"The Bible leaves no doubt at all about the sanctity of the act of world-making, or of the
world that was made, or of creaturely or bodily life in this world. We are holy creatures
living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy. Some people know this, and
some do not. Nobody, of course, knows it all the time. But what keeps it from being far
better known than it is? Why is it apparently unknown to millions of professed students
of the Bible? How can modem Christianity have so solemnly folded its hands while so
much of the work of God was and is being destroyed?
"The sense of the holiness of life" is not compatible with an exploitive economy. You
cannot know that life is holy if you are content to live from economic practices that daily destroy life and diminish its possibility. And many if not most Christian organizations
now appear to be perfectly at peace with the military-industrial economy and its
"scientific" destruction of life. Surely, if we are to remain free, and if we are to remain
true to our religious inheritances, we must maintain a separation between church and
state. But if we are to maintain any sense or coherence or meaning in our lives, we
cannot tolerate the present utter disconnection between religion and economy. By
"economy" I do not mean "economics," which is the study of money-making, but rather
the ways of human housekeeping, the ways by which the human household is situated
and maintained within the household of Nature. To be uninterested in economy is to be
uninterested in the practice of religion; it is to be uninterested in culture and in character.
Probably the most urgent question now faced by people who would adhere to the Bible is
this: What sort of economy would be responsible to the holiness of life? What, for
Christians, would be the economy, the practices and the restraints, of "right livelihood"? I
do not believe that organized Christianity now has any idea. I think its idea of a Christian
economy is no more or less than the industrial economy--which is an economy firmly
founded upon the seven deadly sins and the breaking of all ten of the Ten
Commandments. Obviously, if Christianity is going to survive as more than a respecter
and comforter of profitable iniquities, then Christians, regardless of their organizations,
are going to have to interest themselves in economy--which is to say, in nature and in
work. They are going to have to give workable answers to those who say we cannot live
without this economy that is destroying us and our world, who see the murder of
The trouble is, if you wait till you're dead to find out, it may be too late ; - ) It's better to seek knowledge-ecstasy-relief-from-suffering as assiduously as possible while still alive. Life is a very brief practice run for eternity. Practice hard while you can.
Trump is a perfect archetype not of a religious individual (someone who surrenders their ego to God) but the exact opposite: someone who worships their own ego and tries to make others do the same. He's like Satan, whose motto is "I am better than him," and Pharaoh, another cosmic narcissist par excellence.
Freedom From Religion mostly just attacks straw men cherry-picked to make religious people look like total idiots (which many of them admittedly are. Take the Yahwists...please!)
Eloquent comments and good questions. I'm glad I have smart readers who don't share my worldview. Not only does it keep me on my toes, but if seeing things the way I do were required for admission, I'd be my own one-and-only Substack subscriber ; - )
Spot on Kevin! Could not agree more that the sacred and the divine are inextricably entwined with the material world and the spiritual worlds and that there are forces both benign and malevolent in the non-ordinary realities that intersect with ours.
An enlightened person is in touch with these many worlds and learns to navigate them towards the divine and away from the satanic.
TRUE SCIENCE EXISTS WITHIN THE QURAN which today many Westerners are discovering in amazement that modern scientific revelations actually existed in the Quran which Islamic Scholars spoke about talked and wrote about as they did in their glorious heyday in Spain’s Andalusia- Toledo Cordoba and Granada that became a seat of Learning and Knowledge covering topics like Medicine Astrology Astronomy ( Astrolobe invention) Science Maths Geometry Algebra, Hygiene , creation of the Human foetus and its birth cycle within the womb and so much more but which Westerners tried to conceal their Islamic roots and Plagiarised their Theories which originated from Knowledge within the Islamic Quran
Many English words derive from the Arabic as do their Numerals but Westerners are not taught this in schools at all, instead wishing to portray Islamic and Arab history as backward barbaric or godless which is so so far from the truth!!
