Piaget´s Genetic Constructivism "Plus," Because Tribal Creation Myths Are Pretty God, uh, Good Philosophy

Antonio Calhau Tara Doe, Religion/tradition I have reasons to believe it is genetic, the way in which we interpret the existence of God, and how we interpret existence is genetic, and it falls in all the other laws of chemistry and physics. So... different people's different interpretations, and that can be an excuse for anything, love, war, peace, or law. Mark Rego Monteiro Antonio Calhau I might suggest understanding the genetics of human learning and adaptive culture. Thus, tool-making and symbolic language communication involved emotional and psychosocial interaction among people in clans or tribes, and in relation to their hunting and gathering. All human tribes discovered the basics of fine tool-making and clan living as they engaged in symbolic communication, as we see in all the people the United Nations brings together and University anthropology departments have studied. Their religious formulations normally identified a Creator-Creation scenario. In ancient Babylon, " In Enuma Elish, the babylonian god Marduk defeats the gods of old, inherited from neighboring cultures, including the divine couple making the world appear when they join." That´s already in agricultural settlement. More simply still from Africa, "In the beginning, all that existed were the water, land and sky, which was ruled by Olorun. Another god named Obatala went to Olorun to ask if he could create land for living things to exist. When he was granted permission, Olorun visited Orunmila, Olorun’s first son, to consult with him about his wish. In response, Orunmila told him that he must obtain a gold chain, a snail’s shell filled with sand, palm nuts, corn and a special egg that encompassed the essence of both the men and women orishas." And so, African tribespeople didn´t just create "mythic stories," they were philosophizing using concrete terms. The genetics of human learning mean that humans learn to use tools and symbolic language with other people and to describe and analyze the world. In psychology they identify cognition about objects, emotional affect in relations that influences awareness and emotional and social intelligence, and and spirituality, which combines those other skills in relation to the Universe´s Creator Entity function. Christian philosophy took Aristotle´s First Cause reasoning seriously when he hadn´t. Science has cleared up details of causes and effects, that relates to choices and consequences, that have created important distinctions for tool-use skills and emotional-social relating in Jesus´ legacy of loving integrity. Yet, that doesn´t negate key truths in tribal Creation myths that are justified in the Philosophy of Religion, aka metaphysics. Science has evidence suggesting that there was a Big Bang event. Science, the philosophy of knowledge tells us, is actually a form of philosophy. Just as Einstein imagined riding on a beam of light, we restore balance to our perspective by observing that scientific and empirical notions like "time" and "space," "matter-energy," are philosophical in nature. That means that as Einstein imagined riding on a beam of light and looked for the implications of that, our scientific philosophical arrival at the physical extreme beginning in the past at the Big Bang event means that "time" hadn´t begun. Things were "timeless," "spaceless," and "immaterial." How did anything happen under those conditions? We want to think it was a mechanism, like a watch or an engine. Yet, without "time," there is no "clockwork mechanism." Was it "random"? "Random" is a human egotistical perception in denial of unknown complexity. What else is there? Biology has perhaps followed the social sciences like psychology and can recognize "intention." From there, and our genetics of human learning, we can realize that as Jesus healed and referred to God and prayer, as in "seek first the Kingdom of Heaven," psychotherapists have identified healing in talk therapy since Freud and Jung. Meditation and prayer are practices that scientists have studied. It seems that shamans first noticed the benefits all the way to Jesus and to modern UN human rights like the Freedom of Religion, within human rights. Human rights that correspond to the standard of Jesus´ two loving Commandments, and the ability to experience love that evolved in some or many animals, especially mammals, and especially humans. As you point out, as physics and chemistry became biochemistry in biology with life, human intelligence can reflect what chimps have been found to do, murder neighboring chimps for the extra resources. That´s from biologist R Wrangham et al, and not common in mammals who aren´t say, insects like praying mantises. Piaget used an interesting term, "genetic constructivism." E D´Aquili et al used "Biogenetic structuralism." As for Systems Theory and great scholars like physicist Fritjof Capra, starting with physics, emergent properties needs to be taken into account to understand how new levels of operation take place in phenomena. For human knowledge, each new level of phenomena, from physics to chemistry to biology, for example, human knowledge needs to be empirical and conform to its new level of explanation. Thus, the Roman Empire worked at the level that included making Emperors gods, usually after they died starting with Julius Caesar. That´s a little confused, right there, but understandable from the materialistic point of view. Just as tribal cultures had the cognitive, emotional, and social skills to reason that there was an Act of Creation of what we call the physical Universe, we are able to recognize the unique context of Jesus Christ´s life, mission, and message, and his legacy of loving integrity in its emerging properties. It is superseding standard biological imperatives towards ignorance, greed, and hatred.

