The Unconditional Human Spirit

A main project on this site is the focus on the single most critical factor that incites/validates bad behavior in people- i.e. bad theology. “Most critical factor”? Yes, because theology has historically functioned as the embodiment of ultimate human ideals/beliefs and has dominated as the ultimate belief or idea at the center of human narratives or belief systems.

This site, after presenting fallacies/pathologies in narratives, then offers the single greatest breakthrough to solve the problem of bad ideas that incite and validate bad behavior.

Chat has summarized this “greatest breakthrough” element to shape a new narrative for human story. This quote of Chat from below:

“Human ideas of God have evolved alongside human fear and moral imagination. Early gods mirrored a dangerous world— violent and demanding appeasement— while mercy emerged only slowly over millennia. Against this backdrop, Jesus introduced a radical rupture: a God who loves unconditionally, forgives without sacrifice, and (includes) enemies rather than destroying them.

“Apocalyptic religion (i.e. Paul’s Christ-ianity) represents a regression to fear-based patterns, not their fulfillment. The question today is whether faith can complete its own moral evolution— leaving behind gods of fear and fully trusting a love that needs no violence, no enemies, and no threats to endure.”

An insert on the superlative- “single greatest”. Q Wisdom Sayings scholar James Robinson said that Jesus “stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God” was his single greatest contribution to the history of human ideas. But “non-retaliatory” falls short of the far more critical “greatest” element in Jesus’ stunning new theology- i.e. that God was “unconditional love”. Paul, two decades after Jesus, retreated to re-affirm again the theological fallacy of divine retaliation and divine conditions in his Christ myth. Read the rest of the opening comment here

This section references Gen. Michael Nagata’s statement that “we have not defeated the idea” driving groups like ISIS. He added that- “We do not even understand the idea”.

I would urge Nagata to consider that we have not defeated, not just some “idea”, but most specifically, the God behind entire complexes of bad religious ideas that drive such fanaticism and violence. A God common to all the great world religious traditions. A God who affirms “salvation through violent destruction” as righteous justice. Destruction through (1) the murder of certain people (i.e. human sacrifice for atonement), or the destruction of (2) some existing “corrupt” system or population as required for purification of life (i.e. to “save the world”).

To again paraphrase Bill Clinton’s famous phrase- “Its the economy, stupid”- with my religious version- “Its the theology, stupid”. (Actually it was James Carville who came up with Clinton’s version.)

The same archetype of salvation through destruction drives Marxist revolutions, as well as theocratic crusades to “purify” the world, to overthrow liberal democracy and replace it with, for example, Islamist theocracy.

These crusades illustrate what Historical Jesus meant when he said, “by their fruits you will know them”. Meaning that the outcomes of our ideas and approaches (Sowell’s “test of facts”) reveal to us the true nature of the ideas that we hold, that in turn influence our behavior. Ideas/archetypes that validate mass-death crusades are not good ideas if they produce bad fruit. The outcomes expose the true nature of the originating archetypes. Its fairly simple cause/effect or correlation stuff, eh.

The same validating archetype of “salvation through destruction” motivates and guides the environmental alarmism crusade to destroy the fossil fuel-powered societies that currently fuel human survival, prosperity and flourishing. Climate apocalyptics have demonized industrial society as the great evil that corrupts and threatens the world, and hence salvation (“save the world”) depends on the overthrow/destruction of such society. Same old pattern of salvation through destruction motivated by same old archetype.

Historians have done good homework on the motivating and validating ideas behind these “profoundly religious” crusades. The secular versions of these very same ideas have even masked themselves as “scientific”.

Some quotes from AI rephrasing points and arguments made on this site that the theology of our great religious traditions embodies the pathology of salvation through destruction: Read the rest of the opening comment here

See below a good summary analysis by Rand Paul and Joe Rogan of the Covid hysteria, vaccines, and lockdowns. As Jimmy Dore has said, “We are the most lied to people and we don’t even know it”.

