Theme: Religion

  • Choice Words

    –“Myths and Traditions provide information, not argument. It’s often good information. But that does not mean it provides us with an argument.”—

  • Choice Words

    –“Myths and Traditions provide information, not argument. It’s often good information. But that does not mean it provides us with an argument.”—

  • Religion of Peace? Can Someone Explain That To Me?

    [E]ven if I am skilled in the arts, it is an intellectual skill. Even if I enjoy the arts, it is an intellectual appreciation – a sense of wonder not empathy. I am very well aware that I have a ‘scientistic’ mind both by nature, by upbringing, and by choice, and that experiential methods of argument are exasperating for me. I went to religous schools but I understood the bible as history – and nothing more. The bible’s contents always were nonsense compared to the encyclopedias. Especially its authoritarianism since due to genetic disposition universal in my family, I recoil against authority of any and every kind.. As a child I kept the world map, the constitution, bill of rights, and the declaration on my wall, a set of encyclopedias in my bookcase, and science fiction functioned as my mythos. And that combination of history, law, and myth has stuck with me as my subconscious model both by affinity and choice. I say this because I am aware of my priors both genetic, familial, cultural and experiential. I get nothing from the life of Siddhartha Budda, the Christ, Muhammed, at all. And while I find it tedious, at least I can understand Confucius. I have no dream-world to invoke through association – only an historical one. I see only argument in favor and against actions for the purpose of producing consequences, and only a green and treed earth to revel in, not a life to be endured or suffered. I do not see man as oppressing me, but man in need of suppression of his barbarism. I see man struggling with his incompetence to organize, not skillful oppressors. And perhaps most importantly, I see all language as pretense for power. And in the Koran I see nothing more than a set of prescriptions, promises, and threats designed for the purpose of obtaining power. And in the history of islam I see nothing more than the use of that book to expand by conquest and to institute regressiveness upon civilization. So when someone says “Islam is a Religion of Peace” I see no evidence of it. I see islamic civilization as the greatest failure of any extant group, the greatest threat to mankind, and an interesting problem since for christian africa, christian europe, hindu india, buddhist asia alike – everywhere islam goes it is an enemy that it seems rational for all the great powers to eradicate the same way that the west eradicated the religion of marxist communism. I don’t know what other people see, hear and feel in that book, any more than in the bible or the study of buddha, or the study of judaic law. The content and purpose of these books is military: obtaining power over men and women by force of lying, deceit, shaming, rallying, and violence. The purpose of Aristotle is to give us power over nature so that we may transform it into a garden preferable to man. Not to gain power over others but over ourselves. Not to impose stasis, but invention. Not positive command to specific actions or goals, but prohibition of that which inhibits actions and goals. Not to command man, but to prohibit man from command. In my work I have come to see all man’s words as defense of, justification of, negotiation on behalf of, and assertion of, his reproductive strategy. This is a less ‘christian’ version of Nietzsche’s will to power. Instead it is a will to acquire, of which power is merely one asset to inventory. I do not see in books what is said. I see what strategy is being defended, justified, negotiated, and asserted. I do not allow myself to be programmed by suggestion, and even if I did, I may be incapable of it. In fact, if suggestion is the method of communication I am largely immune. But you see, that is the purpose of narratives: to program by suggestion. A recipe is very different from a story. A natural law under rule of law very different from both. But a narrative programs by suggestion, from the invocation of experience, and not from recipe (positive) and law (negative). So if someone can please explain to me the criteria by which one could judge islam as a religion of peace, I would love to know. But as far as I can tell it is just another scourge of the earth and it has been since its invention. And every people conquered by it suffer for it. It may be effective for the devil to convince us he does not exist. It is even better if he convinces us that he is god. It is possible the Jehova is the devil. It is certain that Allah is. Not by verbal analysis but by demonstrated outcome. Not by claims, not words, not ‘meaning’ (suggestion), but by evidence of the consequences of the long term use of those words. Curt Doolittle The Propertarian Institute Kiev, Ukraine

  • Religion of Peace? Can Someone Explain That To Me?