Nothing Overcomes That Biological Basis Like a "Creator Machine". Just Kidding, "Creator Entity"

Tara Doe Antonio Calhau I don't know if there's a God if there is a God we've already abused everything that I imagine God would stand for. We're leading to our own Extinction. Maybe we're an experiment. I still believe man wrote their own religious text to have control. · 1 · Reply · 12h Mark Rego Monteiro Tara Doe What I can suggest as a guy raised atheist humanist who perceived first the relevance of a non-objectified reference to the Universe is that I was encouraged by the terms "spiritual path" of Unitarian Universalism and scholar Huston Smith´s description of the Chinese Tao. Smith is an interfaith Christian, it turns out, and described the Tao as "a creative continuum that is always accessible." That worked for me as a start and for a while. There is a way to explain God as transcendental and transpersonal, but the basis of breaking the illusion of materialist appearances is meditative practice and prayer, and study. When you say people seek power in religious texts, who does that describe? The Anglican Church supported slavery, but slavery is a human institution and was like marriage. It wasn´t really questioned. It was the Christian monastic schools that were turned into Christian Universities that spawned Christian scholarship that first spawned the Reformation inspired by Luther´s courageous and insightful conflict with the Roman church authorities. Right after Luther came the next generation of scientific philosophers like Copernicus and Galileo who loved investigating the Creator´s laws of the Universe. So, the "Creator." That there is a "Creator" is a basically universal perception among indigenous tribes, and religions. The basis, however, is spiritual-religious practice that relates to spiritual-religious experience. Zen Buddhism in Japan is a good comparison. The Samurai´s lived brutal lives that included hari-kari suicide. Zen Buddhism was toned down from Buddha´s Four Noble Truths in the first place, and then fit the samurais´ warlike lifestyle, institutionally. Christianity got institutionalized with Constantine in the Roman Empire, but Jesus taught "seek first the Kingdom of Heaven" and "Clean the cup on the inside where there is wickedness." Anthony of the Desert, meanwhile, was an 18 year old orphan who got inspired by Jesus´ call to "Follow me." He became an ascetic, and after 30 years in the desert, the Father of Christian monks as seekers sought him out. Anthony went through phases of spiritual growth something like modern psychotherapy. Freud called healing the mind, "catharsis", and Anthony later on had a breakthrough moment when he became tranquil. Monks later called that kind of moment, "theosis." Buddhists call it "nirvana," or in Japan, "satori." Anthony of the Desert had a dream after his theosis, in which he saw another ascetic in the desert. He told his disciples, and went off following the dream´s directions. He found the guy, at 113 years old, St. Paul of Thebes, and brought back a palm frond shirt that Paul had made. All because of a dream. That´s one example of perceiving the transcendental God. Follow the history up to Christians turning monastic schools into Universities, and that´s how modernization also comes into play. Many people think of the Industrial Revolution when they think of "modernization." When Clarkson and the Quakers led the anti-slavery movement, it was at that same time as the Industrial Revolution. If those Christians, with high integrity, were ending slavery, profiteering factory business owners were working people for 16 hours a day and putting many artisans out of business. That´s where Luddites showed up, and saboteurs (sabot meaning "shoe"). Just like the Anglican church supporting slavery as an institution, social movements are part of how Christians reassert Jesus´ legacy of integrity for God. That means getting clear about the meaning of integrity and hypocrisy, and worse, apsostasy like murder and Hitler-Nazi type things. Mary Baker Eddy is good to keep in mind when she grew up Congregationalist in New England. She learned that hypnotic suggestion could heal her temporarily, and then studied the Bible and broke through to the understanding that God´s reality is the Divine origin of all the abstract principles people talk about in morality. Through Jesus, that begins with Divine Love, and goes on to Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Spirit, Soul, and Mind. And Ms. Eddy healed miraculously, and wrote a book as she taught people who could do the same. Her church Christian Science grew and spread. Dissidents created things like Religious Science, and famous authors like Jos Murphy and Louise Hay wrote popular books like You Can Heal Your Life. And by looking at all kinds of people and movements, we can boil religion down to the practice of meditation and prayer, and God as the transcendental Creator Entity, and Jesus´ special life, mission, and message had 2 loving Commandments, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," being no 2. Staying clear about integrity and hypocrisy is a good start. Keeping clear that science has discovered that there are galaxy red shifts that go back to a Big Bang raises the question of where the Big Bang came from. Slightly closer to home is where scientific laws come from. A good supplementary question is, "What is love?" With meditation and prayer, we can begin to see that human beings emerged from biological evolution and are inclined to be ignorant, greedy, and hateful. The question is, what can overcome that biological basis? From shamans to modern human rights and US Freedom of Religion and University-based Comparative Religious Studies, to Gandhi´s law degree and interfaith