457 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
  2. Mar 2024
    1. 29:40 Demonising "toxic masculinity" makes it grow stronger

      See this in relation to Dune 2 scene in which the princess comments to the emperor that "Surpressing the prophet (Paul) will only make the religion grow"

    1. dieses schwarz/weiss denken ist so lächerlich...<br /> aber dumme menschen brauchen einfache weltbilder<br /> also "antifa" ist auch nur eine religion, mystik, emo blabla, falsche hoffnung

  3. Feb 2024
    1. It was Nietzsche who warned us, at the end of the 19th century, notonly that God is dead but that “faith in science, which after all existsundeniably, cannot owe its origin to a calculus of utility; it must haveoriginated in spite of the fact that the disutility and dangerousness ofthe ‘will to truth,’ of ‘truth at any price’ is proved to it constantly.”

      Joy quoting Nietzsche

    2. In recent times, we have come to revere scientific knowledge.

      Some do, yes, but it's interesting to note that when Bill Joy was writing this a strong anti-science movement was afoot in the United States of America.

  4. Jan 2024
    1. for - history - King Philip II - El Escorial - polycrisis - religion - history - adjacency - polycrisis - war - religion - epoche - CHD

      Adjacency - between - polycrisis - war - religion - epoche - CHD - history - adjacency statement - King Philip II is an interesting historical figure who left behind this enormous physical artefact of El Escorial. - So much of history has revolved around the religious beliefs of leaders, and how those beliefs are entangled and enacted in wars, enslavement, politics and power. - Phillip's fervent Catholicism drove him to expand his empire, fight wars with the Ottoman empire and Protestants and build the sprawling El Escorial complex. - The building was designed to express his Catholic beliefs - from the monastery to the Basilica, secret relic room, to library and mausoleum. His beliefs were responsible for driving his behaviour, which influenced much of humanity during his rule. - religion's power have influenced many powerful people of history, resulting in mass influence on society, including perpetuating inequality, extractionism, colonialism and violence - all in the name of a concept of apprehending the great mystery of life. - The desire to understand the great mystery of life and death has been hijacked to perpetuate great harm instead. What is needed now is a wisdom commons for the entire species that can help elevate, deepen and interconnect all the legacy belief systems before it. For in spite of the great variety of belief systems, they are fundamentally united through a common humans denominator - they all require human beings. - It is a deficiency in any existing systems that can justify offering and violence against other belief systems and claim the throne of THE one and only, true belief system. Indeed, the claim of "the truth" is itself already a poison since it is never achievable. An epoche for the common person is necessary to penetrate the weak link of the argument itself, the linguistic social conditioning which enables storytelling itself. - the inability to collectively grasp the symbolosphere, the noosphere compells us towards beliefs, out of which self- righteousness, self- reification and othering blossom.

    1. for - spiritual collectives - non-dogmatic spirituality

      summary adjacency between - spiritual collectives - Deep Humanity - Adjacency statement - There is a growing movement of people disenchanted with the contradictions, trauma or dogma of many mainstream religions. - Evangelical pastors and followers are converting to a more open and inclusive spiritual practice. - This growing movement has close resemblance to Deep Humanity in its openess to all religions and spiritual practices as long as they do not bring harm, and the lack of dogmatism. - There could be a good opportunity for synergies since spiritual collectives take an open source / commons approach to spiritual practice wherein we collaborate to surface the best principles to live by. - From a commons / open source perspective, we give this the name - open source religion - open source spirituality

  5. Dec 2023
      • for: science and religion, flat earth misconception, DH, Deep Humanity - science and religion - historical relationship

      • summary

        • Dutch historian Jochem Boodt explains how fake news isn't something new, but as old as the history books!
        • Science and religion were not antagonist in early Western history, as is believed today. This was fake news fabricated in a fascinating way.
        • He uses the example of the common misconception that before Columbus, people thought the earth was flat.
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmyVf_LhF50

      Nothing new or interesting here. Watched at 2x.

      Sad revelation is that Scott Scheper has indoctrinated Nico to the point that he's making videos for Scheper's channel rather than for himself. I hope Nico is getting something valuable (ie, monetary payment) for this.

    1. "In the general confusion of our time," Febvre wrote, "old ideas refuse to die and still find acceptance with the mass of the population."

      sourcing on this?

    1. even religious people would openly tell 00:08:19 you that all the gods in the world are fictional stories invented by humans except one not my God my God is is true but Zeus and Shiva and whatever other 00:08:33 gods other people have they are fictions invented by humans and um I think that again the scientific consensus is is is just the same view with an addition of 00:08:46 one additional God my God is also like Zeus and and and like Jupiter and like Thor and like all these others it is also a fictional story created by humans
      • for: narratives - science and religion, stories - science and religion, symbolosphere, meaningverse, multi-meaningverse

      • comment

        • Harari is saying that both science and the diversity of religions are both telling a story. Both are fictional in the deeper sense that they are all stories and stories are all created by humans in the symbolosphere
        • Science, or religion, cannot be found merely in the books that write about them, no matter how many libraries or harddrives of 1s and 0s they take up
        • How do we know this? Easy. If an ant or butterfly or sunflower is exposed to a physical book or pdf on on ANY scientific subject, or ANY religious topic, will it understand it? No, of course not. Only a human fully conditioned into the symbolosphere will be able to interact with that physical or informational object and get something meaningful out of it. That is because we have all learned to co-participate in a collective meaningverse.
  6. Nov 2023
    1. He was director of research in the Sociology of Religion at the École pratique des hautes études from 1945 to 1962.[1] He served as the Dean of the Law School at the University of Paris from 1959 to 1962.

      En la Sorbonne, Le Bras fue maestro de Pablo González Casanova.

      Sociología de la religión (ayudó a PGC vincular la emancipación humana desde la religión hasta la ciencia)

      PCG lo menciona en la presentación del libro "Explotación, colonialismo y lucha por la democracia en América Latina", el 9 de noviembre de 2019, en la FCPyS de la UNAM.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goUunGy2cS4

    1. The Spanish thought they had been mandated by God to spread the faith and were thus justified in annexing all territories not populated by Christians in order to convert the heathens.
      • for: colonialism - role of religion

      • comment

        • Using religion as justification of violence committed against the other is liberally found throughout history
    1. SOME OTHER THOUGHTS on Antinet Evangelistic Starter Boxes: While watching Scott's 1 on 1 with Peter "The Antinet Prince" when they were discussing having the starting categories somewhere, a thought occurred to me. We should have a box created/manufactured and pre-populated with the main sections, basic outline cards, and some starting cards (a few of each type) with blanks to reformulate some pre-printed excerpt notes. This could have a bunch of foundational stuff from Luhmann's material. It could lead to a whole line of Antinet boxes (cool drawers that are stackable/expandable) and other helpful stuff. I worked for a plastics mold manufacturing company for over 10 years and have a lot of good friends there still. I'd be willing to help in the process if others think this might be a worthwhile endeavor. What do you think u/sscheper?

      https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/17rbqaz/teaching_is_the_best_way_to_learn/

      Example of someone using the phrase "Antinet Evangelistic Starter Boxes". It's a box of cards for god's sake! If you're going to productize it, then be a capitalist about it, but "evangelizing" it?!

