Unscientific Generalities on the Etiology of Religion

 I am very cool on archetypes of collective subconsciousness such as Jung developed as a theory. The concept of projections is equally dubious today. As applied to God it conflates history at a massive scale positing a common cause for events and ideas that are mostly lost from history. One tribe may have had a different reason for beginning an idea than another. In the case of Abraham, that wasn't a collective experience. It was an individual, personal encounter. David Rosenberg wrote a biography for Abraham that is a very interesting read.

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/502016.Abraham

The Tower was one of Jung’s archetypes as well as a novel by Stephen King. People today ought to be able to sort out their ideas about reality and know what they think about particular aspects of it. There is a tendency toward postulating a common explanation without much basis for a panoply of events that are selected and lumped together. Conscious ideas about reality differ from those of the subconscious and tend to arise from experience and education.  There is a field of study called the history of ideas. Generally they require pretty good support for the origin of ideas in order not to be myths themselves.

Consider the Japanese Shinto religion for example. Where did the idea of Tori-spirit gates arise? I don’t know. Here is a good mythical account though that differs from some sort of common human projection…

A warlord made an heroic last stand in the gate of a wooden fortress on fire. His clan saw his dedication to defeating the overwhelming power of the enemy, yet at last, overcome by wounds he fell to his knees and was then beheaded. His forces were being driven back at the sight of their fallen leader. Just then a great eagle descended from the sky amidst the battle landing atop the gate and the warriors of the fallen hero knew the spirit of the warlord had returned. They rallied and drove back the enemy to the sea. Thereafter the spirit gate was recognized as a place where the spirits of the dead returned to help those still living in the world.

Pagan religion may have each had a different origin. In some cases kings simply declared themselves to be a god. Jews, Christians and Muslims share a common origin of their faith through Abraham and successors that wasn’t a projection of consciousness comparable to the origin of polytheists and numerous other belief systems. It is easy to construct a generality as an explanation for the unknown, yet unscientific.

The Universe Isn't Made of Algorithms

Algorithms occur in an incomplete paradigm where a sum or answer is wanted. Much of the Universe may be in a Algorithms are structures; structures used to process information or data points presented within someone’s lexicon universe. Like D9 caterpillars AI can push a lot of stuff. Is the Universe made of algorithms? No. 

Algorithms exists in the universe though, in some way.
I like the new structure associahedrons used for calculating particle interaction. Quantum entanglement that occurs possibly even at billions of light years distance isn’t likely to perform algorithms, unless a designer made it so, instead there should a direct relationship. rather than a calculating continuum although change seems perpetual from a human perspective.

There are responsive structures in the Universe at some scale greater than the four dimensions of space-time. I don’t believe that is machine learning or deep learning or neural network algorithmic structures.
https://youtu.be/UhG56kltfP4?feature=shared

Fate or Joss

I tend to think of fate as joss. That is whatever occurs happens. My regard is to consider it a post hoc description of what happened.

The Chinese derived joss from a Portuguese term for God. In the Chinese culture it can mean fate or luck.

So I regard fate as a kind of gestalt or complete complex of compresence. A scene such as that in 1812 where Napoleon views a corpse resplendent in an officers uniform on a battlefield and declares “voila, a splendid death!”. That is joss or fate.

Yet as a Christian I believe God has an intention for the world. Details are beyond my pay grade.

Pragmatist Truth Parameters

A Pragmatist Truth paradigm seems to be somewhat of a verficationist paradigm. Socrates said that true belief and knowledge are equivalent. Truth values are found with verification and usefulness of something asserted as fact. That is not the same as saying that such a thing as truth-in-itself exists as a realist entity. Instead it is a neo-realist description.

If one says that AX is Z, and then tests the proposition finding that AX necessitates Z commutatively, and Z works in algorithms just like AX then it is true to say that AX and Z are equivalent.
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Nature Gets Rid of "Things That Do Not Work"?

Nihilism only takes the broken and 'non-working'? Things that exist necessarily work, even corruption? Forever evolving is a natural selection removing just things that don't work from existence? Plate tectonics is getting rid of the Pacific Ocean because it doesn't work and expanding the Atlantic because it does?

The Twin Towers didn't work so nature removed them? Cities destroyed in war didn't work? Peace doesn't work so wars end the terrible decay. Planets shattered by asteroid collisions didn't work, and stars that blast as supernovas just cleanse a galactic parsec of things that don't work? At least Pacific Palisades homes burned in the wildfires were known not to have worked? 