Science in its pure form is important to human life and advancement but not when it is taken to extremes corrupted and become detrimental harmful and dangerous as we see today with the Drug Kabal’s Covid JewJabs and the evil WMDS/ Dtones , other state of the Art Killing Machines of the Zio Military Industrial Complex and their equally odious A. I that threatens Mankind
True religion and spirituality along with pure science both have an important place in the Human psyche but not when they are used and abused for nefarious self serving purposes by the self anointed Self Chosen Minority who threaten our God given world proclaiming it as solely theirs to exploit and thus misuse and abuse
Both true Faith and Science are pillars of Knowledge and Understanding to elevate the mind and soul of Humanity based on Truth and a Moral Compass and Principles to abide by and guide with honesty and benevolent pride devoid of malice and evil
'God/Creator gave us Reason not Religion.' Our Thomas Paine wrote that Eternal TRUTH, some 250 years ago! Mr. Paine provided most of the inspiration for our 'The Declaration of Independence', ''"that all Men are created Equal, endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY and the pursuit of HAPPINESS!" No Chosen People-Promised Land-Bible Study=B.S.!
God revealed Himself in the Old Testament & fulfilled the OT in Christ, God who became man (& the only person ever pre-announced) to willingly suffer & die in atonement for the sins of mankind & who rose from the dead as He foretold. There are many false forms of Christianity but one that teaches truth unmixed by error & provides the means for attaining salvation & eternal unimaginable happiness in heaven, i.e. the traditional Catholic Church, independent of apostate Rome, which was taken over after many years of Judeo-Masonic infiltration. It's a long story but the takeover & the ensuing "Great Apostasy," long prophesied, is well explained at whitesmoke1958.com.
What prevents most people from believing in Christ & the church He founded upon Peter & the other apostles is unrepentant sin, which leads to intellectual blindness & eternal damnation after death.
There is no Heaven and there is no Hell! God-Good and the Devil-Evil is a symbiotic entity, the ALMIGHTY, I call the Almighty the 'Universal Singularity'=UNISIN! Almighty-UNISIN has no GENDER, not your Father, Lord etc., that is just primitive Idolatry! The Almighty is an 'IT"! IT resides in all of us! It is the Universe ITself, we are in IT, IT is in us! IT gave us 'Free Will', that is a great Gift but also a great Burden, because of that, we are responsible for everything we Do or fail to Do, towards our fellow travelers, Men, Women and Children, while we are here on this beautiful, accommodating Planet of OURS! We could live in Paradise-Heaven right here, right now, why don't we?? Because of Demonic Religions, Chosen People-Promised Land Bible-Study=B.S.!!
No hell? You'll find out soon enough but then it will be too late.
Have you tried reading part one of the 4 gospels? Even if you did years ago, try it again & ask yourself if it could have been made up.
But you're right about the formerly Chosen People being being a huge cause of much evil in this world. And tragically they have many millions of ignorant Gentile supporters.
BTW, atheistic regimes are responsible for more deaths than any other. Religions don't cause wars, sinful humans who falsely use religion as a pretext do.
I agree that people should seriously read the various scriptures. I am favorably impressed by the Gospels, love parts of the Torah as literature (but not scripture), and find the Qur'an completely convincing as well-preserved Revelation.
BTW, in 2011 I wrote to the now late Dr. David Ray Griffin about my suspicions with Richard Dawkins getting so much attention for his God Delusion book and critique of religion.
Here's the DRG reply:
Dawkins is a dogmatist, who loves to be controversial.
His philosophy of science has been refuted by many, but he is unfazed.
-------
Below I also mention my talk with Splitting The Sky, my friend/author Robert Sean Lewis, my friend/ex-Franciscan, Shermer, Sheldrake, Anthony J. Hall and more..
I had told DRG that I don't think it was a coincidence that people like Michael Shermer -whose Skeptic Magazine published Dawkin's book-are the same ones who attack those who think of govt and their private sector associates behind things like 9/11, JFK assassination, etc...
Are these entities and human elite collaborators deliberately supporting the Shermer/Dawkin types to spiritually and religiously disarm us ? Some of these human collaborators may be honest about their political and spiritual views but unaware of being used by these entities.
I recall Dr. Rupert Sheldrake (a retired biologist, practicing Anglican, and researcher of PSI stuff/paranormal, etc...) saying that people like Shermer get tons of $$$ to attack people like Sheldrake but he has to rely on 'shoe string budget.' Mainly from small donations, book sales, speeches, etc...
