As men grow in their spiritual thirst and understanding, religious institutions which exploit fear of the unknown continue to crumble, along with the dark empire they serve to occult
Jul 1, 2023·edited Jul 1, 2023Liked by Ethical Skeptic ☀
I don't have a problem with the possibility Jesus was real, or there is a God, or a soul.. but while I don't hate The Bible, I have a very radical opinion in that I think The Bible was partly propaganda from bad ET's. And I think it's highly likely we've had ET's of different moral levels involved in human history and the bad ET's involved are the primary reason for this prevalence of blame and fear in our popular religions. Maybe moreso reptilians because most of the claims I've seen about the involvement of greys with humans are bad but not religious. I'm willing to look like a nutjob on this topic, at least online, because even though it's perpetually surreal to me, it's the greatest likelihood around the topic I see right now.
Boom, I finally got around to reading this. I marked the Email because it looked interesting, and I am very glad now that I have read it. Thanks. It fits with Gurdjieff, Vernon Howard's New Life Foundation, the idea of the False self and neither of these are too heavy on condemning us for our sins, but more focused on Teaching to see, learn, comprehend, and grow our souls, grow our Spirituality. This blog posting is kind of an affirmation for me, that this is a correct path to pursue. I want to learn and know Truth, and that can be scary to go through, but quite likely a necessary journey - so that we may recognize and escape this captivity. I suppose it is quite a bit on an individual level, but we may learn something about the notion of a Tipping Point and I would hope maybe even a True Great Awakening!
It seems to me that you discount the most populous current faith systems due to their conflict with some of the ancient documents that precede them. Meanwhile, I could not discern any support for the veracity of those ancient writings other than their temporal position in relation to those faith systems which they contradict. It almost appears that you are not holding ALL of them to the same standard of "to the victor goes the writing of history".
Why would those older writings necessarily hit closer to the mark of Truth than more recent ones? Especially given that written communications were preceded by the oral tradition, at least as prone to evolutionary story telling. While I freely admit that current science does not have an entirely accurate model for the reality of our universe (and I have severe doubts that it ever can), I do believe we get closer to understanding its workings as our knowledge develops over time. Perhaps I'm just experiencing recency bias. Anyway, it seems that science is being overtaken by "THE SCIENCE" these days, which is to say that it appears more like dogma. Real science starts with "I don't know, but I'm trying to figure it out and this is currently my best guess".
All that said, I have a deep faith in God and the salvation offered by Jesus, my savior. I also have a great deal of trouble finding a congregation where I feel at home, but that may be just me being an introvert. Either way, I have a great distrust of pretty much all human organizations and the inevitable political/bureaucratic nature that inevitably corrupts them.
Wow! This is the first of your writings I am reading since signing up😳. I nearly cancelled immediately but I came because others have spoken so well about your site, so I will stay and read some more before judging.
I loved the depth of this - thank you for the great article. Interesting topic in general...
Years ago I purchased a book called: 'The Holy Bible from the ancient Eastern text : George M. Lamsa's translations from the Aramaic of the Peshitta'. It opened new perspectives to many things for me as it is likely that in that case less is lost in translation. Lords prayer in that version is just amazing.
I was a so-called Christian until the death of my son. I walked away because I no longer believed in the god of my youth. In the last 3-years, I have been “praying” to a god which I do not understand, but hope that is able to save us; although, oftentimes, I don’t even believe we deserve to be saved.
I encourage you to learn to read the Hebrew and Greek scriptures in light of what they actually say and not what people want them to say. Also, read them in light of the ancient cosmologies and cultural contexts in which they were written. I highly recommend the Bibleproject.com
Scripture is definitely written for us but not TO us.
May you come to know the love of the Messiah and the richness of His presence.
Have you ever spent time with Christians, in worship, Bible study? Don’t know if you’re ever around Louisville, but would invite you to church. Not sure what it is that we can’t know or talk about that defines us? We certainly talk about being captives, to the power of sin, and being set free by Christ. Not much talk about hell/damnation, a lot about having life to the full, following the two great commands: love the Lord your God, and your neighbor. Had a thought experiment once, imagined dying and being able to see that there was nothing before my consciousness extinguished. In that moment I would still testify that Jesus had been my Lord and Savior. I have humility, peace, love, freedom in my life that I never knew before Jesus. He takes away my guilt and shame. Praying for you sir, that you too would know the risen Christ!