Predicting the future, Wendell Krossa

“Elon Musk on AGI Timeline, US vs China, Job Markets, Clean Energy & Humanoid Robots, 220”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSNuB9pj9P8

This has some interesting points of discussion as Musk works through his belief that we are at the “singularity” when everything changes under AI, or that we are already in that singularity.

Around the 1-hour mark, for example, they discuss how AI is taking over many areas of life. Musk says that one element of that takeover will occur at an exponential rate that will stun people- i.e. the exponential increase in productivity through increased goods and services. That will rachet up GDP (i.e. the rate of increase in goods and services produced in a country) to the point, they claim, that it will wipe out the national debt of the US. And just in time to avoid possible collapse of the economy.

Musk suggests that deflation will soon become the trend. Musk inserts the fact that he took physics and economics as an undergrad and then entered a PhD program at Stanford before dropping out to start a company.

He continues, predicting there will be so much wealth creation that people will not have to work anymore. Work will become a freedom of choice issue.

Additional to this explosion in productivity, Musk says that as people get older they will not have to save for retirement any more. With so much wealth, such saving will become irrelevant.

However, he admits that there will also be bumps along the way to the growth in prosperity.

A lot of the increase in productivity will come from the 10 billion robots that he will have produced by 2040. Read the rest of the opening comment here

New Material below: “What happened to Islam at its founding?” (Ebionism and the choice that Muhammad made between the unconditional message of Jesus and reaffirming Paul’s ‘eye for eye’ theology and narrative), “Claiming divine inspiration for very fallible holy books” (all three Western religions- Judaism, Christianity, Islam- claim their founders were divinely inspired), “Evaluating religious conditions with the Jesus’ insight and criterion of unconditional deity”, and more.

How serious are we, really, about solving the problem of violence, and confronting the main causal factors that drive much violence? Wendell Krossa

(This relates to my “monster” points in the section below. I urge- Go to the “Mother of all root causal factors” behind human violence. Confront the deformity in the Ultimate Ideal and Authority- i.e. “monster deity”- that, more dominantly than other “belief” factors, influences human mind, emotions, motivations, and responses/behavior.)

This is what the military guy was pushing for after the 2014 ISIS eruption of violence in Syria, an Islamic movement that tried to initiate a violent crusade to promote the spread of a worldwide Caliphate that was intended to overthrow and replace liberal democracies with Islamic theocracy. It was a straightforward religious version of “salvation through destruction”, the hoped-for salvation into the Caliphate that was to be achieved through the destruction of the “corrupt and evil” Western democracies that Islamic warriors view as blocking the arrival of the imagined Islamic utopia for true believers.

Insert: I asked Google AI…

“After the 2014 ISIS drive to establish the Islamic caliphate, a military man said that you have to go after the ideology driving this.”

AI Overview responded:

“The statement you are referring to was made by Major General Michael K. Nagata, who was a special operations commander for U.S. Central Command.

“In late December 2014, he confessed to a group in Washington: “We do not understand the movement [ISIS], and until we do, we are not going to defeat it”.

“Regarding the group’s ideology, he specifically said:

“’We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea’.

“This quote highlights the widely recognized challenge among military and policy experts that the fight against ISIS involves not just military action to reclaim territory, but also a complex, long-term effort to counter the radical ideology and narrative that drives the group and inspires recruits globally.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

I regularly ask Chat and Grok to evaluate and comment on new material that I post here. This summary is from Chat’s fuller comments below at bottom of this top section:

First, Chat’s “One-Paragraph Homepage Distillation”

The real monster we must confront in life is not other people, nations, or beliefs, but an ancient and deeply embedded worldview— threat theology— that sacralizes tribalism, domination, and violence by projecting them onto God or ultimate moral authority. This monster deforms human psychology, legitimizes cruelty as righteousness, and repeatedly turns societies toward “salvation through destruction.” The true hero’s quest is therefore an inner one: to recognize and overcome these inherited archetypes, to refuse evil cloaked as good, and to embrace a radically different vision of life grounded in unconditional love, freedom, and shared humanity. That inner victory is the foundation of any genuine hope for the world.