Dr. Anthony J. Hall and hisformer student, Joshua Blakeney, have exposed Shermer as a liar, claiming to be an adjunct professor at Clairemount Univ.?? See here:
Though I have my own beef with all three Abrahamic religions. I find them inherently arrogant when I read things like in the Old Testament that the Jews are God's chosen people. The Christian belief that Jesus was the only Son of the only God, and Islam with prophet Mohammad as God's last prophet.
I really dislike when my Catholic counterparts challenge my openness in believing (and applying to my daily life) some of the things I learned from native spiritual practices to the martial arts and more and label it paganism. The root words for pagan is peasant, from the back country, redneck.....How derogatory.
I very much agree with Dr. Michael Grosso, co-author of book entitled Irreducable Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century, that if we are to understand things like the paranormal, PSI, telepathy, etc...we will have to go beyond beyond the dogma of religion and current mainstream science.
The German mystic named Bruno Groning (1906-1959) comes to mind when considering what Grosso said cause Groning was raised as a Catholic but his teaching wasn't completely so. He had a supernatural ability in healing countless people in post WW II Germany. He argued that it wasn't necessary to change religion but to just believe in God as the 1st step in practicing his Einstellen, connecting to the healing power of God. The medical and govt authorities ruined him. Eventually provoking his early death. Unsurprisingly, the Catholic church appears to be silent on this Groning phenomena. Thks to the work of Ms. Hausler, the lady who was healed by God through Bruno's teaching, there are Groning groups all over the world. I didn't take him seriously until I met from 1 of these community BG sessions a physicist/inventor/former pres of Intl Light Association (for healing and general well being), a retired engineering executive with excellent knowledge on suppressed history, and the BG sessions animator who spent time in India studying spiritual stuff, and she was a former artist,psychologist and girlfriend of the late Canadian PM Pierre E. Trudeau.
I also agree with what my friend Robert Sean Lewis, who you interviewed a few times, that our way out of the current mess must involve spirit.
BTW, when I had Splitting the Sky speak in Montreal I shared with him my appreciation for native spirituality and how I combined it to my Catholicism. But he didn't have kind words for Christianity. STS did have an out of body experience when he came close to death when police riot squads attacked the Attica prison. Had a kundalini experience while in solitary confinement, practiced native spiritual dance, and replied to me that ''yes'' there is an afterlife but elites like Cheney and comp think there isn't one so they want to hog as much as possible when they're here on earth. Something of that sort is what I recall.
I also vividly recall what my friend who spent 10 yrs in the Franciscan order said. "Michael, the Bible is a question book." I also learned a lot from a person he had me look up named Matthew Fox, an ex-communicated monk who was much on the same page as my friend, the ex-Franciscan. Fox's openness to things panpsychism is gaining some steam in academia. Fox and Rupert Sheldrake have done some work together. Interestingly, both of them get attacked by people like Shermer but the two former have been quiet on things like STATE CRIMES AGAINST DEMOCRACY (SCAD), 9/11, COVID, JFK, etc...
But I have a hunch that Dr. E. Michael Jones might have a problem with the Christian perspective from Fox, Rupert, and my friend. Would love to hear a dialogie between Fox /Rupert and Jones.
I agree Kevin. The authors imply that religion is some sort of an evolutionary toy or crutch rather than man’s quest to find a more profound connection with the eternal mystery of a godly universe.
RELIGIONS are created to help people endure the progressive enslavement that results from civilization. After indigenous cultures orsocieties are destroyed by invading armies, universal religions are used to bind together the various peoples left over into abody to serve the conquerors.
The Almighty hath said in a Quranic verse that He hath made a human intrinsically righteous and good (you only have to see a miketyson pic as a smiling angelic toddler to believe that!) . Religion does help to bolster a humans intrinsic goodness/morality/etc and avert going astray firmly sticking to the Sirat-el-Mustaqim. But if an Adam, Dick or Harriete goes on to take a bite of the myriad apples proferred by a pure evil rabbi dildo, to end up going astray, (any) religion does offer a way back to the straight and narrow path, the Sirat-el-Mustaqim. Without religion and repentence only a further decline into the morass.
In my view it's not about human survival but human control. As an agnostic I am always again suprised what bs people believe. The best example for me is that God's chosen psychopaths should rule over the whole world. How stupid do you have to be to believe such a blatant lie?
