Curt Doolittle

Category: Religion, Myth, and Theology

  • “WE JUST NEED A RELIGION AND WE ARE DONE ” by Joel Davis —“I’m just getting st

    “WE JUST NEED A RELIGION AND WE ARE DONE “

    by Joel Davis

    —“I’m just getting started. I have another piece on the relationship between religion, ritual, language, ethics and sociology that I’ve been formulating in the inspiration generated from my reading of Eric Gans’ work that I think has big potential when combined with Nietzschean aesthetics.

    We have a political ideology, an ethics, and now a philosophical school.

    We just need a religion and we’re done.”— Joel Davis

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-04 08:47:00 UTC

  • (yeah, I’m all for skepticism, but humility is just another abrahamism.)

    (yeah, I’m all for skepticism, but humility is just another abrahamism.)

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-03 09:13:00 UTC

  • VERY CLOSE TO THE FINAL WORD ON THE LIMITS OF RELIGION AND THE COMPETITION BETWE

    VERY CLOSE TO THE FINAL WORD ON THE LIMITS OF RELIGION AND THE COMPETITION BETWEEN FEELS AND REALZ.

    The word “anthropomorphization” is an enlightenment term from the 1700’s that refers to the human psychological tendency to attribute human properties to non-human characters for the purpose of substituting human intent when causality is beyond the grasp of the speaker – or as a literary device to communicate general psychological intuitions through non-human characters through conflation with animal behaviors or extraordinary circumstances.

    This term was chosen to refer to the general tendency of humans to produce fantasy stories for use as wisdom literature in the absence of a literature of causation (science) throughout history. This fantasy wisdom literature is easily explainable as the product of evolutionary chance, human reason’s need for causal explanation (‘fear of vacuum’), and human imagination’s ability to perform substitution (permutation).

    Moreover, appealing to intuition requires little or no burden-of-reason, and the repeating narrative is the lowest cost means of training intuition available to human beings, and is available from childhood onward. Even better, narratives that train inexpensive and powerful intuition which can then serve as a substitute for expensive and error-prone reason that survive generations of application cause behaviors whose consequences are correspondent to complex reality despite the fact that it’s causes are non-correspodent to reality, thereby reducing the error of the individual and the group regardless of their individual abilities to reason. Unfortunately the cost of adaptation of such narrative knowledge, reinforced by networks of related and interdependent narratives, is extremely high in relation to the rate of change. So intuitionistic programming by such narratives declines in value with the rate of change in knowledge and circumstance. And many peoples have been degraded, defeated, or exterminated because they were unable to adapt to changes due to confrontation with Guns, Germs, Steel, accounting, literacy, contract, law, banking, mathematics, logic, history, and Science.

    The operationally descriptive term anthropomorphization accurately describes the deflation of the technique by which we produce imaginary experiences, the sedative and euphoric chemical rewards of those imaginary experiences that invoke our submission to the pack response, the frequency with which those chemical rewards are available due to the low cost of chemical rewards for imaginary experiences, the sedative and euphoric effect of those chemical rewards, and the value in social phenomenon of associating sedative and euphoric effects with otherwise stressful persistent problems of minds capable of reason in complex problems our reason cannot solve and therefore bring to rest.

    Furthermore, we are all conscious of our status, whether reproductive value, social value, economic(productie) value, and political value. To the point where the combination of neuroticism (worry), status value, and agency(ability to act to change state), in concert with our ability to temporarily fool (sedate, stimulate) ourselves through imaginary self-narration, can drive us to destructive behaviors as we desperately seek to preserve the sedative and euphoric values of these (false) narratives in the face of evidence to the contrary.

    The experiences provided by fantasy fiction wisdom literature, its use in training intuition as a discount on cost of reason, it’s use in sedation and euphoria as stress reduction, and the discount provided by non-rational, intertemporally tested, methods of decidability, and the value of such decidability in coordinating social groups of widely distributed ages, and widely distributed intellectual abilities, with widely distributed personality traits, and widely distributed circumstances, was the reason for its widespread success in increasing the number of people coordinating their actions by the same criterial, even if the consequences were maladaptive to the point where these networks due to their stability and interconnection were highly resistant to new knowledge, and in many cases outright forbid new knowledge leading to poverty conquest and extermination.

    One can experience the feelings of love, friendship, passion, touch color, smell, fear, and a host of combinations. One can experience drugs, theatre, mu And one an remember those experiences, and one can empathize with those experiences in others.

    One can understand the causes of those experiences independent of their experiences, just as one can ‘feel’ the experiences independent of an understanding of the causes.