Destruction is recognized by some as creative cleansing. At Auschwitz the gas chambers were for those that did not work as well? German guards walked in under the sign that said 'Work makes you free'. They saw improvement in destroying things that do not work as if they were abortionists ridding the world of fetuses that do not work.

So many things exist and change form, like mountains that became beach sand. Every change and process of being is part of a continuum. Humans alone can choose to work against entropy and for a time prevent destruction. 'Do not go gently into that good night  Rage against the dying of the light' (Dylan Thomas).

Replying to 'Why are White People Great at Everything?'

Shouldn't one start with a rectification of names? Confucius did; so; therefore ask what are white people and what is the everything they are supposed to be great at. I shall stipulate that the timing of the OP is importunate. Trying to use greatness with white people as a middle term for racism is harmful to Trump politics. The appearance of racism simply impedes good political works Trump might be able to do. Those policies are primarily not racist.

Modern economies have specialized occupational roles. No one is good at everything. Commercial aircraft pilots usually aren’t great dentists for example. Some people are good at a few occupations though usually not at one time. For those that aren’t white and are envious it may be the ownership of material goods and the things associated with homes, autos and devices that seem to be what the white people are ‘great’ at. Keep in mind that the IQ of the average white American is only about 100, so it doesn’t take rocket science to own average things in the USA; in fact it’s better to be average than to be great at something like philosophy or poetry with a higher IQ if one is seeking material satisfaction in life.

Black Americans have a lower average IQ than white and that isn’t surprising considering their history of intellectual repression and exclusion until modern times. A culture of social exclusion is hard on individuals concerned generally with simple survival in a hostile social environment. That exclusion long-term lowers IQ. Even a bad diet can lower performance on IQ tests. It is difficult to build a culture up intellectually. That tends to occur yet it is a long term advance.

Black Americans have a higher IQ than some sub-Saharan Africans. The life expectancy of some of that group is far less than much of the world’s. Poverty tends to lower IQ scores because diet and environment don’t support brain health. Most blacks haven’t had the positive early childhood environment supporting intellectual development that many white people have had.

Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused. Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused. Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.

China had fantastic inventiveness thousands of years ago. It’s development was retarded by imperialism until the 20th century. Capitalism allows better quantitative opportunities for invention with the profit motive. Now that China has a mixed economy. It performs better than it did with a state dominated form of socialism.

One need find the difficulty of a task as an occupation and determine what sort of IQ is needed to perform a task and if it falls within the basic bell curve distribution of a race. Actually cold weather drove some invention while others inventions like metallurgy invented in the Middle East travelled north.

One can consider cultural advantages and tool kits at any point in history and find that some lead others for a time then even disappear. What of the glory of ancient Rome or the strong walls of Constantinople?

Because Europe was challenged by invasions for thousands of years technology advanced there quicker than in places less challenged.

Toynbee pointed out that easy living regions of Greece did not advance as fast as some places that were given more, yet not too great of challenges. China is advancing very rapidly. Economists have found that mature economies stabilize at a growth rate of perhaps 2 or 3% while developing economics have a much faster growth rate until they equalize with the nations with mature economies.

There is additionally the criterion of values. Were the values of Diogenes the Cynic more like those of Bill Gates or Lao Tzu. Cultural values can be followed by minions until the over participation destroys the health of an environment. Hundreds of millions may surge over the edge like lemmings with great skill; is that really a value to be admired?

I would really hate to live in a jungle in a primitive condition being ate by mosquitoes. Overcoming some of those challenges required biology at a level barely reached today- not a thousand years ago.

Europe had fewer tropical diseases than more southerly regions and that matters even now What sort of fire ant problem exists for campers in Europe in comparison to South Florida?

Africa is advancing almost too quickly now. Nigeria alone has, I believe, 85,000 PHds. There are modern looking cities all over the continent and the ecosphere is in decay and receives toxic waste from Europe.

There is only a human race now and individuals differ more in ability than traditional races.