    [E]ven if I am skilled in the arts, it is an intellectual skill. Even if I enjoy the arts, it is an intellectual appreciation – a sense of wonder not empathy. I am very well aware that I have a ‘scientistic’ mind both by nature, by upbringing, and by choice, and that experiential methods of argument are exasperating for me. I went to religous schools but I understood the bible as history – and nothing more. The bible’s contents always were nonsense compared to the encyclopedias. Especially its authoritarianism since due to genetic disposition universal in my family, I recoil against authority of any and every kind.. As a child I kept the world map, the constitution, bill of rights, and the declaration on my wall, a set of encyclopedias in my bookcase, and science fiction functioned as my mythos. And that combination of history, law, and myth has stuck with me as my subconscious model both by affinity and choice. I say this because I am aware of my priors both genetic, familial, cultural and experiential. I get nothing from the life of Siddhartha Budda, the Christ, Muhammed, at all. And while I find it tedious, at least I can understand Confucius. I have no dream-world to invoke through association – only an historical one. I see only argument in favor and against actions for the purpose of producing consequences, and only a green and treed earth to revel in, not a life to be endured or suffered. I do not see man as oppressing me, but man in need of suppression of his barbarism. I see man struggling with his incompetence to organize, not skillful oppressors. And perhaps most importantly, I see all language as pretense for power. And in the Koran I see nothing more than a set of prescriptions, promises, and threats designed for the purpose of obtaining power. And in the history of islam I see nothing more than the use of that book to expand by conquest and to institute regressiveness upon civilization. So when someone says “Islam is a Religion of Peace” I see no evidence of it. I see islamic civilization as the greatest failure of any extant group, the greatest threat to mankind, and an interesting problem since for christian africa, christian europe, hindu india, buddhist asia alike – everywhere islam goes it is an enemy that it seems rational for all the great powers to eradicate the same way that the west eradicated the religion of marxist communism. I don’t know what other people see, hear and feel in that book, any more than in the bible or the study of buddha, or the study of judaic law. The content and purpose of these books is military: obtaining power over men and women by force of lying, deceit, shaming, rallying, and violence. The purpose of Aristotle is to give us power over nature so that we may transform it into a garden preferable to man. Not to gain power over others but over ourselves. Not to impose stasis, but invention. Not positive command to specific actions or goals, but prohibition of that which inhibits actions and goals. Not to command man, but to prohibit man from command. In my work I have come to see all man’s words as defense of, justification of, negotiation on behalf of, and assertion of, his reproductive strategy. This is a less ‘christian’ version of Nietzsche’s will to power. Instead it is a will to acquire, of which power is merely one asset to inventory. I do not see in books what is said. I see what strategy is being defended, justified, negotiated, and asserted. I do not allow myself to be programmed by suggestion, and even if I did, I may be incapable of it. In fact, if suggestion is the method of communication I am largely immune. But you see, that is the purpose of narratives: to program by suggestion. A recipe is very different from a story. A natural law under rule of law very different from both. But a narrative programs by suggestion, from the invocation of experience, and not from recipe (positive) and law (negative). So if someone can please explain to me the criteria by which one could judge islam as a religion of peace, I would love to know. But as far as I can tell it is just another scourge of the earth and it has been since its invention. And every people conquered by it suffer for it. It may be effective for the devil to convince us he does not exist. It is even better if he convinces us that he is god. It is possible the Jehova is the devil. It is certain that Allah is. Not by verbal analysis but by demonstrated outcome. Not by claims, not words, not ‘meaning’ (suggestion), but by evidence of the consequences of the long term use of those words. Curt Doolittle The Propertarian Institute Kiev, Ukraine

  • WHAT CONSTITUTES A TRUTHFUL RELIGION (important) I have a soul. I can observe it

    WHAT CONSTITUTES A TRUTHFUL RELIGION

    (important)

    I have a soul. I can observe it through introspection. It is a full accounting of my sins, offset by a selective accounting of my acts of charity. I know the balance of that account. We all know the balance of that account – even if we fear to look at it. The chief value of an all-knowing god, is as a psychological device that assists us in looking at the transactions in, and balance of, that account, without any ability to lie to ourselves. The chief value of confession is to publicly admit this balance, and use peer pressure to eliminate any deficit.