Christian-Hinduism, the point of reference is the way that meditation and prayer makes us mentally and physically healthy and able to overcome ignorance, greed, and hatred. We humans take the action, but we are not just rock-headed bags of flesh and bones. We can perceive that we come from a Source and get revived through prayer and meditation on that Source. Is that Source of the Created Universe just a "Creator Machine"? What does a healthy mother feel for its newborn? Psychologist Harry Harlow studied baby monkeys deprived of their mothers and playmates, and saw how they suffered. He got into arguments with his fellow psychologists who didn´t want to call anything of that the need for love. Is the Creator a flintstone, or a matchstick machine? Or like a monkey mother for its baby, and the monkey baby for its mom, one example of what we humans know as "love." And if that´s the cause of what science calls the Big Bang and our evolved biological tendencies to ignorance, greed, and hatred, that has resulted in shaman healers, Buddhist practitioners, and Jesus followers like Mary Baker Eddy, that´s some love. Sorry about the length, but do you see a little more than "religion is made for power"? 1 · Reply · 2h

From "Being Smart and Knowing Stuff" to Multiple Intelligences Crystallized and Fluid, to Human Rights and Sustainability

In response to the question, "What is the difference between being smart and knowing stuff?" Pegg Coo Daen 'Knowing stuff' doesn't necessarily make one smart in regards to the 'big picture.' Also, being smart doesn't necessarily mean you know anything important. I believe there is a difference between using one's physical brain with its IQ (which dies when one's physical body dies) and using one's Higher Intuitive Mind to develop one's consciousness and which lives on into eternity. 2 · Reply · Share · 17h Mark Rego Monteiro Those are pretty informal terms if you´re trying to understand things. Is someone "smart"? Do they "know stuff"? The basic idea in high school was book knowledge and memorizing, vs. street smart about the way the world works and how to get something done. Einstein had a philosophical mind and is known as a symbol of high intelligence, yet, he got some math wrong at one point that a math guy in Italy noticed. Einstein took the guy´s advice and learned his math a little better. Meanwhile, Einstein´s son Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia around age 20 around 1930. In 1933, a famous psychotherapist Wilhelm Reich MD wrote a book with his treatment and cure of a schizophrenic. Why didn´t Einstein hear about that? So basically, psychology has two key ideas first noted by R Cattell, fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is about problem-solving strategies. Crystallized intelligence is about acquired learning, knowledge, and skills. From a different angle, a guy named Howard Gardner has had an idea called, "multiple intelligences." In a spiritual sense, Jesus taught, "go and learn...." Matt 9. And in the end, the University-based system has made "being smart" and "knowing stuff" a modern way of talking. And I would share that I was fascinated to learn that it all reflects key aspects of Jesus´ legacy of loving integrity, but that´s been widely neglected. 1 · Reply · Share · 15h · Edited A G Smit This may seem a simple query on the surface but as Peggy and Mark have already suggested there is more that can be unpacked when you start to consider what being 'smart' means and 'knowing stuff' implies. Whilst being 'smart' could (as Mark noted) relate to 'street smarts' -- having that intuitive, edgy insight to manipulating the world around you to your advantage -- implying that you might be cunning, crafty and clever ...You may not know much, but you know how to 'get what you want'... It is perhaps not so much of an extrapolation to suggest that sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissists and others who have been convinced by the MSM and social media, marketing, celebrity culture, tik tok and memes that 'they are worth it'... and can 'take what they want, when they want it' (a simplified reference to what I understand is the root of basic 'Satanist' philosophy. But 'smart' can also relate to that old fashioned meaning of being 'intelligent'... someone who by dint of their ability to learn and 'know stuff' and then assimilate, integrate, synthesize and combine what they know can create a more insightful, holistic and advanced way of understanding what is going on around them... This kind of ability to 'know stuff' and put it to good use in a constructive and intelligent way was the kind of performance we would look for when trying to assessing students for grading their degrees --back-in-the-day when I was teaching. But It seems clear that there are many people around who appear to 'know' plenty of 'stuff' -- a matter of memory and ability to regurgitate... yet their inherent intelligence may not necessarily be so evident... Frequently, back in the hallowed Ivory Towers or Academe I would meet people who 'knew a lot of stuff' (about a certain aspect of a particular discipline) and were, hence, respected experts with titles such as Doctor or even Professor... YET they did not always seem particularly 'intelligent' people outside of the narrow band of expertise that had chosen to focus on... By comparison there are those who have never received what is considered systemic or traditional education, yet who have absorbed knowledge about things from the world they live in (perhaps under the tutelage of an existing 'Master') who are also empathetic, intuitive and 'emotionally intelligent' individuals who exude a natural and impressive aura of 'wisdom'... These could be, for example, be the Shaman or medicine man/woman of