Can we keep God out of discussions? As an atheist, i don't embark on promoting my beliefs on religions - which will upset the believers. So i find it bad when people start invoking God in discussions. Listen fellows, can you please keep your faith & gods to yourselves? There's no place for logic of God, revelations and faith in objective scientific discussions.
Don’t be a snowflake. You speak your mind, I’ll speak mine. Keep it civil, no personal attacks, ignore whatever you want, but don’t silence those who disagree with you.
I so admire your work. We need to come at this from multiple angles. I've tried being a climate activist with the honorable VP Al Gore, politics, divinity school, now I focus tightly on my own mental and physical health. The pandemic did a number on many of us.
Story Telling as Subversion- trying my hand at political satire:
Dangerous Beauty
I'm still infamous in King, North Carolina as the headline indicated post-Election Day 2014, "Stokes Democrat's Party Chairwoman Kicks Teabagger in the Teabags".
So, last month when I decided to get my hair done in town again, it was news, sorta. (not really)
I randomly called via Google, hairdressers in King. Of course, I got Carol, my mother-in-law's beautician. She’s Republican and knows my shame. I told her they'll be no discussion of politics except country music and violence. Small town stuff, ya know.
I reminded her yesterday while my color was setting of my “kick 'em in the tea bags” story and how ashamed I was. She told me that it sounds like he got what he deserved. But I flipped it to "what-if"? What if it had been her granddaughter on either side of the story? We had a good talk about violence and how it can get away from us too easily. No solutions, just girl talk. Human kindness goes a long way and it ain’t easy. Changing minds and hearts every four weeks as my grey roots infuriate me.
Please check the paragraph that begins with “The goal was to improve the conditions that would further “Trump””. I can’t understand what you meant to say. Something got lost in the syntax.
As for the rest. I applaud your earnest attempts to hold back the coming disaster, and driven by your conscience and love for mankind, you must surely continue to sound the alarm. But what looms in front of us is not a surprise to those who carefully study Bible prophecy. No, not the insanity of the fundamentalists. They have it wrong on almost every point.
To put it simply: Satan exists. God exists. Mankind followed Satan when he lied and said we’d be okay without God (Gen 3:5). God decided to let us go and learn the hard way, but he has never abandoned us. His guidance has always been available, but always voluntary. The religions that impose their rule by force have never been from Him. Satan uses religions to cover his lies. But his time is about up. God set a day to put an end to this and take his planet back and give it to his people, those who love and respect him. Satan knows and would ruin it rather than let it go. He is the original pathological narcissist. So don’t be surprised when you are blocked at every turn. His claws are deeply imbedded in this system, and good people cannot remove him. Only God can.
So keep up your good work, but don’t despair when it fails to move the world. Trust that this will all end well. But it’s going to get very very bad first. Or as Jesus put it, “for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.” Matt 24:21, 22.
Fictional Biblical narratives, constructed by humans for humans, contain allegories, myths and parables which, like non-religious literature, can enlighten and expand human consciousness of the world around us and sometimes help to stimulate creative solutions to real-world problems. But treating prayer as an effective antidote to the Trump shared psychotic delusion that afflicts tens of millions of Americans is a fool's errand. Rather, the only hope for staving off the collapse of the nation's democratic republic and its replacement with domestic fascism is to heed the acute and brilliant analysis of Bandy Lee and her expert colleagues in both psychiatry and kindred disciplines such as philosophy, history and the social sciences and harness their insights to humane political action to prevent a genuine apocalypse.
Religion is opium of masses. To keep people somewhat tranquilized of their curable (or incurable) anxieties when they can't comprehend with objective reality.
Your position is based on the conviction that God is a fiction, which in effect makes man the only god. Touché, Satan has you, that is exactly his lie. Sure the Bible has puzzling parts, but the basic story stands: we are NOT God, we will not be our own savior, on our own we will destroy ourselves. To the extent that Western nations have heeded the civilizing exhortations in scripture, they have achieved great things, and when they ignore or pervert them (often with the guidance of religion, or under its guise) they stumble into conflict and ruin. Philosophy that denies our Source leads to disaster.
