Curt Doolittle

Category: Religion, Myth, and Theology

  • The Scientific Explanation of The Spiritual

    November 5th, 2018 10:32 AM THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF THE SPIRITUAL

    —“What do you tell people who have had very spiritual experiences that they attribute to their religion? Tell them they just imagined it? I don’t see how that’s going to work.”— Mitchell Ryan

    They had the experience. They felt it. That it was produced by imagination is no different than if they imagine a ghost in the dark, or a car coming around a corner that isn’t there, or an argument with a loved one that didn’t or might happen. We feel all these things. We experience both the imagination of the context, the imagination of what might happen, or is happening, and the feeling of being in it, and we remember it. Our brains work all the time by filling in with memory or prediction the ‘model’ our senses are continuously composing for us out of sense, memory, and prediction, with continuous recursion of the context. Those Experiences existed. The conditions that cause them are either real or imaginary. We possess the ability to predict or forecast. That is the purpose of memory. We can predict all sorts of outcomes and then ‘feel them’ (imagine ourselves in them). The fact that you can imagine yourself in a ‘religious experience’ or imagine yourself as king arthur and feel that experience, is just a matter of context you imagine and practice. Most ‘intense’ experience I ever had was being very ill with a fever, reading a conan novel, and then experiencing myself in his place. it’s STILL the most intense experience I have had. Is it a religious experience, or is a religious experience just a different story in just a different dream? The question is only whether you are an addict reinforcing your addiction or not. Most of us no. Some of us yes. The question is whether you retain your agency (and experience) or retain your addiction in lieu of agency (and experience).

  • Curt Doolittle shared a post.

    (FB 1541542685 Timestamp) NATURAL RELIGION: THE AESIR-VANIR WAR by @[100016659043273:2048:Daniel Gurpide] (must read, core concepts) Man’s taming of the living world occurred in parallel to the taming of the mass—by the elite. This historical phase—initiated with the Neolithic Revolution and concluding today with the passage into the so-called ‘Biopolitical Revolution’—is extremely important. It is not difficult to recognise in it what was called by Karl Marx ‘the end of primitive communist society,’ by Sigmund Freud ‘the killing of the primal father,’ and by Claude Lévi-Strauss ‘the separation between Nature and Culture.’ Significant testimony to this period has been preserved in Indo-European mythology, thanks to the story of the formation of the society of the gods—as related, for example, through the Aesir-Vanir War. The Aesir and the Vanir represent two different ways of life. During the founding war—which set at odds, in symbolic form, the lifestyles of the great hunters and the farmers that emerged out of the Neolithic era—Odin-Wotan, as the pre-eminent god of magic, ‘domesticated’ the Vanir with his magic and assigned to them an harmonious position in the organic tri-functional society, where the ‘domestication of nature’ was completed. This myth signifies the transition from a generic instinctive human subject to a specific conscious human subject who exercises magic power over other men, thereby engendering the conditions for social stratification that are the distinguishing feature of every post-Neolithic society. Society is now organised into two castes, two social groups. One, which is the dominant class, assumes sovereign and warrior functions; the other assumes the economic function. This structure is reflected in the society of gods, whose genesis the myth, in its own way, reveals. The new society is constituted by the superimposition and domination of ‘magic’ above religious man, of predator above producer. The myth of the Aesir and the Vanir, like that of the Romans and the Sabines, highlights the respective characters of both social groups or families of gods. The former—‘preying’ gods who continue the activities of the First Man as self-domesticating man—assert themselves by virtue of the binding magic of their chief, Odin/Wotan; the latter, ‘producing’ gods, carry on the activities of the First Man as ‘self-domesticated’ man. They must and do submit to the former, despite the power deriving from their ‘wealth’ (symbolised by Gullweig’s gold). This social-divine dichotomy derives from a particular world perception that may be found again, remarkably, in the structure of the Indo-European languages, with the sharp separation between subject and object. ‘Man-subject,’ who continues to exercise ‘magic’ on himself (self-control), begins to exercise it now on the other type: ‘man-object.’ The domesticating ‘magic’ is exercised on man-object from without—and the canons are fixed by other-than-him. Liberated by this ‘religious’ bond from the need to domesticate man in himself, he can now dedicate himself fully to ‘domesticating’ nature: that is, to the production of goods. The coexistence of these two social types in a harmonious society takes place by synoecism—contractual arrangement—following a ‘war of foundation.’ The sovereign god among Indo-Europeans is always both a terrible god—exercising a ‘magic’ constriction—and a beneficent guarantor of ‘contracts.’ From the Indo-European origins there was always a clear conception of this social contract, which found its most accomplished expression among the Romans.

