Understanding Religion's Relationship To Human Social Systems

 I have said that  "We can't un-do all the corruptions that *absolutely must have happened* during 20 years of the Telephone Game, before some rare, random literate religious people started "faithfully" writing down what they themselves heard." In reply, a Christian, somewhere on the hazy spectrum between fundamentalist and moderate Christian-religiosity,   responded with this: “absolutely must have happened” That’s quite an assumption. We also have differing Christian writers from different regions quoting much of the Gospels. The Gospels are not essentially important; it’s the essential traditions, liturgy, and teachings that were received through authorized apostolic lineage.  The Gospels arose out of this tradition. ( From)this authorize(d) apostolic lineage, the Bible was canonized. --------------- This is where I reply to each of those assertions:  [Note: Later edits will make this blog shorter.  I'll have to decide which parts to remove, to make it sh

This is why I had to let go of her. The murky details were, of course, far more complicated. But, for me, this is what it all boiled down to. It was impossible for me to tell where I ended and she began. Even though the sum-total-view of 'her' was positive, I knew I was being unfair to us both. She deserved to be seen and known for who she is; where she is not greatly obscured and misunderstood. I needed the same from me. I wanted to honor myself with a clarified view of who I am. It was painful. And it took a while. It was also fanatically expensive; causing me to ironically *lose her from my life forever; in order to become someone capable of knowing her. [*note: I don't mean romantically. I mean: period. I don't actually miss the thing we sometimes called a "relationship". I don't miss THAT with anyone at all. "That" was never great. And I was always half the reason why.  But I miss the people. I miss her, as a person. I miss others similar

A FB add from " EducationFinder  read as follows: "Live in Indiana and love helping people? Sign up now to see how you can start your bachelor’s in applied psychology in as little as 1 month and on your own schedule:" To this, I replied: Religion has no place in clinical mental health practice. It's like horoscopes and voodoo. If a patient wants to talk about their religious theories, that's fine. But it's certainly not the job of clinical therapists to be "ministers" to their patients. ----- To this, a Christian responded: "if the patient is not a Christian, you might have an argument. However, good Christian counseling is discipleship, are you familiar with the Christian principle of discipleship?" ---------- To them, I replied: "I am familiar, yes. And if that's what someone wants, then fine. I just don't think that should be done under the premise of clinical therapy. If we had witch doctors here in America, i'm bettin

 There are three different common meanings of narcissism, per how people currently use the word. 1. Clinical Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 2. General narcissism, where the person may-or-may-not be NPD but are habitually demonstrating toxic psychology (per attitude and behaviors) indicative of that disorder. Everyone is somewhere on the spectrum. We all have what could be fairly described as an "inner narcissist" that sometimes surfaces. For some people, it's severe enough and frequent enough that it warrants being recognized as such. Meanwhile, even if the badly behaved person wouldn't qualify as NPD per some technicality that only a well-trained clinician would be able to discern,... That's of no concern to victims (or "targets") and observers.  Such a distinction would be irrelevant to the context. Besides that, the formula for identifying a true NPD is really not all that complicated. The list and guide for diagnosing NPD really doesn't

And yet again, a Christian fundamentalist has claimed:   "Faith does work like that analogy of sitting on chair, we have faith that it the chair will hold us, we have faith that God will do the same." --- To this, I reply ...   Normally, a chair's construction has earned our trust; based on: * visual analysis of dependable materials and design, * the logo of a proven-reliable company ... whose NAME and LOGO are NOT copied by countless of rival counterfeiters using dangerously fake materials, (unlike all those rival theistic companies selling dangerously fake (yet convincing) God-chairs), * a prolonged period of repeated successful testing (in the factory, and in public use), along with publicly available safety records and consistently good reviews, and * the way it behaves under our initial transfer of body weight onto the structure. Also, trusting a chair normally comes with hardly any investment or risk. It's already there. If it wobbles or creeks, we can find ano

As a critic of Abrahamic religions (or "faiths"), my heart is not hateful in the least. My heart and my mind work as one; with a purpose born of deeply felt compassion and hard-earned understanding. For billions of people, "God" is a portable disabler; - A psychologically ever-present, super-insecure, fragile, "lovingly violent" narcissist. Each and every victim of that religious paradigm has been emotionally manipulated into willingness. As they surrender to it, HE demands of them that they shrink and stay shrunken at all times, before him. That way, HE can always feel properly big. Also, so that HE take credit for their brilliance within. All the while, HE ironically does more to limit than to inspire. And yet, HE keeps them from realizing their true and autonomous beauty; also their potential to grow beyond the limits HE sets. He is, of course, a mental construct; seeded and cultivated by other fallible humans. As HE grows and takes on "a life o