“Your position is based on the conviction that God is a fiction, which in effect makes man the only god.”
In contrast to your circular, tautological argument, Stan, it means that rejecting the concept of an external ‘god’ independent of the human mind does not imply a belief that humans are god.
The lower-case word “god” simply means “powerful one,” whether really so or imagined. If there is no Creator to whom we are answerable, then we are the most powerful beings in this world, and we must be our own saviors, alone. The word “god” applies. Putting such faith in man is putting faith in a false god.
One can believe in a higher being and still understand that Biblical narratives are constructed by humans in human language which is necessarily imperfect. For me, the realization that human language and therefore consciousness is a mere window on reality reinforces the notion that there exists a reality we cannot even perceive and that reality includes God. Religious texts should never be taken literally. Human language cannot be 'correct' in the sense that it conveys The Truth.
Introducing God and worse, Satan into this discussion pushes the Evangelical button, i.e. that huge portion of deluded 'christians' who support the disease that is trump. Most of us don't want to touch that with a ten foot pole.
I think many of us perceive what is called evil in this horrible saga, but that leaves the rest of humanity powerless under your rubric which tells us only God can save us. Your reading of the Bible is not my reading. My reading of Christ is not your reading. If humanity has been given a test, the answer is surely not to just wait around for a savior. Christ exhorted us to look within ourselves in order to love one another. This is really simple folks as everyone except the most depraved understand that they are pursuing love. This pursuit is the axiomatic foundation of our psychologies.
"Both read the Bible day and night, but thou readest black where I read white." -- the great Christian mystic, poet and artist, William Blake
Don’t let the evangelicals defeat your critical thinking. Satan’s influence is central to the problem, and ignoring it means certain defeat. YES we should strive to better the world, and I sympathize with Dr Lee’s efforts, and do not seek to discourage her. But unrealistic faith in our power to solve this will only cause frustration. God tells us to build faith in His ways, not just within ourselves but advocate it to all who will listen. That IS a powerful influence for good. Calling out the corrupt is part of this, and I support Dr Lee’s efforts to do that. But perfecting this world is out of our reach.
I don't know who said it but "cults never end well."
Let's keep supporting Dr. Lee's efforts - circulate these Newsletters to anyone who will listen; appeal to any podcaster or radio show to interview her; write to major media outlets begging them to interview her. Whether you are religious or not, now's the time for us to step up, support Dr Lee, and demand that the cult ends sooner rather than later, because "cults never end well."
Conspiracy theories - Why & how they have gripped American society & even globally. How can cultic programming be reversed? Possible treatments for mass psychosis & rehabilitation of society.
Political reforms & reforming of state - The present electoral system is highly flawed which cannot bring forward philosophers who can solve present challenges. Our politicians are mediocre at best and Fascists at worst. So a mechanism need to be formulated to independently appoint problem solvers (will include scientists, technocrats, eminent psychologists, economists etc). These problem solvers should have separation of powers & different electoral mechanism than Parliamentary cretins. Formulating criteria on dangerousness of public figures, 25th amendment and clarity on process for filtering out &/or removal of such public figures.
Information wars - Dangerousness of people like Musk & Zuck, and they having control over global social media empire. How to regulate these media systems? What's the remedies?
What role does America has in today's world? - Yes, Just like America had a responsibility in 1940s, it has a responsibility today to the world in these crucial times. The world is taken over by Pathocracies of Putin, Xi, Modi, Netanyahu etc.
And last but not the least - Insight on how to handle/control political anxieties in these troubled times. It looks like world may come to an end with pathocratic leaders leading to planetary demise. How can one live with bitter reality hanging in the background about the tragic fate of mankind?
Looking forward to your work & answers on some of these things.
I really appreciate the “road map”
that these 2 articles are addressing on how to bridge the abyss ahead.
1) What
is our shared destination
2) what concrete practical steps can we take as individuals, families, faith communities, businesses and communities to get there?