There are many frames to look at religion and you have presented yours very well. May I suggest comparing religion to child abuse misses several important details.
I just want to point one out. To start I understand how born into original sin is conflated into blame. Sin at its core is self centred selfishness raised above the highest good, God. We are born into original sin, which means we became self conscious and needed to be selfish to survive this world. The most primitive basic instinct and the paradox of the human condition. Then there is the fact that selfishness does not scale up without creating hell on earth. Selfish competition divides humanity, a mindless display of how powerful we are, a destructive force to others and to ourselves. To survive together selfishness needs to be reined in. We cannot fully escape selfishness as it is a survival and well being mechanism as long as we control it with spiritual guidance. We need to evolve past the instinct of mindless selfishness to prosper as social beings. Religions of the world have always struggled to guide us away from sin because they to have given in to temptation and lost the meaning and essence of sin.
Fascinating. Reading the OT, one often finds bits that appear to point to a very different realm - Methuselah, Book of Tobit, Book of Job, Jonah. Other parts of the OT are painful reading - historical chronicles with their ceaseless wars. To integrate this material into a whole is already a challenge. When adding Gnostic materials, the challenge of integration gets muuuch more difficult.
If the Gnostic perspective is valid and useful, I would expect that it will be found within the standard Bible, even despite attempts to remove its influence. Tobit, Job, Jonah feel Gnostic to me.
Having experienced Italian-Brazilian Catholicism, and spirituality in Brazil in general, with its blend of spiritualism, candomble etc I would say that the shame/blame-style Christianity is often overtaken by a vast and peaceful approach, which is yet still Christian.
I wonder about Timbuktu, and how much of the Alexandrian materials might still be there.
We have only to look at our own society today to see that human nature itself when deprived of the goodness of what the Bible describes as the Holy Spirit is capable of. The message Jesus left us is so simple and pure yet applying it so difficult for so many. I can only pray that Jesus' spirit will change your perspective.
The Bible contains no errors. Science has not proven one thing in it mistaken. You’re a modernist.
I don't have a problem with the possibility Jesus was real, or there is a God, or a soul.. but while I don't hate The Bible, I have a very radical opinion in that I think The Bible was partly propaganda from bad ET's. And I think it's highly likely we've had ET's of different moral levels involved in human history and the bad ET's involved are the primary reason for this prevalence of blame and fear in our popular religions. Maybe moreso reptilians because most of the claims I've seen about the involvement of greys with humans are bad but not religious. I'm willing to look like a nutjob on this topic, at least online, because even though it's perpetually surreal to me, it's the greatest likelihood around the topic I see right now.
Boom, I finally got around to reading this. I marked the Email because it looked interesting, and I am very glad now that I have read it. Thanks. It fits with Gurdjieff, Vernon Howard's New Life Foundation, the idea of the False self and neither of these are too heavy on condemning us for our sins, but more focused on Teaching to see, learn, comprehend, and grow our souls, grow our Spirituality. This blog posting is kind of an affirmation for me, that this is a correct path to pursue. I want to learn and know Truth, and that can be scary to go through, but quite likely a necessary journey - so that we may recognize and escape this captivity. I suppose it is quite a bit on an individual level, but we may learn something about the notion of a Tipping Point and I would hope maybe even a True Great Awakening!
It seems to me that you discount the most populous current faith systems due to their conflict with some of the ancient documents that precede them. Meanwhile, I could not discern any support for the veracity of those ancient writings other than their temporal position in relation to those faith systems which they contradict. It almost appears that you are not holding ALL of them to the same standard of "to the victor goes the writing of history".
Why would those older writings necessarily hit closer to the mark of Truth than more recent ones? Especially given that written communications were preceded by the oral tradition, at least as prone to evolutionary story telling. While I freely admit that current science does not have an entirely accurate model for the reality of our universe (and I have severe doubts that it ever can), I do believe we get closer to understanding its workings as our knowledge develops over time. Perhaps I'm just experiencing recency bias. Anyway, it seems that science is being overtaken by "THE SCIENCE" these days, which is to say that it appears more like dogma. Real science starts with "I don't know, but I'm trying to figure it out and this is currently my best guess".
