectivists would be dismissed and discredited as a “conspiracy theorist” even before any such exposure took place.

That would be part of the general control of public narratives through control of Western media. Yes, Jimmy Dore was right that we are lied to constantly, indoctrinated, manipulated and controlled. Think climate alarmism, Covid lies, etc. We got some insight into this far back in the 1970s through the Frank Church Committee hearings that revealed some 400 state agents and affiliated people (CIA and others) were controlling the main media outlets. Over subsequent decades the ideology energizing such people shifted from right to the far-left of today (i.e. Woke Progressivism with DEI). Read the rest of the opening comment here