Monday, July 10, 2023

The Art of Awareness and Letting Go to Let "God"

 * The following is a brief summary of the secular practice of Mindfulness, and Eastern wisdom as I understand it being combined with Christian Mysticism.


Be aware of your moment to moment conscious awareness of the timeless here and now and what theologian Paul Tilloch called the ground of Being.


Be more other-focused: living more aware of other's feelings and practicing compassion while improving the well-being of your fellow beings. By doing so you can let go and let God, for God is the energy that grows the Kin-dom (the Realm of Reciprocal Love), so that your generosity is likey to boomermang back to you. See:

The Power of Brim-Brim Thinking


Live in a state of radical uncertainty by realizing our universal inability to fathom the Ultimate beyond our limiting cognitive faculties and mammalian imagination and the dim lens of our perceptions. As the apostple Paul puts it to paraphrase him: we are all looking at reality as if looking a blurry mirror that distorts the true image of an underlying divine reality.


Letting go of...


- selfish attachments, needing to always feel right and prove other’s wrong, i.e. let go of focusing on always needing to be right rather than being more happy by acting happy.


- Avoid labeling others negatively, dogmatic/rigid ideologies, and tribal tendencies.


- Avoid craving the permanent afraid of the impermanent and the Trancendent.


- Work on not trying to control the complex interplay of cosmic laws and forces and the natural ebb and flow of the universe. Let go and let "God."


- resisting reality rather than accepting what "is."



Table of Links to Blog Posts

The Core of My "Belief" being Centered in The Spiritual Spark (or Pneuma) & The Underlying Dimensions of Goodness Manifest through Ethical Algorythms 


> The Real Meaning of the Word "Gospel"


What Does It Really Mean to Follow Jesus? The Actual Ethical Way of Jesus and What it Means to Actually be a Christian


What Did Jesus Most Talk About & Focus On? It Might Surprise You


> Defining "Practical Christianity" & The Epistemology (Way of Knowing Truth) taught by Jesus


> By Your Example You Demonstrate True Discipleship, Not Reciting Dogma or Creed


The Power of Brim-Brim Thinking


> The Case of Scripture Itself Rejecting Literalism


 > Why the Bible being Mostly Allegory (including the Virgin Birth) does not Affect My Faith


Gary Wills on What Paul Really Meant & The Early Christ Communities


From the Origional Church (Ekklesia in Greek) as Close Knit Christian Friends acting like a Real Spiritual Family to the Development Fake Lipservice, Pulpiteering and Megachurch Charlatanry


The Reverent Agnostic : A.J. Jacobs on, My year of living biblically


The Practical Power of Utilizing the Bible's Literary "Energy" for Overcoming Nihilism and Achieving your Best Life


You Get Sad: The Nihilistic-Atheist Path of Sadness, Unhappiness and Despair & The Happier Way (At Least for Me)


> The  Destructive Communication (i.e. Fiery Tongue) among many (not all) Nihilistic Secular Atheists compared to The More Healthy Ethic & Communication Ideals of Christianity


Type “A” Personality Types and Stress, Meditation, & Buddhist Monks That Can Dry a Wet Towel with Their Body Heat


The Counter-Intuitive Power of Christianity: Transforming Anger & Anxiety into Antifragile Christpower through "Christ OS" as if Virtue Software & Mediating on God's Spirit (Pneuma) as Breath and Monitoring your Breathing


The Art of Awareness and Letting Go to Let "God"


> The Meaning of Saying "Jesus is Lord" in Proper Context Means Caesar is not Lord (i.e. Not the Ethic to Follow by Example)


> Reraming "Demons" as Metaphors representing Pagan Gods as Dark Triad Energy & the Villainous Nephilim Characters as the Bullies of the World and Jesus as Strongman Superhero "Exorcist" Who Tossess Out Negative Emotional Contagion (Insights from Michael Heiser & Paula Fredriksen)


> We Are All One Human Family According to Science


Who am I? The Science of Who You Are—Your Grand Lineage & Cosmic Nature


[Win-Win] Tribal Leadership by David Logan on TED.com


Mindfulness Meditation: The Practice of Living in the Here & Now


Building Self-Esteem - Part 1: Acting Confident, Liking Yourself, & Getting Your Needs Met


Building Self-Esteem - Part 2: Self-Confidence Inventory Worksheet





Friday, July 29, 2022

Why the Bible being Mostly Allegory (including the Virgin Birth) does not Affect My Faith

 Here is why I am not troubled realizing many of the stories in the Bible may be allegory or metaphor, including the Virgin Birth. 


There is information we read in a newspaper and then there is reading a poem or watching a movie. If the reporter is honest the newspaper just tells us some facts. But I have watched movies that have changed my life. I watched the movie Rocky 4 in the theater as a kid and it inspired me to become stronger and exercise and fight back against bullies in Middle School. I have read poems that generate strong emotions in me. I think that "God" can work through the equivalent of movies and poems which is what the New Testament is to me. 


The New Testament is not a newspaper article just telling you some facts. That would be boring. Nobody puts down the newspaper and feels inspired to change their life. The New Testament inspires people to change their lives because the writers were using creative writing techniques and were experts at telling a story and using metaphorical language. God could have given the message in mathematical equations but that would be boring and stale. I choose to believe that there is a Divine Power that worked through the individual humans that wrote the New Testament. It was a combination of divine inspiration and human creativity. So in my view, I give credit to both a Divinity and the creative genius of the human authors who were like artists painting on their canvas. 


So my opinion is we should not worry about how "literally true" it is and be more interested in the creativity of the poetry and symbols; and notice how it inspires us and those around us to be more good, loyal, fair-minded, and happier, etc. 