Then Chat offered this “800-word Flagship Version” in summary of my comments below…

Understanding the Hero’s Quest: Fighting the Real Monster in Life

(Or: Get your monster clear. It’s not under your bed. It’s closer than you imagine.)

One of the central aims of this site is to confront a monster. Not the imaginary monsters that dominate political rhetoric, media narratives, or religious crusades— but a far more dangerous and enduring one. It is a monster that lives closer to us than we like to admit. It shapes our beliefs, deforms our psychology, and repeatedly turns human beings against one another while convincing them they are acting righteously. Read the rest of the opening comment here

This from a friend who asked Grok:

Wendell, these are the most commonly asked questions about your work, according to GROK. GROK’s answers:

1. Are you denying science or evidence-based views of the world? Krossa often addresses this objection, emphasizing that his alternatives to old myths (e.g., apocalyptic decline) align with empirical data on human improvement, citing sources like Julian Simon and Bjorn Lomborg.

2. Are you anti-Christian or rejecting the Bible entirely? A common pushback in his dialogues; he clarifies that he critiques punitive elements in theology (e.g., Paul’s atonement) while embracing Jesus’ core message of unconditional love, evaluating all texts through humane standards.

3. How does your ‘new theology’ explain the silence or absence of God during suffering, like the Holocaust or natural disasters? Raised in discussions of divine non-intervention; Krossa argues God is immanent in human goodness and actions against evil, not a distant intervener violating freedom.

4. Why reject the idea of apocalypse or end-times destruction? Central to his 18 themes; he calls it the “most violent idea,” inciting harm (e.g., in Marxism/Nazism), and counters with evidence of gradual human progress without cosmic threats.

5. Does unconditional love mean pacifism or no accountability for wrongdoers? Frequently clarified in debates; Krossa affirms restraint and incarceration for violent offenders while advocating restorative (not retributive) justice, as unconditional doesn’t negate protection.

6. How can you say humanity is improving when there’s still so much evil and inequality? From his exchanges on progress; he points to data on declining violence (e.g. Stephen Pinker) and rising empathy, viewing imperfection in this world as a learning arena, not punishment.

7. Why dismiss the need for sacrifice or atonement in salvation? A key contrast in his old vs. new paradigms; he uses Jesus’ parables (e.g., Prodigal Son) to argue unconditional love requires no payment, rejecting sacrifice and punitive myths like karma.

8. How does God relate to humanity if not as a king, ruler, or judge? Addressed in his archetypes; he proposes a horizontal, servant-like incarnation in all people, evident in everyday goodness, over hierarchical domination.

9. What about after-life judgment or hell—doesn’t unconditional love exclude punishment? Common in theological critiques; Krossa insists ultimate love embraces all without exclusion, distinguishing worldly consequences from no ultimate destruction.

10. How do you balance oneness and universal belonging with real differences in pluralistic societies? From discussions on dualism; he rejects tribal “us vs. them” (e.g., believers vs. unbelievers) for a shared human family, while respecting freedom and diverse values in gradual improvement.

(End of Grok answers to common questions)

Chat gets the nature of my project to go after narrative archetypes and thereby transform the subconscious archetypes that continue to influence how many people choose their beliefs, that then influences how they feel, are motivated, and subsequently behave in life. Read the rest of the opening comment here

See below- “Pulling ‘diamonds out of dung’. Or ‘Contrasting the diamonds with the dung’.” More on the profound contradiction between the message of Historical Jesus and the entirely opposite Christ myth of Paul. These two archetypal persons/messages present differing narrative themes/ideals that shape human meaning and purpose, taking lives and societies toward differing outcomes.

And this from Barb Kay below: “Supremacist Islam is Communism with a theocratic face”. Both theocratic Islam and varied neo-collectivist movements pose the greatest threats to liberal democracies today.