"God's chosen psychopaths" used to be His Chosen People but then were rejected by God when they rejected their true Messiah, Jesus, handing Him over to the Romans to be tortured & crucified. Since then they have become "enemies of God & of the human race." (1 Thessalonians 2:15)
Kevin, may I recommend an essay that is more than tangentially relevant to the questions presented herein?
Christianity and the Survival of Creation
~Wendell Berry
https://www.ecofaithrecovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BerryWendell_ChristianitySurvivalCreation.pdf
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"The Bible leaves no doubt at all about the sanctity of the act of world-making, or of the
world that was made, or of creaturely or bodily life in this world. We are holy creatures
living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy. Some people know this, and
some do not. Nobody, of course, knows it all the time. But what keeps it from being far
better known than it is? Why is it apparently unknown to millions of professed students
of the Bible? How can modem Christianity have so solemnly folded its hands while so
much of the work of God was and is being destroyed?
"The sense of the holiness of life" is not compatible with an exploitive economy. You
cannot know that life is holy if you are content to live from economic practices that daily destroy life and diminish its possibility. And many if not most Christian organizations
now appear to be perfectly at peace with the military-industrial economy and its
"scientific" destruction of life. Surely, if we are to remain free, and if we are to remain
true to our religious inheritances, we must maintain a separation between church and
state. But if we are to maintain any sense or coherence or meaning in our lives, we
cannot tolerate the present utter disconnection between religion and economy. By
"economy" I do not mean "economics," which is the study of money-making, but rather
the ways of human housekeeping, the ways by which the human household is situated
and maintained within the household of Nature. To be uninterested in economy is to be
uninterested in the practice of religion; it is to be uninterested in culture and in character.
Probably the most urgent question now faced by people who would adhere to the Bible is
this: What sort of economy would be responsible to the holiness of life? What, for
Christians, would be the economy, the practices and the restraints, of "right livelihood"? I
do not believe that organized Christianity now has any idea. I think its idea of a Christian
economy is no more or less than the industrial economy--which is an economy firmly
founded upon the seven deadly sins and the breaking of all ten of the Ten
Commandments. Obviously, if Christianity is going to survive as more than a respecter
and comforter of profitable iniquities, then Christians, regardless of their organizations,
are going to have to interest themselves in economy--which is to say, in nature and in
work. They are going to have to give workable answers to those who say we cannot live
without this economy that is destroying us and our world, who see the murder of
Creation as the only way of life."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Excuse the shitty formatting
Wendell Berry is onto something.
In Madison, Wisconsin, there’s this organization, called the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
OUR adherents don’t physically and/or emotionally abuse people for questioning tenants.
Don’t demand subservient subjects, who must bend the knee to dogmatic demands.
If others want to comport their lives in conformity to what I consider to be fairytale books, that’s alright with me.
I just want those others to keep their faiths to themselves, and not impose it on me, or anybody else, for that matter.
The FFRF doesn’t enforce, or endorse, slavery, or sin, or murder of kin, or anyone else for that matter.
We don’t see women and children as property, or as exalted.
Don’t tell others what to do with their bodies, or their money.
Don’t declare war against infidels.
Don’t declare the existence of heavens or hells.
I guess that the key is in the foundation’s title.
The root word is free.
If there is any deity, it’s the empathy inside of me.
One ancient figure that makes sense to me, is old Socrates.
When I think about the foundations of Abrahamic religions, I think about trump.
Get the suckers to do all the work, and give the godhead the fruits of their labors, while he sits on his rump.
Not that there aren’t “fine people on both sides”.
I’ve seen great acts of kindness, that have brought tears to my eyes.
Also religious war making, which I really despise.
I don’t have any, or all of the, answers.
But, I’ve seen religions turn people into monsters.
Religion should be between others and their gawds.
It’s got nothing to do with others, who don’t share their beliefs.
I can’t speak about eternity.
I’ll find out when I’m dead.
The trouble is, if you wait till you're dead to find out, it may be too late ; - ) It's better to seek knowledge-ecstasy-relief-from-suffering as assiduously as possible while still alive. Life is a very brief practice run for eternity. Practice hard while you can.
Trump is a perfect archetype not of a religious individual (someone who surrenders their ego to God) but the exact opposite: someone who worships their own ego and tries to make others do the same. He's like Satan, whose motto is "I am better than him," and Pharaoh, another cosmic narcissist par excellence.