ancient cultures. In the west we tend to take a rather simplistic, empirical approach to determine how much people 'know', and whether they can demonstrate that 'knowledge' in (arguably) questionable and limited forms of assessment in order to be deemed 'smart enough' to be awarded a degree!... In the counter-culture people are also 'respected' if they are the 'street wise' kind of 'get what you want' kind of person, too... BUT what we have seemingly neglected is that above having absorbed a lot of stuff (let's call it knowledge) and beyond any demonstration that we are 'smart' (let's call it 'intelligent') the aspect of human potential that determines whether that knowledge and intelligence is put to good use is 'wisdom'... and THAT (imho) is what is frequently undervalued or goes unrecognized because it is less easy to evaluate... even those more traditional native culture inherently respect such individuals. So, I feel there is evidently a difference between 'knowing stuff' (a disparate collection of memorized 'general knowledge' and other facts, figures, dates and quotes that might make you a 'Pub Quiz' king, or a winner of Mastermind, or 'The Chase' - UK TV references!)... And being 'Smart' -- in terms of having 'intelligence' derived from gathering, absorbing, assimilating and connecting the dots between disparate elements of knowledge... OR being bereft of much 'knowledge' but 'Smart' in the sense of having innate survival skills in the urban Jungle! But moreover there is the difference between any of these and being 'Wise'... yet 'wisdom' is the aspect of breadth of knowledge, coherent assimilation and syntheses of that knowledge into cerebral intelligence... and the 'emotional intelligence' to have insight, intuition and instincts that allow you to perceive how everything is connected... I used to wonder why the 'Genesis myth' of the Garden of Eden involved a loving God forbidding Humans to eat from the tree of Knowledge... which would have seemed as if God's intent was to keep humans as some kind of dumbed-down, pet creations, not far different from other animalia... But it seems clear to me now that God in His Wisdom... understood that unless Man became 'wise' himself, then all the knowledge in the world would ultimately do him no good... We chose the 'harder route' -- and have consistently revealed more knowledge about this universe, but often without sufficient understanding and certainly employed that knowledge without sufficient wisdom... and we have to keep slowly learning the hard way, for example, that our incessant arrogance in believing we can defy, tame or control Nature... is folly and that our task is to employ our Wisdom, along with our acquired knowledge and potential intelligence, in 'working with Nature' and accepting our part in the whole... Until that time whether we are actually 'smart' or just 'know stuff' will mean very little! (P.S. Apologies to Pastor Bruce for my failing to be more succinct & concise 😃 ) 3 · Reply · Share · 5h · Edited 1 · Reply · Share · 4h Mark Rego Monteiro A G Smit Nice extension of the topic. Indeed, Genesis´ Garden of Eden is an interesting subject. One insight I´ve been pushed to since running into the anti-theists and caring is that what has been called a liberal arts education has no standard respected reference. If you´re a scientist, that´s big, and conveys knowledge and intelligence. That´s the foundation of the rank fallacies that the late Hitchens, Dawkins, and others have pushed. They seem "smart" and "knowledgable," but are a treacherous combination of squares pretending to fit into round holes, so to speak. They have been and are using their social status from one area to substitute for legitimate literacy in the necessary and relevant one. Fritjof Capra is different, however, and deserves mention as a physicist and Systems Theorist, whose Tao of Physics involved a survey of religions in comparison with Quantum Physics. He followed it up with a scholarly search of alternative viewpoints, including EF Schumacher´s proto-ecological social economics and O Carl Simonton MD´s psychosomatic healing that became transpersonal. The term that simply seems to fit comes from fairly common terms multidisciplinary studies, empiricism, and the pre-1850s original academic terms of natural and moral philosophy. Liberal arts formally recognized with the social sciences and sciences becomes "multidisciplinary empirical philosophy." That helps focus on the University-based components that lead back to their living and ongoing heritage in Jesus, despite various parts having been artificially, but tangibly dissociated in what people call secular and mechanical. Thus, looking at the OT´s Garden of Eden, you raise the question of the meaning of knowledge, which is specifically the moral knowledge of good and evil. With modern education, we can correlate the issue with the issues that are observed already in chimps, who kill neighboring chimps without provocation. The bio-psychological reasoning is that there are resource and reproductive advantages for tool-using and social animals. Humans began to mediate those familar impulses of violence by developing the likes of cultural gift-exchange and incest and patricide taboos that Freud found in the anthropological literature already in his time. Moses´ top 10 Commandments led to Elijah´s social justice prophetic experience for Moses and God, and with Jesus´ legacy to University-based society, developed to converge with Christian use of ancient Greek philosophy. Jesus taught, "seek first the Kingdom of Heaven," and "clean the cup on the inside where there is wickedness...." The philosophical debate is often about free will, but doesn´t seem to usually be informed about people´s growing and learning to demonstrate