Interesting that the CIA permit psychiatrists to contribute to profiles of world leaders, without having interviewed them personally!
Can we keep God out of discussions? As an atheist, i don't embark on promoting my beliefs on religions - which will upset the believers. So i find it bad when people start invoking God in discussions. Listen fellows, can you please keep your faith & gods to yourselves? There's no place for logic of God, revelations and faith in objective scientific discussions.
Don’t be a snowflake. You speak your mind, I’ll speak mine. Keep it civil, no personal attacks, ignore whatever you want, but don’t silence those who disagree with you.
I so admire your work. We need to come at this from multiple angles. I've tried being a climate activist with the honorable VP Al Gore, politics, divinity school, now I focus tightly on my own mental and physical health. The pandemic did a number on many of us.
Story Telling as Subversion- trying my hand at political satire:
Dangerous Beauty
I'm still infamous in King, North Carolina as the headline indicated post-Election Day 2014, "Stokes Democrat's Party Chairwoman Kicks Teabagger in the Teabags".
https://juanitajean.com/there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-i/
So, last month when I decided to get my hair done in town again, it was news, sorta. (not really)
I randomly called via Google, hairdressers in King. Of course, I got Carol, my mother-in-law's beautician. She’s Republican and knows my shame. I told her they'll be no discussion of politics except country music and violence. Small town stuff, ya know.
I reminded her yesterday while my color was setting of my “kick 'em in the tea bags” story and how ashamed I was. She told me that it sounds like he got what he deserved. But I flipped it to "what-if"? What if it had been her granddaughter on either side of the story? We had a good talk about violence and how it can get away from us too easily. No solutions, just girl talk. Human kindness goes a long way and it ain’t easy. Changing minds and hearts every four weeks as my grey roots infuriate me.
#SmallTown #violence @Jason_Aldean #JasonAldean
Please check the paragraph that begins with “The goal was to improve the conditions that would further “Trump””. I can’t understand what you meant to say. Something got lost in the syntax.
As for the rest. I applaud your earnest attempts to hold back the coming disaster, and driven by your conscience and love for mankind, you must surely continue to sound the alarm. But what looms in front of us is not a surprise to those who carefully study Bible prophecy. No, not the insanity of the fundamentalists. They have it wrong on almost every point.
To put it simply: Satan exists. God exists. Mankind followed Satan when he lied and said we’d be okay without God (Gen 3:5). God decided to let us go and learn the hard way, but he has never abandoned us. His guidance has always been available, but always voluntary. The religions that impose their rule by force have never been from Him. Satan uses religions to cover his lies. But his time is about up. God set a day to put an end to this and take his planet back and give it to his people, those who love and respect him. Satan knows and would ruin it rather than let it go. He is the original pathological narcissist. So don’t be surprised when you are blocked at every turn. His claws are deeply imbedded in this system, and good people cannot remove him. Only God can.
So keep up your good work, but don’t despair when it fails to move the world. Trust that this will all end well. But it’s going to get very very bad first. Or as Jesus put it, “for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.” Matt 24:21, 22.
Fictional Biblical narratives, constructed by humans for humans, contain allegories, myths and parables which, like non-religious literature, can enlighten and expand human consciousness of the world around us and sometimes help to stimulate creative solutions to real-world problems. But treating prayer as an effective antidote to the Trump shared psychotic delusion that afflicts tens of millions of Americans is a fool's errand. Rather, the only hope for staving off the collapse of the nation's democratic republic and its replacement with domestic fascism is to heed the acute and brilliant analysis of Bandy Lee and her expert colleagues in both psychiatry and kindred disciplines such as philosophy, history and the social sciences and harness their insights to humane political action to prevent a genuine apocalypse.
Religion is opium of masses. To keep people somewhat tranquilized of their curable (or incurable) anxieties when they can't comprehend with objective reality.
Your position is based on the conviction that God is a fiction, which in effect makes man the only god. Touché, Satan has you, that is exactly his lie. Sure the Bible has puzzling parts, but the basic story stands: we are NOT God, we will not be our own savior, on our own we will destroy ourselves. To the extent that Western nations have heeded the civilizing exhortations in scripture, they have achieved great things, and when they ignore or pervert them (often with the guidance of religion, or under its guise) they stumble into conflict and ruin. Philosophy that denies our Source leads to disaster.