Historians and scholars have been working to distinguish between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith for over 200 years. I have read the literature on the topic. I choose to believe in both the historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith. But my version of the Christ of Faith is different from Fundamentalists (literal believers). I have been influenced by many Christian historians and scholars, the one I like the best is Marcus Borg; his website: marcusjborg.org 


The simple facts are that Jesus died around 30 AD. Paul was writing in the 50s AD. Most of the New Testament is the writings of Paul. Paul did not discuss Jesus' life or what he said or did in any detail. Paul focuses more on the resurrected Christ that is a spirit. The first Gospel about Jesus' life was not written until 70 AD. So basically you have 40 years after Jesus died before Jesus's words and actions are written down. During that time those who knew Jesus had died. But before they died they shared their experiences of being around Jesus. Those who converted to the Jesus-Movement were told the stories about Jesus but did not write anything down. I believe that if we jumped in a time machine and went back to when Jesus lived we would simply see Jesus being a really good Jewish Rabbi. But he was not normal, he was very special and talked about very important things. I think we would see him healing people and not understand how he does it. I think we would see him criticizing religious dogmatism and those who focus on the "rules" too much and forget about actually loving each other. 


After he died his followers had visions of him resurrected. Overtime they felt inspired to practice what is called midrash or "narrative scripturalization." I collected several articles on this topic on my Christian blog in recommended reading section here. Scroll down to:


On the New Testament as Parabolic Scripturalization (or Midrash; a.k.a Figural Reading) 


These articles explain that it was a Jewish practice to retell the Old Testament stories in new ways. Paul would take a story in the Old Testament and retell it in a new way, feeling that he was inspired by the Christ Spirit to do so. This was not considered writing fiction but inspired retelling of old stories in new ways. So for example, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus becomes a new and greater Moses, as the stories of Moses are retold in a new way where Jesus replaces Moses as the heroic leader. The readers at the time the Gospel of Matthew was written would have noticed this and realized this, and not been bothered or troubled by this.


As you can see things were not meant to be taken literally from the start but they were using poetry and retelling stories from the beginning. 


I am not claiming to be an expert, but I have read several books by historians and scholars about the "historical Jesus." Most historians have different opinions on who the historical Jesus was and what he really said and did, however there is a consensus. The consensus among historians is that the "historical Jesus" probably did not believe he was born of a virgin. Historians do not think that Joseph and Mary told Jesus he was born of a virgin and was the Son of God. This is what I think happened based on my research. It is only my opinion. 


I think Jesus was simply "born of a woman" (see Galatians 4:4; Paul wrote this around 50 AD). Paul never mentions the "virgin birth." The first Gospel written around 70 AD, the gospel of Mark, does not mention the virgin birth. The author of The Gospel of Matthew (written around 80 AD) read in the Septuagint (the Greek New Testament), in Isaiah, that the Messiah would be born of a "virgin." However, many scholars say that Matthew misunderstood that in Isaiah the word was not virgin but a "young woman." Or Matthew knew that, but wanted to compare Jesus to Augustus who was said to be born of a virgin and a Son of God. In other words, Matthew was trying to say the pagan emperor Augustus is not the true divine "son of God" and "born of a virgin," but Jesus was. See God in a Manger: The Message of the Gospels and the Problem of the Virgin Birth by N.T. Wright. 


Once Matthew started the story of the Virgin Birth then everyone repeated it. However you do not find the story of Jesus being born of a virgin before Matthew. I personally think it is just a symbolic way of Mathew saying that Jesus was given divine powers. 


What I think happened was Jesus simply grew up as a normal Jewish male; and at one point he felt inspired by God to liberate his people from oppression. He was against the corruptions among religious elites running the Temple and so he turned over the tables in the temple and that led to him getting killed.


I very much admire the historical Jesus. I think he was a theologically- liberal Jew, meaning he practiced Judaism in a very non-literal, non-dogmatic way. He was always interpreting the Torah in the most liberal way possible which emphasized loving others as yourself. 


When Jesus died he had such an impact on his followers that they had visions of him as the Resurrected Christ. I choose to believe these Visions really happened. I choose to believe something happened that made Jesus' disciples believe he was divine and resurrected. I cannot prove it. I choose to have faith which is the substance of things hoped for without evidence. When I exercise faith in the resurrection it just makes me feel better and I am less afraid of death and losing my loved ones in the grave. The resurrection simply means to me the hope that I will experience my loved ones again after I die. I did not like being an atheist for several years and believing that when we die we rot in the ground and are eaten by worms and we cease to exist. That was very morbid and depressing. I was never happy believing that. I like believing that we will live beyond the grave. It gives me hope and meaning and more happiness in my life.


As I talk about on this blog, I do believe that something powerful happened in the first century when Christian Scripture was produced. The god Zeus was a rapist. The Roman Emperor was called a "son of God" and he was a bully and a tyrant. When they said Jesus was a son of God and he was divine like Zeus, they were turning everything upside down. Why did the definition of what is a divine being change so radically all of a sudden between 50 - 130 AD? Before the New Testament, a Divinity or God was almost always described as a rich and powerful, conquering his enemies violently and many times enslaving and raping victims. Why did the New Testament authors all of a sudden feel inspired to reverse this definition of a Divinity? Never before (to my knowledge) had a God-man been described as a kind and charitable healer preaching fair-mindedness. The pagan gods were always rewarding the bullies and the rich. But here was Jesus being called divine and caring about everyone. 


I believe that the authors of the New Testament were inspired to create an algorithm in the language of parable and allegory, that produces good people. Just as an architect will follow an architecture plan to build a home, I believe that the symbolic architecture of the New Testament produces good people. 


I remember when I was a missionary in Brazil, and offering to help a man carry his job equipment home one day. He was an alcoholic and not the best father. After he started reading the scriptures with us, I remember the atmosphere of his home changed and there was more love and unity.