“Theater of the absurd”- a reference to the contemporary apocalyptic madness of the climate alarm and its outcomes in salvation schemes that ruin our societies, Wendell Krossa

Over the past decades, we have heard more frequently the terms “insanity, crazy, lunacy” (and related synonyms) to describe the “madness of crowds” period that we have been live-streaming (i.e. real time observation and experience) with climate alarmism. This modern-day apocalyptic crusade has mimicked the same features of, for example, the earlier Xhosa cattle slaughter madness that erupted in South Africa a century earlier (1856-57). And yes, similar agriculture-like slaughters/culls, driven by the same guiding archetype of “ruin as redemptive, salvation through destruction”, were also tried in Ireland and Sri Lanka over recent years.

https://www.dairyherd.com/news/business/ireland-proposes-culling-200-000-cows-help-meet-climate-goals-farmers-push-back

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/7/15/23218969/sri-lanka-organic-fertilizer-pesticide-agriculture-farming

Here below Vijay Jayaraj uses another apt synonym-like phrase to describe the Net Zero decarbonization response to the apocalyptic climate crisis narrative- i.e. “Bizarre theater of the absurd”. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Our personal narratives/belief systems shape our personalities and that influences how we shape our societies. This becomes especially critical when people embrace fear-based themes like apocalyptic, a dominant element in threat theology. That then renders many susceptible to “salvation” schemes that are too often society-destroying in outcomes.

This is an elaborating comment on Chat’s summary point below that “Narratives shape human psychology, institutions, and behaviour. The beliefs we take for granted influence how we treat each other and what policies we create.”

Chat offers these insightful comments from below in summarizing the material on this site. It advises how I might present material here in a smoother manner to avoid unnecessary upset to readers. Here are some samples of Chat rephrasing my comments further below:

“The New Testament contains more than one theological voice. Alongside the radical compassion and non-retaliatory love attributed to Jesus, it also preserves an intense apocalyptic expectation that the present world was about to end through divine intervention.

“Paul believed he was living in the final generation. Revelation was written to persecuted communities desperate for justice and vindication. These texts made emotional and pastoral sense in their historical moment. But when universalized and absolutized, they introduced a powerful and troubling idea into Western consciousness: that God ultimately saves the world by destroying it.

“This “salvation through catastrophe” framework has shaped Christian imagination for nearly two millennia, often eclipsing Jesus’ call to love enemies, forgive without limit, and refuse violent retaliation. Over time, it normalized the expectation that collapse precedes renewal— and that suffering, even mass suffering, may be divinely necessary.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

One of my sons (we were shovelling dirt in a yard) asked me once, “Dad, how can you be so optimistic?” This site is one answer to that. All the arguments posted here, both empirical stuff (Julian Simon-ism material), and the “spiritual” insights from sages like Historical Jesus, are mainly oriented to affirming that “Its going to be alright for everyone, ultimately”. I especially want to reassure everyone that there is no ultimate monster. Not under the bed, not anywhere. That is the central theme of the Jesus “theological” material. As long as you get the point that his “theology” was non-religious. Entirely contrary to the highly conditional mythology that dominates our world religions.

With a baseline belief in ultimate unconditional love at the core of reality, I hold that as a profoundly reassuring ground for believing that things will ultimately be alright, for everyone.

The monster in my personal life battle was first thrust on me at around three years of age.

“Growing Up Religious (This insert is from some autobio material posted elsewhere on this site), Wendell Krossa

Quotes from auto-bio material:

Dad walked over and stood beside the white enamel stove capped with a black iron top. He then called for our attention. My three sisters and I stopped our playing and stood quietly in the center of the kitchen looking toward Dad. The split wood burning in the stove cracked and popped, leaking pine smoke which was drafting into the black uptake pipe that exited the back of the stove and ran up through the ceiling.