the ability to recognize their choices and options, and then the consequences or risks of those choices. Christianity´s own major advances include Paul´s and Peter´s spiritual experiences and choice to shift to the Gentiles, for example, and includes the recognition of learning as in Paul´s "Test all things..." and Peter´s "add to goodness, knowledge...." As Al GS pointed out about knowledge and sufficient wisdom, we might specify how University-based education has spawned some fast-growing influences in science, democratic forms, and corporate executive business, all in Jesus´ legacy to one degree or another of integrity or hypocrisy. It has been, however, social movements that embody the action that reflects levels of knowledge, as in the difference between the writing and speaking of figures like Noam Chomsky, Dorothy Day, Fannie Lou Hamer, Gloria Steinem, and Ralph Nader, and organizing that they did. They then reflect the historical resurgence of Jesus´ loving integrity in the Apostles´ legacy to Anthony of the Desert, Father of Christian monks, to the famous Francis of Assisi, to George Fox and Marg Fell, whose Quaker Friends´ integrity sustained by silent worship were sought out by a young college grad. Their legacy beyond Chomsky and Nader lives in Greenpeace, Oxfam, green co-op stores and enterprise and so on. Indeed as Al GS begin to indicate, knowing stuff and being smart, book knowledge and street smarts, education in theory and in problem-solving ability, fluid and crystallized intelligence need to mean more since the Enlightenment has lead us to the very concepts of FDR´s and Eleanor´s UN human rights and even more recently, sustainability. You can´t know stuff or be smart exploited to your soul or on a dead planet, after all. And while Peggy CD envisions the transcendental connection, it´s little comfort to perceive how the influence of the rich has alienated so many in the US and elsewhere from the action of Jesus´ heritage and legacy of loving integrity and social justice action from before Francis of Assisi to George Fox to the UN to Greenpeace and Oxfam. The transcendental gets reconnected and reawakened at new levels in Jesus´ legacy in links like Equal Exchange organic and Fair Trade foods Interfaith Network, where we see the fulfillment in action of "knowing stuff" and "being smart." I don´t like to apologize for the length of my piece done in earnest. Since people do complain at times, I´m sorry that we´re in such a state that people might feel put out, while I feel justified in expressing myself at such length. Congratulations if you can keep up! Thanks to Barbara for the post, to you for your comment, to Bruce for his concern.

Jesus Is Legend, Simon bar Kokhba Has Coins!

Yeah, you love your coins. And can´t quite get "legend, myth, and propaganda" in proper perspective. You rail against "ignorance and superstition," but your hatred and raging condemns you to coins of a three year Republic cut down brutally. "Jesus didn´t leave any coins!" Just some letters by Paul, Peter, and "James," and Josephus´ reference to James, and indirect corroborationsin archeology, and the rest psychosocial inferences and the basic explosive spread of a religion and its components. Ah, but your raging against the majority of scholars dating the NT texts is very sad. The guy just salivating against "legend, myth, and propaganda" and "ignorance and superstititon" can´t accept majority scholarship about the accepted dates of the NT texts. I just repeated that because it frames the intensity of your denialism and your zealotry. That is likely to mean that you are fixated on fundamentalism, and acting out of some related trauma. So, in your deluded mindset, I´m not really writing to you and your traumatized shuffle. I´m enjoying exploring the subject, however. Whether “any religionist actually offers any contradiction to Ehrman” is a statement that you make in terms of your own lack of credibility. As for Ehrman´s literalist background, that clearly correlates with his narrowminded and clumsy confusion of knowledge domains, and thinking ability with an appropriate range of philosophical accuracy and empirical methodology. Your own obtuseness to fallacy, indulgence in unjustified and frenzied hateful bias and ad hom, and consequent crass preference for and dependence on non-Christian Rabbinic literature for legitimacy defines you at the present time. And só in the Freedom of Speech and Religion of modern University-based society in Jesus´ legacy, nothing is stopping you from persisting in that. Thus, you reason around the premise that “Jesus was a famous celebrity”, which is a possible modern and follower´s potential hope. You say Jesus was “NOT an anonymous nobody with no sense of the defining of contexts. You seem unable to address the alternative points of view involved in an event of that time. In modern times alone, Milton Erickson MD was a revolutionary psychotherapist who influenced work that has made Anthony Robbins só effective and well known as a life coach. Yet, Milton Erickson MD is clearly not a “family name,” as they say. Another example is James Warbasse, the first president of the US NCBA for co-op biz. He wrote some books as a co-op biz advocate, and may have been in circles familiar with FD Roosevelt, elected president around 1932. I know of Warbasse because of my interest and research. Few people in the general public will know of him, or Erickson, no matter how much applause they received in conferences and talks they gave. And that is in modern times. Even King Herod of the Jews is primarily known through Josephus. JR Rubenstein addresses an alternative Rabbinic verion of Herod´s life, and identifies Persian influences that correlate with it. Josephus´ at least has no compromise of