Sources of Inspiration

[PopeBeanie]

jakelafort wrote:

Another great Jewish contributor in history of thought. Tiny percentage of humans.

100%. I mentioned before, one of my best friends is an agnostic atheist rabbi in his 80s, and he’s still a community-serving dynamo every day. He inspires not by judging or preaching, but by listening and contributing to every conversation, and by walking the walk in his actions. I hope he and others in his “minority” group of friends and authors can keep feeling inspired, in spite of episodes of hell on Earth. To be honest, Jewish culture strikes me, in general, as the most objective and longest lasting spiritually positive cultural force we have today. Of course there are exceptions. And I’m using the word “spiritually” loosely, but hopefully inclusively, because it plays a significant role in people’s self-perception, and their perception/mal-perception of the world they live in.

I’m appreciative of our connections with animals, and I view natural evolution as key to why we are the way we are today. But I also say we’re preternaturally different from other animals because of how our brains enabled us to develop emergent cultural properties and dysfunctions that even Mother Nature, if she existed, couldn’t have predicted. We even sow seeds of our own destruction, increasingly lethal, not to mention to all life on Earth.

I erased two paragraphs that would have been here, alluding to more thoughts I’ve expressed many times before. Bottom line, I don’t see any way to improve our condition without developing widespread self-discovery and accurate knowledge of the world, in non-preachy, two-way conversations. Notwithstanding that many don’t feel that way, and often I don’t, either.

[_Robert_]

Pope, I agree with your take on Jewish culture. I know so many Jews who are atheists, yet they still practice many of the cultural attachments of the religion. Sometimes it is out of respect for the elders or family and sometimes just because they find it enjoyable. And here’s the thing…it’s no big deal if they don’t believe. The family still loves them.

Also, they will tell you that Christians have no understanding of the Old Testament. At all. And then by default, no understanding of their own New Testament because it is literally a rehash of the OT with a spin. There are 283 direct quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament. It has been estimated that over one-tenth of Jesus’ recorded New Testament words were taken from the Old Testament.

[unapologetic]

PopeBeanie wrote:

There’s a guy in Oklahoma who has set some specific requirements regarding how Christianity should be taught in the OK school system. … I’m imagining collecting here some kind of pushback

You want pushback? Here is how I’d teach the impact of the KJV on the founding of this country:
Massachuset was founded by puritans persecuted by the ‘church of England’.
Contrary to KJV
Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers. Also persecuted by the ‘church of England’.
Contrary to KJV
New York was founded by Duch capitalists.
No known tie to KJV
Luisiana followed Voo-doo, as far as I can tell.

Religion had a negative influence on the founding of this country.

When they banded together to form a union, They wisely concluded that a state religion was a bad idea. All religions needed to be respected to keep the peace.
This country was founded IN SPITE OF the KJV.

[PopeBeanie]

Women In Our Future

A high school kid, starting up two-way conversations, and counteracting misinformation. 22 minutes:

[PopeBeanie]

Here’s a different kind of inspiration, coming from a cult member of North Korea, who experienced freedom in America for the first time. I say “cult member”, which is true, but no one living in North Korea was ever given an option to be independent from the cult.

(For anyone angry at meat eaters, you might not want to watch this. I’m selfish, and enjoyed it, still losing weight on a Keto-like diet. All of my other numbers wrt health are much better than they were even ten years ago.)

16-1/4 minutes

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