    Whether that soul is eternal is not a question – of course it is. We can commit no sin or perform no charity without the existence of others to sin or perform charity against. Our actions leave a permanent record in the universe. We live on eternally in the changes to the universe that we have made by our actions. That is what acting means: to alter the course of events. Each action does so. That our simple human minds need to anthropomorphize these ideas so that they are easier for the ignorant, dim, and fearful to grasp is no more surprising than that children need parables, myths, legends, and fairy tales to grasp basic concepts using models for concepts otherwise beyond their experience.

    This scientific view of one’s sould is not without what humans consider supernatural properties however. It is increasingly clear that we do not understand the structure of matter, space, and time, and that our perception of matter, space, and time, is limited to that in which we can act. If even some small part of our understanding of the universe is true, then it is entirely possible that it matters not only how we act, but how we think, and what we believe, and how others remember us.

    Given that the worst case argument we can construct about supernatural forces is to say “I do not know, but it places no cost upon me either way,” or that “I choose to act as if it is so because there is no penalty for doing so, but a benefit for doing so”, “and there are benefits to psychological rituals for all mankind”, we have enough justification for the conceptual use of one or more all knowing gods that assists our minds in confronting a full accounting of our actions, and the presumption of the possibility that collective ritual may in fact alter the structure of not only our minds in beneficial ways, but the minds of others, and potentially the structure of the universe in beneficial ways.

    Moreover, since it is increasingly clear that we are not cognizant of the power of our genes, our intuitions and our biases upon our minds and actions, it is not clear that there is an as yet unrecognized equivalent of a calculating system of some sort – ostensibly unaware – produced by the actions, thoughts and memories of all of us. I have no way of knowing one way or the other. But without knowing I will not fail to pay the cost of perpetuating what has worked for all of human history: rituals that bind us to one another through invocation of the submission-to-the-pack response ever present in our brain stems.

    Our understanding is overrated, because it is extremely limited. So in these cases I prefer to do what is beneficial for men and man, assuming that the recipe we follow for collective religious ritual is causing us to produce some product that I do not understand, rather than to write it off as a psychological crutch or weakness. It’s just science. How we justify this particular thing as purely scientific and useful, rational, psychological or mystical is not important to me. These are just languages for different levels of abstraction, all of which describe the same process and its effects.

    As such I merely prefer the least false set of beliefs, and the most constructive forms of ritual. And those are, from my knowledge: the practice of sport, the discipline of stoic mindfulness, the sacredness of nature, the ceremonial request for wisdom from, and the ceremonial thanks to our heroes, the gathering of souls in the practice of all of the above, and our surrender to the pack as a means of overcoming our petty differences and interests.

    Curt Doolittle

    The Philosophy of Aristocracy

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine


    Source date (UTC): 2015-11-12 09:06:00 UTC

  • RELIGION OF PEACE? Even if I am skilled in the arts, it is an intellectual skill

    RELIGION OF PEACE?

    Even if I am skilled in the arts, it is an intellectual skill. Even if I enjoy the arts, it is an intellectual appreciation – a sense of wonder not empathy. I am very well aware that I have a ‘scientistic’ mind both by nature, by upbringing, and by choice, and that experiential methods of argument are exasperating for me. I went to religous schools but I understood the bible as history – and nothing more. The bible’s contents always were nonsense compared to the encyclopedias. Especially its authoritarianism since due to genetic disposition universal in my family, I recoil against authority of any and every kind.. As a child I kept the world map, the constitution, bill of rights, and the declaration on my wall, a set of encyclopedias in my bookcase, and science fiction functioned as my mythos. And that combination of history, law, and myth has stuck with me as my subconscious model both by affinity and choice. I say this because I am aware of my priors both genetic, familial, cultural and experiential.