its integrity in that way. Pontius Pilate, for example, is only described as having contact as the scheming of the religious leaders proceeded at a specific point. The NT texts, however, are the source until the first generation after the Apostles, termed the Apostolic Fathers. The texts do not claim that Jesus met Pontius Pilate and whoever the Jewish King-type was. Jesus was famous among some group of common people and whatever odd higher ups were interested. I believe a member of the Jewish royal circle was involved. Meanwhile, Josephus is a source for talk about King Herod, and Herod´s father Antipater (Antipater I the Idumaean), who is described as having good connections with Julius Caesar and getting appointed as leader of Judea. Josephus follows Herod´s rise to power with reference to his contact with governor Sextus Caesar. Events unfolded, só that Herod fled to Rome, where two sources give differing years for the Senate declaring that Herod was King of the Jews, ca 39 BC/E. In fact, Josephus, at ca 94 AD/CE, refers to Jesus, the Christ whose brother was James. He reports that he was stoned to death by order of the High Priest. The information of context has to be correlated with other related information to establish the year of ca 64 of the cited event. That seems outside your demonstrated capacity to reason, however. Too bad for you. You then resort to referring to evidence of other historical characters as “diversion” based on your ideological preconceptions without demonstrating competence in empirical historiography. If an otherwise unknown historical figure of high status like Pontius Pilate is mentioned in the text, that text has specific corroboration. Ascribing “invalid” to the rest of the text is not justified, but ideological distortion and bias. Your including ad homs clarifies your own lack of control, emotional awareness, and the presence of psychological issues. Not the invalidity of correlated text material. You then resort to accusations of “lies” about the dating of NT texts. With no justification, except your personal bias. Amidst your flurry of ideological antagonism, you finally articulate a date range from 8 AD/CE to 140 AD/CE, falling back on Simon bar Kokhba. You refer to “Rabbinical circles”, citing your own apparent preference for information. Rabbi MJ Cook says information around Jesus´ time is inconclusive, but that later views hardly reconcile Jesus´ critiques and message with Jewish religious approval: “Mindful that some Jews had indeed been lured into Christian ranks, the rabbis denounced Jesus himself for having attempted to "entice and lead Israel astray," i.e., into apostasy and idolatry.” Otherwise, in addition to the SOTER square material from Pompey in the 70s AD, there is the Jericho Cave, where Y Peleg has found carvings of early crosses with Roman army symbols, dating possibly to ca 70 AD/CE. Y Tepper found a Roman army temple dedicated to “the God Jesus Christ, probably pre-200 AD. The Pompey reference is bolstered by a Cherem curse at the Procolo bakery/home, cross, and covering up of Roman sexual images. More interesting and more basic are the Apostolic fathers. Clement of Rome´s first Epistle is dated between 70 and 140 AD. The Didache is considered pre-100 AD. The Epistle of Barnabas from 70 to 132 AD. Simon bar Kochba´s achievement of a 3 year Jewish state is noteworthy in its span from 132 to 135 AD. It´s cost of a “scorched earth policy, or Cassius Dio´s tally of close to 600,000 lives is, as well. The Nahal Hever Cave of Letters Yet, what is noteworthy is your materialist criteria, and bias. What´s noteworthy is your inability to understand the variable nature of empirical historical evidence, as ironic as the value of Apostle Paul´s, Peter´s, and the epistle of James (65-85 AD) and the need to understand logical inferences. You demonstrate a dependence on Rabbinical sources, and an aversion to University-based scholarship and its insights só hostile it verges on a zealous frenzy. The logic there is raging and hateful emotions, not philosophical lucidity of empirical truth. “Religionism and shamanism was invented and flourished in a world filled with ignorance and superstition. Education and peaceful free secular democracy is rapidly eliminating such things from the developed world and beyond.” Shamanism is a behavior that potentially, and in many cases skillfully, demonstrates a form of intelligence and insight in psychosocial and transpersonal relations. Psychology has developed a key form of modern philosophical understanding shaman abilities, and in multidisciplinary study like anthropology, medical anthropology, creative arts, and comparative religious studies, even further. It is thus that Sigmund Freud´s observations of pain without organic causes in fact had psychological causes and involved neuropsychological conversion. He engaged in psychotherapeutic approaches that revealed talk therapy techniques, abreaction (emotional connection), and catharsis. That alone makes for an interesting comparative study with spiritual traditions like Christian monasticism and Buddhism. Jungian psychology became transpersonal, referring to a Higher Self, and more. “Ignorance and superstition” are terms normally associated with judgments based on scientific materialism. Evaluating their use by materialists and rationalists has resulted in various scholarly insights that amply clarify and debunk their use based on knowledge in the social sciences and humanities. An R Awaad MD of Stanford advises, “Psychiatrists...should be willing to work with leaders/members of faith communities, chaplains and pastoral workers...” and used data like “•9 out of 10 of American adults say thatthey prayand 58% pray daily•Approximately two-‐thirds are members of churches