      • for: epoche, epoche - interfaith applications, bracketing, applied epoche, Deep Humanity, DH, polycrisis, political polarization, religious polarization, epoche - research application

      • comment

        • I performed Google search for "Epoche and application to interfaith religion"
        • The reason is that I am exploring a hunch of the salience of applying epoche for deep interfaith understanding
        • political polarization constitutes an existential threat and is one important crisis in our current polycrisis
        • Unless we find ways to effectively and rapidly reduce polarization, the other crisis's such as climate crisis, biodiversity crisis and inequality crisis will likely not be resolved
        • religious polarization form ingroups / outgroups and is a major contributing factor to political polarization and violent conflict
        • hence it becomes important to understand how interfaith understanding can be enhanced
        • epoche appears to be one possible way to accelerate interfaith understanding
      • for: epoche, epoche - interfaith applications, Deep Humanity, DH, polycrisis, poltical polarization, religious polarization, hermenneutic, hermeneutical phenomenological method

      • summary

        • a very insightful paper
      • comment

        • I performed Google search for "Epoche and application to interfaith religion"
        • The reason is that I am exploring a hunch of the salience of applying epoche for deep interfaith understanding
        • political polarization constitutes an existential threat and is one important crisis in our current polycrisis
        • Unless we find ways to effectively and rapidly reduce polarization, the other crisis's such as climate crisis, biodiversity crisis and inequality crisis will likely not be resolved
        • religious polarization form ingroups / outgroups and is a major contributing factor to political polarization and violent conflict
        • hence it becomes important to understand how interfaith understanding can be enhanced
        • epoche appears to be one possible way to accelerate interfaith understanding
    1. On the Function of the Epoche inPhenomenological Interpretations of Religion
      • for: epoche, epoche - interfaith applications, Deep Humanity, DH, polycrisis, political polarization, religious polarization

      • comment

        • I performed Google search for "Epoche and application to interfaith religion"
        • The reason is that I am exploring a hunch of the salience of applying epoche for deep interfaith understanding
        • political polarization constitutes an existential threat and is one important crisis in our current polycrisis
        • Unless we find ways to effectively and rapidly reduce polarization, the other crisis's such as climate crisis, biodiversity crisis and inequality crisis will likely not be resolved
        • religious polarization form ingroups / outgroups and is a major contributing factor to political polarization and violent conflict
        • hence it becomes important to understand how interfaith understanding can be enhanced
        • epoche appears to be one possible way to accelerate interfaith understanding
    1. how the spirit of a deceased sister reassured her family.
    2. isionary leader of the rebellion and his religious ideology.
  7. Oct 2023
    1. But sometimes Alter’s comments seem exactly wrong. Alter calls Proverbs 29:2 “no more than a formulation in verse of a platitude,” but Daniel L. Dreisbach’s Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers devotes an entire chapter to that single verse, much loved at the time of the American Founding: “When the righteous are many, a people rejoices, / but when the wicked man rules, a people groans.” Early Americans “widely, if not universally,” embraced the notion that—as one political sermon proclaimed—“The character of a nation is justly decided by the character of their rulers, especially in a free and elective government.” Dreisbach writes, “They believed it was essential that the American people be reminded of this biblical maxim and select their civil magistrates accordingly.” Annual election sermons and other political sermons often had Proverbs 29:2 as “the primary text.” Far from being a platitude, this single verse may contain a cure to the contagion that is contemporary American political life.

      Ungenerous to take Alter to task for context which he might not have the background to comment upon.

      Does Alter call it a "platitude" from it's historical context, or with respect to the modern context of Donald J. Trump and a wide variety of Republican Party members who are anything but Christian?

    1. Was ein widerlicher, selbstgerechter, überheblicher Kommentar. Menschenverachtung total. Ich schalte den hier nur frei, damit jeder sehen kann, wie manche Leute ticken. Von Karma haben Sie schonmal gehört? Passen Sie auf, dass es Sie nicht heimsucht.

      danke, ich hab keine geheimnisse, und keine angst vor die dumme mehrheit : )

      ich scheiss auf deine “karma” religion. dafür hast du noch nie von “intravenöses vitamin C” gehört…

    1. Scott continues in his efforts not to make any main notes, but is pushing the indexing of ideas where they live directly in books using only a topic in his index and a page number.

      He calls this practice, which he himself practices, sacrilegious. 00:00:27

      What happened to pushing knowledge-building?!?

      This is the second video I've seen him do this. (Previously: https://hypothes.is/a/28AkYFadEe6ZH_MjTZlnLQ). So his Antinet zettelkasten is now primarily an index and bibliographic cards with fleeting notes. He's specifically leaving out any of what he has previously called main notes.

    1. During the establishment of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel, the people were commanded to destroy the sacred stones of the Canaanites, “You must demolish them and break their sacred stones (masseboth) to pieces” (Exodus 23:24).

      In neighboring cultures in which both have oral practices relating to massebah, one is not just destroying "sacred stones" to stamp out their religion, but it's also destroying their culture and cultural memory as well as likely their laws and other valuable memories for the function of their society.

      View this in light also of the people of Israel keeping their own sacred stones (Hosea 10:1) as well as the destruction of pillars dedicated to Baal in 2 Kings 18:4 and 2 Kings 23:14.

      (Link and) Compare this to the British fencing off the land in Australia and thereby destroying Songlines and access to them and the impact this had on Indigenous Australians.

      It's also somewhat similar to the colonialization activity of stamping out of Indigenous Americans and First Nations' language in North America, though the decimation of their language wasn't viewed in as reciprocal way as it might be viewed now. (Did colonizers of the time know about the tremendous damage of language destruction, or was it just a power over function?)

    2. Israel was forbidden to set up sacred stones, pillars: “you shall not set up a pillar (massebah), which the LORD your God hates” (Deuteronomy 16:22).

      Relationship to the first two commandments against worshiping other gods and the use of idols?

      How does this relate to the standing stone found in the room at Khirbet Qeiyafa from the time of David?

      Dates of this text with respect to Khirbet Keiyafa?

    3. In the Hebrew Bible, the massebah is generally associated with Canaanite religion.
    1. Because these religions are old, though, and they’vebeen fiddled with, possibly, I feel some of the original keys from themasters have been lost.
  8. Sep 2023
    1. I understand some people that if they say 00:07:47 "no, no, this is a science thing, "it's not for us, that's the province of God, we shouldn't go there." I can hear that view, but I really don't think it's what I see in scripture. What I see in scripture is, c'mon, I wanna to show it to you. I want to reveal myself to you. I don't see science as challenging my faith. In fact, I see it as affirming my faith.
      • for: science and religion, Newton - religion, science and religion - Bob Inglis, CHD
  9. Aug 2023
    1. While our modern world cringes at any mention of spirituality, it is not the enemy of science. It speaks volumes that many of the greatest minds of history, including Einstein, Tesla, Da Vinci, Plato and Pythagorus were as interested in the spiritual world as they were in the material sciences.
    2. Is spirituality the missing pillar of sustainability?
      • for: spirituality and science, spirituality and sustainability, spirituality - missing link, Isaac Newton
      • title: Is spirituality the missing pillar of sustainability?
      • author: Tom Greenwood
      • date: Aug. 24, 2023
    1. When I wrote my treatise about our system I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity; and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose.
      • for: quote, quote - Isaac Newton, quote - spirituality and science, quote - science and religion, quote - spirituality - science, quote - religion - science
      • quote
          • for: quote, quote - Isaac Newton, quote - spirituality and science, quote - science and religion, quote - spirituality - science, quote - religion - science
      • quote
        • When I wrote my treatise about our system
        • I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity;
        • and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose..
      • author: Isaac Newton
      • reference
        • Isaac Newton, Principia, ed. Stephen Hawking (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2002), 426–27.
      • author: Isaac Newton
      • reference
    2. This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all. . . . The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect . . . and from his true dominion it follows that the true God is a living, intelligent, and powerful Being. . . . He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not duration or space, but he endures and is present.
      • for: quote, quote - Isaac Newton, quote - spirituality and science, quote - science and religion, quote - spirituality - science, quote - religion - science
      • quote
        • This Being governs all things,
          • not as the soul of the world,
          • but as Lord over all.
        • . . . The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect
        • . . . and from his true dominion it follows that the true God is a
          • living,
          • intelligent, and
          • powerful Being.
        • . . . He is not
          • eternity and
          • infinity, -but
          • eternal and
          • infinite;
        • he is not
          • duration or
          • space,
        • but he
          • endures and
          • is present.
      • author: Isaac Newton
      • reference
        • Isaac Newton, Principia, ed. Stephen Hawking (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2002), 426–27.
    3. Does it not appear from phenomena that there is a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent, omnipresent, who in infinite space . . . sees the things themselves intimately, and thoroughly perceives them, and comprehends them wholly.
      • for: quote, quote - Isaac Newton, quote - spirituality and science, quote - science and religion, quote - spirituality - science, quote - religion - science
      • quote
        • Does it not appear from phenomena
        • that there is a Being
          • incorporeal,
          • living,
          • intelligent,
          • omnipresent,
        • who in infinite space
        • sees the things themselves intimately, and
        • thoroughly perceives them, and
        • comprehends them wholly.
      • author: Isaac Newton
      • reference
        • Isaac Newton, Opticks, 4th ed. (London: William Innys, 1730), 344; spelling and punctuation modernized.
    4. Whence is it that Nature doth nothing in vain? And whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world? . . . Was the eye contrived without skill in optics? And the ear without knowledge of sounds?
      • for: quote, quote - Isaac Newton, quote - spirituality and science, quote - science and religion, quote - spirituality - science, quote - religion - science
      • quote
        • Whence is it that Nature doth nothing in vain?
        • And whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world?
        • Was the eye contrived without skill in optics?
        • And the ear without knowledge of sounds?
      • author: Isaac Newton
      • reference
        • Isaac Newton, Opticks, 4th ed. (London: William Innys, 1730), 344; spelling and punctuation modernized.
    5. A Brief Survey of Sir Isaac Newton's Views on Religion
      • for: spirituality and science, spirituality - science, science and religion, Isaac Newton - spirituality, Isaac Newton - religion
      • title: A Brief Survey of Sir Isaac Newton's Views on Religion
      • author: Steven E. Jones
      • source:
      • comment
        • Newton was a serious theological scholar who was driven to use science to validate his conception of God
        • Newton's scientific work is therefore a testament to the union between the deepest, common aspiration and motivations for science and religion, that is universal wonder of being
    1. Synod ČCE souhlasí s možností požehnání svazků osob stejného pohlaví, pokud o to požádají. Synod ČCE vnímá, že názory na tuto otázku nejsou v církvi jednotné, podporuje činnost komise pro soužití s LGBTQ lidmi a pokračování diskuze v církvi o tomto tématu. Synod konstatuje, že žádný kazatel není povinen žehnat svazkům osob stejného pohlaví.
    1. Last fall, I spent several days in New York City, during which time I visited a home owned by a group of pacifist Christians that lives from a common purse—meaning the members do not have privately held property but share their property and money. Their simple life and shared finances allow their schedules to be more flexible, making for a thicker immediate community and greater generosity to neighbors, as well as a richer life of prayer and private devotion to God, all supported by a deep commitment to their church.This is, admittedly, an extreme example. But this community was thriving not because it found ways to scale down what it asked of its members but because it found a way to scale up what they provided to one another.