In my view, the New Testament revolutionized human consciousness and changed society. The pagan gods represented the ethical culture of their times. The pagan gods before Christianity were often cruel and capricious and rewarded the rich, the tyrants and rapists. The Christian authors felt inspired to use poetic language in describing Jesus as the real God-man and not these other Pagan God-men. By changing what it meant to be divine they changed human consciousness; as the new vision of deity transformed what it meant to be favored by the gods. For instead of the Pagan Gods favoring cruelty and violence and oppressing others, embracing Christ as divine led to people focusing on being kinder and generous and more fair-minded, as Christians sought to imitate the example of Peter, Paul, James and Jesus. This became the way to gain favor with divinity, by being forgiving not revengeful, being benevolent not a tyrant, and loving women and children rather than treating them like second class citizens which was common in that time. Who is to say that a real divine power did not inspire them to do this?


I think Jesus lived thinking that he was inspired by God and called by God to be a liberator of the oppressed. As we read in Luke 4: 17-19 (ESV):


 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He [Jesus] unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,


18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

    and recovering of sight to the blind,

    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”


I believe that Jesus indeed accomplished his mission. Because of Jesus, today we are more compassionate as a society, we have hospitals and charities and a political ideals that seek to manifest what Jesus taught. Before Jesus people would put unwanted babies outside to die, but Christians started adopting these babies. Because of Christianity people began to abolish slavery. Christianity changed human consciousness in the last 2,000 years. If that's not a miracle I don't know what is.





Saturday, January 22, 2022

The Practical Usefulness of the Bible for Achieving your Best Life

When I was a kid I watched the movie Rocky 4 in the movie theater and was greatly inspired and it began my pursuit of Health and Fitness. I learned from Dr. Paul Dobransky's DVD Seminar Mature Masculine Power 3.0, that religious mythologies can be harnessed for their inspiring value and usefulness. Dobransky's formed a psychological method of using Greek mythology in order to achieve psychological wholeness and personal success, similar to how Rocky 4 had inspired me as a kid to get in shape. I realized that one could do the same thing using the Bible as a set of useful and inspiring stories to overcome setbacks and challenges. For example, if we are dealing with a difficult situation that requires courage we might be reminded of the story of David taking on Goliath. Or we might remember all of the passages where Paul talks about a kind of antifragile Christpower within him: where his losses and weaknesses don't stop him from getting back up after being knocked down and moving forward toward the greater cause he is seeking to achieve like a runner running a race. Sylvester Stallone said that he was inspired by his own Christianity in the writing of the Rocky movies. This is why the first Rocky movie opens up with Rocky boxing and the title of gym is the Resurrection.



Let's say I'm in an irritable mood and stuck in my ego and releasing negative tension on somebody else. Well I might have a flash of a phrase I read in the New Testament. For example, I might remember Proverbs 15: 1 (NRSV), "A soft answer turns away wrath,    but a harsh word stirs up anger." I might stop with my tone and say to myself, "Well I might feel good releasing tension onto the person but my tone is going to cause them to react back at me and generate defensive tension and an energy depleting tit-for-tat exchange that is lose-lose. So I might be influenced by the New Testament's message that everyone has value and intrinsic worth as a soul not just an assembly of atoms with no soul as with atheism. Seeing them as an Imager of Divinity (as Michael Heiser puts it) I will be more motivated to talk to them as a mirror reflection of my own soul, generating more positive energy between us which is mutually beneficial (win-win).


So what I have realized over the last several years is that when I was an atheistic reductionist, I was constantly chopping down any kind of metaphysical hope with hyper skepticism, and poking holes at any kind of faith or higher meaning in life. But I see now it was merely a defense mechanism, my frontal lobes were simply on high alert nitpicking any metaphysical assertion and I was not allowing my whole brain to experience the other side of being Human: the side of us that benefits from story, song, dance and meditative stances; connecting to something larger than ourselves. I craved an existential purpose like I had when I was a Christian missionary. 


My atheism only brought me temporary elated emotions on occasion, by feeling intellectually superior to others or discovering some scientific truth or historical data that excited me. But using the metaphor of peaks and valleys, I would only experience emotional peaks of intellectual elation and then fall back into the valley of despair from my atheism. So my intellectual highs were always short-lived and I was faced back into the abysmal void of a meaningless pointless cosmos where the soul does not exist and we are just gene-machines (robotic replicators: no better than copy machines) and destined to be worm food. I was often overlooking the reality of atheism by distracting myself into ignoring the existential dread and unyielding despair of authentic atheism. 


Once I allowed myself to feel Christian again, even if many of the stories were seen as "metaphorical truths" rather than scientific truths, I began to feel better on a deep psychological level. It was as if my soul was being filled with durable joy and a Source of ongoing positive energy was being funneled into me; and it made me feel more strong and powerful with a new vitality: as if I was a balloon being inflated with new existential meaning and purpose and a cosmic identity that filled my self-esteem with cosmic confidence and lasting well-being.


I was no longer a cosmic orphan, alone in the cosmos as an atheist, adrift in a black sea of meaninglessness; trying to stay afloat and worn out by the sinking feeling into dark nothingness pulling me under into the atheistic abyss. I was buoyed up by Christianity and inflated with existential meaning and felt connected to a Great Story and a People that shed blood and tears in generating a grand narrative of redemption and ideals through stories; which connected me to these lives out of which the stories developed and grew and it gave me a new group identity, a historical connectivity and sense of belonging, which was empowering.


As if cutting the mood of a room with a knife when someone negative leaves that room and you could tell the difference in the emotional atmosphere; I could feel the difference in my mood, deep in the inner core of my being: as I moved away from atheism toward being a pragmatic Christian.