orsynagogues” (Pew, 2012) Also, “The reality is that the statistical majority of our patients and the world consider spirituality very important when it comes to mental health,” session chair Harvard Med School´s David H. Rosmarin, Ph.D., A.B.P.P., told Psychiatric News. Religion will demonstrate mixtures depending on whether institutions or scholarly disciplines are being referred to. As for “education and peaceful free democracy”, those are non-scientific subjects, and as various studies show, are promoting primarily individual spiritual seeking, not hateful, rationalist anti-religious ideologues. One relevant field is the Psychology of Religion, and observations include, “In one survey study of college students undergoing religious/spiritual struggles, when asked to indicate whether they had grown and/or declined through their struggles, almost half reported that they had grown and not declined and only 3% felt that they had declined and not grown (Desai and Pargament, 2015). “ Yet, as empirical scholars, they also observe studies that show that “not growing from religious/spiritual struggles” can be a study result. Thus, they can frame studies that define and begin to examine those variables, “Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that growth following religious/spiritual struggles is not inevitable. Rather, whether religious/spiritual struggles lead to growth or decline may depend on moderating variables. A few studies have begun to identify some of the factors that may foster growth and reduce distress among those who experience religious/spiritual struggles. These include an accepting attitude toward religious/spiritual struggles (Dworsky, Pargament, Wong, and Exline, 2016), reframing religious/spiritual struggles as an opportunity for positive change (Saritoprak and Exline, in press), finding a sense of meaning through religious/spiritual struggles (Wilt et al., 2016), drawing on religious/spiritual coping resources (Wilt et al., 2019), and having a sense of ultimate hope (Abu Raiya et al., 2016). “ It is literacy in those kind of knowledge domains that reflects insight into the phenomena domains they study, “Hundreds of studies have shown significant links between health and various facets of religion/spirituality—from prayer and meditation to participation in rituals and religious services (e.g., Koenig, King, and Carlson, 2012). “ Thus, it is recommended for clinicians to evaluate people whether they, “Accept the reality of spiritual and transpersonal experiences.” Clearly, people like yourself don´t, and thus live with the consequences.

The Christian Cult Accused Of Wiping Out Egyptian Hieroglyphics"

in fin fett greenpeaceRdale1844coop • a day ago All you had to do was ask nicely if you wanted to know more. I'll answer in brief anyway. The Christian eradication of paganism in Egypt was so thorough that no one even knew how to speak the language or read the hieroglyphs until the discover of the Rosetta Stone over a thousand years after its culmination. 1 • Reply • Share › − Avatar greenpeaceRdale1844coop in fin fett • a day ago Yeah, if there had been a shred of prudence, instead of anti-Christian gangbusting, I wouldn´t have framed the crassness of the context as I did, thanks. Your follow up is just as ill-considered, however. Your reasoning is a non-sequitor, with you asserting an event, the " Christian eradication of paganism in Egypt" justified by an event from the distant future which establishes no definite causal link, except your apparent ideology. Since I´m interested in these things, let´s see what I can turn up. It seems that your own "hieroglypho-centrism" and anti-Christian bias have deceived you in a form of reductionism. Alexander the Great´s conquest of Egypt led to a situation in which Cleopatra (VII Philopator)´s first language was Greek. The Roman period that began around 30 BC after Cleopatra´s and Marc Antony´s armies were defeated in Octavian Augustus´ consolidation of power after the assassination of Julius Caesar. The hieroglyphs themselves were largely a priestly script, and according to JP Allen, became somewhat suspicious to foreign rulers. Greco-Roman writers associated the writing with an "allegorical, magical system transmitting secret, mystical knowledge." Thus, Allen describes how by the 4th century, few Egyptians could read hieroglyphs, a "myth of allegorical hieroglyphs" prevailed. Theodosius I in 391 made his edict against paganism, and the last known hieroglyphs are from 394. As for interpreting such events, Roman Imperial Christianity was a phenomena reflecting Christians having developed Christianity valuing its caring values until Constantine´s victory. Constantine´s support created a new level of operation for Christianity, with Emperor´s showing many signs of standard Roman Imperial violent opportunism. Beginning around 300 AD, Anthony of the Desert had been a Christian ascetic and achieved the theosis that made him Father of the Christian monks. Imperial opportunism would be the most plausible cause of the Fall of the West by 476 as tribes invaded, and converted to Christianity as they invaded. By 641, Islam had conquered Egypt. By 1150, Christians had developed the first modern Universities when Thomas of Aquinas appeared to Christianize Aristotle, and make a crucial transition based on Christian relationship to God the Creator through Jesus Christ´s legacy of loving integrity. In all of the pragmatic consequences of Empires and the rise of Christianity into the unprecedented complexity of Western Civilization, you had better learn to appreciate the real world tendencies that have made Christianity unusually capable to have resurgent integrity, establish modern Universities, etc, including reclaiming hieroglyphs, to your great pleasure.