      fascinating example of anti toxic capitalism...

    2. American churches have too often been content to function as a kind of vaguely spiritual NGO, an organization of detached individuals who meet together for religious services that inspire them, provide practical life advice, or offer positive emotional experiences.

      "vaguely spiritual NGO"!

    3. What is more needed in our time than a community marked by sincere love, sharing what they have from each according to their ability and to each according to their need, eating together regularly, generously serving neighbors, and living lives of quiet virtue and prayer? A healthy church can be a safety net in the harsh American economy by offering its members material assistance in times of need: meals after a baby is born, money for rent after a layoff. Perhaps more important, it reminds people that their identity is not in their job or how much money they make; they are children of God, loved and protected and infinitely valuable.

      Why can't these community activities be done in a religion-free environment? Is God actually needed here? What else could serve as the glue? Or is community itself the glue.

    4. Participation in a religious community generally correlates with better health outcomes and longer life, higher financial generosity, and more stable families—all of which are desperately needed in a nation with rising rates of loneliness, mental illness, and alcohol and drug dependency.

      It's really saying something that in paragraph 2 the "sell" for religion is the health and social benefits and outcomes rather than the love or support of god(s)!

    5. church attendance ends up feeling like an item on a checklist that’s already too long.

      In a culture obsessed with productivity, some activities with potentially beneficial (but potentially hidden) outcomes can crowd out other seemingly more important activities, especially when one is overscheduled.

    6. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children. Workism reigns in America, and because of it, community in America, religious community included, is a math problem that doesn’t add up.

      Extreme focus on financial and professional success has driven people to give less time to communal spaces and experiences including religious life.

      Is this specific to America's brand of toxic capitalism or do other WEIRD economies experience this?

  10. Jul 2023
    1. Ludwig firebach has this idea that religion is a place where human 00:12:22 beings sort of um alienate their intrinsic superpowers right they they turn them inside out and they push them into some kind of Heaven which is basically the future
      • for: transformation, inner/outer transformation, rapid whole system change, religious alienation, poverty mentality
      • key insight
        • Ludwig Feuerbach
          • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Feuerbach
          • quote
            • "In the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature."
            • "If man is to find contentment in God, he must find himself in God."
          • Thus God is nothing else than human: he is, so to speak, the outward projection of a human's inward nature.
          • This projection is dubbed as a chimera by Feuerbach, that God and the idea of a higher being is dependent upon the aspect of benevolence.
          • Feuerbach states that "a God who is not benevolent, not just, not wise, is no God",

      -quote - religion is a place where human beings alienate their intrinsic superpowers - author - Timotny Morton, quoting Ludwig Feuerbach

  11. Apr 2023
    1. Christian faith, it is a similar concept, but it is bestowed by the Holy Spirit, and many denominations believe it can allow someone to know whether a demonic of heavenly influence is over a person, place, or event. It is also a gift that can be requested, used, or ignored. 

      Christian Faith and spiritual gifts.

      n the Christian faith, it is a similar concept, but it is bestowed by the Holy Spirit, and many denominations believe it can allow someone to know whether a demonic of heavenly influence is over a person, place, or event. It is also a gift that can be requested, used, or ignored.

  12. Mar 2023
    1. Mr. Luddy at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival. The festival became a gathering of devotees to the religion of filmmaking, and Mr. Luddy was its most fervent believer and its main officiant.

      "religion of filmmaking"

    1. the value-system of money is supplanting traditional religions, as part of a profound secular conversion we only dimly understand

      //In Other Words - Money is the new secular reiigion

    1. Like the rest of Hittite life, religion permeated the planning and execution of Hittite military campaigns.

      Religion was a major part of Hittite life as was the military and war. In all parts of strategy and execution, the gods were consulted before carrying out any military campaigns.

    Tags

    Annotators

  13. Feb 2023
    1. blasphemy, and the systematic rejection of religion, was anothermatter.

      Recall both the seriousness and the violence and cruelty of the Salem witch trials which were roughly contemporaneous.

  14. Jan 2023
  15. www.thepostil.com www.thepostil.com
    1. This site is a cesspool of authoritarian, fascist-apologist, conspiracist mind-mangling content. It's a good place to find out what kinds of bizarre notions people (particularly Catholics of an authoritarian bent) are being fed, and consuming — ridiculous fabrications and warped interpretations of the sort contributing (with giddy joy) to the suffocation of democratic inclinations and institutions.

      The site does have some interesting images. I think this will be an inspiration for some dystopian and horror fiction ideas.

    1. In 2003 five northern Nigerian states boycotted the oral polio vaccine due to fears that it was unsafe. Though the international responses have been scrutinised in the literature, this paper argues that lessons still need to be learnt from the boycott: that the origins and continuation of the boycott were due to specific local factors.

      Origin and continuation boycott made this unique.

  16. Dec 2022
    1. Protestant Paranoia: The American Protective Association Oath

      In 1887, Henry F. Bowers founded the nativist American Protective Association (APA) in Clinton, Iowa. Bowers was a Mason, and he drew from its fraternal ritual—elaborate regalia, initiation ceremonies, and a secret oath—in organizing the APA. He also drew many Masons, an organization that barred Catholics. The organization quickly acquired an anti-union cast. Among other things, the APA claimed that the Catholic leader of the Knights, Terence V. Powderly, was part of a larger conspiracy against American institutions. Even so, the APA successfully recruited significant numbers of disaffected trade unionists in an era of economic hard times and the collapse of the Knights of Labor. This secret oath taken by members of the American Protective Association in the 1890s revealed the depth of Protestant distrust and fear of Catholics holding public office.

      I do most solemnly promise and swear that I will always, to the utmost of my ability, labor, plead and wage a continuous warfare against ignorance and fanaticism; that I will use my utmost power to strike the shackles and chains of blind obedience to the Roman Catholic church from the hampered and bound consciences of a priest-ridden and church-oppressed people; that I will never allow any one, a member of the Roman Catholic church, to become a member of this order, I knowing him to be such; that I will use my influence to promote the interest of all Protestants everywhere in the world that I may be; that I will not employ a Roman Catholic in any capacity if I can procure the services of a Protestant.

      I furthermore promise and swear that I will not aid in building or maintaining, by my resources, any Roman Catholic church or institution of their sect or creed whatsoever, but will do all in my power to retard and break down the power of the Pope, in this country or any other; that I will not enter into any controversy with a Roman Catholic upon the subject of this order, nor will I enter into any agreement with a Roman Catholic to strike or create a disturbance whereby the Catholic employes may undermine and substitute their Protestant co-workers; that in all grievances I will seek only Protestants and counsel with them to the exclusion of all Roman Catholics, and will not make known to them anything of any nature matured at such conferences.

