Understanding Religion's Relationship To Human Social Systems

[Note. I realize that the text for my blogs shows up as a very faded shade of grey. I'm honestly tired of how glitchy Google's Blog platform is. I'll be moving my blog to a new service soon.] Someone asked me  "All human scholars don´t share the same idea and same sources, because all those scholars have also their own sources, nothing is from them, the way to understand what they say is correct or not, is to compare things with reality in the one hand, am I wrong ?" --- My thoughts about this: For starters, yes. They all start with different biases. I agree. However, the fully accredited secular Universities, along with the entire professional field for historical analysis of ancient cultures ... have done an amazing job of making sure their investigations are as scientific and ethical as possible. It will never be perfect. There will always be a LOT we can't know for sure. There will always be competing theories for how to explain available data. But when a...

Today, Youtube notified me of a reply to a comment I made at the beginning of 2023. That comment read " Debate him then. See if you can "correct" him...". -- It's been so long since I watched this video, I couldn't remember what he said. So I went back to re-watch the intro. It's not really worth my time to watch the entire video all over again; unless someone wants to pay me to do so or if they are at a crossroads and ready to really consider what I'd say about it all. -- But I did (just now) re-watch the intro. And here is my reply: Right off the bat, he says inaccurate and poorly reasoned things. 1. Those passages do not actually refer to "before time"; nor to an absolute beginning of time. So no matter what science says about time and beginnings, it won't help prop up what's in bibles. 2. Referring to a time "before time" is self-contradicting nonsense. 3. Any evidence that person-A is given BUT that p...

The discussion that inspired this blog (as a reply) started here:   ​  @penelopepitstop3751  Hi again. Regarding: 1. (my words; from earlier) "We can either prioritize the courageous pursuit of truth no matter where those discoveries lead OR we can prioritize loyalty to a narrative." --- ( penelope 's words) AMEN! I agree! 100% I love this. ---- (My reply) If you love it so much, why not adopt it? ------------------------------------------------------ 2. ( penelope 's words) "When we pursue the truth (sincerely) with no reservations (truth without man's perspective or persuasions), humbling ourselves to whatever the truth is, relentless in our pursuit, God will show up." -- (My reply) I am trying to be gentle about this. First, I'm not even sure what you mean by "no reservations". When we have "reservations", the root word of that is "reserve". It means we are setting a limit to what can or can'...

[Ad campaign for both traditional and modern evangelical Christianity; if their "outreach" were actually honest]   "Kinda think it might be fun to become a colonizer? How about emulating a left-centric groomer; luring unsuspecting sheep into a literally "owned" identity under a hardcore conservative patriarchy? Have a messiah complex? A martyr complex? Like to provoke people by fucking with their lives, and then cry "VICTIM!" when they stand up to you? Did not Jesus himself ask his Father to "Forgive" the people that the Father-voice told Jesus to intentionally manipulate into killing Jesus? If Jesus can't take responsibility for his own actions, then why should anyone? Can't feel well-defined and "good" except as a contrast to some "bad guy" who is victimizing you? Do you get a perverse sense of joy from that? Do you get all tingly from just thinking about "turning the other cheek"? How ab...

  Every fictional character ever created drew from real-life elements of some real people's lives. To make some of those natural elements " super ", those elements must be exaggerated beyond the abilities of humans. That includes Dracula, Santa Clause, Wonder Woman, Jesus, and even SpongeBob SquarePants. Humans are literally and entirely in capable of imagining anything except to borrow, bend, and stitch from things we've already seen and heard from the world around us. This was talked about several years ago at the World Science Festival. It's a hard limit that experts are hoping A.I. can help compensate for by generating images and concepts that there's no precedent for. This is one of the very few reasons why I say "there was a guy" when I'm asked if I lean historicist or mythicist about "Jesus". They really did have to be borrowing elements from real people's lives. However, I will NOT say "Jesus existed...