“You see this”, Dad said firmly, tapping his finger on the hot black stovetop. “The same way your finger burns when you touch this, so your whole body will burn in hell”. He spoke with the threatening rise and fall intonation of “I’m warning you” statements. Read the rest of the opening comment here

This from recent Joe Rogan interview: Are we alone in the universe? (Some poking around ultimate meaning/purpose issues)

“Joe Rogan Experience #2363 – David Kipping”

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

Their comments sparked the following… more of the ‘Daddy’ project here to affirm that “Its going to be alright, for everyone, ultimately”. This comment, of necessity, leans into the “spiritual” (i.e. insights from sages associated with this area of human life, the ultimate meaning and purpose thing).

At one point in this interview, they talk about the possibility that we are alone in the universe and how lonely that prospect is. How much does our sense of loneliness fuel the exploration for life elsewhere- i.e. the programs of Seti, etc., along with making ever larger and more sophisticated telescopes to probe for possible signs of life elsewhere in the cosmos.

The “are we alone” element in their conversation sparked the response that one of the greatest insights ever given to answer human loneliness issues was another feature in the Historical Jesus material- i.e. that the great Creator of all, presented as “the Father” of us all, had incarnated in all humanity.

This incarnated presence of deity in every human person, associated with other features related to the stunning new theology of Jesus, makes this the most profound insight ever presented to humanity. Talk about dealing with loneliness in the most profound manner.

I will say it again for emphasis: There is nothing remotely comparable spoken anywhere else in all reality and all history, that is more profound to consider than that the Ultimate Reality of our Creator God is closer to us than our own breath, atoms, or spirit. Jesus stated this in his saying that “the kingdom of God was among or ‘in you’”. There is no need to be looking far afield for something other to respond to our loneliness. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Here in the link below is the full response of Chat to a request for evaluation and comments on the recent material that I posted on the Three great emergences and their following trajectories. This below includes Chat’s comments on the “weaknesses” of my material and how to present better.

While I may agree with Chat on the “empirical” element, and its importance to science, that is not my point in the speculations and arguments that I make regarding the three emergences and trajectories. Nonetheless, feedback is appreciated.

Here was my request to Chat:

Chat could you please evaluate and comment on the top sections at https://wendellkrossa.com/ sections titled “Three great emergences, three grand trajectories… the exodus to ultimate human liberation”. Read the rest of the opening comment here

“Each emergence brought something radically new into existence— and each has followed a long-term trajectory of increasing complexity, organization, and creative possibility.
This pattern does not erase suffering, setbacks, or danger. But it does challenge the idea that collapse and destruction are the final or dominant truths of existence”, ChatGPT

Here is ChatGPT’s evaluation of my sections below on the “Three great emergences and following trajectories” with advice on how to better summarize and present as a New Narrative to counter the “apocalyptic millennial” fallacies that overwhelmingly dominate public narratives today, both religious and “secular/ideological”. This complex of the worst ideas ever concocted by our ancestors has fueled endless crusades of despair, nihilism, and mass-violence, notably in Marxist revolutions, Nazi horrors, and are now driving the destructive “salvation” schemes of the climate alarmism crusade. Add also, that the apocalyptic millennial complex continues to fuel contemporary eruptions of religious violence.

To open, here is Chat’s one paragraph summary:

“In an age saturated with apocalyptic warnings—about climate, technology, politics, and religion—this site offers a wider, steadier perspective. Drawing on the long story of reality itself, it explores a hopeful pattern unfolding through three great emergences: the cosmos, life, and human civilization—each moving, however unevenly, toward greater complexity, freedom, and capacity for love. Without denying real dangers or failures, this New Story invites a deeper trust: that humanity is not doomed, but unfinished; not collapsing, but being called beyond fear, tribalism, and violence into a more mature, humane future. Begin here, and follow the story as it unfolds.”

Chat added further detail:

“Why This Matters Now

“Apocalyptic stories are powerful. They seize attention and promise certainty. But historically, they also narrow compassion, justify cruelty, and leave people feeling either paralyzed or morally righteous.

“The New Story begins elsewhere. Read the rest of the opening comment here