I'm really sick of people who cling to the Bible. Why do people like the Bible? It sucks. I know, I've read it. Cover to cover. That's just in English. I've read many parts of it in another language too. And I've studied enough Greek and Hebrew to know that we have no business extrapolating on English words to derive nonexistent meanings from the book. Bottom line, if the Bible is your exclusive guide then you are lost.
Asking a typical Christian about the Bible is almost universally pointless. It usually goes something like this: "Why do you believe in the Bible? Because it's the word of God. How do you know it's the word of God? Because the Bible says so." The conversation usually ends about there. How could it go on?
The most frustrating type of people are those that claim to live by the Bible, have never read more than disjoint stories in it, have never studied historical contexts for the stories, and exclusively look for justification for their already-made opinions within the Bible. Then they stop searching. They stop thinking. I mean the Bible agrees with me so I'm right, right? What?
People don't know or care about the history, formation, or specific authorship of the book. Interesting since these same people claim its infallible and universally applicable. How can you possibly know that and not know a wretched thing about the book? Who wrote it? Who compiled it? Why did they put this in and leave this out? What was on the original manuscripts? What language nuances were lost through the three or four translations to get to this thing I'm holding in my hand? What are we to learn about the love of God from the story of Lot's daughters raping Lot? Or Judah having a kid with his daughter-in-law whom he thought was merely a whore? The whole book is screwed up and makes no sense out of context. The parts that seem to make sense really mean something else in their proper context. So once again, the Bible is messed up and no good by itself.
If you can't tell, people who try to use the Bible as their foundation for authoritative assertions are my pet peeve. I think they're blind, ignorant and lazy. They're certainly not eternalists. I would never say that eternalists do not believe in revelation or inspiration because we certainly do. The God we have been discussing would certainly love for us to know about him and about everything that is true. But those who refuse to seek cannot find and those who refuse to see, won't. If you believe that God has ever wanted to speak to man then he must now want to speak to man. Any other God would be inconsistent and therefore not God. Stop believing in your Easter bunny God.
If it's possible for God's words to have been received and recorded before, then it must have been possible for other people who sought God's words and must still be possible. In short, if the Bible was originally inspired by God then there must be other scripture in existence that supports and explains it. If the Bible was about God's dealings with ancient people then let's search for a record of God's dealings with his people now in our global culture.
Do not attempt to limit God with your stupidity. See things for what they are. Look for what is missing. Always ask questions. Do not perpetuate irrational and willful ignorance that masquerades so universally as 'faith.' Faith is always rational, always logical and always leads to greater knowledge, power and happiness. Do not be scared of heresy, blasphemy, or any sort of thought-crime. The fear is blasphemous.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Face without Guilt or Fear or Shame
It's a commonly perpetuated idea that politics corrupts even good people. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and such. For some reason the downfall of especially good people are their imperfections, their mistakes that are common to all men. To be precise, the fear of other people knowing about these mistakes compels them to things they would not otherwise do.
The only way that man can truly have full causal efficacy on his surroundings is by having complete confidence in himself. Confidence is faith and faith is confidence. The man with vision has no need to fear. The man who knows who he is and who he is becoming has no need to feel shame. The man who acts for his own happiness by systematically striving to be more upstanding and have more integrity has no need for guilt. The man who knows and likes who he is and who he is becoming is the only truly confident man, a man with full faith in himself. This man need never feel guilt or fear or shame but only move forward to be more the man he wants to be.
The inherent danger of guilt, fear and shame is the power it grants others over you. No person can afford to give such power to anyone else. All make mistakes; if you allow yourself to feel ashamed for a mistake that you have already learned from your personal progress is stalled while you leave yourself open for external extortion or internal self-deprecation which will destroy your vision of who you are and where you were going. It can take a long time to recover from guilt or fear or shame. Your recovery will be painful and it will mean lost time. Lost time to learn new things, lost time to further develop your character and lost time to be a force of positive influence, a force for truth in your environment.
