Sunday, November 19, 2017
Spirituality of any kind opens the door
to religion. If astrology or numerology or anything of similar sort
is true, then so is God. With such things working, you do not get
away with a materialist fundamentalist worldview. Instead you have to
look for logical applications of what you have seen; and this means
divine origins.
I had a girlfriend who was an
astrologer. Now many people think that astrology is for idiots, but
this woman was brilliant. She also had experience in a cult of a
Hindu swami, and she had many valuable things to say. Of course the
materialist fundamentalist types attacked her a lot; but what she had
to say was far wiser than what they had to say. And even any number
of people who thought that astrology was a pseudoscience commended
her on the precision of her observations.
Then the astrologers – at least on
the Internet – were attacked by people who called themselves
skeptics, and these people were very nasty. They decided that
astrology was for lunatics, and they personally attacked the people
who were into it. On my part I have had many experiences with less
than a billionth chance of happening whose only possible explanations
were religious, and of course many people saw me as a kook. However
for me to deny what I have experienced would not be logical; it would
be dishonest. And dishonesty does not a rational person make.
Then I started having experiences of
God and of Jesus Christ. For me this has been a constant battle, as I
am sure it has been for many others. Nobody wants to go to hell. Many
people do not want to submit their lives to a power. Being a brat
that I am, I find it very difficult to submit to Christ. However it
is better to submit to Christ, who is wise and benevolent, than it
would be to submit to people who think that they know what they are
talking about but really do not.
Christ, in my case, has proven His
reality to me again and again. Often I do not want this to be the
case. Often I want my life to be my own. Often I want to go back to
the atheistic worldview. However I do not have the option to do so
honestly.
As for the people who consider such
things illogical, my answer is that logic is a method and not a
worldview. If something does not fit into a worldview, the logical
solution is not to deny the experience but to modify the worldview.
In my case, this is not a matter of faith or belief. In my case this
is a matter of fact. And if even I, having had the kinds of
experiences that I have had, am open to doubting or wanting to deny
them, then who else is not vulnerable.
Is Jesus real? You bet He is. And I say
this as someone who for a long time have been a militant atheist. If
you have not had these kinds of experiences, then you can be seen to
be honestly in error. However I, among others, do not have that
luxury. I could do such a thing; but to do so would be a very
profound sin.
Whether you have the materialistic
worldview or if you are into spirituality, I implore you to look
further into the Bible. Ask Christ into your life. His wisdom is
greater than that of the world, and He can teach you what you need to
know. He does not only save souls. He also saves lives.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Real God And False Gods
The false gods are going to turn
against you. The Communists and some others deified the state, and
the state became monstrous. The New Agers deified the self, and the
people became jerks. The consciousness movement people deified the
mind, and the minds went insane. As for my own group – the
romantics – we used to deify women, only to see women acting in
vicious and nasty ways.
When something is given powers that it
does not deserve, it will use these powers for wrong things. Not the
state, not the economy, not the academia, not the family, have a
right to be given godlike powers. Most of these things have a
legitimate roles, and it is rightful that they be given power
appropriate to these roles. However none of such things begin to
deserve ultimate power.
So who actually does deserve ultimate
power? Only one being in the Universe. And while I have been
attempting to follow this power, even in my case I keep getting
doubts or attempting to forget what I have been experiencing. It is
not easy at all to see that your life belongs not to you but to God,
or that wrongdoing could lead to hellfire. It means that you have to
do what God tells you to do. However I would much rather take that
from God than from a military sargeant or a Soviet commissar, even
though even in this case I would not promise consistent compliance.
Paul said that the woman exists for the
man, the man for the church and the church for God. He was
envisioning a political order that is lead by God through the church
involving all men and women. I would very much like to see what an
order like that would look like. Some thought that they were doing it
in the Middle Ages, but they did it wrong. The people with conscience
went into monasteries, and the kings and the nobles ruled the place
without conscience. Then there was the idea of the divine right of
kings, which is completely wrong. Once again, they were deifying a
monarch, creating a false god who would turn against them.
When faced with a deified monarch, some
decided instead to deify “the people.” That too is wrong.
Whichever people they may be talking about are just as fallible as
the monarchs. Some people will be better than others. Once again, I
see no reason to see people outside the state as being better than
people in the state, any more than the other way around. We will have
good governments and bad governments, and we will have good people
and bad people.