I began to realize that I no longer cared if I could prove any of it as scientifically true or completely rational with equations. I began to care less if I could demonstrate it in a laboratory. For I'd already experienced the difference between atheism and Christianity in the laboratory of my own life. I realized that there was another kind of truth, metaphorical truth, like we see with inspiring stories, theater, art and the power of poetry and parables. I thought about the powerful feelings of being alive when I have written romantic poetry to a girlfriend and how those metaphors describing how I felt about her we're just as true as if I had express my affection through the science of love and talked about myself feeling the brain chemicals of dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. I began to realize that the New Testament is a love poem to reality. In this sense, Christianity has become for me poetry for the soul.


I began to refocus my attention on seeing the New Testament as a set of symbols and stories aimed at inspiring people to overcome challenges and be spiritually antifragile and build emotionally healthy Gardens of Relational Joy in their midst. I began to realize I wanted that peace and joy described in the New Testament. 


I no wanted less to intellectually one-up believers and chop down their hopes and beliefs. I didn't want the cold vapid message of atheism anymore. I wanted the cosmically fulfilling and empowering message of Christianity. I wanted to be more than a gene-machine and future worm food in a pointless existence. I no longer wanted to be stuck in a state of pessimistic moody nihilism like the character Russ Cole in the first season of True Detective. After all, if atheism were true and this life means nothing and we are nothing then what does it matter if I entertain a greater narrative for myself? Like Russ Cole at the end of True Detective, I wanted to look up and frame things so that amidst the darkness I was more focused on seeing the light shining forth and winning.


True Detective also helped me to see the unhealthy influence that pessimistic atheism can have on one's countenance and body and overall mood. Just compare Matthew McConaughey himself who is a Christian in real life (pictured below):



Compared to the pessimistic "energy" affecting his entire physiology while playing Russ Cole (below):




In this video, Matthew McConaughey reads from the New Testament, a passage from the apostle Paul, about Christians collectively acting as a single body of unified love energy. So that, so much unlike the pessimistic character he played in True Detective, in real life he sees himself and others having a united intrinsic value and his life has ultimate meaning and purpose. Which of course has an impact on his mood and attitude and physiology.

Rather than considering myself basically walking nothingness, the mere fantasy of being an actual "person" (as the character Russ Cole accurately explains the atheist view), a mere animal composed of atoms and cells and destined for Nothingness, I began to entertain the Christian belief again that I was something, and I could merge into a greater Something. What a world of difference that began to have on my psychology and physiology.

 I began to look at the Christian message psychologically and how much more empowering it felt to enter the narrative world of seeing myself as participating in a higher ideal, a greater cause larger than myself, and this notion of participating in the emergence of God's Realm: emerging on earth through transformed individuals representing God's Ideal Society. I began to realize that this metaphysical narrative was both metaphorically true and psychologically useful. But more than that my study of history, anthropology and sociology made it clear to me that such a metaphysical narrative was actually positively beneficial for individuals, friendships, families and societies.


Seeing myself as a member of a Divine Family rather than a member of only mindless atoms and cells (destined for nothingness as a walking nothing), Christianity provided me with a higher sense of meaning and a metaphysical identity which was psychologically empowering and fulfilling. 


I also realized that pragmatically speaking, as Jordan Peterson rightly argues in his discussion with Sue Blackmore, Reality itself selected for the Christian memes which interacted with our genes. In other words, the symbols and stories of Christianity were competitively more successful in the marketplace of ideas and spread mind to mind effectively in making us more civil and happier, thus benefiting our species because they were more useful and beneficial to the human organism. In fact, I would argue that the gene meme coevolution of the biblical stories led to what we modern people consider our conscience and our modern ethics. Thus, like a goldfish swimming in a pond and breathing in the water of the pond, the atheist is actually swimming in and breathing in the ethical water of Christianity. But then turning around and not at least appreciating the historical Waters that feed their current ethical conscience.


From a scientific perspective, why would I go against Reality and not benefit from a set of stories and symbols that were clearly more beneficial to my humanity than other narratives. It actually became clear to me that Ultimate Reality "wanted" me to believe these things because Reality had memetically evolved Christianity as organically useful to me personally and was benefiting our societal long-term thriving; and Reality had evoltionarily designed me with an imagination and the capacity for metaphorical thinking so that I would feel better believing in the Christian memes. From this perspective, it would actually be kind of stupid and unscientific to not benefit from Christianity.


I mean the atheistic fantasy of living in a world of Vulcans imitating the hyper rationality of the cold and emotionless Spock on Star Trek, is a nice idea and all; but it completely ignores our emotional human nature; and I simply would not want to live in a world devoid of emotion and comedy, movies, art, and poetry. I mean that is ultimately what Christianity is, an emotionally fulfilling life philosophy: full of comedy, theatrical art (midrash), and parabolic poetry.


I began to realize that psychologically, the Christian identity redefined my humanity as having cosmic value and purpose. Beyond being a mere gene replicator destined to disintegrate into nothingness, while believing in Ultimate Nothingness. Instead I realized that Christianity introduced me anew to the power of believing in Ultimate Somethingness. I was something, this world was something, life after death was something. Other people are somethings and not walking-nothings. I wanted to dwell in this narrative realm of somethingness because it gave me existential vitality, an identity, and a durable fulfillment.


What atheists do is only argue with the Fundamentalist types but ignore the more sophisticated philosophical theologians like Marcus Borg who encourages reading the Bible through a historical-metaphorical lens; that is, instead of asking if the story or event or passage is literally true, asking what is the historical context and the etymology of the words in the text. Then asking what is the psychological meaning behind the words; is there a metaphorical message? This approach has made scripture come alive for me even as a 21st century man who is rational and science-minded.