    It is true that an understanding of causes limits the range of experiences. It is true that the value of experiences limits the conclusions we draw from the causes. But it is the competition between experience and causality, like the competition between imagination and reason, like the competition between literature and history, like the competition between reason and science, that prevents our development of addiction behavior and zealotry to defend it, and scientistic behavior and zealotry to defend it. And the method of decidability we can use for both limits is ‘truth’.

    For this reason we can separate good ‘religions’ from evil ‘religions’. And that line of demarcation is simple: (a) imagination rather than action, (b) deflation (competition) vs monopoly: fictionalism (conflation) rather than competition between true and wise, and advise and command, and history and myth. We can ‘rank’ better religions and worse religions by the same means.

    And so it is profoundly clarifying, to both know and Feel, such that we form a competition between knowing and feeling, if for no other reason than to prevent of harm. And specifically, to prevent the harm of the abrahamic deceits, which succeed by self induced drug addictions through the ritualistic production of endorphins.

    So there is a vast difference between between a monopoly of reason which burdens the less able and empowers the able, and a monopoly of feelings which empower the less able, and burden the able – and the whole civilization.

    The compromise position – the compatible position – between reason and feeling, is that of the use of action rituals, and public rituals, and public festivals, to provide the beneficial returns of mindfulness, the social returns of trust and calculability, and the political benefits of organizing a polity by the same strategy, traditions, norms, and laws.

    This is very close the the final word on limits of religion.

    (Now, you might or might notice that I restated your criticism on a point by point and nearly paragraph by paragraph basis. or you might not. But it will be very difficult to defeat this analysis. )

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-30 12:05:00 UTC

  • So far as I can tell, primitive animism, western discipline-ritual, eastern harm

    So far as I can tell, primitive animism, western discipline-ritual, eastern harmony-ritual, are all ‘good’; and the zoroastrian is borderline; the vedic crosses the border; and the abrahamic religions are all ‘bad’.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-30 09:34:00 UTC

  • Paganism provides ‘advice’ we can choose to heed. Abrahamism provides ‘law’ we m

    Paganism provides ‘advice’ we can choose to heed.

    Abrahamism provides ‘law’ we must obey.

    That is enough of a distinction for any of us to understand.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-30 09:24:00 UTC

  • ENDORPHIN (DRUG) ADDICTION: THE SECRET TO ABRAHAMISM. THE ANCIENT WORLD’S PRACTI

    ENDORPHIN (DRUG) ADDICTION: THE SECRET TO ABRAHAMISM.

    THE ANCIENT WORLD’S PRACTICAL RELIGION

    In the ancient world, the aristocracy (warrior caste) performed many of the ceremonies – it was a public duty.

    1) –“it would always remain a public office. “—

    2) —“there were four colleges for priests, there was no priestly class;”—

    3) —individual expression of belief was unimportant, strict adherence to a rigid set of rituals was far more significant, thereby avoiding the hazards of religious zeal (endorphine-chasing) —

    IN OTHER WORDS

    Like the only other civilization to rely on reason: china –

    1 – The religion was ritualistic, and mindfulness was achievable through ritual and NOT subject to self-induced-drug-addiction. It was a practical religion not an escapist one.

    2 – The practice of the rituals was an administrative skill (see Japanese Tea Ceremony) available to everyone.

    3 – There was no dedicated priestly caste that could gain material or political power through the use of deception (fictionalism) or the sale of experiences (self induced drug addiction).

    IN OTHER WORDS

    There are many ways to obtain the experience of mindfulness. Of them, the best appears to be stoic virtues, the next pagan rituals, the next buddhist meditation, the next pagan prayer. As far as I know the only ‘bad’ means of doing so are self-induced-endorphine saturation, and artificially induced endorphin saturation (drugs).

    CLOSING

    People’s addiction to self-induced endorphin addiction using abrahamic religion is no different from people’s addiction to self administered synthetic endorphin-addiction.

    And their behavior in defense of their addictions whether alcohol, marijuana, opiates, hallucinogens, or fictionalist religion – any religion that can produce ‘Zeal’ (addiction-behavior), is the same – and it is the reason for their absurd behavior in defense of their addiction.

    I have no problem calling drug addicts what they are. I have no problem prosecuting drug addicts. I have no problem denying drug addicts means of distribution of their drugs. I have no problem denying drug addicts access to the commons. And I have no problem imprisoning or killing drug addicts.

    BECAUSE AS WE HAVE SEEN – ADDICTIVE BEHAVIOR IS ANTITHETICAL TO CIVILIZATION.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-30 09:00:00 UTC

  • A RELIGION OF THE POSSIBLE, TRUE, GOOD, AND BEAUTIFUL 1: Transcendence/Agency/So

    A RELIGION OF THE POSSIBLE, TRUE, GOOD, AND BEAUTIFUL

    1:

    Transcendence/Agency/Sovereignty;

    The mono-myth/archetypes/plots/virtues;

    The Fables, Myths, Legends, Histories

    2.