Similar with business, with the
academia, and with just about anything else.
Now I cannot promise that I will always
worship God or do what He tells me to do. I can however explain to
people that He is much more worthy of such powers than earthly false
gods. And while the priestry is not always the best form of
governance, maybe there should be more power left to religion than to
the business, the academia or the state.
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
False Gods
From the perspective of the New Ager, one's thoughts create reality. Therefore, "I am God."
From the perspective of some in the academia, people agreeing upon an issue construes reality. Therefore, Academia is God.
From the perspective of some others, the socio-economic infrastructure is reality. Therefore, social infrastructure is God.
Now many do not believe in a god; however the ability to create reality with one's thoughts or anything along the same lines could not happen in a materialistic construct. It points strongly instead toward there actually being a god.
And that is a much more worthy source than any of these false gods.
From the perspective of some in the academia, people agreeing upon an issue construes reality. Therefore, Academia is God.
From the perspective of some others, the socio-economic infrastructure is reality. Therefore, social infrastructure is God.
Now many do not believe in a god; however the ability to create reality with one's thoughts or anything along the same lines could not happen in a materialistic construct. It points strongly instead toward there actually being a god.
And that is a much more worthy source than any of these false gods.
Monday, November 13, 2017
"The Higher You Rise, The Harder You Fall"
There is a
saying, “The higher you rise, the harder you fall.” When you have achieved a
state of grace through loving and caring attention on the part of God and
rigorous effort on your part, a single unrighteous thought or act can send you
crashing down. At which point you have to pick yourself up and do the hard work
of rising again.
There is a
saying that power corrupts. When possessing of power, there are many challenges
and temptations. These can result in even the more well-intentioned people acting
badly. To deal with such things it is necessary to have a platinum temperament
as well as an unshakeable sense of right and wrong. Not everyone who behaves
badly while in power starts out being a bad person. They do not know what they
are dealing with, and often they do wrong things. We see this with people like
Clinton and Nixon, both of whom had some good qualities but whose character was
imperfect, resulting in major errors while in power.
Sometimes
people are born with bad inclinations, and sometimes they simply don’t know
what they are doing. In many cases people are not prepared for what comes their
way. There are many people in the inner city who do not have correct guidance
from their parents, and when they hit their teens they do not know how to deal
with what they are faced with. So even many of the people with better
inclinations become gangsters, drug dealers or sex industry workers. That is
because, once again, they do not know what they are faced with and do not know
how to deal with it rightfully. The claim that many have about these people is
that they are bad people, and some think that they are bad because they are
black. They are not. Once again, they are simply not well enough prepared for
what they will face.
I have
known a number of people with talent, intellect and even fantastic personal
qualities slip into bad situations. Once again, the reason is that they do not
have the correct guidance for what they will have to face. Sometimes people are
naive and fall for the line of one or another kind of deceiver. Sometimes they
have desires or ambitions that they do not know how to handle rightfully.
Sometimes they disagree with their upbringing and go to other situations, for
which once again they are not properly prepared. Not all of these people are
bad human beings, and having known a number of them I do not see them as being
worse than the average person. They simply do not know what they will face.
If you have
had education in upper classes, there is a lot further to fall than if you have
not. Such people will find the fall a lot more hard to handle than would people
who come from lower places. They will have a lot further to fall, and they will
fall harder. And they will make much juicier prey for people who live in the
bottom and feed on what goes there.
The higher
you rise the harder you fall works in many different situations. Sometimes you
fall from a high place that you – by yourself or with higher guidance - have raised
yourself up to, and sometimes you fall from a place where you were born. In all
cases the fall is hard, and the process of rising again is a difficult one.
Certainly
someone who has fallen from a high place is likely to be bloodied in the
process, and that may make such a person more obviously beaten up than someone
who has fallen from a lower place. Such a person would both make better prey
and be more vulnerable to attack. Whoever is feeding on such a person would be
very attached to her, seeing in her many fine qualities, and would also feel himself justified
in being highly abusive and moralizing to go with his predatory behaviour. And
should the prey leave or attempt to leave, there is no hearing the end of it.