I have seen over the years that atheists are often "Christian atheists" pretending to be anti-christian. In other words, they have the same virtues and values espoused in the New Testament. If they were truly in line with darwinian evolution and pure atheism, then they would be more in line with the philosophy of Nietzsche which the Nazis used. This is covered in detail in the book by Abir Taha, titled Nietzsche, Prophet of Nazism: the Cult of the Superman; Unveiling the Nazi Secret Doctrine. I challenge anyone to read that book and deny that Nietzsche's philosophy had no impact on the Nazis. Also see Nietzsche and the Nazis: A Personal View by Stephen Hicks. After studying the subject for years and at times not wanting to accept it, the fact is that the Nazis were inspired by Nietzsche's writings and utilized his pagan spirituality to do what they did. So I no longer have patience for the atheist who has zero appreciation for the powerful ethical impact that the New Testament had on humanity for the last two thousand years (which is covered in Tom Holland's book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World).


Many atheists want to instead hyper focus on the few bad apples within Christianity, past and present, and completely ignore the many authentic Christians who truly represent Christianity. They also overlook what the New Testament message is actually about: which is actually a condemnation of the kind of Christians that many atheists don't like. For example, Jesus spends almost all of his time criticizing his own fellow religious Jews in pointing out that some religious people are not changed from the inside out but act "holier than thou" and self-righteous. Jesus spends almost all of his time criticizing these types of spiritual fakers. In contrast to the religious fakers, the message of the New Testament is about being an actually transformed group of people as Christians that represent the ethical Good and model the Ideal Society. Christianity was not originally even a belief system, in other words it did not begin as a set list of intellectual propositions, but originally was about the one belief that Jesus was Lord (not Caesar as Lord), and after his crucifixion his message was metaphysically revived in the transformed lives of those who pledged their allegiance to Christ over Caesar.


There were very few essential "beliefs" in the original Jesus Movement. What the original Jesus People were mostly believing in and working toward was the practical emergence of God's ideal realm on earth as it existed in their idealistic perceptions of the heavenly realm; which they were seeking to socially build up on earth through healthy face-to-face relationships; and organically planting and cultivating in people's souls the spiritual Kingdom realm of God; which was essentially the ideal Just Society that every politically liberal atheist actually wants just as much as the politically conservative theist.








Thursday, January 20, 2022

Jesus as Lord, not Caesar as Lord

I rarely hear it emphasized among Christians I talk to but as I see it, I interpret Jesus as Lord in contrast to Caesar as Lord. A little context: 


When Paul said Jesus is Lord, there was beginning to happen in Rome in the first century, the worship of Caesar as Son of God, Lord and Savior. The Caesar was considered the divine Savior because he brought peace to Rome through violence and for example bringing back slaves to Rome after conquering other peoples; who were basically treated as sex slaves. 


So when Paul proclaimed "Jesus was Lord," he was presenting a new moral ideal in seeing Jesus as the ideal Emperor rather than Ceasar. His rhetoric was also an insurgence. There was even the gospel of Ceasar, the good news of through Caesars killing other people and dominating them we now have, for example, people we can treat as property and use as sex slaves. Paul was countering this with his gospel or good news, that Jesus as Lord does not kill, bully and exploit people; but came to set people free and He demonstrated for imitation a new Way (the path of Radical Hospitality, Agape Love, and Healing, etc.). Christ as Lord inaugurated the better ideal, the Realm of God, manifesting Heaven's Realm into the world through his words and actions.


After Jesus died his disciples took up their calling as imitators of The Way and took to writing letters, Epistles and Gospels: that presented artistcally a non-violent emerging parabolic memeplex. Note that Sue Blackmore changed her mind and acknowledges that religion is not a mind virus, as she used to describe religious memes; and she now thinks religious memes can be healthy and beneficial memetic replicators. This ethical memeplex continued to organically spread Jesus' Way on earth (like seeds planted into soil and sprouting and flourishing) through the "called out ones" (Christians) who bodily imitated the Way of Christ and verbally spread the good news of Jesus as Lord (rather than Caesar as Lord). 


Wednesday, January 19, 2022

The etymology of the word gospel

 Gospel simply means "the message of the good story." A story of Redemption and Victory. Consider the etymology:


gospel (n.)

Old English godspel "glad tidings announced by Jesus; one of the four gospels," literally "good spell," from god "good" (see good (adj.)) + spel "story, message" (see spell (n.1)). A translation of Latin bona adnuntiatio, itself a translation of Greek euangelion "reward for bringing good news" (see evangel). The first element of the Old English word originally had a long "o," but it shifted under mistaken association with God, as if "God-story" (i.e. the history of Christ).


The mistake was very natural, as the resulting sense was much more obviously appropriate than that of 'good tidings' for a word which was chiefly known as the name of a sacred book or of a portion of the liturgy. [OED]


The word passed early from English to continental Germanic languages in forms that clearly indicate the first element had shifted to "God," such as Old Saxon godspell, Old High German gotspell, Old Norse goðspiall. Used of anything as true as the Gospel from mid-13c.; as "any doctrine maintained as of exclusive importance" from 1650s. As an adjective from 1640s. Gospel music is by 1955. Gospel-gossip was Addison's word ("Spectator," 1711) for "one who is always talking of sermons, texts, etc."


https://www.etymonline.com/word/gospel

Sunday, January 16, 2022

The Counter-Intuitive Power of Christianity: Transforming Anger & Anxiety into Antifragile Christpower through "Christ OS"

This post builds off of the great speech by Bobby Schuller titled Becoming Anti-Fragile (on YouTube) and Lucy Negus' poem Christpower.


I say counterintuitive in the title because in American culture especially, the idea is that selfishness is best and "every man for himself" as the pathway to greater peace and happiness. New Testament Christianity comes in and counters this with instead an emphasis on being more other-focused, with an attitude of "every person for each other," being generous, and treating others as you would want to be treated.