    The birth, oath, feast, marriage, death rituals;

    The festivals of life, nature, universe;

    The temples to our Heroes.

    Personal meditation

    3:

    Personal Fitness

    Competitive industry,

    Competitive sport,

    Competitive war,

    4:

    The law of testimony;

    The natural law of cooperation/market government;

    The physical laws. (laws of nature)

    That will provide a religion unlike any other.

    And all of it is possible, true, good, and beautiful.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-28 14:14:00 UTC

  • Judaism is a manufactured (revisionist) history. Same for christianity. Same for

    Judaism is a manufactured (revisionist) history. Same for christianity. Same for islam. They are, as far as historians seem able to construct, a conflation of the egyptian myths imported into persia, combined with zoroastrian myths, combined with greek interpretations of persian myths, evolving thru mithraism, culminating is sol invictus (it seems), and then iteratively modified like the plot of a movie over decades. In other words, the abrahamic cults practiced fictionalism (the conflation of monomyth/archetype, myth, history, law, as a rebellion against the major empires that had defeated the (primitive) tribal cultures of the levant. Just as we see marxism’s class warfare against the aristocratic civilizations by the inferior peoples, evolve into postmodern warfare against the aristocratic civilizations by the inferior peoples. Judaism starts with the usual animism, integrates and evovles as a babylonian heresy. christianity as a jewish heresy. And islam as a christian heresy. Each one taking a few hundred years to develop a canon. The consequence is that everyone who adopted these cults regressed – just as was intended by the authors: as a rebellion against the aristocratic civilizations of Europe, Persia, India, and China.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-27 19:10:00 UTC

  • DEFINE: “GOD” Politically: An Archetypal anthropomorphic literary figure that pr

    DEFINE: “GOD”

    Politically:

    An Archetypal anthropomorphic literary figure that provides wisdom, example, law, or commands that assist humans in coordinating their perceptions, feelings, thoughts, knowledge, and actions, by providing a means of decidability between differences in the preferable and not, the good and not, the beautiful and not, and the true and not.

    Individually:

    A set of measures conflated through attribution to an anthropomorphic character that provides humans with a means of choosing actions by way of intuition, or by emulation, or by rule of thumb (thinking fast) when we are confronted with uncertainty, ambiguity, or complexity in situations where investigation, or reasoning, or discourse, or measurement (thinking slowly) is too inefficient or too costly given our scarcity of resources, time, and physical, intellectual, or emotional energy.

    Specifically:

    In other words, a god is a standard of weight and measure for human decision making, in the most intuitive form possible for humans: sympathetic experience (empathy).

    Sociology:

    Gods allowed peoples from different tribes and tribal groups to resolve differences by attributing goods and bads to the opinions of the gods in the same way we make contract provisions today. As such, new gods were invented, and new gods adapted as the people needed them.

    Gods take advantage of the normal hierarchy of decision making in families, generations, tribes and polities by providing a means of ‘deciding of last resort’:

    A Self > Brother > Mother > Father > Headman > Chieftain > Priest > Gods.

    However, most importantly, the portfolio of gods always reflects our group evolutionary strategy in literary terms. And that portfolio does so no by direct statements that would leave that subject open to debate, but by suggestion and secondary consequence thereby hiding it from us, and hiding our debate. the reason being that we do not want people to defect to different group evolutionary strategies, that while they might be better for certain individuals would cause harm to the collective polity. In other words, literary characters are difficult to corrupt and even more difficult to argue against if they are part of a network of characters that all operate by the same group evolutionary strategy.

    Psychology:

    In addition to their impersonal and political literary roles, Gods can be prayed or spoken to and obeyed or sacrificed to by means of role play. So just as we imagine speaking to the hierarchy of Brother > Mother > Father > Headman, we can imagine contemplating, speaking to, begging from (praying), and trading with (sacrificing to) gods. And because we are so naturally talented at imagining these conversations, if we practice enough and have enough experience with accessing these characters, we can in fact intuit insights just as we can when role playing with others.

    Ethical and Moral Synchronicity:

    Because we humans are all subject to similar stimulation at similar points in time, and often resort to similar role playing as means of assisting us in decidability, we make hundreds of micro decisions every day, and maybe thousands of micro-judgments or considerations a day using the same ‘tools’ of decidability provided by our literary anthropomorphic characters. In fact, there is fairly good evidence that there is no better way to improve your decidability than expanding the scope of your literary experiences such that you can draw from so many different combinations of those tools.