    I get nothing from the life of Siddhartha Budda, the Christ, Muhammed, at all. And while I find it tedious, at least I can understand Confucius. I have no dream-world to invoke through association – only an historical one. I see only argument in favor and against actions for the purpose of producing consequences, and only a green and treed earth to revel in, not a life to be endured or suffered. I do not see man as oppressing me, but man in need of suppression of his barbarism. I see man struggling with his incompetence to organize, not skillful oppressors. And perhaps most importantly, I see all language as pretense for power. And in the Koran I see nothing more than a set of prescriptions, promises, and threats designed for the purpose of obtaining power. And in the history of islam I see nothing more than the use of that book to expand by conquest and to institute regressiveness upon civilization.

    So when someone says “Islam is a Religion of Peace” I see no evidence of it. I see islamic civilization as the greatest failure of any extant group, the greatest threat to mankind, and an interesting problem since for christian africa, christian europe, hindu india, buddhist asia alike – everywhere islam goes it is an enemy that it seems rational for all the great powers to eradicate the same way that the west eradicated the religion of marxist communism.

    I don’t know what other people see, hear and feel in that book, any more than in the bible or the study of buddha, or the study of judaic law. The content and purpose of these books is military: obtaining power over men and women by force of lying, deceit, shaming, rallying, and violence.

    The purpose of Aristotle is to give us power over nature so that we may transform it into a garden preferable to man. Not to gain power over others but over ourselves. Not to impose stasis, but invention. Not positive command to specific actions or goals, but prohibition of that which inhibits actions and goals. Not to command man, but to prohibit man from command.

    In my work I have come to see all man’s words as defense of, justification of, negotiation on behalf of, and assertion of, his reproductive strategy. This is a less ‘christian’ version of Nietzsche’s will to power. Instead it is a will to acquire, of which power is merely one asset to inventory.

    I do not see in books what is said. I see what strategy is being defended, justified, negotiated, and asserted. I do not allow myself to be programmed by suggestion, and even if I did, I may be incapable of it. In fact, if suggestion is the method of communication I am largely immune.

    But you see, that is the purpose of narratives: to program by suggestion. A recipe is very different from a story. A natural law under rule of law very different from both. But a narrative programs by suggestion, from the invocation of experience, and not from recipe (positive) and law (negative).

    So if someone can please explain to me the criteria by which one could judge islam as a religion of peace, I would love to know. But as far as I can tell it is just another scourge of the earth and it has been since its invention. And every people conquered by it suffer for it.

    It may be effective for the devil to convince us he does not exist. It is even better if he convinces us that he is god. It is possible the Jehova is the devil. It is certain that Allah is. Not by verbal analysis but by demonstrated outcome. Not by claims, not words, not ‘meaning’ (suggestion), but by evidence of the consequences of the long term use of those words.

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine


    Source date (UTC): 2015-11-12 04:23:00 UTC

  • “Myths and Traditions provide information, not argument. It’s often good informa

    —“Myths and Traditions provide information, not argument. It’s often good information. But that does not mean it provides us with an argument.”—


    Source date (UTC): 2015-11-11 13:54:00 UTC

  • Evolution of Religion (early sketch) in technological context

    Evolution of Religion (early sketch) in technological context https://t.co/rGkSyhDxZQ


    Source date (UTC): 2015-11-10 16:41:21 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/664120670536769536

  • 21st CENTURY RELIGION – PART II – ANTI MONOPOLISM The other point I try to make

    21st CENTURY RELIGION – PART II – ANTI MONOPOLISM

    The other point I try to make is that while the world practices political monotheisms (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity), that this is a POLITICAL statement not a factual one.

    In china they practice Maoism in the leadership, Confucianism in the upper classes, Lao Tzu in the lower, and Buddhism as a moral binding principle across all.

    In the west we demonstrably practice (a) Aristotelianism, Natural Law and Legalism, (b) Christianity – political and moral religion (c) Paganism – myths and traditions, as well as nature worship)

    I know I am ‘inspired’ by trees just as our ancient ancestors were, and I understand completely why the churches were intentionally built upon our sacred groves. My politics and law may be aristotelian, my morality and commons may be christian, but my mind, heart and soul are pagan through and through. Whether it’s genetic or not we don’t know yet.

    Cheers

    Curt


    Source date (UTC): 2015-11-10 07:09:00 UTC