Meaning of Exist, Real and Absolute Philosophically Speaking

 Was it Kierkegaard who hated the use of the word 'absolute'? That word is derived from absolve that means to free from blame. Most people don't use it that way. He didn't like Hegel's work much and Hegel used the word quite a bit. It doesn't add any meaning to anything really. Absolute is used as a sort of super adjective. For instance in Hegel's 'Realms of Absolute Spirit' (if I recall correctly that book is a kind of abbreviation of the Phenomenology of Mind). It is one of the more over-used words in philosophy, or was. Exist does stand apart. It means one is talking about the condition of being itself. Exist is a basic philosophical word; one of reflection on being. Real is a comparable term although perhaps a lesser one. It seems to mean that something does exist.

Free Will in Relation to Consciousness and Subconsciousness

Will is contingent upon consciousness. If one has consciousness one may choose to act or not. Some say conscious decisions to act are not made by consciousness, instead they believe conditioning subconsciously determines conscious decisions.

The will exists in the sub conscious and it is free. Otherwise there would be a lower level, more primary set of instructions controlling the sub conscious and a superfluous deceived consciousness.

Consciousness exists supported by the subconscious. It is not possible for human consciousness to keep all of their experience, memories, judgments and history active in conscious thoughts. Instead there is an innate middle ground of intellect that retrieves data from the subconscious in accord with conscious thought and the lesser intelligent yet active and closer related to emotion will.

Will exist as a modified reflection of conscious thought that needn’t be mentally, internally expressed in order to be present and act. It can retrieve subconscious information for consciousness and may also join with conscious thought and be directed by it. An aware mind freely chooses to act. Thought is in harmony with the will and subconscious usually, yet on some occasions they may not. An example may be a conscious choice to act peacefully while the will is to punch an offender as memory informs the mind of dire consequences of taking the latter course

I have heard a song or thought of something I can’t recall like the title of that song, and directed my subconscious to find it. Some time later the right idea appears in my conscious thought.

A human mind is a continuum of conscious, will and sub-consciousness that each have intelligence. Will and subconscious work for the conscious mind. It is a trinity that works.

https://www.udio.com/songs/u9qu6CYDEWTyZih3sjGd1P

Humans May Have Evolved From Rats; Adam and Eve Were Spliced In

 Humans May Have Evolved From Rats Named Purgatoriuos 65 Million Years BC

I had a concentration in history in college and learned a lot from the past. I wouldn’t suggest people can’t learn from the past- 

Agriculture developed when hunting and gathering couldn’t sustain concentrated populations in towns. The transition period was 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Hunter-gathering was the way of economics before that going back to when people started eating meat as the human line may have evolved from rodents circa 65 million years BC (Adam and Eve were spliced in to an existing human line).

https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/our-earliest-primate-ancestors-rapidly-spread-after-dinosaur-extinction

When people sustained with agriculture could sustain civil organizations with rulers organized wars began. Raiders had something established to attack and civil wars could occur as well for regime change. Organized wars started during the late Neolithic Age too.

https://www.history.com/news/when-did-humans-start-waging-wars

An excavation of Cohokia in St. Louis showed that the preceding ruling dynasty members were ceremonially killed when a new ruling family took over. So it’s an American tradition too.

Metaphysics; What It Is

Metaphysics is an activity. It can use many kinds of tools. It is bigger and smaller, simultaneously, than a bread box while being for-itself.

Free Will; A Binary Question

To be or not to be; that is an example of a binary absolute.In logic and programming there are disjuncts. A logic gate tests for a condition to be on or off. Schrodinger’s cat could live in a state compatible with life and death simultaneously, in theory, until collapse of the wave-function, however that super-position status doesn’t work for all mortal philosophical questions. Either/Or, Neither,/Nor are disjuncts of a sort. One shouldn’t expect philosophy to invariably provide weak, vague, uncertain answers and represent them as Truth because political correctness suggests that constructing ideas that will appeal somewhat to everyone returns the most demographic support.

Free will seems to be a question that cannot support affirmative and negative conditions on the same level, or on all possible dimensions.

It is also the case that people want to defend what they believe and sometimes strongly when they don’t realize they are wrong and are duty bound by themselves to defend their wrong, godless atheist opinions.

Marxism; Good Revolution Organizer for a Bad Economic System

Marxism is a practical idea for organizing revolutionaries that are from underdeveloped countries with concentrated wealth. The masses are led to class consciousness as oppressed, exploited people and brought to revolution with the belief they will share equally the wealth of the ruling class when they are deposed. That idea of upward mobility supports the revolutionary esprit. With victory the economic revolution following becomes a challenge to make productive. Alec Nove wrote a book named ‘An Economic History of the Soviet Union’ decades ago that examines some of the problems for Lenin and Stalin.