    Political Consequences:

    We make uncountable decisions every day. Most of these decisions are unclear. And the vast majority require no difference in cost from us. So we need a means of tie-breaking. In the absence of these normative narratives and normative rules, and normative habits, we can only decide them by the knowledge at our disposal and the interests at our disposal. But by relying on narratives, rules and habits we can, at no cost to ourselves, or at very little cost to ourselves, make very tiny contributions (sacrifices) at all times toward our group evolutionary strategy (gods).

    For these reasons alone, gods have profound value to a people. The constitute a literary version of the law by which the people operate. Now it is very likely that just as we have separate courts for political, institutional, civil, family, and criminal law, and just as we have myths, literature, history, economics, law, and science, that we should (and do) have a hierarchy of heroes, demigods, and gods to make it possible for humans of various abilities to advance the group evolutionary strategy in concert with others, despite our wide variation in analytic ability.

    And adherence to the wisdom in that literature is as important as adherence to the norms, to the laws, and to the natural law, and to those laws of nature. Because we may come to harm if we do not, and we will likely – although not certainly – prosper as individuals and groups if we do.

    Good Gods and Evil Gods:

    Just as there are good ideas that assist people in escaping superstition, ignorance, poverty, labor, disease and tyranny, there are bad ideas that doom them to superstition, ignorance, poverty, labor, disease, and tyranny.

    And just as there are good gods that transcend people from animal to human to demigod, by eliminating superstition, ignorance, poverty, labor,disease and tyranny, and there are bad gods that prevent people from transcending from beast, to human to demigod to gods by eliminating superstition, ignorance, poverty, labor,disease and tyranny.

    The only judge of a god or gods is the relative superstition, ignorance, poverty, labor,disease and tyranny of a people.

    The gods possess agency from all but the limits of the universe. A good god seeks to create agency. An evil god seeks to prevent human agency. Good gods and evil gods are easy to identify for these reasons.

    Evolution of Gods:

    Gods must adapt as our group evolutionary strategy adapts. And it often takes great thinkers to adapt our gods to what we have learned about the laws of nature, the natural law, and our local circumstance, and how we might persist. And in history adapting such laws takes decades, if not a century or more.

    As our knowledge and awareness increases, and we are able to cope with ever larger causal connections, “Gods” give way to deconflated direct strategies becoming less and less relevant. And therefore the more power a man has over his life, the less powerful his Gods become.

    Unfortunately, there are many false gods, many false group evolutionary strategies, and many foolish, idealistic, and evil people in this world who attempt to modify them for ill.

    How do we know the difference? Well. Truth tells us. Because science is the discipline of truth if it is complete. Unfortunately, no science as it is practiced today is practiced ‘complete’.

    Thankfully, with Testimonialism, that is something we can repair.

    THE RANGE OF DEITIES

    Humans demonstrate a range of gods, from those of though to those of feeling. The list below contains the range of gods from those of THOUGHT to those of FEELING.

    THOUGHT

    8 – Analogy to Anthropomorphic intent (physical/natural order)

    7 – Ideal Anthropomorphic design or intent – platonist/ideal

    6 – Supernatural (anthropomorphic intent unbound)

    5 – Supernormal (anthropomorphic bound, perfect)

    4 – Supranormal (anthropomorphic, bound, flawed)

    3 – Demigod (mortal or immortal half-god, half-man)

    2 – Deified (risen to demigod after death)

    1 – Hero (demonstrated excellence against opposing forces)

    0 – Man (raw potential)

    1 – Saint (demonstrated sacrifice to submission or caretaking)

    2 – Woman (borderline supranormal) (women are semi-magical)

    3 – Animistic supranormal (animistic, natural)

    4 – Animistic host (carries spirit without consciousness)

    5 – Beasts of the wild

    FEELING

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-27 12:40:00 UTC

  • I try not to rationalize these things, and think I’m terribly smart, and instead

    I try not to rationalize these things, and think I’m terribly smart, and instead I just look at the evidence – the evidence left behind by abrahamic religions (judaism, christianity, and islam) is tragic – and the evidence of their reformed versions (pseudoscientific marxism/socialism, pseudoscientific social democracy, and pseudo-rational postmodernism) is just as bad.

    The abrahamic method of ‘suggestion’ by which one bypasses reason via overloading and conflation, is the worse thing to happen to humanity outside the great plagues (polio, tuberculosis, malaria, bubonic…).

    I mean, between the christian dark ages, the jewish inability to hold territory and constant persecution, and the hundreds of millions of dead from islam and communism, not to mention the loss of the great civilizations of north africa, persia, the western roman empire, the byzantine empire, and the indus valley, its hard to imagine which is worse: plagues of the mind or body.

    We humans demonstrate all sorts of demand. A lot of what we demand is bad for us. Truth, Excellence, and Beauty among them. But much of what we demand is the comfort of avoiding all efforts at truth excellence and beauty – producing deception, crime, and decay.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-06-27 07:12:00 UTC