Freedom From Religion mostly just attacks straw men cherry-picked to make religious people look like total idiots (which many of them admittedly are. Take the Yahwists...please!)
Trust me Kevin, I seek, and try to provide relief.
Those behaviors are like reflexes.
No commandments, or compulsion, required.
I seem to possess an overactive conscience, and excess empathy.
Ecstasy???
In this world???
Maybe in tablet form.
(Not the stone type)
The Palestine genocide makes suffering mandatory.
Especially, the last thirteen months worth.
Although, the last fifty five years hasn’t exactly been a picnic.
Here in the grate satan, it’s primarily the Yahwists that make a pain in the ass of themselves.
As I’m certain you have noticed, this place is kind of hazardous for Islamists, and it ain’t people like me they have to worry about.
Trump is Swaggart, Baker, Graham, Osteen, Hagee, et al, personified.
Oops, forgot to include P.T. Barnum.
No traces of Nasrallah, or Sinwar, in that son of a bitch.
Can’t say that I’ve ever encountered a genuine holey man, or woman for that matter.
People called my late mate a saint, for puttin’ up with my ass for almost fifty years, but there weren’t any religious connotations involved.
To quote Lowkey:
“from time time to time, there arise among human beings, people who seem to exude love, as naturally as the sun gives out heat.”
I got a taste of that, and it’s highly addictive.
Better than any pill or powder ever concocted.
Let’s just say that my religious experiences have been unpleasant, with her as a glaring exception.
Peace be onto you and yours, and everybody else.
Preferably before everybody’s dead.
I wonder how many kids were killed, or starved, in Palestine today???
Where the fuck is god when I/we need him/her/it???
Eloquent comments and good questions. I'm glad I have smart readers who don't share my worldview. Not only does it keep me on my toes, but if seeing things the way I do were required for admission, I'd be my own one-and-only Substack subscriber ; - )
Trust me, you’re sort of a godsend.
It goes back to nine eleven.
Spot on Kevin! Could not agree more that the sacred and the divine are inextricably entwined with the material world and the spiritual worlds and that there are forces both benign and malevolent in the non-ordinary realities that intersect with ours.
An enlightened person is in touch with these many worlds and learns to navigate them towards the divine and away from the satanic.
TRUE SCIENCE EXISTS WITHIN THE QURAN which today many Westerners are discovering in amazement that modern scientific revelations actually existed in the Quran which Islamic Scholars spoke about talked and wrote about as they did in their glorious heyday in Spain’s Andalusia- Toledo Cordoba and Granada that became a seat of Learning and Knowledge covering topics like Medicine Astrology Astronomy ( Astrolobe invention) Science Maths Geometry Algebra, Hygiene , creation of the Human foetus and its birth cycle within the womb and so much more but which Westerners tried to conceal their Islamic roots and Plagiarised their Theories which originated from Knowledge within the Islamic Quran
Many English words derive from the Arabic as do their Numerals but Westerners are not taught this in schools at all, instead wishing to portray Islamic and Arab history as backward barbaric or godless which is so so far from the truth!!
Science in its pure form is important to human life and advancement but not when it is taken to extremes corrupted and become detrimental harmful and dangerous as we see today with the Drug Kabal’s Covid JewJabs and the evil WMDS/ Dtones , other state of the Art Killing Machines of the Zio Military Industrial Complex and their equally odious A. I that threatens Mankind
True religion and spirituality along with pure science both have an important place in the Human psyche but not when they are used and abused for nefarious self serving purposes by the self anointed Self Chosen Minority who threaten our God given world proclaiming it as solely theirs to exploit and thus misuse and abuse
Both true Faith and Science are pillars of Knowledge and Understanding to elevate the mind and soul of Humanity based on Truth and a Moral Compass and Principles to abide by and guide with honesty and benevolent pride devoid of malice and evil
Here is a book that your readers would doubtless find interesting:
https://montanarcc.substack.com/p/the-book-on-the-living-god-by-bo
FYKI:
https://hybridwar.substack.com/p/the-islamic-world-stands-on-the-threshold
'God/Creator gave us Reason not Religion.' Our Thomas Paine wrote that Eternal TRUTH, some 250 years ago! Mr. Paine provided most of the inspiration for our 'The Declaration of Independence', ''"that all Men are created Equal, endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY and the pursuit of HAPPINESS!" No Chosen People-Promised Land-Bible Study=B.S.!