Marx had good sociological understanding of wealth in England that was his model. He had poor development of post-revolutionary economic models that would work. That sort of economic theory development has always been troublesome. China for instance is a work in progress that has used much of the economic structure of the West retrofitted onto Maoist socialism.

Sports as War Training and Gambling are Still Socially Ubiquitous

Gambling seems to be taking over sports. Betting on events on-line at a profusion of new sites is all over the internet People need on-line electronic gambling machines from international sites. Competition is part of the human condition from wars to martial arts. If WW 3 occurs soon because of competition to own Ukraine and for economic hegemony over the world, that’s because competition is more highly regarded than pragmatism, realism and cooperation.

Sports were developed as training for war. Competition among men to see who could throw a rock or spear farther, and the prestige of skill in hunting and self defense were important to tribes. Warrior and hunter were the original male occupations globally.

I had a concentration in history in college and learned a lot from the past. I wouldn't suggest people can't learn from the past- that's silly.

Agriculture developed when hunting and gathering couldn't sustain concentrated populations in towns. The transition period was 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Hunter-gathering was the way of economics before that going back to when people started eating meat as the human line may have evolved from rodents circa 65 million years BC (Adam and Eve were spliced in to an existing human line).

https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/.../our-earliest-primate...

When people sustained with agriculture could sustain civil organizations with rulers organized wars began. Raiders had something established to attack and civil wars could occur as well for regime change. Organized wars started during the late Neolithic Age too.

https://www.history.com/.../when-did-humans-start-waging...

An excavation of Cohokia in St. Louis showed that the preceding ruling dynasty members were ceremonially killed when a new ruling family took over. So it's an American tradition too.

V Frankl Thought People Seek Pleasure if Life Seems Meaningless

 Frankl was profoundly influenced by his time in. Nazi concentration camp. He developed theories about recovery and finding meaning afterward.

Those finding life meaningless may not be able to afford pleasure. Such people may feel that without pleasure, life is meaningless.

This prompts me to mention Huizinga, a ubiquitous citation reference in the field of education who was an historian regarded as a quintessential humanist. I don’t find Huizinga interesting or a meaningful philosopher as others have yet he did rather invent or popularize the notion that play is the creator of culture. It is understandable that teachers regarded Huizinga as the greatest scholar of the last 25 years of the 19th century. I thought Sartre and the Apostle Paul distant runner-ups to what Jesus said.

The death camps were unthinkably bad and existential crisis for sure. Europe has a great history of pathos and stupidity concerning conflict and with President Biden’s help is experiencing a Renaissance of pathos in the Ukraine War.

The meaninglessness of pathos may transform the USA, Europe, Russia and China into Ukraine s in the fires of the future. Pleasure is kinda expensive for many of the poor who need satisfy themselves for meaning with observation of the Democrats leading the charge to apocalypse or large waves of disaster scheduled tentatively for 2025.

Capitalism is More Natural Than Socialism

 Capitalism is probably more natural than socialism although economically challenged people are probably happy enough if either works reasonably well.

Thermodynamics for living beings compels the input of material for existing. Accumulating capital is natural. Food, shelter, clothing, defense weapons, tools etc- people built up as much as circumstances allowed. Socialism requires more cooperation than capitalism as well as sophisticated governance. That part often fails.

In primitive societies where things are shared and tools are simple even knives are given to another if they ask for it to prevent jealousy. With such a simple tool kit everything a tribe has is more or less interchangable and of the same quality.

More advanced forms of capitalism with low taxes on the rich can concentrate wealth and stifle competitive capital accumulation by the masses, and that poverty can nip inventiveness and progress in the bud unless the ideas trickle up to the rich.

Social governance implies management by uninventive bureaucrats leading to another form of mass social repression that fails to maximize social potential.

There real isn’t a substitute for good political sense that assures universal basic income for enabling initial capital, environmental economics sustainability, great human relations on international concerns and progressive taxation to let creative and productive entrepreneurs prosper yet not concentrate social capital so much that the political economy can’t evolve and adapt to emergent coefficients of adversity.