Why do such
people become attractive to predators? One of course is status. He is feeding
on someone who has come from – or been in – a high place. Another is refinement
and education, both of which are attractive qualities. And then of course there
is the beauty and the intelligence. All of these are attractive; and when they
go along with the status of someone as a rebel or a “slut” or anything of the
sort, they allow the person the opportunity to feed on the person’s fine
qualities while regarding her as a bad human being. This then empowers the
predator to get whatever he wants from the person -which is in most cases far more than he could conceivably get anywhere else - while treating her like dirt.
And once
again, if the person attempts to leave there is no hearing the end of it.
Anyway,
back to the original subject. The higher you rise, indeed the harder you fall.
So it becomes a matter of handling a great balancing act on the beams of a
skyscraper and hoping not to fall on the street below. And in some situations a
single wrong move means instant death.
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
Faith And Courage
Some people go on about “shameless
proselytizing.” Why should professing one's faith be something
shameful? People profess all sorts of things. I see no reason at all
why people should be doing less to profess their Christian faith than
they would their faith in political correctness. That something is
religious rather than ideological does not make it any less valid.
Then there is the idea that spiritual feelings are something that should be kept private. Once again, I see no reason for that at all. Spiritual feelings can give birth to all sorts of valid endeavors. There have been many people whose faith lead them to do valuable things. If they kept it private, they would not have made the contributions that they did.
I have also heard it said that religion
is something that only a coward would bring up. I see no reason for
that at all. If you believe in God, then you should bring it up.
There is nothing at all cowardly about it. Many people of God are
very brave, and they are much more brave than many who are involved
in political correctness.
Is faith something that one should keep
private? I do not believe that it is. Once again, faith has lead many
people to make meaningful contributions. If you believe in God, then
it is rightful that you should credit God publicly. And there is
nothing shameful or cowardly about it.
Sunday, November 05, 2017
The Crust And The Rest Of The Earth
There are people who say such things as
that they are “Earth people” and that “we must live on Earth.”
They have an inadequate understanding of what the Earth means. The
Earth is not just the crust. It is also such things as the oceans and
the atmosphere. And equating the Earth with the crust, these people
do ignorant and destructive things, such as poisoning the atmosphere
and throwing garbage into the ocean.
The same people see their mentality as
“reality.” It is nothing of the sort. It is a mentality. Now
certainly the technology and business is real enough, but to claim
that it is reality and that nothing else is is ridiculous. There is
also the reality of the Sun. There is also the reality of the rest of
the planet. There is also the reality of other societies. To equate a
mentality with reality proper is completely wrong.
The same people say such things as that
spirituality or philosophy is something that people do when they
can't deal with reality. This, again, is ridiculous. Their own system
is based on a philosophy and it owes vastly to many people with
religious and spiritual beliefs. Most people believe in something
spiritual or another. Many of them have very good reasons for
believing what they believe. To them – and in my own experience –
such forces are completely real. And it is complete ignorance and
foolishness to claim that these people are fools and lunatics for
believing what they believe. Once again, they have very good reasons
for believing such things. And many of them are actually far brighter
– as well as far better people – than the ignorant and abusive
bullies who like to attack them.
Do we deny the crust? Not at all. We
also remember the sun, the atmosphere and the oceans. More
importantly we pay attention to such things and calculate their
benefit in our computations. We care about such things and look after
them wisely. And we arrange our activities one earth in such a way as
to make possible the most beautiful blossoming of life.
The crust is real enough, but it is no way the whole of reality. When one looks at the sky or the ocean, one sees a lot more. It is vitally important that such things be computed and seen rightfully as part of reality. And it is only then that people's concept of what is reality will be informed by actual reality, and what they see to be sanity will be based on what actually exists.
Saturday, November 04, 2017
Michael Jackson, Racism And Misogyny
In his best-selling album, Michael
Jackson articulated two problems that have since then been a blight
of the African-American community. In “Billie Jean,” he talked
about men saddling their women with children for whom they did not
want to provide. And in “Beat It,” he talked about senseless,
stupid, directionless violence. Both of these have been the blight of
the African-American community to this date.
I do not blame Michael Jackson for
either problem. Like many creative types, he was only articulating
what was going on all around him. The real problems are much deeper.