God revealed Himself in the Old Testament & fulfilled the OT in Christ, God who became man (& the only person ever pre-announced) to willingly suffer & die in atonement for the sins of mankind & who rose from the dead as He foretold. There are many false forms of Christianity but one that teaches truth unmixed by error & provides the means for attaining salvation & eternal unimaginable happiness in heaven, i.e. the traditional Catholic Church, independent of apostate Rome, which was taken over after many years of Judeo-Masonic infiltration. It's a long story but the takeover & the ensuing "Great Apostasy," long prophesied, is well explained at whitesmoke1958.com.
What prevents most people from believing in Christ & the church He founded upon Peter & the other apostles is unrepentant sin, which leads to intellectual blindness & eternal damnation after death.
There is no Heaven and there is no Hell! God-Good and the Devil-Evil is a symbiotic entity, the ALMIGHTY, I call the Almighty the 'Universal Singularity'=UNISIN! Almighty-UNISIN has no GENDER, not your Father, Lord etc., that is just primitive Idolatry! The Almighty is an 'IT"! IT resides in all of us! It is the Universe ITself, we are in IT, IT is in us! IT gave us 'Free Will', that is a great Gift but also a great Burden, because of that, we are responsible for everything we Do or fail to Do, towards our fellow travelers, Men, Women and Children, while we are here on this beautiful, accommodating Planet of OURS! We could live in Paradise-Heaven right here, right now, why don't we?? Because of Demonic Religions, Chosen People-Promised Land Bible-Study=B.S.!!
No hell? You'll find out soon enough but then it will be too late.
Have you tried reading part one of the 4 gospels? Even if you did years ago, try it again & ask yourself if it could have been made up.
But you're right about the formerly Chosen People being being a huge cause of much evil in this world. And tragically they have many millions of ignorant Gentile supporters.
BTW, atheistic regimes are responsible for more deaths than any other. Religions don't cause wars, sinful humans who falsely use religion as a pretext do.
I agree that people should seriously read the various scriptures. I am favorably impressed by the Gospels, love parts of the Torah as literature (but not scripture), and find the Qur'an completely convincing as well-preserved Revelation.
All 'Bible Study'=B.S., to scare/brainwash, the primitive, looking for answer's masses of Humanity! Religion is the CURSE of Mankind!
:/
Kevin, another great article.
BTW, in 2011 I wrote to the now late Dr. David Ray Griffin about my suspicions with Richard Dawkins getting so much attention for his God Delusion book and critique of religion.
Here's the DRG reply:
Dawkins is a dogmatist, who loves to be controversial.
His philosophy of science has been refuted by many, but he is unfazed.
-------
Below I also mention my talk with Splitting The Sky, my friend/author Robert Sean Lewis, my friend/ex-Franciscan, Shermer, Sheldrake, Anthony J. Hall and more..
I had told DRG that I don't think it was a coincidence that people like Michael Shermer -whose Skeptic Magazine published Dawkin's book-are the same ones who attack those who think of govt and their private sector associates behind things like 9/11, JFK assassination, etc...
Are these entities and human elite collaborators deliberately supporting the Shermer/Dawkin types to spiritually and religiously disarm us ? Some of these human collaborators may be honest about their political and spiritual views but unaware of being used by these entities.
I recall Dr. Rupert Sheldrake (a retired biologist, practicing Anglican, and researcher of PSI stuff/paranormal, etc...) saying that people like Shermer get tons of $$$ to attack people like Sheldrake but he has to rely on 'shoe string budget.' Mainly from small donations, book sales, speeches, etc...
Dr. Anthony J. Hall and hisformer student, Joshua Blakeney, have exposed Shermer as a liar, claiming to be an adjunct professor at Clairemount Univ.?? See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGXm__kqFzQ
Though I have my own beef with all three Abrahamic religions. I find them inherently arrogant when I read things like in the Old Testament that the Jews are God's chosen people. The Christian belief that Jesus was the only Son of the only God, and Islam with prophet Mohammad as God's last prophet.
