Category: Commentary, Critique, and Response

photos_and_videos/TimelinePhotos_SxeO6JU-xg/51378914_10156956557677264_4705017826727952384_o_10156956557657264.jpg Aaron LongDisagree. Replacing important things with Sports is what quickened Rome’s declineFeb 1, 2019, 7:38 PMByron PrinceArabists do get rather flustered when one points out the IE influences that they claim are inherent to Hamito-Semites. I don’t even usually bring up the Mittani influences on Syria and Lebanon.Feb 1, 2019, 7:39 PMByron PrinceSports isn’t the issue, its sports are used.Feb 1, 2019, 7:40 PMAaron LongByron Prince Valid. I think the same about religion though. It was used to build an army against Islam successfully.Feb 1, 2019, 7:42 PMNick DahlheimByron Prince Making sports into spectator events rather than participatory initiation–that is the root of the corruption of sport. In other words, the replacement of amateurism and community sport with professionalization and sensationalism in the athletic domain.Feb 1, 2019, 8:07 PMDaniel Roland AndersonNick Dahlheim

Nailed it.

The English, as I understand it, prohibited some sports that took focus of archery.Feb 1, 2019, 8:18 PMHeather JoiWhy you call me daft 😥Feb 1, 2019, 8:32 PMCurt Doolittlerhetorical device to both capture your attention and reward you when you realize you are right, and to taunt those who are wrong into defensive posture. ;)Feb 1, 2019, 8:41 PMHeather Joi——^ daft in ScottishFeb 1, 2019, 8:46 PMChristian KalafutThe Chinese did not skip out on religion at all; easily one of the most superstitious cultures ever.Feb 1, 2019, 9:21 PMChristian KalafutThe confucian literati basically acted as the priestly class since Emperor Shi and lets not forget the “divine mandate” which any Chinese government needs to operate.Feb 1, 2019, 9:26 PMCurt Doolittlewhat was their religion?Feb 1, 2019, 11:47 PMCurt DoolittleDo they consider it a religion?Feb 1, 2019, 11:50 PMChristian KalafutThe Dao would be thrir mystery religion and the worship of the emperor and later the confucians would qualify as the priestly class.Feb 1, 2019, 11:51 PMChristian KalafutI-ching is essentially their torahFeb 1, 2019, 11:52 PMChristian KalafutAlso, the the state buddhismFeb 1, 2019, 11:53 PMArby HydeCurt Doolittle in the east the lines between sacred and profane were quite blurred so while they might not have a religion as formalized as the abrahamic ones, much of its ontology was already fulfilled through their myths and rituals.Feb 2, 2019, 4:40 AMCurt DoolittleWell, again, Christian Kalafut is attempting to create a conflation between…

– natural religion (ancestor, nature worship),

– mental discipline (buddhism), and;

– wisdom literature (confucianism, daoism),

And…

– political religion (abrahamic religion). that claims (a) the name of a divinity, (b) monopoly, (c) omnicience/omnipotence, (d) submission, (e) conflation of myth/history, wisdom/law, reason/abandonment of reason.

Buddhism was, like stoicism, an attempt to leave behind supernatural religions.

Confucianism (upper class) and Daoism (lower class) are wisdom literatures.

Ancestor and Nature worship are means of intergenerational transfer of debts.

Replace buddhism with stoicism and you have a nearly perfect ‘religion’ (training in mindfulness).

Furthermore, the story of Siddhartha Buddha is true. The story of abraham, moses, and jesus is nonsense.

The conversion of buddhism from “act like eternal recurrence” into “supernatural eternal occurrence” transformed it from a virtue system to a supernatural religion.

It is very easy to ridicule jewish, muslim, and christian ‘prayer’ as one step above dancing around the fire.

The only competitor to confucian wisdom lit is greco/roman/anglo lit: science. Compare either western reason and science, or confucianism daoism, or the Hindu tradition with the torah, bible, and koran. Abrahamic religions are childlike. They are little better than african tribal myths.

Natural Religion: Ancestor Worship, and Nature Worship (teaching of respect for that which has been inherited) is hard to object to on any grounds.