All that said, I have a deep faith in God and the salvation offered by Jesus, my savior. I also have a great deal of trouble finding a congregation where I feel at home, but that may be just me being an introvert. Either way, I have a great distrust of pretty much all human organizations and the inevitable political/bureaucratic nature that inevitably corrupts them.
Wow! This is the first of your writings I am reading since signing up😳. I nearly cancelled immediately but I came because others have spoken so well about your site, so I will stay and read some more before judging.
But imagine my shock as I am a cradle Catholic 😆
I loved the depth of this - thank you for the great article. Interesting topic in general...
Years ago I purchased a book called: 'The Holy Bible from the ancient Eastern text : George M. Lamsa's translations from the Aramaic of the Peshitta'. It opened new perspectives to many things for me as it is likely that in that case less is lost in translation. Lords prayer in that version is just amazing.
I was a so-called Christian until the death of my son. I walked away because I no longer believed in the god of my youth. In the last 3-years, I have been “praying” to a god which I do not understand, but hope that is able to save us; although, oftentimes, I don’t even believe we deserve to be saved.
I always enjoy your writings. This is certainly an elaborate straw man you've constructed yourself.
I encourage you to learn to read the Hebrew and Greek scriptures in light of what they actually say and not what people want them to say. Also, read them in light of the ancient cosmologies and cultural contexts in which they were written. I highly recommend the Bibleproject.com
Scripture is definitely written for us but not TO us.
May you come to know the love of the Messiah and the richness of His presence.
Thank you for all that you do
Have you ever spent time with Christians, in worship, Bible study? Don’t know if you’re ever around Louisville, but would invite you to church. Not sure what it is that we can’t know or talk about that defines us? We certainly talk about being captives, to the power of sin, and being set free by Christ. Not much talk about hell/damnation, a lot about having life to the full, following the two great commands: love the Lord your God, and your neighbor. Had a thought experiment once, imagined dying and being able to see that there was nothing before my consciousness extinguished. In that moment I would still testify that Jesus had been my Lord and Savior. I have humility, peace, love, freedom in my life that I never knew before Jesus. He takes away my guilt and shame. Praying for you sir, that you too would know the risen Christ!
So gnosticism?
There are many frames to look at religion and you have presented yours very well. May I suggest comparing religion to child abuse misses several important details.
I just want to point one out. To start I understand how born into original sin is conflated into blame. Sin at its core is self centred selfishness raised above the highest good, God. We are born into original sin, which means we became self conscious and needed to be selfish to survive this world. The most primitive basic instinct and the paradox of the human condition. Then there is the fact that selfishness does not scale up without creating hell on earth. Selfish competition divides humanity, a mindless display of how powerful we are, a destructive force to others and to ourselves. To survive together selfishness needs to be reined in. We cannot fully escape selfishness as it is a survival and well being mechanism as long as we control it with spiritual guidance. We need to evolve past the instinct of mindless selfishness to prosper as social beings. Religions of the world have always struggled to guide us away from sin because they to have given in to temptation and lost the meaning and essence of sin.
Very impressed with usage of the term hylic. That is all
Fascinating. Reading the OT, one often finds bits that appear to point to a very different realm - Methuselah, Book of Tobit, Book of Job, Jonah. Other parts of the OT are painful reading - historical chronicles with their ceaseless wars. To integrate this material into a whole is already a challenge. When adding Gnostic materials, the challenge of integration gets muuuch more difficult.
If the Gnostic perspective is valid and useful, I would expect that it will be found within the standard Bible, even despite attempts to remove its influence. Tobit, Job, Jonah feel Gnostic to me.
Having experienced Italian-Brazilian Catholicism, and spirituality in Brazil in general, with its blend of spiritualism, candomble etc I would say that the shame/blame-style Christianity is often overtaken by a vast and peaceful approach, which is yet still Christian.
I wonder about Timbuktu, and how much of the Alexandrian materials might still be there.
We have only to look at our own society today to see that human nature itself when deprived of the goodness of what the Bible describes as the Holy Spirit is capable of. The message Jesus left us is so simple and pure yet applying it so difficult for so many. I can only pray that Jesus' spirit will change your perspective.
Came to the comments expecting hackles to be raised, was not disappointed.
Thought-provoking post regardless of personal beliefs, thank you.