I really dislike when my Catholic counterparts challenge my openness in believing (and applying to my daily life) some of the things I learned from native spiritual practices to the martial arts and more and label it paganism. The root words for pagan is peasant, from the back country, redneck.....How derogatory.
I very much agree with Dr. Michael Grosso, co-author of book entitled Irreducable Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century, that if we are to understand things like the paranormal, PSI, telepathy, etc...we will have to go beyond beyond the dogma of religion and current mainstream science.
The German mystic named Bruno Groning (1906-1959) comes to mind when considering what Grosso said cause Groning was raised as a Catholic but his teaching wasn't completely so. He had a supernatural ability in healing countless people in post WW II Germany. He argued that it wasn't necessary to change religion but to just believe in God as the 1st step in practicing his Einstellen, connecting to the healing power of God. The medical and govt authorities ruined him. Eventually provoking his early death. Unsurprisingly, the Catholic church appears to be silent on this Groning phenomena. Thks to the work of Ms. Hausler, the lady who was healed by God through Bruno's teaching, there are Groning groups all over the world. I didn't take him seriously until I met from 1 of these community BG sessions a physicist/inventor/former pres of Intl Light Association (for healing and general well being), a retired engineering executive with excellent knowledge on suppressed history, and the BG sessions animator who spent time in India studying spiritual stuff, and she was a former artist,psychologist and girlfriend of the late Canadian PM Pierre E. Trudeau.
I also agree with what my friend Robert Sean Lewis, who you interviewed a few times, that our way out of the current mess must involve spirit.
BTW, when I had Splitting the Sky speak in Montreal I shared with him my appreciation for native spirituality and how I combined it to my Catholicism. But he didn't have kind words for Christianity. STS did have an out of body experience when he came close to death when police riot squads attacked the Attica prison. Had a kundalini experience while in solitary confinement, practiced native spiritual dance, and replied to me that ''yes'' there is an afterlife but elites like Cheney and comp think there isn't one so they want to hog as much as possible when they're here on earth. Something of that sort is what I recall.
I also vividly recall what my friend who spent 10 yrs in the Franciscan order said. "Michael, the Bible is a question book." I also learned a lot from a person he had me look up named Matthew Fox, an ex-communicated monk who was much on the same page as my friend, the ex-Franciscan. Fox's openness to things panpsychism is gaining some steam in academia. Fox and Rupert Sheldrake have done some work together. Interestingly, both of them get attacked by people like Shermer but the two former have been quiet on things like STATE CRIMES AGAINST DEMOCRACY (SCAD), 9/11, COVID, JFK, etc...
But I have a hunch that Dr. E. Michael Jones might have a problem with the Christian perspective from Fox, Rupert, and my friend. Would love to hear a dialogie between Fox /Rupert and Jones.
I agree Kevin. The authors imply that religion is some sort of an evolutionary toy or crutch rather than man’s quest to find a more profound connection with the eternal mystery of a godly universe.
RELIGIONS are created to help people endure the progressive enslavement that results from civilization. After indigenous cultures orsocieties are destroyed by invading armies, universal religions are used to bind together the various peoples left over into abody to serve the conquerors.
The Almighty hath said in a Quranic verse that He hath made a human intrinsically righteous and good (you only have to see a miketyson pic as a smiling angelic toddler to believe that!) . Religion does help to bolster a humans intrinsic goodness/morality/etc and avert going astray firmly sticking to the Sirat-el-Mustaqim. But if an Adam, Dick or Harriete goes on to take a bite of the myriad apples proferred by a pure evil rabbi dildo, to end up going astray, (any) religion does offer a way back to the straight and narrow path, the Sirat-el-Mustaqim. Without religion and repentence only a further decline into the morass.
The natural way to separate the wheat from the chaff
"What is the role of religion in human survival?"
In my view it's not about human survival but human control. As an agnostic I am always again suprised what bs people believe. The best example for me is that God's chosen psychopaths should rule over the whole world. How stupid do you have to be to believe such a blatant lie?
"God's chosen psychopaths" used to be His Chosen People but then were rejected by God when they rejected their true Messiah, Jesus, handing Him over to the Romans to be tortured & crucified. Since then they have become "enemies of God & of the human race." (1 Thessalonians 2:15)