I could go on, but in comparative religion, there are three evil political monopoly religions and the rest are wisdom literatures for the intergenerational transfer of group strategy and the mindfulness to adhere to it.Feb 2, 2019, 7:41 AMCurt DoolittleReligion is either education in the application of reason, or it is submission to ignorance.Feb 2, 2019, 7:42 AMCurt DoolittleThe gnostics were right. Jehovah is a devil (demon).Feb 2, 2019, 7:42 AMCurt Doolittle(a) chinese think we are ‘ridiculous’ with our ‘superstitions’.

(b) chinese (rightfully) do not consider their wisdom literature a ‘religon’.

(c) chinese do not consider their folk religions (natural religions) ‘religion’ in the sense we consider monotheism a religion. whatsoever.Feb 2, 2019, 7:45 AMCurt DoolittleNO MORE LIESFeb 2, 2019, 7:48 AMCurt Doolittlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_China#Definition_of_what_in_China_is_spiritual_and_religiousFeb 2, 2019, 7:50 AMCurt DoolittleREAD THIS SECTIONFeb 2, 2019, 7:50 AMDaniel JordanI think your Aspergers is getting in the way of understanding what religious belief actually is on a psychological level.Feb 2, 2019, 12:32 PMCurt DoolittleNo. It’s that I understand that a demand exists, and having studied all societies and all methods of fuliflling that demand, I understand that there are good and bad, true and false enabling and disabling methods of doing so.

Religion is either a discipline or a drug.Feb 2, 2019, 12:44 PMChristian KalafutWrong and I would caution using any statistics from the Chinese government, especially considering there are at least 200 million Christians in China.Feb 2, 2019, 2:05 PMChristian KalafutI also suppose you have no knowledge of the Taiping Rebellion in the 19th century, where a protestant Chinamen fought an 18 year war for religious freedom against the state religion in China (he consindered himself the brother and heir of Christ’s kingdom) in which 20 million people died.Feb 2, 2019, 2:08 PMChristian KalafutAlso, there are two distinct forms of Buddhism: the original, almost atheist path of Siddhartha Guatama and the Mahayana, which is like a Catholicized version, introduced a system of saints, priests, holy orders and the such. Like how Christanity captivated the West, so too did the Mahayana captivate and control Chinese civilization and like Christanity, it sank to an awful minority in it’s own home Indic civilization.Feb 2, 2019, 2:12 PMChristian KalafutOne of the great stories of Chinese literature (Journey to the West) is a magical exodus to India to go find the sacred scrolls of the Buddha.Feb 2, 2019, 2:13 PMChristian KalafutWhy do you think they invaded Tibet in their drive to eradicate Chinese religiousity? To strike at the Pope of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama.Feb 2, 2019, 2:14 PMChristian KalafutRead any of the other four great chinese novels and even before the Mahayana, the Chinese are as superstitious as us Western Christians if not more.Feb 2, 2019, 2:15 PMChristian KalafutYou obviously are not familiar with Far Eastern history in the least.Feb 2, 2019, 2:16 PMCurt DoolittleThat is not a criticism. That is an opinion.Feb 2, 2019, 2:24 PMChristian Kalafuthttps://goo.gl/images/xC7CXaFeb 2, 2019, 2:35 PMChristian KalafutCultural revolution much?Feb 2, 2019, 2:35 PMChristian KalafutThis sounds like nothing more than regurgitated 18th century Enlightenment discovery of China, where the decriers of the Church tried to find a natural religion and they seeked such a thing in the supposed “kingdom ruled by philosophers” i.e. ChinaFeb 2, 2019, 2:39 PMChristian KalafutNaked power and ignorance and superstition is what kept the alien manchus at the time in power.Feb 2, 2019, 2:39 PMChristian KalafutWestern civilization did not stop at the enlightenment curt get out of the 18th century.Feb 2, 2019, 2:40 PMCurt DoolittleHow very odd that you should think operationalism and algorithmic logic are 18th c. ;)Feb 2, 2019, 2:57 PMChristian KalafutNo, I’m saying your assessment of China is 18th century and a bunk.Feb 2, 2019, 3:24 PMChristian KalafutChina, in no way, may be compared to the West in any meaningful manner, which is why world history is a sham.Feb 2, 2019, 3:24 PMArby Hydeyou both seem to be talking past each other. The main point is that even if China has a different structure instead of a “religion”(for the lack of a better word) it doesn’t necessarily make them less prone to superstition. Buddhism afaik is quite syncretic and often meshed into polytheistic religion in the east unlike Christianity which entirely replaced paganism.Feb 3, 2019, 12:27 PM