  • Curt Doolittle shared a post.

    (FB 1541542685 Timestamp) NATURAL RELIGION: THE AESIR-VANIR WAR by @[100016659043273:2048:Daniel Gurpide] (must read, core concepts) Man’s taming of the living world occurred in parallel to the taming of the mass—by the elite. This historical phase—initiated with the Neolithic Revolution and concluding today with the passage into the so-called ‘Biopolitical Revolution’—is extremely important. It is not difficult to recognise in it what was called by Karl Marx ‘the end of primitive communist society,’ by Sigmund Freud ‘the killing of the primal father,’ and by Claude Lévi-Strauss ‘the separation between Nature and Culture.’ Significant testimony to this period has been preserved in Indo-European mythology, thanks to the story of the formation of the society of the gods—as related, for example, through the Aesir-Vanir War. The Aesir and the Vanir represent two different ways of life. During the founding war—which set at odds, in symbolic form, the lifestyles of the great hunters and the farmers that emerged out of the Neolithic era—Odin-Wotan, as the pre-eminent god of magic, ‘domesticated’ the Vanir with his magic and assigned to them an harmonious position in the organic tri-functional society, where the ‘domestication of nature’ was completed. This myth signifies the transition from a generic instinctive human subject to a specific conscious human subject who exercises magic power over other men, thereby engendering the conditions for social stratification that are the distinguishing feature of every post-Neolithic society. Society is now organised into two castes, two social groups. One, which is the dominant class, assumes sovereign and warrior functions; the other assumes the economic function. This structure is reflected in the society of gods, whose genesis the myth, in its own way, reveals. The new society is constituted by the superimposition and domination of ‘magic’ above religious man, of predator above producer. The myth of the Aesir and the Vanir, like that of the Romans and the Sabines, highlights the respective characters of both social groups or families of gods. The former—‘preying’ gods who continue the activities of the First Man as self-domesticating man—assert themselves by virtue of the binding magic of their chief, Odin/Wotan; the latter, ‘producing’ gods, carry on the activities of the First Man as ‘self-domesticated’ man. They must and do submit to the former, despite the power deriving from their ‘wealth’ (symbolised by Gullweig’s gold). This social-divine dichotomy derives from a particular world perception that may be found again, remarkably, in the structure of the Indo-European languages, with the sharp separation between subject and object. ‘Man-subject,’ who continues to exercise ‘magic’ on himself (self-control), begins to exercise it now on the other type: ‘man-object.’ The domesticating ‘magic’ is exercised on man-object from without—and the canons are fixed by other-than-him. Liberated by this ‘religious’ bond from the need to domesticate man in himself, he can now dedicate himself fully to ‘domesticating’ nature: that is, to the production of goods. The coexistence of these two social types in a harmonious society takes place by synoecism—contractual arrangement—following a ‘war of foundation.’ The sovereign god among Indo-Europeans is always both a terrible god—exercising a ‘magic’ constriction—and a beneficent guarantor of ‘contracts.’ From the Indo-European origins there was always a clear conception of this social contract, which found its most accomplished expression among the Romans.