Many modern men, I think reject Christianity because they see it as more useful to adopt the "dog eat dog" secular mentality of selfishness and greed. They see all of this emphasis on compassion and loving your neighbor as yourself as a form of weakness. They think that competitive capitalist America has no room for such a "charitable" philosophy. They see Christianity as a "feminine religion." I thought the same thing for quite some time but have since changed my mind.


After following the Nietzschean philosophy and the philosophy of American selfishness for a time, I found that while it sometimes paid off in short-term pleasures and feelings of power; it was ultimately a long-term failure for long lasting happiness or durable fulfillment. This essentially atheistic life stance, began to take its toll on me overtime. I began to notice that it put me in a defensive Attack Mode position, seeing everyone as a rival and an enemy, in "a war of all against all" (as Nietzsche once put it). I ended up being full of anger and tention causing fatigue, rather than the rejuvinating inner peace of the gospel method. I also lacked the existential strength that comes from the meaning-making power of Christianity.


I then remembered my reading of Stephen Covey's best-selling business book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and realized that Nietzschean selfishness, a "might makes right" attitude, and greediness, is essentially what Covey calls a win-lose attitude. In fact, Stephen Covey learned from studying effective people and businesses that they all practiced the principles of: seek first to understand, then to be understood; negotiate win-win deals; and form an interdependent synergy. These principles are also taught in Stoicism and Christianity.


I began to realize that it might seem counterintuitive to practice the secular version of love your neighbor as yourself by seeking mutual understanding, synergy, and win-win deals; but in fact, that is what effective people and businesses practice. The work of John Gottman has also mathematically proven, through scientific studies, that the Christian practices also produce the healthiest relationships.


I then remembered reading books by successful businessmen who list Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People, as the number one book to become more successful in business. Turns out that Dale Carnegie himself went through a phase of agnosticism but eventually came to find pragmatic value in Christianity and he implements many Christian virtues in his book.


The Personal Boundary


Dr. Paul Dobransky's diagram system summarizes all of psychology and I find his system is presented in the Bible as symbols and stories designed to transform the psyche through metaphor and relgio-theater. Two ideas stood out to me from Mind OS as I was seeking to re-establish my Christian life stance. 

Someone has pasted the Mind OS diagrams in a blog. See here.


If you go to that link above and scroll through it you will find two diagrams. The first shows  a diagram showing that all negative emotions are on the spectrum between anger and anxiety. The next diagram summarizes how developing a healthy self-esteem is in part about transforming anxiety into well-being and anger into confidence. In Mind OS, self-esteem is defined as well-being + confidence. So the goal is:


Anxiety → Well-being

Anger →  Confidence


In Mind OS, Dr. Paul Dobransky summarizes the human psyche and "personhood" using the diagram of the personal boundary. Another website explains it this way:



Click on Image to Enlarge at the Source

Dobransky uses the circle to encapsulate this. In the image from his diagrams posted at the following link, we see that too much anxiety and anger or stress depletes our boundary energy diminishing our self-esteem, see here.


When anger gets trapped in our personal boundary it transforms into depression. However, if we impulsively lash out at others with uncontrolled anger we will cause destruction in our social lives. This is why the Apostle Paul says that one of the fruits/results of the Divine Breath is self-control. The benefit of Christianity is that it harnesses our anger and channels it through constructive outlets.


In the paper, Reimagining Anger in Christian Traditions: Anger as a Moral Virtue for the Flourishing of the Oppressed in Political Resistance by Wonchul Shin (April 2020), the Abstract reads:


 This paper aims to reimagine anger, which has been traditionally understood as one of the capital vices in Christian traditions, as a moral virtue of the oppressed in their resistance against structural injustice. This essay first examines the contemporary discussions on anger in the field of Christian ethics. Then, I critically evaluate Lisa Tessman’s account of “burdened virtues” and argue for a possibility that anger can be constructive in contributing to the flourishing of the oppressed. This paper argues that the oppressed can transform burdened anger into thriving anger that is conducive to their own flourishing through the communal bearing of the burden. This paper provides empirical support for this argument ...


Thus the spectrum of anger is funneled away from selfishness and irritation at life not going your way all the time, as you are re-focused toward a noble cause greater than yourself.


In my view, the problem with Atheism and the anti-Christian lifestance, is that it turns your anger outward on to Reality or God. With atheism, you lack an ultimate meaning in life and how to deal with the atheist belief in the ultimate annihilation of the self in death. You live in a constant state of anxiety at your impending erasure from existence, and an underlying anger at the unfairness of life. What Christianity does is soothe your anxiety with the promise of an afterlife and directs your anger at injustice toward creating a better world, a Heaven on Earth. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."


Much of anger is bottled up bodily tension, which depletes your energy and vitality. Chronic anger does not make you anti-fragile. The Christian virtues and principles relieve tension and stress by emphasizing the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5: 22-23. The first thing to note is that when Paul uses the word Spirit it is in Greek the word Pneuma (pronounced Nooma), which means literally wind or breath. I have covered the concept of Pneuma or the Divine Breath already on this blog. But suffice to say, if you are more focused on your breath you can notice the difference between your breath when you are anxious or angry, in comparison to joyful breathing or while being compassionate. It can act as as a way to monitor your anger and anxiety and destructive communication in contrast to communicating with other-focused love, joy, inner peace, kindness, generosity, loyalty and impulse control.


One can see right away that breath awareness and tonality and word choice can help us realize that if we are chronically angry and lashing out at people with a fiery tongue/words (James 3: 5-6), then we are causing an interpersonal lose-lose dynamic of mutually shared tension and stress; which does not make us anti-fragile and powerful, but destructive, depleted, and weakened.


I decided to draw my own image below summarizing the power of the Christian Life Philosophy to show that it is a pragmatic Way/Path that is psychologically healthy and empowering:




Click to Enlarge My Drawing

The reality is that the fruit of the spirit actually produces physiological changes that make us happier by reducing the stress hormone cortisol and making us more optimistic and positive toward others, which reverberates back to us; which makes us more powerful as we are not weakened and drained by the cycle of hate and philosophical pessimism that weighs us down.