But here is not the place to debate this.
“Your position is based on the conviction that God is a fiction, which in effect makes man the only god.”
In contrast to your circular, tautological argument, Stan, it means that rejecting the concept of an external ‘god’ independent of the human mind does not imply a belief that humans are god.
The lower-case word “god” simply means “powerful one,” whether really so or imagined. If there is no Creator to whom we are answerable, then we are the most powerful beings in this world, and we must be our own saviors, alone. The word “god” applies. Putting such faith in man is putting faith in a false god.
One can believe in a higher being and still understand that Biblical narratives are constructed by humans in human language which is necessarily imperfect. For me, the realization that human language and therefore consciousness is a mere window on reality reinforces the notion that there exists a reality we cannot even perceive and that reality includes God. Religious texts should never be taken literally. Human language cannot be 'correct' in the sense that it conveys The Truth.
Introducing God and worse, Satan into this discussion pushes the Evangelical button, i.e. that huge portion of deluded 'christians' who support the disease that is trump. Most of us don't want to touch that with a ten foot pole.
I think many of us perceive what is called evil in this horrible saga, but that leaves the rest of humanity powerless under your rubric which tells us only God can save us. Your reading of the Bible is not my reading. My reading of Christ is not your reading. If humanity has been given a test, the answer is surely not to just wait around for a savior. Christ exhorted us to look within ourselves in order to love one another. This is really simple folks as everyone except the most depraved understand that they are pursuing love. This pursuit is the axiomatic foundation of our psychologies.
"Both read the Bible day and night, but thou readest black where I read white." -- the great Christian mystic, poet and artist, William Blake
Don’t let the evangelicals defeat your critical thinking. Satan’s influence is central to the problem, and ignoring it means certain defeat. YES we should strive to better the world, and I sympathize with Dr Lee’s efforts, and do not seek to discourage her. But unrealistic faith in our power to solve this will only cause frustration. God tells us to build faith in His ways, not just within ourselves but advocate it to all who will listen. That IS a powerful influence for good. Calling out the corrupt is part of this, and I support Dr Lee’s efforts to do that. But perfecting this world is out of our reach.
So it’s not this OR that, it’s this AND that.
I don't know who said it but "cults never end well."
Let's keep supporting Dr. Lee's efforts - circulate these Newsletters to anyone who will listen; appeal to any podcaster or radio show to interview her; write to major media outlets begging them to interview her. Whether you are religious or not, now's the time for us to step up, support Dr Lee, and demand that the cult ends sooner rather than later, because "cults never end well."
Some content recommendations for new book
Conspiracy theories - Why & how they have gripped American society & even globally. How can cultic programming be reversed? Possible treatments for mass psychosis & rehabilitation of society.
Political reforms & reforming of state - The present electoral system is highly flawed which cannot bring forward philosophers who can solve present challenges. Our politicians are mediocre at best and Fascists at worst. So a mechanism need to be formulated to independently appoint problem solvers (will include scientists, technocrats, eminent psychologists, economists etc). These problem solvers should have separation of powers & different electoral mechanism than Parliamentary cretins. Formulating criteria on dangerousness of public figures, 25th amendment and clarity on process for filtering out &/or removal of such public figures.
Information wars - Dangerousness of people like Musk & Zuck, and they having control over global social media empire. How to regulate these media systems? What's the remedies?
What role does America has in today's world? - Yes, Just like America had a responsibility in 1940s, it has a responsibility today to the world in these crucial times. The world is taken over by Pathocracies of Putin, Xi, Modi, Netanyahu etc.
And last but not the least - Insight on how to handle/control political anxieties in these troubled times. It looks like world may come to an end with pathocratic leaders leading to planetary demise. How can one live with bitter reality hanging in the background about the tragic fate of mankind?
Looking forward to your work & answers on some of these things.