The person without guilt or shame or fear is one that is steadfast and immovable. He is an anchor to those around him. He chooses to make himself invulnerable to external forces other than what he chooses to allow to affect him. He only allows positive influence to affect him, influences that enrich his own life and increase his personal happiness. By being this steadfast anchor he grants an example for others trying to gain a vision of who they can be. He stands as a light to those trying to recover from guilt, fear or shame. He chooses to be a positive force to act, create and produce; to form his environment according to his ever-increasing vision. Only the man without guilt or fear or shame can be happy without reservation.
The only way that man can truly have full causal efficacy on his surroundings is by having complete confidence in himself. Confidence is faith and faith is confidence. The man with vision has no need to fear. The man who knows who he is and who he is becoming has no need to feel shame. The man who acts for his own happiness by systematically striving to be more upstanding and have more integrity has no need for guilt. The man who knows and likes who he is and who he is becoming is the only truly confident man, a man with full faith in himself. This man need never feel guilt or fear or shame but only move forward to be more the man he wants to be.
The inherent danger of guilt, fear and shame is the power it grants others over you. No person can afford to give such power to anyone else. All make mistakes; if you allow yourself to feel ashamed for a mistake that you have already learned from your personal progress is stalled while you leave yourself open for external extortion or internal self-deprecation which will destroy your vision of who you are and where you were going. It can take a long time to recover from guilt or fear or shame. Your recovery will be painful and it will mean lost time. Lost time to learn new things, lost time to further develop your character and lost time to be a force of positive influence, a force for truth in your environment.
The person without guilt or shame or fear is one that is steadfast and immovable. He is an anchor to those around him. He chooses to make himself invulnerable to external forces other than what he chooses to allow to affect him. He only allows positive influence to affect him, influences that enrich his own life and increase his personal happiness. By being this steadfast anchor he grants an example for others trying to gain a vision of who they can be. He stands as a light to those trying to recover from guilt, fear or shame. He chooses to be a positive force to act, create and produce; to form his environment according to his ever-increasing vision. Only the man without guilt or fear or shame can be happy without reservation.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Merit and Chivalry
Enough of the framework of eternalism has been laid out so that we can begin to build the philosophy in any direction. A philosophy is only as good as it can be practically applied to one's life for the increase of his own individual happiness. This was the basis for the assumptions made about the primacy of reality. The philosophy of truth/reality expounds on a rational process for evaluating our methods for understanding and dealing with our environment, detecting inconsistency, identifying the necessary correction and executing it.
All cultures are in constant flux. Most of what some call "general opinion" does not make sense and is incredibly inconsistent. An example fresh on my mind is Mother Teresa. Many people mentally equate Mother Teresa with the personification of goodness. Yet these same people cannot name one specific thing she has done, do not know anything about her personal life or beliefs, and do not know why they think she was such a good person. It's a groundless belief. "The masses think it and so I think it" is never satisfactory for an eternalist.
During our cultural flux in America we have two incompatible ideas that are simultaneously extolled by the 'cultured': feminism and chivalry. Let's examine them both and see what the ideas are that are consistent with truth and individual happiness.
Feminism originally was, and still in its true form is, a recognition of the equality of the potential of the minds of men and women. This is consistent with the eternalist idea of Merit. A man or woman is only what they make of themselves. If a person wants to be a great scientist then they do those things that will make them a great scientist. Same for a great athlete, engineer, doctor, judge or anything else. If a person wants to be respected then he must act respectably. The self has primacy over circumstances. The self will be a controller of his circumstances. We will not accept any idea or image that our environment attempts to project on to us.