      I furthermore promise and swear that I will not countenance the nomination, in any caucus or convention, of a Roman Catholic for any office in the gift of the American people, and that I will not vote for, or counsel others to vote for, any Roman Catholic, but will vote only for a Protestant, so far as may lie in my power. Should there be two Roman Catholics on opposite tickets, I will erase the name on the ticket I vote; that I will at all times endeavor to place the political positions of this government in the hands of Protestants, to the entire exclusion of the Roman Catholic church, of the members thereof, and the mandate of the Pope.

      To all of which I do most solemnly promise and swear, so help me God. Amen.

      Source: "The Secret Oath of the American Protective Association, October 31, 1893," in Michael Williams, The Shadow of the Pope (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1932), 103–104. Reprinted in John Tracy Ellis, ed., Documents of American Catholic History (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1956), 500–501.

    1. Each religion believed that they were superior to others and wanted to convert others.

      This is a meaningful observation. It could be effective to avoid this in mission work.

    1. Engagement of religious leaders, for example, has been documented as an important approach to improve vaccine acceptance16,57. Key to the preparation of a COVID-19 vaccine is, therefore, the early and frequent engagement of religious and community-leaders58, and for health authorities to work collaboratively with multiple societal stakeholders to avoid the feeling that they are only acting on behalf of government authorities59.
    2. Interestingly, while vaccine hesitant and resistant individuals in Ireland and the UK varied in relation to their social, economic, cultural, political, and geographical characteristics, both populations shared similar psychological profiles. Specifically, COVID-19 vaccine hesitant or resistant persons were distinguished from their vaccine accepting counterparts by being more self-interested, more distrusting of experts and authority figures (i.e. scientists, health care professionals, the state), more likely to hold strong religious beliefs (possibly because these kinds of beliefs are associated with distrust of the scientific worldview) and also conspiratorial and paranoid beliefs (which reflect lack of trust in the intentions of others).
    3. They were also more likely to believe that their lives are primarily under their own control, to have a preference for societies that are hierarchically structured and authoritarian, and to be more intolerant of migrants in society (attitudes that have been previously hypothesised to be consistent with, and understandable in the context of, evolved responses to the threat of pathogens)56. They were also more impulsive in their thinking style, and had a personality characterised by being more disagreeable, more emotionally unstable, and less conscientious.
    1. TRUE

      why keep harping on this framing?

    2. beliefs

      belief is a charged word when attempting to build systems for uncovering truths...

    3. I hope I wouldn’t call it a wiki!

      There's some flawed logic here in that Ward Cunningham outlined his version of a wiki and others who created versions thereafter modified and potentially expanded on that original "definition". We now have a general consensus of a wiki, but it's not necessarily the same for everyone. Scheper doesn't leave any fungible room in the semantics of his argument here and thereby forces one into a practicing the "one true way", which doesn't exist as even Luhmann's own practice varied over time.

    4. fundamental truth

      Harnessing the dictionary into fronting for his zettelkasten religion?

    5. you’re doing things the old way,the hard way, the true way.

      note the pathos along with a bit of religious zeal here about the "true way".

    1. Después de esta historia superficialmente narrada por mí, usted se preguntará, "Y entonces, a cual debo seguir?" A ninguno. Hay un problema en nuestra sociedad, que también se extiende hasta el Zettelkasten: nos hemos fanatizado. Hemos hecho nuestras decisiones políticas, sociales, sexuales, etc., como la esencia de nuestra persona. Me gustaría expandir en ese tema en un futuro artículo, pero por ahora nos importa como eso se relaciona con la elección del zettelkasten: hay peleas y discusiones violentas entre los seguidores de Scheper, los de Ahrens, los digitales, etc. Hay una gran radicalización y tribalismo, evitando la discusión crítica y el discordar intelectual. Y no podemos ser así. Personalmente, el zettelkasten que uso actualmente es más basado en el de Scheper, pero aún así veo a los otros, leo a Ahrens, etc., todo para tener una visión completa y variada de lo que es el Zettelkasten.

      Facundo Macías notices, as have I, a semblance of internecine almost religious/fanatical war between various note taking camps.

      To get away from these we should instead on specific processes, their affordances, and their potential emergent outcomes in individual use. Most people begin these entrenched thoughts based on complete lack of knowledge. Few have practiced some of the broader methods for long enough to get to potential emergent properties.

  17. Nov 2022
  18. Oct 2022
    1. but if God is a Person of Sensibility I don’t doubt that when He looked at that piece of yellow washing soap He felt ashamed of Himself.

      This brings in the questionability of gods omnibenevolent presence throughout religious scriptures. A common conception related to god and his purpose, is the sense of love spread through his creations. In this quote, he questions this idea, with the aspects of poverty and hard labor contrasting against omnibenevolency. The old lady is not making enough to survive in a time where others experience the same sense of dread. The "Person Of Sensibility" is allowing this to happen.

    1. The final lecture of the course considers Christianity as “the ever-adapting religion,” asking what elements remain constant within allits historical changes.

      Religions are ever-evolving ideas and practices, and like rivers, which are broadly similar and recognizable even over spans of time, can never be practiced or experienced the same way twice.

    2. this course considers at the very end the question of the essence of thereligion: Through all this change, does anything remain constant?

      Religion co-evolves with the people, places, and times in which it exists. Much like human genes, it works at the level of the individual, the local group, the larger groups and communities (of both the religion itself as well as the polities around it), and when applicable at the scale of all people on the planet.

      The Selfish Religion: How far might we take this religion/gene analogy with respect to Richard Dawkins' thesis (1976). Does religion act more like a gene that is part of the particular person or is it more like a virus which inserts itself? The latter may be closer as one can pick and choose a religion rather than it being a core part of their genetic identity.

      (highlight: anchor only)

    3. Johnson, Luke Timothy. The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation. The Teaching Company, 2012, https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-history-of-christianity-from-the-disciples-to-the-dawn-of-the-reformation

  19. Sep 2022
    1. It could also have been a center of some religious cult, where rites of passage or rituals connected to the time of year were performed.”

      There's an irony here in that this "cult" may have actually been a cult of teachers and students. Should the broader thesis bear out, we're going to have lots of references to these cults of teachers lingering in the literature....

    1. eSum oDios tien esuserde una manerayotrosdeotra.Pocoapoco, afirmandoqueesteSer?U·prerno a quie n rev erencia ncomoDi os tieneelgob ier-nodetodo,seapar tandelasd i versassupersti cio-nesyseadhierena aquellareligiónque.mássecon-vieneconlaraz ónyconsugénerode·�i da. No.c:a):>edudade quetodosest�ría nyae�dich areligión,peroocurrequecualquierdesgraciaquelessobre-venga al m udardereligiónJa_tom anco�ouncas-tigodelcielo, yqueladivi nid adquemtentaba nab and on arsevengadesuimp ieda d..Pero cuandoyolespred iquéelNom bre deCnsto,sudoctrinaysus milagro s,laconstanciade tantos.mártiresqueespontánea mente der ra maronsu�a n-gre ,ydecómo ta n!a s_nacionesse hanc onvertido,milagrosa m entesemc h n aronaell a,ya fuesepordivi nain spiracióno por quelesp31re ci era q ueesteca minoeraseme jantea suscreencias. Seacom osea,elcasoes que muchosabraza ronlafec�isti a n ayrecibieronla sa gua sdelBa ut1.mo,no pu diend o ha·cerot racosa porq ue deiosci.a t ro quea ll íestáb a-mosni n gunoerasac erdote.

      La religion

    1. https://twitter.com/inkasrain/status/1566410516721016833

      Does anyone know what exactly this is? A friend gave it to me years ago when they visited Jerusalem. I don't read Hebrew. Is it something harmless or should it be shamshed(jew magic)? (attached photo of a mezuzah)

      The idea of "magic" here within a modern religious context is interesting in that it shows the divergence of religion and magic as concepts with respect to cultural practices.

      The phrasing also has a sense of othering the unknown culture with a sense of fear in the idea that the object should be smashed. There's also a lack of basic science knowledge and tinge of superstition implied by the fact that they think that smashing will somehow dissipate the unknown magic.

      So many different cultural indicators of various things going on here...