  • Stomping on The Bunnies of Your Self Worth

    (FB 1541953973 Timestamp) STOMPING ON THE BUNNIES OF YOUR SELF WORTH (important if your self worth can tolerate it) —“Religion is what you do every day . doctrine and dogma are your expressions of your mental interpretations of your belief system.”— Ken Duggan Well, again,that’s a falsehood. A religion consists of a false presumption or more, a false promise or more, a set of narratives within those falsehoods, a set of rituals that demonstrate your investments in them, and a group strategy produced by all of the above. One can theorize (science and history), philosophize (reason and ideals), or fictionalize (theology and myths). A scientist doesn’t lie about that distinction. Both philosophers and theologians do. The reason you resort to religion is because the painful truth of your market value to others is too low to rely on philosophy (reason and ideals) or science science and the real). This illusion of self worth, social worth, market worth, is the ‘payment’ you receive in the form of mindfulness, in exchange for investing in training your intuition to calculate in falsehoods. Because in reality – few of us have much worth other than that we do no harm. And the benefits of the market created by doing no harm exist for us despite the fact that we have little or no value other than doing no harm. If that does not crush your ego, I don’t know what will. But that is the undeniable, painful, undesirable truth. Most people are dead weight on Mankind and The Planet, and the Universe.

  • Curt Doolittle updated his status.

    (FB 1541964661 Timestamp) —“What bothers me is the over-reliance of Western civ on Abrahamic religion. I was brought up Christian and don’t want to get into details on FB but let’s just say it was not a happy upbringing. In my mind these things became polarized so that “diversity” seemed like only way to undo or escape the harshness of how I was brought up. The only thing that really changed my mind is seeing how much worse it can be with diversity. That’s when I realized the concept of “diversity” had became synonymous with a strategy not to be oppressed or abused.”—Jennifer Dean

  • Curt Doolittle updated his status.

    (FB 1541964661 Timestamp) —“What bothers me is the over-reliance of Western civ on Abrahamic religion. I was brought up Christian and don’t want to get into details on FB but let’s just say it was not a happy upbringing. In my mind these things became polarized so that “diversity” seemed like only way to undo or escape the harshness of how I was brought up. The only thing that really changed my mind is seeing how much worse it can be with diversity. That’s when I realized the concept of “diversity” had became synonymous with a strategy not to be oppressed or abused.”—Jennifer Dean

  • Curt Doolittle updated his status.

    (FB 1542036325 Timestamp) —“Our enemies have been able to control our violent retributions by asking, “Is that the Christian thing to do?” or restraining us through laughable paper docs like the Geneva Convention. Put the fun and personal profit back in warfare and you’ll have a 100,000 men acting about dishing out the ultra violence, doing the old in-out, in-out, and making Clockwork Orange look like a Disney love story.”— James Santagata (CD: I ask “What would Vlad Do?” (Salt the earth, livestock, bodies and all), or “What would the Khan do?” (Slaughter to set an example) or “What would Rome Do” (raze carthage to the ground), or “What would Alexander do?”(Kill their leaders and take over their families). The peace of Westphalia was a mistake.)

  • Curt Doolittle updated his status.

    (FB 1542036325 Timestamp) —“Our enemies have been able to control our violent retributions by asking, “Is that the Christian thing to do?” or restraining us through laughable paper docs like the Geneva Convention. Put the fun and personal profit back in warfare and you’ll have a 100,000 men acting about dishing out the ultra violence, doing the old in-out, in-out, and making Clockwork Orange look like a Disney love story.”— James Santagata (CD: I ask “What would Vlad Do?” (Salt the earth, livestock, bodies and all), or “What would the Khan do?” (Slaughter to set an example) or “What would Rome Do” (raze carthage to the ground), or “What would Alexander do?”(Kill their leaders and take over their families). The peace of Westphalia was a mistake.)

  • Curt Doolittle updated his status.

    (FB 1542116608 Timestamp) I am finally getting to understand how Orthodox civ (post soviet) interprets criticism of the church given the good it has done for them. This is a rather significant problem because christianity in a traditional society like theirs retains its counterbalance to the state. So a christian is a good person in orthodoxy, whereas a natural law constitutionalist so to speak is that person in america and a bit less so in the UK until their empire collapsed under them and they fell into french virtue signaling. We have a different problem here.

  • Curt Doolittle updated his status.

    (FB 1542116608 Timestamp) I am finally getting to understand how Orthodox civ (post soviet) interprets criticism of the church given the good it has done for them. This is a rather significant problem because christianity in a traditional society like theirs retains its counterbalance to the state. So a christian is a good person in orthodoxy, whereas a natural law constitutionalist so to speak is that person in america and a bit less so in the UK until their empire collapsed under them and they fell into french virtue signaling. We have a different problem here.