I have been close to a number of
African-American women. And when I care about a woman, I adopt her
concerns as my own. What some of these women told me made me want to
punch the men who did those things to them in the face. And I am
hardly a violent person.
So there have been people portraying me
as a racist or a misogynist. This is completely irresponsible
behavior. This is crying wolf. And crying wolf makes you – and
others – not credible when a real wolf appears. And of these there
are plenty. The real misogynists have called me such things as a
pussywhipped idiot and a male feminist. The real racists attack me
for being a Jew. So we are seeing many real racists and real
misogynists on the march right now. And this should give these people
a sense of perspective that they sorely lack.
So we see women in American feminist
movement claiming any white man who does anything that they do not
like as a misogynist or an abuser. Then they excuse vicious abuses by
people who are African-American, or Muslim, or Mexican. This makes
these people worse than hypocrites. It makes them traitors and fools.
Now maybe calling people fools is not Christian behavior. However
they have been saying much worse things, especially about people who
otherwise would be their allies.
I once knew a young black woman who was
studying to become a police officer. I told her that she was exactly
what the punks deserved. If a white man busted them, then they could
say that he was a white man. If a black man busted them, them they
could say that he was an Oreo. But if a black woman – of the kind
that they believed themselves justified to subject to hideous
violence – then they were getting exactly what they deserved.
There was a band in 1990s that said,
“You do not call me black, you call me African-American.” I will
call you African-American if you'd like, but if you are an asshole
then I would call you an asshole whatever your race happens to be. I
come from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union did a lot to fight
racism. I do not qualify as a “western imperialist” or anything
of the sort. I qualify as a man who cares about how people are
treated.
So we see many women involved in
feminism claiming that they are strong people. I got the news for
them. They are nowhere close to owning strength. My grandmother was a
Jewish woman who lived through the Second World War while living
under Stalin. She was a very strong person. However she did not have
a bad attitude. She behaved in a humble and reserved manner while
actually doing genuinely courageous things.
To the people who think that me or
anyone like me is a racist or a misogynist or anything of the sort:
You are completely irresponsible. You do not know what a racist or a
misogynist is. A real racist or a real misogynist will beat you to
pulp or do anything in his power to destroy you. And if you are
alienating your potential allies by calling them things of the sort,
then you are making yourselves and your people vulnerable to people
who are actually misogynist or actually racist.
Unlike many of these people, I have
hands-on experience in working with people who have been victims of
things such as racism and misogyny. And unlike these people, I have
understanding of what racism and misogyny is and what it is not.
These people have been spending most of their energy attacking white
men nearest the liberal centers of learning and culture who are the
least misogynistic and racist men out there while having neither the
guts nor the power to confront real racists and real misogynists.
This makes them hypocrites, and this makes them cowards.
I have had it with these kinds of
attacks. I know what racism and misogyny is, and I know what it is
not. If you are really the strong people that you fancy yourselves to
be, then go and fight real racists and real misogynists. I have done
both; and I refuse to be subjected to such attacks.
Friday, November 03, 2017
"Ideology Of Mass Consumption"
A former friend of mine in California,
who was a Marxist, told me that people in capitalism were involved in
the “ideology of mass consumption.” My question is, Is this
really an ideology?
Many people want wealth without it
being ideological. Let's face it, wealth is attractive. It is even
attractive to people who have not had ideological indoctrination into
capitalism or anything of the sort. It was attractive for example to
Soviet residents living under Communism. So is this really
ideological, or are we dealing with something that people simply
want?
Certainly there are times when it is
done in a coercive manner. People are taught that they need to have
lots of wealth or they are losers. When I wanted money it was not for
the sake of money itself but for the sake of credibility. I was under
the impression that nobody would take my views seriously unless I had
lots of wealth. I have since found out that there are a number of
ways to credibility, money being only one of them, and others
including such things as wisdom and strength.
Is there an ideology of mass
consumption going on? I think that there are a number of things going
on. One, once again, is that wealth is simply attractive and will
continue to attract people who want it whatever their ideology.
Another is that when we have coercion toward wealth, we have negative
results. Everyone wants to become wealthy. Nobody wants to do tasks
that do not generate much wealth for themselves but have vast
benefit. Scientists, teachers, military, police and any number of
others do not make very much money, but their contributions are vast.