  20. Aug 2022
  21. andrewbrown.substack.com andrewbrown.substack.com
    1. But the truths of religion appear in the lives of believers, not in their theologies,
  22. Jul 2022
    1. In one of his videos he talks about "approaching the mind of god" or something similar, in a way I can't entirely tell whether he is paraphrasing an early-modern note-taker or saying that's what he thinks he is doing himself. I don't really care whether he's religious or not, unless it compromises the system he's building.

      These always read as hyperbole to me, but it's difficult to explain the surprise and serendipity of re-finding things in one's notes on a regular basis. It's akin to the sort of cognitive dissonance that religious people have when encountering the levels of complexity formed by living systems through evolution. Not having better words for describing the experience, they may resort to descriptions of magic or religion to frame their experiences.

  23. Jun 2022
    1. wir müssen virtuelle realität von simulationen von fiktion und von illusion strengen unterscheiden

      Offene Frage: Was uns wie eine Fiktion erscheint, die Göttergeschichten, sagen wir der Vikinger, (wir verarbeiten sie sogar in fiktionalen Geschichten, Marvel) war für die Menschen eine virtuelle Realität, durch intersubjektiven Glauben realisiert. Es gab Odin und Co somit tatsächlich, nur eben virtuell. Oder ist das jetzt eine Spinnerei von mir?

    1. Short-lived victories, however, came at a long-term cost. Evangelical leaders set something in motion decades ago that pastors today can no longer control. Not only were Christians conditioned to understand their struggle as one against flesh and blood, fixated on earthly concerns, a fight for a kingdom of this world—all of which runs directly counter to the commands of scripture—they were indoctrinated with a belief that because the stakes were getting so high, any means was justified.
    2. It’s the story of millions of American Christians who, after a lifetime spent considering their political affiliations in the context of their faith, are now considering their faith affiliations in the context of their politics.

      an interesting twist to American cultural life

    3. FloodGate’s attendance soared as members of other congregations defected to the small roadside church. By Easter 2021, FloodGate was hosting 1,500 people every weekend.

      What drives the attendance at churches like this? Socializing, friends, family? Is it entertainment, politics, solely the religious part, or a conflagration of all of these? A charismatic minister?

    1. Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.
  24. May 2022
    1. During his college studies, he kept notebooks labeled "The Mind," "Natural Science" (containing a discussion of the atomic theory), "The Scriptures" and "Miscellanies," had a grand plan for a work on natural and mental philosophy, and drew up rules for its composition.[9]
    1. "The Finished Mystery," by Clayton J. Woodworth and George Fisher (1917). This was published as Volume 7 of Studies in the Scriptures and advertised as the posthumous work of Charles Taze Russell. This is a text version of the first printing and also contains pictures that were circulated in the Karatol edition. Later printings contain significant changes. Publication of this book was authorized by J.F. Rutherford, president of the Watchtower Society. Rutherford later gave the group the name Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931.

      Randomly came across this today. Who knew?

    1. William Mather’s 1699 Young Man’s Companion

      Is there any familial relation between William Mather and Cotton Mather or his family?

      If there is, this could be even more damning. A quick search indicates that William Mather was a schoolmaster and may have been a Quaker. This means that a highly religious schoolmaster was teaching and spreading ideas about abortion in 1699.

  25. Apr 2022
    1. Every work of art can be read, according to Eco, in three distinct ways: the moral, the allegorical and the anagogical.

      Umberto Eco indicates that every work of art can be read in one of three ways: - moral, - allegorical - anagogical

      Compare this to early Christianities which had various different readings of the scriptures.

      Relate this also to the idea of Heraclitus and the not stepping into the same river twice as a viewer can view a work multiple times in different physical and personal contexts which will change their mood and interpretation of the work.

    1. As a scheme, Scientology worked because it did what all successful religious grifts do: it offered an alienated social group a community and a solution to its defining problems, articulated in the vernacular of its tastes.
    2. In 1949, he reputedly told a writer’s convention that “If a man really wants to make $1 million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Three years after the publication of Dianetics, Hubbard took his own advice and incorporated Scientology as a religious organization.
    1. and of course the white fellas learned very quickly because they learned from the romans the british learned from iran and the first thing you attack other people from religious beliefs 00:46:28 that's the first thing you've done back in those days we didn't have towers communication so you didn't target your communication towers but you communicate you you attacked the way people transmitted 00:46:41 their knowledge

      The white fellas learned very quickly from the Romans that the first thing you attack is other people's religious beliefs, which are the modern day equivalent of communication towers. That's how oral societies communicate their knowledge and culture.

      via Uncle Ghillar Michael Anderson

  26. Mar 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkjf0hCKOCE

      The sky is a textbook. The sky is a lawbook. The sky is a science book. —Duane Hamacher, (1:24)

      Hamacher uses the Western description "method of loci" rather than an Indigenous word or translated word.


      The words "myth", "legend", "magic", "ritual", and "religion" in both colloquial English and even anthropology are highly loaded terms.

      Words like "narrative" and "story" are better used instead for describing portions of the Indigenous cultures which we have long ignored and written off for their seeming simplicity.

    1. “This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6).

      Jewish monotheism doesn't emerge until the end of the Babylonian Exile (~586 - 500 BCE) period and the beginning of the Second Temple period (500 BCE - 70 CE) when the religion moves from acknowledging the existence of other gods to saying there is only one god. (Isaiah 44:6).

    2. The historic books of the Bible were written by a “Yahweh only party” and are thus keenly critical of the worship of other gods in Judah. Still, it is clear from their description that polytheism was the norm in the First Temple period. It was only during King Josiah’s reform that the "Yahweh only party" really took control and began pushing other gods out of Judean minds.

      Polytheism was the cultural norm during the First Temple period. It wasn't until the reforms of King Josiah described in 2 Kings in the second half of the 7th century BCE that other Semitic gods were actively removed from the Temple and parts of culture in favor of Yahweh.

    3. Jericho was probably at some point a center for moon worship. The city's name in Hebrew is "Yerikho"; and the Hebrew word for the moon is Yarekh, which other West Semitic languages use as the name of the moon god.
    4. It is likely that Beit Shemesh was a center of sun worship since the place name literally means “House of Sun.”
    5. Legends of a storm god such as Ba’al defeating the sea are very common in the Ancient Near East.

      Storm gods like Baal are commonly seen defeating the sea in legends in the ancient Near East.


      Link this to mention of Rahab in Job 26:12.

    6. Mot, the personification of death, is described in several passages as a deity. In Job 18:13 he is said to have a son, and in Habakkuk 2:5 we are told he opens his mouth wide and swallows souls.

      Mot, one of the other sons of El, is described as a deity who has a son in Job 18:13 and as one who opens his mouth wide and swallows souls in Habakkuk 2:5.

    7. El had a consort, the goddess Asherah, and as Yahweh took El’s place, Asherah became Yahweh’s consort. We are told that the Asherah was worshipped in the earliest Temple of Jerusalem – not explicitly, but we are definitely told that her symbols were removed from the Temple, so they had to be there in the first place (1 Kings 15:13 and 2 Kings 23:14).It was only at the very end of the First Temple period, during the reign of King Josiah (the second half of the 7th century B.C.E.) that the cult objects of Asherah were taken out of the Temple, quite dramatically. There are quite a number of references to Josiah's monotheistic reforms, such as:."Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones" (2 Kings 23:14, New International Version)

      1 Kings 15:13, 2 Kings 23:14 and 2 Kings 23:14 indicate that the symbols of the goddess Asherah, a consort of El, were in the earliest Temple of Jerusalem as these sections describe the fact that they were removed.

    8. In this ancient text, we can see that El and Yahweh were still perceived as being two separate deities, with Yahweh subordinate to El. But as time went by, El and Yahweh became conflated: the two deities began to be seen as one and the same.In Exodus 6:3 God tells Moses: "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty (El Elyon), but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them." Thus the ancients only knew God as El, but as time went by they discovered that El was just another name of Yahweh.

      In Deuteronomy 32 the gods El and Yahweh are separate deities which, over time, became conflated into one god as indicated in Exodus 6:3.

    9. Dagon’s father was El, the head of the West Semitic pantheon. The name Israel, shows that El was originally the tutelary god of Israel (it’s right there in the name!), but over time, Yahweh took El’s place:“When the Most High (El Elyon) divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's (Yahweh’s) portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9).

      In the West Semitic pantheon of gods, El was the father of Dagon who was in turn the father of Baal. El Elyon is mentioned in Deuteronomy 32:8-9 and his name is a root word of the endonym Israel.