Simon Sinek summarizes the power of Christianity indirectly by explaining the science of the fruit of the spirit on the Glenn Beck radio show. The fruit of the spirit and the Ekklesia produces what Simon Sinek calls a Circle of Safety and EDSO (Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin, and Oxytocin).


Just look at the power of breath control among Buddhist monks in freezing cold temperatures; and the martial artist Rickson Gracie who incorporates breathing exercises: which made him one of the greatest mixed martial artist in the world.


So what the New Testament does, especially when reading literal translations like The Unvarnished New Testament, is it help us focus on having the Divine Breath (the fruit of the spirit/breath) rather than the breathing patterns of excessive anger and anxiety and selfishness. See the image here.


Click on Image to Go to Source


Vice and virtue lists predate Christianity but Christianity puts an emphasis on a certain mindset of other-focusing. According to britannica.com


In the Christian ethic, love, or charity, which is omitted from the list of the pagan philosophers, becomes the ruling standard by which all else is to be judged and to which, in the case of a conflict of duties, the prior claim must be yielded.


https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy


According to teachfastly.com:


Virtues are settled habits that help guide all of our actions.


… Because virtues are part of our character, we do not grow in them just by understanding them, but by practicing them in our life with others over time ...


2 Peter 1:5-8 says: “...make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence,

knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance,

godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love. For

if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from

becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ

more intimately.” (NET)  ...


What are the main Christian virtues?


Key Christian virtues can be drawn from descriptions of Christ-like character in Scripture, such as 2 Peter 1:5-8, Galatians 5:22-24, and Colossians 3:12. Some central

Christian virtues include:

  • faith [trust]
  • hope
  • love
  • wisdom
  • self-control
  • joy
  • courage
  • faithfulness [loyalty]
  • peace
  • patience
  • humility
  • gentleness
  • goodness
  • compassion
  • [gratefulness]

Source: http://teachfastly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/List-of-Virtues.pdf


So what happens to you emotionally when you move from destructive angry emotions like rage, resentment, hate, revenge, etc., and you channel anger into constructive goodness and a just and noble cause? What happens when you transform anger into confidence by doing the right thing? What happens when you act out more trust/faith in Ultimate Reality as an expanding Source of Plenty, have more hope and love and are more grateful for what you have and what has went well in your life; and act with wisdom and more self-control? What happens when you share feelings of joy with friends and act with courage toward a just cause, directing your anger instincts toward releasing stress by feeling part of a larger Big Story? What happens when you feel more inner peace connected to a Divine Presence? The answer is you feel better, fuller, healthier. Meanwhile, by treating others with patience, humility, gentleness, goodness, and compassion, you generate what John Gottman calls Positive Sentiment Override (PSO) and relational Trust.


Going back to Mind OS, and all negative emotions is on a spectrum between Anger and Anxiety, the Christian Way minimizes anxiety through prayer or meditation and trusting the Divine Lens and directing one's attention with a Grand Narrative. Anxiety is also minimized through the Christian community and the Limb-Limb attitude (we are all the orchestrating limbs of Jesus' body acting out his Way). Many scientists have proven that communal worship reduces stress levels and even pain. I felt this myself in my teens after having panic attacks, the communal feelings and hymns had a real experiential calming effect on me.


In Mind OS, the ability to transform negative emotions into positive emotions and balance the left-brain and right-brain is called entering the area of a “genius.” I thought about how this is basically the goal of New Testament Christianity, to go from an anxious/angry presence to a principle-centered confident presence: as a glorified pneumatic self. As I read through the NT, I see the recurrent theme of turning anxiety into well-being and anger being directed at confidently taking up your cross to actively pursue a just cause larger than your narrow minded ego. While Christianity actually enlarges your healthy ego through union with other healthy egos.


Existential angst is combatted with existential security in Christ, and your life having a purpose and meaning within the Big Story of the Bible. I see Paul dealing with cynicism and pessimism in paganism, and some of the earlier Jewish scripture like Ecclesiastes, with a fighting spirit and an optimism to generate on earth as in heaven a spiritual ideal; as Paul and others combat pessimism with the goal of theosis.


Dr. Paul Dobransky defines friendship as “consistently shared, mutual, positive emotion.” Or exchanging mutual self-esteem energy. What I see on nearly every page of the NT is exactly that. For example, most of the gods and demigods at that time were all about demanding obedience and ritual sacrifice to them, and in return they were not too reliable and rather capricious and cruel. In contrast, the Christian God-man Jesus says in John 15:15 (The Passion Translation):


I have never called you ‘servants,’ [or slaves] because a master doesn’t confide in his servants, and servants don’t always understand what the master is doing. But I call you my most intimate and cherished friends,[b] for I reveal to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father.


Footnote [b] reads: “Both the Aramaic and Greek word for “intimate friends” is actually “those cared for from the womb.” You are more than a friend to him, for you were born again from his wounded side.”


I have said to people that friendship is treating others as if their self-esteem is as important as your own. I later realized that Paul says the same thing:


Philippians 2:3 (NRSV)

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.


Galatians 6:2  (NRSV)

Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.


Romans 13:9  (NRSV)

 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”


Galatians 5:14 (NRSV)

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”


This is later reiterated in Matthew 22:39 (NRSV), wherein Jesus says: … ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’


It seems counter intuitive to love others as if they are thyself, but it practically creates an expanded personal-boundary, a co-souled expansion of well-beingness, i.e. increased self-esteem tanks for all involved. For you don’t just delight in your happiness and success but that of The Other. Thus you don't just feel emotionally full when thinking of yourself but can feel fulfilled when those around you excel or feel good. You then avoid the sinkhole of filling only your emotional buckets with self congratulations, but become a congratulator and big-upper, filling their boundary; and as their boundary grows your boundary grows interdependently. Like sap flowing in a vine, it is as if you are connected to the same gas station fueling both gas tanks; in this case the same vine-life energy fueling both of your self-esteem tanks/buckets simultaneously so that your ego-cups overflow with mutual joy and positivity onto others. Their accomplishments are your accomplishments, their joy is your joy, etc. You expand your soul in this way.