A man is only worth what he makes himself worth. I greatly value the lives of my family and friends because they have chosen to do those things that make them of great value to me. The life of any of my sisters is of astronomically greater value to me than some drunkard bum on the street or even a stranger. If I had power to control a situation in such a way that my options were limited to choosing to allow my sister to die or a bum, the bum would die. Between my sister and 5000 strangers, I choose my sister to live. Between myself and my sister, I choose my sister to live. These are the only choices that would be in harmony with a happy life after the choice. Death is not the ultimate evil; unhappiness is.
Chivalry, as practiced by many, is wholly incompatible with any self-respecting life philosophy. I will hold this door open for you precisely and only because I have male genitalia and you have female. This is insulting to both parties. You are what you have made yourself. I will hold the door open for you because you are a respectable human being. I would hope that you would esteem me enough to treat me likewise; but if not I'm content to be who I am and will not allow an unfounded opinion of me to influence what I think of myself. For so many people chivalry is very ostentatiously displayed by young men to young women, as a wild peacock trying to attract a mate with his brilliantly colored feathers. Then after a man and woman marry there is no need for such display again. This seems opposite of rational behavior. As I get to know and respect a person more and more, I treat them better and better because they have merited that respect and courteous behavior. Following through with this philosophy, a married man and woman would treat each other best of all other men and women. They have come to the point where they know each other best and respect and admire each other more than any other. They have each merited the best feelings and emotional responses from each other.
Man is a mover and a doer; a creator and a producer. If you want to be happy then merit what you want and become who you want to be.
All cultures are in constant flux. Most of what some call "general opinion" does not make sense and is incredibly inconsistent. An example fresh on my mind is Mother Teresa. Many people mentally equate Mother Teresa with the personification of goodness. Yet these same people cannot name one specific thing she has done, do not know anything about her personal life or beliefs, and do not know why they think she was such a good person. It's a groundless belief. "The masses think it and so I think it" is never satisfactory for an eternalist.
During our cultural flux in America we have two incompatible ideas that are simultaneously extolled by the 'cultured': feminism and chivalry. Let's examine them both and see what the ideas are that are consistent with truth and individual happiness.
Feminism originally was, and still in its true form is, a recognition of the equality of the potential of the minds of men and women. This is consistent with the eternalist idea of Merit. A man or woman is only what they make of themselves. If a person wants to be a great scientist then they do those things that will make them a great scientist. Same for a great athlete, engineer, doctor, judge or anything else. If a person wants to be respected then he must act respectably. The self has primacy over circumstances. The self will be a controller of his circumstances. We will not accept any idea or image that our environment attempts to project on to us.
A man is only worth what he makes himself worth. I greatly value the lives of my family and friends because they have chosen to do those things that make them of great value to me. The life of any of my sisters is of astronomically greater value to me than some drunkard bum on the street or even a stranger. If I had power to control a situation in such a way that my options were limited to choosing to allow my sister to die or a bum, the bum would die. Between my sister and 5000 strangers, I choose my sister to live. Between myself and my sister, I choose my sister to live. These are the only choices that would be in harmony with a happy life after the choice. Death is not the ultimate evil; unhappiness is.
Chivalry, as practiced by many, is wholly incompatible with any self-respecting life philosophy. I will hold this door open for you precisely and only because I have male genitalia and you have female. This is insulting to both parties. You are what you have made yourself. I will hold the door open for you because you are a respectable human being. I would hope that you would esteem me enough to treat me likewise; but if not I'm content to be who I am and will not allow an unfounded opinion of me to influence what I think of myself. For so many people chivalry is very ostentatiously displayed by young men to young women, as a wild peacock trying to attract a mate with his brilliantly colored feathers. Then after a man and woman marry there is no need for such display again. This seems opposite of rational behavior. As I get to know and respect a person more and more, I treat them better and better because they have merited that respect and courteous behavior. Following through with this philosophy, a married man and woman would treat each other best of all other men and women. They have come to the point where they know each other best and respect and admire each other more than any other. They have each merited the best feelings and emotional responses from each other.
Man is a mover and a doer; a creator and a producer. If you want to be happy then merit what you want and become who you want to be.
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