The Problem of Evil, Omnipotence and a Level Four Multiverse

 Dr. Degrasse Tyson was credited with saying that God can’t be omnipotent and let evil exist at the same time. There are numerous theological responses yet I like this one using physics.

If there is a level 4 multiverse individual minds switch to the appropriate universe with each decisive thought; without being aware. Minds switch between Universes in that Tegmark theory. All of the Universes already exists fully actualized. That is sentient minds follow their own free will world line.

God is good and without sin. If people are willing to have faith in The Son he can save them with the atoning sacrifice. Otherwise people forge their own path to eternity without God that evolutionly becomes hell.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson isn’t a theologian and doesn’t talk about the numerous varieties of cosmology enough. He could even provide a review of good new cosmology books for non- scientists with new theories each year so people would know what to buy.

Religious Historical Research is Millennia Old

 People have researched the origin of particular religions for more than 2000 years. That sort of scholarship isn’t anything new. It is wrong to conflate their separate histories for that does lead to the construction of neo-modern myths in replacement for sound scholarship.

The origin of Manichaenism differs from that of Zoroastrianism and Islam. Many haven’t even read a basic scholarly text like Berhof’s Introduction to The New Testament. I have a free summary to save the cost of buying that public domain book published in 1915.

https://www.lulu.com/shop/garrison-clifford-gibson/a-commentary-on-berkhofs-intro-to-the-new-testament/ebook/product-1qn8ydk5.html

One may read the history of Asian religions and the origin of Hinduism and Buddhism and the way it traveled Eastward as the Mahayana and Hinayana, proliferated and differentiated into Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Soka Gakkai and other forms

It is a mistake to conflate Taoism and Shintoism or Roman and Nordic paganism with several varieties of aboriginal American ideas of belief in a great spirit.

One may believe that Middle Eastern and fertile crescent religious practices and beliefs had a common origin yet they did not. Marduk, Enlil and the tale of Gilgamesh didn’t have the same origin as Osiris or middle African religious complexes.

It is important to differentiate and learn in depth and detail the several systems independently and with understanding so far as possible, as it is with numerous philosophical and cosmological systems rather than glossing over and making summary judgments that are dismissive or in some cases, affirmative. Good scholarship leads to deeper understanding and may reaffirm faith in the one true God or not as the case may be. A path to God is probably made by God for an individual if that is what the spirit wills.

One should have enough respect for scholarship and investment of life's work that has been invested in research, as well as oneself, to development a sober understanding of field studies.

Avatar Drones Casing New Jersey Joints?

 If you have ever taken a programming course you might learn of the criterion of writing specific instructions in algorithms to accomplish particular tasks. There are test conditions, loops, etc that can be used to send a robot named X to go somewhere, do something and return. That sort of program would be on the very low end of programming algorithms today. Especially if compared to AI. One will need to get new software for home burglar alarms down the road to guard against sophisticated robot thieves with programming to pick locks, bypass alarms and accomplish particular criminal tasks. Maybe avatar drones are casing the joint of New Jersey for future adverse missions.

Quantum Entanglement and Consciousness

 The hypothetical unified field includes space-time. It may all be one kind of thing at T=0.

Energy is defined as the ability to do work rather than a substance. Work coheres in space-time. The prospect of a wave function at singularity is something to consider as if it could be bound to T=0 null space-time.

I tend to believe consciousness is a definite locality encountering experience, at least for human beings. Space-time is experienced as a locality. There isn’t a universal time as I understand it. Time is bound with space locality and change of an observer from point a to b. If it is considered as a substance that seems more logical. There is much to think about in regard to space-time.

There may be a continuing primary field from the singularity hosting the basic fields and space-time that remains in existence. That might help explain inflation and gravity.

I tend to like the idea of quantum entanglement with consciousness since 3D matter is enabled by massless particles entangled on the Higgs Field.

Kingdom of God and The Realm of Forms

 The realm of forms was an idea held by some philosophers of The Academy yet not ordinary people. I don’t believe Socrates believed in a trans-migration there, although he believed in God. Instead it was an inference of logic. Plato may have regarded humanity generally as living like prisoners chained to the cave floor while alive on Earth. The realm of forms wasn’t heaven.

For early Christians the kingdom of heaven is with Jesus Christ and God in a real place unlike the realm of forms. That place is more like an expression of the power of God to create anything as the author of reality, than a warehouse of forms or prime patent designs for everything that exists.