Are these people losers because they
don't make very much money? No, they are not. Without the scientist
the businessman would have very little to sell. Without the teacher
the businessman would not have the knowledge that he needs to do his
job, and most workers would be unemployable. Without the military and
the police there would be no protection for property rights. Some see
such people as losers or even irresponsible. They are neither. They
need them.
If you have been lead to believe that
you are a loser unless you have millions of dollars, think again.
Many of the most significant contributors did not make very much
money. Nikolai Tesla died in poverty. Thomas Jefferson died deeply in
debt. Karl Marx was poor, yet for a long time two thirds of the world
followed his ideas. Some people who make significant contributions
are rewarded monetarily in their lifetimes, others are not. Once
again, some would see such people as losers. Yet they have made
bigger contributions than have the people who believe such a thing.
Most things that are good can be used
for wrong. It does not damn the value; it damns its misuse. With
money, what we see is a good thing that can be used for wrong. We see
the same thing with such things as beauty and intelligence. It is
important to separate the value from the misuses of the value.
Feeling People And Thinking People
There are many people who think that
feelings are for the stupid and for the weak. This justifies these
people in severe emotional and often physical and interpersonal
violence. For such people, their worst nightmare is a
feeling-oriented person with a brain. Such a person is dangerous to
them for two main reasons. One is that he cannot be credibly labeled
as stupid. And the other is that he has the intelligence to be of
help to other feeling-oriented people, whom they want to trample down
and treat like dirt.
A common claim about such people is that they are manipulative. That term is manipulative in and of itself. A combination that is actually positive is being portrayed as something destructive.The actual outcome is competence at understanding feelings. This can be used for wrong, but it also can very well be used for right.
Now a man who has such an inclination
is deemed in some cases a potential Hitler. I consider it completely
wrong to compare someone who does not want to kill anyone to someone
who started a world war. Hitler may have had such inclinations; but
so have many much better people, including Clinton, Dostoyevsky,
Einstein, Tesla, Lennon and Blake. By that standard any gray
“bureaucrat” is a potential Eichmann; but I do not see people
working for USDA being labeled that way.
So that someone who has competence in
both feeling and thinking is likely to come up with quite valuable
observations. This, once again, is because he has competence in two
modalities rather than one. Ayn Rand was both very passionate and
excelled at reasoning, and she came up with brilliant writing. We see
the same, once again, in Dostoyevsky and Blake. They were brilliant
people who were also passionate people. And this combination creates
insight that cannot be as easily found in people who are either
merely brilliant or merely passionate.
It should therefore be encouraged for
people to be good both at thinking and at feeling. This will create
people who have a use of two modalities rather than one. And that
will allow them to both check each side's potential for error and
work with one another to achieve fuller insight. The result will be
wiser people and better decisions made all across the board.
Thursday, November 02, 2017
Misconceptions About Christianity
I started out as a militant atheist,
but I have since then come to Jesus. I am now addressing the most
common wrongful claims about Christianity.
One claim is that Christianity is
fanaticism. Any ideology can be fanatical, whether or not it is
religious. There are fanatical Communists. There are fanatical
feminists. There are fanatical anti-Semites. There are fanatical
“skeptics” and personality psychologists. Fanaticism can happen
under just about any belief structure, whether or not it is
religious.
Another claim is that Christians are
bigots. Now there are certainly some people who are Christians
because they were raised Christian; but once again we see the same
thing with any belief structure. They understand the transmission
mechanism; they do not understand the reasons why the thing started.
The early Christians were in no way bigots. They were radicals who
were fighting a very powerful empire and outlasted it. The Romans
were not ignorant. They had knowledge of many things such as
engineering and medicine. Yet Christianity outlasted the Roman
Empire, which means that there is something else going on besides the
transmission mechanism. With contemporary Christians, many have come
from other paths, and they have a very good reason to believe what
they believe.
Another claim is that Christianity is
illogical. What these people do not understand is that logic is a
method and not a worldview. When faced with an experience that
challenges the worldview, the correct solution is not to deny the
experience but to change the worldview. To do the opposite is not
logical; it is dishonest. In my case I have had many experiences with
less than a billionth chance of happening whose only possible
explanations are of the religious nature, and I, being myself quite
effective at reasoning and having started out as an atheist, do not
have the luxury of such beliefs.