You also generate a natural feedback loop of like begets like, you liking them and big-upping them causes them to like you back and want to reciprocate by big-upping you. Of course this is not always the case, the truly selfish just hoard validation unto themselves, but most normal people will replicate your loving-fuel into their ego-tanks. Here is a short video offering an allegory on the subject titled Validation by Kurt Kuenne.


In short, to be Mind OS “centered,” based on the MindOS diagrams, is to achieve the state of "genius" and to experience the goal of durable fulfillment. As Dr. Dobransky says “Character is destiny.” This is the same as being in Christ or putting on Christ, and developing the Character of Christ. In short, in Christianity the practical result is to transform destructive anger and anxiety into constructive feelings that build well-being and confidence. The end result being that you replace the life of destructive decisions leading to depleting your personal-boundary energy and lowering low self-esteem; with instead constructive virtue-habits toward an expanded personal boundary through interdependent connections and the Abundant Life. As Jesus says in the two translations below of the same verse:

 

John 10:10 (RSV):

 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

 John 10:10 (TPT):

A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!


 In summary


What we find in the Christian virtue-habits is that at times some of them may sound less masculine, but in actuality they increase masculine vitality. It seems counterintuitive but true. For example, one might think that a child growing up with harsh sternness and the lack of emotional safety and affection, might grow up to be more masculine and stronger. But this is not the case. The fact is that children who receive loving parental affection combined with mature authoritative (but not authoritarian) parenting, become stronger adults; while children with unloving parents, or authoritarian or cruel parents, often end up lacking Inner Strength. Christianity begins by presenting the Christian with a mindset of being loved by a heavenly parental figure. This unconsciously increases your inner peace and strength and vitality.


 The male desire for strength and power is actually what Christianity produces in the long term. The proof of this is in the early Christians themselves who stood up to destructive pagan beliefs and practices; and some scholars even arguing that their masculine fortitude actually eventually toppled the Roman system of power through their courageous acts of bravery. 


By focusing on maintaining inner peace and impulse control, and a more other-centered framing, one actually reduces stress and increases one's inner psychological resources. It is counterintuitive but Christianity actually increases confidence and well-being. The pagan view among many of the pagan religions, at the time of Christianity, were instead focused on gaining power by any means necessary which ended up manifesting more self-centeredness, impatience, hatred, chronic revenge-seeking, lashing out, lack of impulse control, and coniving pursuits; which just generated a cycle of retributive violence and greed. Leaving everyone in a constant state of tension and stress and seeing the other and everyone as an enemy. In contrast, Christianity reduces such Destructive Cycles of emotional and physiological depletion through a radical philosophy of "enemy love" and radical hospitality. This life philosophy avoids chronic resentment with instead forgiveness which releases inner stress. Through internal emotional control and a more organic team-oriented mentality of seeing every brother or sister in Christ as interdependently linked with you, one produces greater individual power through co-boundary expansions. 


A good example of how destructive decisions and relationships, ripple outward and affect others negatively, just watch seasons one through three of MTV's Jersey Shore. The tit-for-tat retributive cycle of verbal and physical violence between Ron and Sam generated a toxic relationship, not just for them individually but it generated ripple effects throughout the household which negatively affected their roommates. When Ron and Sam were separated from each other their personal boundary and vitality returned and they were more at peace inwardly and smiling and laughing more. They were not exercising the Christian virtues around each other and got caught in a cycle of toxic energy. They were not at their strongest and most vital when they were together. The same thing can be said of many of the might makes right type pagan virtues, attitudes and mentalities in comparison to Christianity. Christianity can be compared to a household full of positive emotional energy which generates greater peace in the members of the household which increases their strength and vitality.


Everyone knows this even from a secular perspective. Science shows that when people row a boat in unison they can row longer and faster as a group/team. Arnold Schwarzenegger made it clear that he benefited from a training partner. Many people spend years in the gym doing an exercise incorrectly until they work with a trainer to learn the correct form. More examples could be given. 


The ultimate power of Christianity is in its ability to reduce existential angst and avoid nihilism and philosophical pessimism. The optimistic philosophy of Christianity reduces personal anxieties and the cycle of violence, through an organic philosophy of everyone being related as a new divine species implanted with the Wisdom of Christ. This divine identity not only gives one a meaning in life and a shared purpose within a spiritual family of brothers and sisters in Christ (with an empowering shared ideal and ethic), but it generates antifragility through the avoidance of perfectionism: by knowing that the process of imitating Christ is a process of willfully going through setbacks, challenges and failures (2 Corinthians 11:16-33); in an on-going process of "taking up your cross daily" and "antifragililly" growing into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18), or Christ Victor; as the poetic encapsulation of the ultimately triumphant hero archetype. 


Even the pagan atheist Friedrich Nietzsche was influenced by the power of Christianity's antifragile philosophy when he wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “And only where there are graves are there resurrections.” This sentiment is similar to Luke's take up your cross and daily. In other words, it is only through experiencing the daily "deaths" of failures, persecutions, and dying to our fragile-egos, that we can resurrect anew daily (that is reconstruct ourselves) and become more antifragile through imitating Christ as the ultimate antifragile hero.




The Art of Awareness and Letting Go to Let "God"

 * The following is a brief summary of the secular practice of Mindfulness, and Eastern wisdom as I understand it being combined with Christ...