    10. It seems that what this story and other biblical stories like it are telling is that the belief in Yahweh supplanted the worship of Ba’al. In fact it seems that in some ways, Yahweh subsumed Ba’al, taking on his attributes and powers.In some of the Bible’s more poetic texts, Yahweh is presented as a storm god in very much the same language that Ba’al is described:“At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them” (Psalms 18:12-14).

      Biblical passages like Psalms 18:12-24 may be indicative of Yahweh subsuming the powers and attributes of other regional gods like Ba'al.

      This makes one wonder if Yahweh evolved from other cultures into the one true god of the Hebrews?

  27. Jan 2022
    1. Simone de Beauvoir said that when she became an atheist, it felt like the world had fallen silent.

      source?

      Is there a link to religion and the connection and potential conversation provided by it that provides an evolutionary advantage? Is there a psychological change in attention or self-consciousness?

    1. I had never heard of a Josephite marriage, a union inspired by the relationship between Joseph and the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.

      Why is this framed with Joseph's name instead of Mary?

  28. Dec 2021
    1. But the stelae were also symbols of power and status, and were used for ancestor worship and rituals.

      This is a good example of the default "ancestor worship" and "rituals" label on archeological finds of ancient peoples

      What is the actual basis for assigning these labels? Is there any real evidence or is it just become the default in the literature.

      Personally I'm building evidence towards a more comprehensive thesis for what these practices may have been used for.

    1. Much is also recycled, within a literary culture that normatively envisions contributors as tradents rather than innovators: in other words, the person producing a text sees himself as passing on existing knowledge, rather than creating new knowledge from nothing (I will elaborate further on the term tradent below).

      Tradents in Tibetan religious literature often copied unattributed texts forward and backward in time without attribution. They often weren't inventing new material, but copying it forward.

      This seems incredibly similar to the traditions of oral cultures as explored by Milman Parry and Albert Lord in the work on orality which was followed up by Walter Ong and others. Examples include the poets known as Homer in the Greek Tradition and the guslars of Yugoslavia.

  29. Nov 2021
    1. Our elders say that ceremonies are the way we “remember to remember,”

      The Western word "ceremony" is certainly not the best word for describing these traditions. It has too much baggage and hidden meaning with religious overtones. It's a close-enough word to convey some meaning to those who don't have the cultural background to understand the underlying orality and memory culture. It is one of those words that gets "lost in translation" because of the dramatic differences in culture and contextual collapse.

      Most Western-based anthropology presumes a Western idea of "religion" and impinges it upon oral cultures. I would maintain that what we would call their "religion" is really an oral-based mnemonic tradition that creates the power of their culture through knowledge. The West mistakes this for superstitious religious practices, but primarily because we can't see (or have never been shown) the larger structures behind what is going on. Our hubris and lack of respect (the evils of the scala naturae) has prevented us from listening and gaining entrance to this knowledge.

      I think that the archaeological ideas of cultish practices or ritual and religion are all more likely better viewed as oral practices of mnemonic tradition. To see this more easily compare the Western idea of the memory palace with the Australian indigenous idea of songline.

    1. He goes on to warn that “the broader evangelical population has increasingly heeded populist leaders who dismiss the results of modern learning from whatever source.”

      he = Mark Noll

    2. The historian Mark Noll’s 1994 book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, will be rereleased next year.
    3. “There have always been mean people who cloak their unkindness in religious devotion,” one minister in a conservative denomination told me.

      I love the phrasing of this.

    4. Earlier this year, the Christian polling firm Barna Group found that 29 percent of pastors said they had given “real, serious consideration to quitting being in full-time ministry within the last year.” David Kinnaman, president of Barna, described the past year as a “crucible” for pastors as churches fragmented.

      What part does The Great Resignation have in part of this? Any? Is there overlap for any of the reasons that others are resigning?

      What about the overlap of causes/reasons for teachers leaving the profession since the pandemic? What effect does the hostile work environment of politics play versus a loss of identity and work schedule during a time period in which closures would have affected schedules?

      What commonalities and differences do all these cases have?

    5. The conservative writer David French, who lives in Tennessee, has written about the South’s shame/honor culture and its focus on group reputation and identity. “What we’re watching right now in much of our nation’s Christian politics,” he wrote, “is an explosion not of godly Christian passion, but rather of ancient southern shame/honor rage.”

      This sounds like some of the remnants of the Scots/Irish fighting spirit renewed.

      What does the overlap of this look like in Appalachia within the American Nations thesis?

    6. “southernization of the Church.” Some of the distinctive cultural forms present in the American South—masculinity and male dominance, tribal loyalties, obedience and intolerance, and even the ideology of white supremacism—have spread to other parts of the country, he said. These cultural attitudes are hardly shared by every southerner or dominant throughout the South, but they do exist and they need to be named. “Southern culture has had a profound impact upon religion,” Alexander told me, “particularly evangelical religion.”
    7. “Evangelical militancy is often depicted as a response to fear,” she told me. “But it’s important to recognize that in many cases evangelical leaders actively stoked fear in the hearts of their followers in order to consolidate their own power and advance their own interests.”

      This sort of power dynamic in smaller individual churches sounds like the problems of power in the centralized Catholic church. In this case it's decentralized into thousands of smaller churches.

    8. Du Mez told me it’s important to recognize that this “rugged warrior Jesus” is not the only Jesus many evangelicals encounter in their faith community. There is also the “Jesus is my friend” popular in many devotionals, for example. These representations might appear to be contradictory, she told me, but in practice they can be mutually reinforcing. Jesus is a friend, protector, savior—but according to one’s own understanding of what needs to be protected and saved, and not necessarily according to core biblical teachings.

      This seems to be getting at the "personal Jesus" and personal faith that Colin Woodard mentions as well.

    9. “People come to believe what they are most thoroughly and intensively catechized to believe, and that catechesis comes not from the churches but from the media they consume, or rather the media that consume them. The churches have barely better than a snowball’s chance in hell of shaping most people’s lives.”
      • Alan Jacobs
    10. The root of the discord lies in the fact that many Christians have embraced the worst aspects of our culture and our politics. When the Christian faith is politicized, churches become repositories not of grace but of grievances, places where tribal identities are reinforced, where fears are nurtured, and where aggression and nastiness are sacralized. The result is not only wounding the nation; it’s having a devastating impact on the Christian faith.

      This would seem to indicate that culture and politics are taking precedence over the religion and faith portions of these churches.

    1. I think the reason that all the spiritual traditions have got this concept of "we are all connected inside of it" is because the societies that actually deeply adopt this idea are the ones that over time deepen their level of consideration, deepen their level of expression, deepen their level of understanding for each other. 00:16:40 This is the reason that this idea pops up over and over at the core of spiritual traditions. And I hope through this talk you see that the reason that it appears at the core of science is it's actually something that is just literally true of the physical universe at every single level of organization and every single manifestation of matter, energy, and life.

      This is a good alignment showing that at the deepest level, the fundamental aspiration and values of science and religion are the same: interconnectedness.

    1. Context: Sonia was watching Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: Season 3: "Episode 1" and had previously been watching a documentary One of Us about people who had left oppressive seeming Hassidic Jewish communities.

      I can't help but that that every culture could be considered a "cult" in which some percentage of people are trapped with comparison to all other cultures on Earth. Based on one's upbringing and personal compass, perhaps living and submitting to one's culture can become oppressive and may seem particularly unfair given power structures and the insidiousness of hypocrisy.

      Given this, could there logically be a utopian society in which everyone lives freely?

      Even within the United States there are smaller sub-cultures withiin which people feel trapped and which have the features of cults, but which are so large as to not be considered such. Even the space in which I freely live might be considered a cult by others who don't agree with it. It's only the vast size of the power of the group which prevents the majority who comfortably live within it from viewing it as a bad thing.

      A Democrat may view the Republican Party as a cult and vice versa, something which becomes more apparent when one polarizes these communities toward the edges rather than allowing them to drift into each other in a consensus.

      An African American may think they're stuck in a broader American cult which marginalizes them.

      A Hassidic Jew may feel they're stuck in a cult (of religious restrictions) with respect to the perceived freedoms of broader American Culture. Some may feel more comfortable within these strictures than others.


      A gender non-comforming person living in the deep South of the United States surrounded by the Southern Baptist Convention may feel they're stuck in a cult based on social norms of one culture versus what they experience personally.


