Comments on: Spiritual Progress

By: Puzzle Privateer (@PuzzlePrivateer)

Puzzle Privateer (@PuzzlePrivateer) — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 06:25:12 +0000

“man is simply too damned stupid for the Death of God.”

Yes.

Most people are basically stupid assholes. If you go to them and explain why they would be better off not being assholes and how pro-social behavior will lead to a high trust environment and how everyone’s lives will be easier and they will be richer most people will say to you:

” I ain’t never seen a plant grow out of a toilet! ”

But if you go to them and say “the invisible sky father told me we should be nice to each other” these same stupid assholes will say “you can talk to the invisible sky father!?” You reply to them “yes, yes I can” and they will stop being assholes.

So it is written. Here be the words of Gnon (peace be upon him).

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 18:46:31 +0000

@RorschachRomanov

The Scandi countries also rank near the top of Economic Freedom indices.
Their socialism is of the distributive, not the bureaucratic kind.
Their high conscientiousness allows the distributive socialism to work okay.
Cathedralism manifests its destruction among the Scandis in the native birth rate
which is abysmally low. Denmark seems to be bucking this trend somewhat though.
In Copenhagen last month, I saw lots and lots of Danish mothers with their little ones
in public parks. Of course the Swedes think the Danes are fascists for having restricted
Muslim immigration.

By: E. Antony Gray (@RiverC)

E. Antony Gray (@RiverC) — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 18:10:28 +0000

no, there is a distinction. However, I think they cannot be separated from one another (if this is what you mean) – Protestants, because their religion is focused nearly entirely on mentation, tend to group all non-protestant (i.e. all non-reading-thinking) practices conveniently as ‘superstition’. Superstition is simply idiosyncratic religion.

I think the same problem exists with ‘cult’ and ‘religion’ as well. They are not separate though the Protestant view tends to unnaturally cleave them.

Both of these are best summed up as ‘anti-Roman Catholicism’ and can easily be characterized as attempts to negate Roman claims and nothing more.

By: Mai La Dreapta

Mai La Dreapta — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:58:52 +0000

Idem. The distinction between “superstition” and “religion” is unsustainable, and the attempt to make the distinction is an artifact of Protestantism and the Counter-Reformation. IOWs the Chinese are plenty religious, but not very Protestant. Which should not be surprising.

By: Mai La Dreapta

Mai La Dreapta — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:56:45 +0000

I wouldn’t quite say that. The Patchwork/neocameralist model asserts different strokes for different folks, and it’s plausible that democratic socialism works just dandy for blond-haired northerners who speak languages with terrifying vowel phonologies. The problem comes when non-blondes who speak languages with terrifying consonant phonologies flood across the borders, and the very ideology which is so comfortable for Swedes renders them unable to resist.

By: E. Antony Gray (@RiverC)

E. Antony Gray (@RiverC) — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:20:58 +0000

superstitions are generally a way to replace religion where it is not formalized. People who do not understand their religion are characterized most often ass being superstitious (Peasants for instance) so we could at least on the surface conclude that superstition is a kind of unformed religion.

By: E. Antony Gray (@RiverC)

E. Antony Gray (@RiverC) — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:18:44 +0000

@RorschachRomanov I wouldn’t find it so problematic… what if those things work for them, but not for others? Inductive reasoning states that to prove a proposition for all it is not sufficient to prove a proposition for one. Nor even two, three, etc. One must further provide a way to provably generalize the proposition.

I do however take note of a comfortable nihilism in some folks from that region I’ve met/talked to… they are materially ‘happy’ for sure… but perhaps only because that is all they know to hope for.

The demographic suicide however makes me feel like it’s just a really nice hospice.

By: VXXC

VXXC — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:10:48 +0000

THIS LIKE STOLEN

“Whatever other arguments are available in favor of traditional religion, they need to be supplemented by the recognition that man is simply too damned stupid for the Death of God.”

By: Izak

Izak — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 14:41:12 +0000

Bulbasaur is pretty good. His great strength was in choosing to name himself after one of the Pokemon. That was a stroke of genius, right there. But I think that he produces way too many short blog posts with low-energy ideas.

By: Famous J

Famous J — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:19:21 +0000

I’m curious what your take on the Chinese vis-a-vis religion might be. My (extremely sketchy) understanding is that while the Chinese are highly superstitious, they aren’t religious. In any case, most people manage to live their lives without any well-formed idea of a Higher Power.

If one believes that an irreligious civilization is nigh impossible, any thoughts on how the Chinese might have pulled it off? My working theory is “the Chinese are different”, but that isn’t particularly satisfying.

(It’s also possible I haven’t the slightest idea about the Chinese on this subject and I’m utterly wrong on this.)