We also see the claim that Christianity
is misogynistic. The worst misogyny that I have seen has been of
secular nature. The Freudians who think that women are an incomplete
gender possessing a penis envy. The “rationalists” who think that
anything with feelings is an inferior form of life. The skinheads who
think that real men knock women around. Some of the happiest women
that I have known were wives of Christian priests. These men were in
no way misogynistic. They did what the Bible tells them to do –
love their wives as their own flesh.
What else. That Christianity is stupid.
I used to think the same thing; then I had the experiences of Christ
in my life. What I experienced was not stupid at all. What I
experienced was the wisest presence that I have ever dealt with.
Christ has been working on my character, and I have gone from someone
whom most people I knew saw as a bad person to someone whom most
people I know see as a good one.
Then there is the Marxist claim that
Christianity is something that “propertied classes” spread to
control the “masses.” The first Christians were not part of the
“propertied classes.” They came from “the masses.”
Christianity was adopted by both the “propertied classes” and
“working classes” alike, as well as by people in places such as
America where there were no rigid class lines and people could rise
or fall as far as their efforts would take them. When Marx saw an
order based on “exploitation,” he saw the religion that was
claimed by the “exploiters” and the “exploited” alike as
being a part of the problem. He was wrong.
A related claim is that of equating
Christianity with sheepish conformity. Once again, that can happen
under any belief structure. Some people will be more likely to be
leaders, and other people will be more likely to be lead. There is
more rigid conformity in North Korea than there is in Texas.
And then of course there is a claim
that it is a con. No, it is not a con. God is real. Jesus was real.
We will find dishonest people under any ideology. That Pat Robertson
has made false statements does not damn Christianity; it damns him.
Now I am the last person in the world
whom one would expect to accept Jesus. This means that, if this can
happen to me, then it can happen to anyone. I hope that people who
have these kinds of beliefs experience the kinds of things that I
have experienced. And I hope that they do so for their own sake as
well as for that of others.
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
Bullying, Immigration And Race
When faced with a bullying situation,
different places will approach it in different ways. A conservative
will attack the person who is being bullied, stating that they are
responsible for what happens to them and that they are weak,
disturbed or dangerous to society. A liberal will confront the bully,
in some cases claiming that he is a narcissist or a sociopath. A
Christian will look at how to guide both to a better place.
Sometimes the situation is quite
clear-cut. At other times it isn't. We see some in liberalism seeing
the Western man as the universal source of evil, but there have been
severe wrongs done by people who were not a part of the Western
civilization. Sometimes the little guy is the good guy and sometimes
he isn't. The correct solution is not to take the side of either one
against the other, but to guide both toward better thinking and
better behavior.
So of course when someone mistreats one
of their own, they may want to do something bad in return to their
group. If a black man is violent to a white woman, other white people
would use that to claim that black people are bad and that they
should be attacked. If an international marriage goes bad, that can
start off social conflict. So now we have many Russian women married
to American men, and if the American men choose to be idiots and
treat them badly then Russian men would likely have something to say
on the matter, even though of course many of them are much worse.
With the black people in America, there
are some who are descended from slaves and others who are immigrants
or descendants of immigrants. Generally the immigrants are well-to-do
and patriotic, whereas many of those who are descended from slaves
are neither. That is because the first group has chosen to be in
America and the other hasn't. If you have come on your own will to a
country, then you have made that choice, and you will do what you can
to both defend that choice and to make it a success. Whereas if you
have not chosen to be in a country, then you feel like a victim and
often bear ill will toward the place. When families immigrate, the
adults are generally likely to be patriotic. The kids however may or
may not be, as their opinion has not been consulted on the matter.
Both for the children of immigrants – and for the people descended
from slaves – the correct solution is to give them the choice that
they believe they have been denied. Say, You are free to go
elsewhere; if you choose to stay then be a good citizen.
Now back on the original subject of
bullying, the correct solution is to have interest in the well-being
of both parties as well as their improvement. It is to guide both
toward better conduct and better character. The same should of course
be the case with everyone else, whether or not they have been
involved in a bullying situation. The correct solution is to have
interest in the well-being and the improvement of everyone. Make a
better world for the people and better people for the world.