      What are the roots of something being a cult? Could it be hypocrisy? A person or a broader group feeling as if they know "best" and creating a rule structure by which others are forced to follow, but from which they themselves are exempt? This also seems to be the way in which authoritarian rules arise when privileging one group above another based solely on (perceived) power.


      Another potential thing at play here may be the lack of diversity within a community. The level of cult within a society may be related to the shape of the bell curve of that society with respect to how large the center is with respect to the tails. Those who are most likely to feel they're within a "cult" (using the broader definition) are those three or more standard deviations from the center. In non-diverse communities only those within a standard deviation of the norm are likely to feel comfortable and accepted and those two deviations away will feel very uncomfortable while those who are farther away will be shunned and pushed beyond the pale.


      How can we help create more diverse and broadly accepting communities? We're all just people, aren't we? How can we design communities and governments to be accepting of even the most marginalized? In a heavily connected world, even the oddball teenager in a small community can now manage to find their own sub-community using the internet. (Even child pornographers manage to find their community online.)

      The opposite of this is at what point do we circumscribe the norms of the community? Take the idea of "Your freedom to strike me ends at my nose." Perhaps we only shun those extreme instances like murder and pornography, and other actions which take extreme advantage of others' freedoms? [This needs to be heavily expanded and contemplated...] What about the over-financialization of the economy which takes advantage of the unprivileged who don't know that system and are uncapable of the mathematics and computation to succeed. Similarly hucksters and snake oil salesmen who take advantage of their targets' weaknesses and lack of knowledge and sophistication. Or the unregulated vitamin industry taking rents from millions for their superstitions? How do we regulate these to allow "cultural freedom" or "religious freedom" without them taking mass-scale advantage of their targets? (Or are some of these acculturated examples simply inequalities institutionally built into societies and cultures as a means of extracting power and rents from the larger system by those in power?)


      Compare with Hester Prynne and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.


    1. I will use Drexel’s treatise asrepresentative of the basic principles of note taking that were widely sharedin sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe across national and religiousdivides.

      Religious and national divides were likely very important here as authority from above would have been even more important than in modern time. Related to this is the change in mnemonic traditions due to religious and political mores around the time of Peter Ramus.

  30. Oct 2021
    1. well for one thing that's easier to be irrational gives you certain answers

      Back when [[political correct]] did not dissallow [[Asimov]] to claim religious people have been duped due to fear.

    1. He just means “secular” or wants a marked separation of church and state. Same for the gnostics (Druids, Druze, Mandeans, Alawis).

      Didn't know that [[gnostics]] included present day Muslim sects.

  31. Sep 2021
    1. The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier.
    1. The Virginians needed labor, to grow corn for subsistence, to grow tobaccofor export. They had just figured out how to grow tobacco, and in 1617 theysent off the first cargo to England. Finding that, like all pleasurable drugstainted with moral disapproval, it brought a high price, the planters, despitetheir high religious talk, were not going to ask questions about something soprofitable.

      Told from this perspective and with the knowledge of the importance of the theory of First Effective Settlement, is it any wonder that America has grown up to be so heavily influenced by moral and mental depravity, over-influenced by capitalism and religion, ready to enslave others, and push vice and drugs? The founding Virginians are truly America in miniature.

      Cross reference: Theory of First Effective Settlement

      “Whenever an empty territory undergoes settlement, or an earlier population is dislodged by invaders, the specific characteristics of the first group able to effect a viable, self-perpetuating society are of crucial significance for the later social and cultural geography of the area, no matter how tiny the initial band of settlers may have been.” “Thus, in terms of lasting impact, the activities of a few hundred, or even a few score, initial colonizers can mean much more for the cultural geography of a place than the contributions of tens of thousands of new immigrants a few generations later.” — Wilbur Zelinsky, The Cultural Geography of the United States, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973, pp. 13–14.

    1. polythetic definitions have the appeal of avoiding essentialism, Which is regarded by most scholars of religion as a pitfall and a danger

      I am confused on how it is regarded because wouldn't a word like religion be expected to have more than one definition since religion is not one thing to everyone. Even the basic definitions of religion are unique in their own ways.

    1. liberty of conscience

      "Liberty of conscience" is a phrase Roger Williams uses in a religious context to denote the freedom for one to follow his or her religious or ethical beliefs. It is an idea that refers to conscious-based thought and individualism. Each person has the right to their own conscience. It is rooted in the idea that all people are created equal and that no culture is better than the other.

      This idea is strongly tied to: freedom from coercion of conscience (own thoughts and ideas), equality of rights, respect and toleration. It is a fundamental element of what has come to be the "American idea of religious liberty". Williams spoke of liberty of conscience in reference to a religious sense. This concept of individualism and free belief was later extrapolated in a general sense. He believed that government involvement ended when it came to divine beliefs.

      Citation: Eberle, Edward J. "Roger Williams on Liberty of Conscience." Roger Williams University Law Review: vol 10:, iss: 2, article 2, pp. 288-311. http://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR/vol10/iss2/2. Accessed 8 Sept. 2021.

  32. Aug 2021
  33. Jul 2021
    1. The historian Peter Turchin coined the phrase elite overproduction to describe this phenomenon. He found that a constant source of instability and violence in previous eras of history, such as the late Roman empire and the French Wars of Religion, was the frustration of social elites for whom there were not enough jobs. Turchin expects this country to undergo a similar breakdown in the coming decade.
    2. “If we have to give up either religion or education, we should give up education,” said Bryan, in whom populist democracy and fundamentalist Christianity were joined until they broke him apart at the Scopes “monkey trial” in 1925.
    1. When the elder fell asleep in the Lord, Jordanes lay down on the grave, roaring with grief and beating his head against the ground.

      "fell asleep in the Lord" is an interesting euphemism for dying.

    2. Among saints remembered for their peaceful relations with dangerous animals not the least is Gerasimos, shown in icons healing a lion. The story behind the image comes down to us from John Moschos, a monk of Saint Theodosius Monastery near Bethlehem and author of The Spiritual Meadow, a book written in the course of journeys he made in the late sixth and early seventh centuries.

      Looking back on these "mythical" stories of lion tamers and people with extraordinary facility with animals, one can now see that these interactions are much more common in the modern world.

      People can earn the trust of animals, tame, and even train them. As a result, we view these people now as talented rather than magical and/or "helped by god" as they may have been in the past.

    1. The hunter is taken in his own snare, as the great Psalmist says.
    2. And to superstition must we trust at the first; it was man’s faith in the early, and it have its root in faith still.
    3. “the Vampire’s baptism of blood.”
    4. Oh, if such an one was to come from God, and not the Devil, what a force for good might he not be in this old world of ours.
    5. it is the ancient chapel of the mansion.

      Probably the closest he could get to Castle Dracula in England. He is looking for antiquity.

    6. his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there.

      Predatory desire for his blood is stopped by the Christian protection.

    7. As he had placed the Wafer on Mina’s forehead, it had seared it—had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal.
    8. if you will fall down and worship me
    9. kept saying his prayers somewhat loudly.
    10. Enoch

      Biblical figure, father of Methuselah mentioned earlier

    11. she shall take her place with the other Angels.

      Not sentenced to hell since she was a Christian in life

    12. The Host. I brought it from Amsterdam. I have an Indulgence.

      Catholicism

    13. my honour as a gentleman or my faith as a Christian is concerned

      Nobility and religion.

    14. Methuselah

      Biblical figure

    15. with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church’s law, though no wits, all gone—even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife, am bigamist.

      Violated Church (and natural) laws

    16. pagan world of old

      Dracula is from a time before God, an ancient being

    17. sudden form of religious mania
    1. Anne: And did your mom work too? Or just your dad?Ben: My mom, she worked quite a bit, but there was a period when my youngest sister was born, she ceased from working and she stayed home with her for a few years. And then once—I think my sister was about four years old—then she went back and started working again until we were doing good in the construction. When I jumped into the construction and started my own business, then my dad went to work for me. And when he went to work for me, then my mother didn't have to work any more. We were really doing pretty well, we did pretty well. Did a lot of construction projects all throughout the Midwest and eastern seaboard. Lot of government projects.Anne: Really?Ben: Yeah. A lot of low-income housing for the government.Anne: So, you moved around, it wasn't a local company that just stayed—Ben: I based my company in Indianapolis and the main reason that we ended up based in Indianapolis is that I had a project going on in Akron, Ohio, one in Indianapolis and then I had two coming up in the Kansas City—in both-- Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas. And I knew it was going to be a lot of jumping around, and I figured well Indianapolis will be right in the center. So, I rented an apartment there for me and my wife and my son and my daughter; my son was a baby, but my daughter, she was like four years old, or three years old.Ben: And then right about after that, we bought a house. Well, no, my wife wanted to enroll my daughter in pre-K to get her going because her age. Her date of birth and the cut off with the school, they won't let her in for regular elementary school. So, she found this church and she told me, "There's this church that's got pre-K and we're going to get her started there.” And I go, "Well okay, go ahead.” So, we enrolled her there and we ended up getting involved with that church and we were the only Hispanics at the church at the time, whenever we did it. But they were good to us and they still attend there.Ben: That church, they started building one year on, every year they would add a year onto the school. And my daughter was one of the original students. So, she's one of the original students. The first original student to go all the way through the academy and graduate.Anne: What's it called?Ben: Cornerstone Baptist Academy in Indianapolis.Anne: That's great.Ben: Yeah.

