Most People Miss The Forrest Through the Trees

If you’re not a believer in literal interpretations of ancient teachings, you’re not very popular. If you appreciate the value of the teachings without succumbing to euphoric indoctrination or pure antagonism, you’re even less popular. Striking a balance where you don’t buy into the general belief in the supernatural, yet understand and appreciate how such beliefs have guided civilization in a generally good direction…that’s my loneliest road.

There’s a punchline.

It’s striking how few people are willing to be Mavericks in this regard. Very few indeed. But here I am. Ironically, the ones I want to speak to the most are also the ones I tend to disrespect and insult: the true believers. And that’s for one reason only—they’re true believers because they are lovers, not haters. They love the good because it is good. Yes, they dress it up in all this religion, God talk, and Jesus talk, but at the essential root, they are lovers at heart.

On the other side, we have the haters. Hate is always rooted in two things: laziness and dishonesty. Lovers are workers. Lovers are solvers. For haters, everything is a problem that impinges upon them and someone needs to sacrifice something for them. Lovers make the world go round. Haters slow it down. Haters are parasites.

In current media parlance, it’s 1984: love is hate and hate is love. That’s a mind worm for you most astute of the astute to unpack. I digress.

But why is the Holy Bible such a great book? Has the Roman Catholic Church done a lot of evil? Sure. But if you look at it objectively and widely integrated, nothing has been a greater force for the advancement of human civilization than the Roman Catholic Church. I believe it’s difficult to argue otherwise. There have been many other movements. Judaism is okay, but it’s kind of a rabbit hole—very ancient, very static. Jews do very well because they set aside literalism a long time ago. They have their laws grounded in reality, their traditions, and their appreciation, but otherwise, they live human lives.

Christians and Muslims, much younger religions, are still evangelistic. Some versions of Christianity and Islam come from a standpoint of, “Oh, you have to believe like I do, or fuck you, you’re going to hell. I might even have to kill you infidel.” It’s a juvenile way to approach things. It’s essentially why a Jew can outcompete a Christian or Muslim so easily, and the expanse of disproportionate scientific, technological, and other achievements by Jews over the last few hundred years bear witness to some kinda better way of thinking.

All three are Abrahamic religions with that common root, separated by over 2,000 years of time.

But that really doesn’t get to my point. My point is that the Bible is very valuable. It’s not about literalism. Even if some of the stuff there is representative of historical fact, that misses the point.

It’s a book of moral lessons. The Bible, particularly the Christian version with its Old Testament and New Testament, is a fascinating package of the law and the new dispensation in the New Testament. It’s a book of moral lessons.

So, I have a video here to show you. I’m speaking to you in the first four minutes, and then there’s a compilation to watch. I’ll offer up some more observations after.

The problem with the ideas that got us here is that a sense of charity, forgiveness, and redemption may have gone too far. On a personal note, I have what I consider a metaphysical default: I can’t hold a grudge. Sometimes, I watch TV and film and secretly admire dramatizations where someone refuses to forgive or forget. They hold someone’s wrongdoing against them without mercy or quarter. Because I’ve never been able to do that, I suppose you could say I’ve been too weak. But I can see the value in it sometimes. When someone breaches normalcy too much, they shouldn’t be able to come back.

In the end, though, I’m a sucker for redemption. This goes back to the Bible, which is a great book principally because it’s a book of redemption. Forget all the stuff about God, Jesus dying for our sins, accepting Jesus Christ, and so on. At its root, the Bible is about fundamental norms, laws, behaviors, and how things ought to be among human beings. It describes many instances where people don’t live up to those standards—sin or whatever you want to call it.

It wouldn’t be a great book if it just left everyone hanging. The story of redemption is key. It’s about asking, “You fucked up. Now, how do you fix it?” That’s what’s so great about it. I’m being objective here. I’m not taking it literally, but there’s no greater collection of works ever produced by humans. However, people have spun it to give it authority over us, with commandments and all that nonsense. Essentially, the Bible is a human creation—a mishmash of ideas about how people can live, how they err, how they can make things right again, and keep on for the betterment of themselves, their families, and their communities.

That’s my wide perspective. It’s part of my mission in life to help others access the power of it like I do. Don’t go down rabbit holes, narrow yourself into teachings, doctrines, literalism, and pointless fights. Just look at how great it is.

Ironically enough, I’m in-part a student of The Bible. Tennessee Temple University. A fundamentalist, born-again, evangelical bible-believin’ college during the heyday of moral majorities in America, the late 1970s and early 80s.

They almost kicked me out because I got caught drinking a beer, which was funny because it meant they din’t know about so many other sins right under their noses. But I never held it against them and have never once said it was an overall bad experience. Quite to the contrary. All things work together for good. Do Christians believe that as much as this “atheist” does?

It could be said that it was my greatest education because I was a young man, and it was critical that I understood that what they did to me, like a dumb parent, was out of “love and ignorance,” and not “hate and malevolence.”

… But in the end, they demand conformity to authority, and this is the point at which all religions cease to be useful and become an anchor against your inbred agency and autonomy.

They harp that you have free will. But they do that only so that “sin” is logical. Without free will, there can be no sin. Don’t you see how that game is rigged?

You can. And you can turn the tables. You can mock all that, but still use them for your moral lessons.

I like his guy and he speaks “the word of God:”

[Video taken down. He’s a normal Ozzie dude in a car. Speaking presciently from his heart. He knows and understands that violence of the good against the bad is imperative at this point. He’s correct. That doesn’t stop or preclude the violence that’s coming, and even “Elon & Co” are fucktards in this way (though I understand Elon can only do so much so fast). Either indiscriminate killing or economic collapse and soup lines…or both… mark my words.]

… So let’s go to the righteousness of The Holy Bible itself, right in its place. I asked Chatbot Zon to compile a little list for me.

Many things are crashing down on what’s good and moral. By moral, I mean what’s objectively beneficial for people versus what’s detrimental. I’m not referring to your religious precepts or their tenets. I’m talking about base morality: what’s good for people versus what’s bad for people. Are you smart enough to understand the distinction, or just indoctrinated?

What I mean is that push has and is coming to shove, and it should be no surprise and next steps will inviolably involve indiscriminate bloodshed by the righteous upon the unrighteous, and who are they? It’s simple. The righteous are those looking out for what’s generally and objectively good for people and the unrighteous are out to take advantage of our propensity toward righteousness and get away with it over and over by grace of the righteous…until enough is enough and extermination is in order.

Let the exterminations begin.

As a final note, I’m going to share an amazing piece of video by the great Tucker Carlson. Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not a Tucker Carlson sycophant. I don’t watch most of what he produces. When he got fired from Fox News, I was riveted for a short time as he put together his own gig—good for him. Initially, his interviews with high-profile figures around the world caught my interest. But, by and large, I’m not interested in his day-to-day output designed to tell people what to do or what not to do, etc. Most people consume this stuff because they want someone to tell them what to do. Nobody pays me because I tell you not to listen to me. Do what you think you should do.

Nobody pays you to tell them to not listen to what to do. They only pay to be told what to do. Got it? Only the enlightened pay me.

Tucker isn’t as bad as others, and I wish him well. But I’m putting up a video where he hilariously takes it to the Australian media. If you think the first few minutes are good, stick around for the last two or three. You haven’t seen anything yet.