      Time in the US, Family, Parents, Jobs, Children; Time in the US, Jobs/employment/work, Careers, Construction

    1. As an evangelical Anglican Christian and a professor of the humanities, I have spent my adult life in service to the church and the academy, and I don’t know how anyone could look at either of those institutions right now and see them as anything but floundering, incoherent messes, helmed largely by people who seem determined to make every mess worse. I want to grab those leaders by the lapels and shout in their faces, “I’m trying to contain an outbreak here, and you’re driving the monkey to the airport!” What good has anything I’ve written ever done? Why bother writing anything else? What is the point? The monkey’s already at the airport, securely stashed in the airliner’s cargo hold, and the plane is taxiing down the runway.

      A great metaphor for both education and the church (at least in America).

  34. Jun 2021
    1. Between the inner hand and the wood was a crucifix, the set of beads on which it was fastened being around both wrists and wheel, and all kept fast by the binding cords.
    2. Hereafter

      Non-specific reference to afterlife and inference that it is no longer open to Dracula and the women vampires

    3. crosses
    4. “Ordog”—Satan, “pokol”—hell, “stregoica”—witch, “vrolok” and “vlkoslak”—both of which mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either were-wolf or vampire
    5. English Churchman
    6. St. George’s Day.

      Religious protection

    7. crossed themselves

      Religious protection

    1. The viciousness of church politics can rival pretty much any other politics you can name; the difference is that the viciousness within churches is often cloaked in lofty spiritual language and euphemisms.

      It would be interesting to examine some of this language and these euphemisms to uncover the change over time.

    2. One of the more incisive comments about the gap we often see between faith and works sticks with me today: that for too many people of the Christian faith, Jesus is a “hood ornament.”

      Jesus is a "hood ornament."

      searing...

    3. I have heard from pastors in different parts of America who describe a “generational catastrophe” that is unfolding because of how disillusioned young people, including many young Christians, are by what they have seen.

      Is it possible that this religion has been forcing itself on it's youth and thus chasing them away, thereby eroding support?

      When will this "apocalypse" happen? What will it look like? What will be the cultural and political fall out look like?

    4. Partisan, cultural, and regional identities tend to shape religious identities.

      How?

      Why?

    5. I was recently reminded of a story about Evelyn Waugh, who had behaved particularly rudely to a young French intellectual at a dinner party. Waugh was asked by the host, Nancy Mitford, how he could act so meanly and yet consider himself a believing and practicing Catholic. “You have no idea,” Waugh is said to have responded, “how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic.”
    6. One pastor, who requested anonymity in order to speak openly, put it to me this way:Having grown up in the South, [I think] Southern Baptist culture is probably uniquely this way, but working in a church that isn’t in the South, this stuff still rears its head. Not as much the same presenting issues, but you still fundamentally get people who are in love with power and will take any means necessary to beat you down so they have power and you are subservient to them, not the Gospel.

      A searing indictment of power within religion...

    1. Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, California—the Googleplex—is the Internet’s high church, and the religion practiced inside its walls is Taylorism.

      The idea of Taylorism as a religion is intriguing.

      However, underlying it is the religion of avarice and greed.

      What if we just had the Taylorism with humanity in mind and took out the root motivation of greed?

      This might be akin to trying to return Christianity to it's Jewish roots and removing the bending of the religion away from its original intention.

      It's definitely the case that the "religion" is only as useful and valuable to it's practitioners as the practitioners allow. In the terms of the McLuhan-esque quote "We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us." we could consider religion (any religion including Taylorism) as a tool. How does that tool shape us? How do we continue to reshape it?

      While I'm thinking about it, what is the root form of resilience that has allowed the Roman Catholic Church to last and have the power and influence it's had for two millennia?

    1. Regarding theinfluence of iconoclasm, the inaugural moment can be set circa 1536–1541, during Henry VIII’sdissolution of the monasteries.

      Long places the influence of iconoclasm in the destruction of the method of loci at the time period of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries around 1536-1541.

  35. May 2021
  36. Apr 2021
    1. Προσδίδοντας οξύ τόνο στην πάλη αυτή, μπορούμε να ερεθίζουμε τις μάζες. Μια τέτοια πάλη επιτείνει τη διαίρεση των μαζών με βάση τη θρησκεία, ενώ η δύναμή μας βρίσκεται στην ένωση».

      Θέλει προσοχή γιατί η διαμάχη εδράζεται στο θυμικό, όχι στη λογική Χρειάζεται aikido επιχειρηματα.

    2. θα δαιμονοποιεί τα φυσικά και κοινωνικά φαινόμενα, θα «θεοποιεί» τις συμφορές της ανεργίας, της φτώχειας, της αρρώστιας κλπ., και θα χρησιμοποιεί την άγνοια του ανθρώπου για να γεννήσει στη συνείδησή του το Θεό.

      Κοινωνιολογία - Θρησκεία: 0 - 1

    1. He adds that the ethnographic record shows that with rare exceptions, rock art is indeed associated with ritual and beliefs. “The concept of ‘art for art’s sake’ is a relatively recent western attitude,” he says – and if anything, the propensity for drawing in the dark seems to support that assumption.

      Here again, the sentence reads well if we replace rituals and beliefs with mnemonic practice.

    2. Whitley says: “The conceptual and practical division between the supernatural/sacred/religious world  and the mundane realm is a largely modern and western conceit that has become especially prominent since the Protestant Reformation. Many traditional peoples saw/see no separation between daily versus religious life; many don’t even recognize that they have a ‘religion’ per se. I then concur with the notion that many prehistoric peoples felt a strong connection to the supernatural and the cosmos.”

      This fits into a mnemonic perspective of life as being something greater than religion or ancestor worship. The ancestor worship part comes in because they're a thing to attach our memories of needed culture and knowledge to. They're also important because they're the ones that discovered the knowledge and helped to hand it down.

  37. Mar 2021
    1. Σε αυτή τη συγκεκριμένη κρίσιμη φάση, μια χαλαρή ένωση συγγραφέων, χάκερ, καλλιτεχνών και επιχειρηματιών από τη Δυτική Ακτή των ΗΠΑ πέτυχαν να διαμορφώσουν μια ετερογενή ορθοδοξία για την εποχή της πληροφόρησης - την ιδεολογία (;) της Καλιφόρνιας. Αυτή η νέα πίστη (;) αποτελεί μια σύντηξη των κουλτουριάρικων μποέμ του Σαν Φρανσίσκο και των βιομηχανιών υψηλής τεχνολογίας της Σίλικον Βάλεϊ, συνδυάζοντας δηλαδή τα πνεύματα των χίπις και των γιάπις, και σχηματίζοντας μια υπερβολικά αισιόδοξη εικόνα του μέλλοντος.

      Ενδιαφερουσα νυξη για την θρησκευτική φύση της πίστης στην τεχνολογία.

  38. Feb 2021
    1. τερατώδη συμμαχία μεταξύ των δεξιών Αμερικάνων Προτεσταντών και της Καθολικής Εκκλησίας να εναντιωθούν σε οποιαδήποτε βοήθεια ελέγχου των γεννήσεων στις χώρες του Τρίτου Κόσμου,
    2. .: Πρώτα απ’ όλα, δε νομίζω ότι, παρά τα όσα λέει ο κόσμος, ότι θα υπάρξει μια επιστροφή του θρησκευτικού στις Δυτικές χώρες.
  39. Dec 2020
    1. In this we sometimes see the use of American historical references that have been weirdly transposed,

      It has become scripture.