Critical Race Theory: Say Something Good About White People, Or Else

Mark Rego Monteiro Now, if you´re going to bring up the much ignored Christianity, you´re not going to hide behind that kind of bait and switch, as if MLK, Dorothy Day, and Fannie Lou Hamer were so conveniently lumped with racists and Christianity smeared in the mud. Surprise, it´s not just racist Christians, but the log in one´s own eye that it refers to, meaning Critical Race Theory supporters. And so for me, it´s not my Christianity it threatens. It´s the way some or many, and perhaps all, of CRT´s followers fail to discuss criticisms honestly and openly. Instead, they respond with, well, that very kind of discriminatory colorcentric type of anti-feedback comment in this meme. "Are you criticizing CRT? You are racist!" If critical race theory can´t think of anything good to say about being "white," it is discriminatory, pure and simple. That´s how Christian integrity works, actually. To be clear, that´s because "racism" is itself a form of violence, not an independent causal variable like socioeconomic inequality and psychocultural resources. Thus, not all whites are in the top 1% or top 20%, nor are those money- and powergrubbers "good" racist ideologues helping all whites to make "all whites in a 1000 year Reich paradise" at the top of inequality and injustice. Similarly, not all blacks are in the bottom 80%, nor helping the blacks in the bottom 80%. Morgan Freeman has said he "doesn´t think there is racism," no less, for example. Critical Race Theory was created by legal students or scholars, and shows crassly skewed legalistic attitudes and inadequately balanced multidisciplinarity. Are CRT bad attitudes a little unclear that mass murder in America is not strictly a racist trend? And other forms of violence like domestic and child abuse? BLM´s own original context was POLICE BRUTALITY, of which 1/3 was non-black. Have those facts not been totally submerged in the anti-white racist witchhunt, or is it just discriminatory since it just sounds racist? As for bringing BLM and CRT into the progressive activist fold, Gordon Allport´s "Contact Theory", for example, is one worthwhile resource. Even more importantly is the problem of something like economist M Friedman´s classic article titled, "The Social Responsibility of Business is Profit." It was at that time that Angela Davis said, "I don´t want to be exploited by a black man or a white man." Exploitation is fundamentally a socioeconomic dynamic, not colorcentric. Racism in exploitation "had its peak" in Afro-Am slavery, but UK factories started a new level, making it a complex phenomenon for further discussion. Offshored US jobs now play a part, and US consumer culture. If white supremacist non-rich are venting the squeeze by US pro-rich anti-labor ideology and venting as racists and fundamentalists, then CRT legalistic witchhunting is even less effective and self-defeating in basic ways. Meanwhile, UK workingpeople developed the pro-social co-op biz model in the 1840s, the international ICA for co-op biz in 1895, US NCBA for co-op biz in 1920 and ICA member, US Afro-Am Federation of Southern Co-ops and NCBA member was set up in 1967, and Solidarity Economics has been embraced by Jackson Rising with NCBA-member US FWC and SEN. Food co-ops are helping low income areas. SUN co-op solar has spread to some fifteen states and has a low income project. Equal Exchange co-op organic and Fair Trade foods has an Interfaith Partnership. And so the noose tightens and the question is begged, "Who among us worships God through Jesus Christ, with Freud, Jung, Buddha, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Coltrane, etc, to understand that modern UN human rights honor differences and similarities, and that not "whiteness" or "blackness", but education, sustainability, and human rights need to be addressed for the 80% ("99%"), that Occupy Wall St. was talking about.

Science Is True If You Believe In It Or Not. So Is Anything True, Including Religion

Ed Reit I like Tyson; but he is disappointingly (if that's a word) prone to straw man attacks on religion, which are unnecessary not to mention just wrong. Speaking of which, the good thing about EVERYTHING true is that it's true whether you believe it or not. Science, religion, history, dentistry, ad infinitum. He's stumbled upon a truism. 3 · Reply · 1d · Edited Kim Shinab Ed Reiter There's nothing in that quote about religion. Do you have a link to a context to back this up? 1 · Reply · 1d Mark Rego Monteiro Kim Shinab See my reply to ER below, pls. E Chapple´s work on religion is little used because of the conventional gaps between biology and social theory. I recall that sociologist GH Mead cites him, as did the more biologically oriented team including E D´Aquili et al in their work like The Spectrum of Ritual, and he was published in American Anthropologist, and the like. More recently, C Keener published Miracles in 2011 which addresses the more spiritual-religious dimension of miracles. The late Ravi Zacharias, despite revelations of his own personal indiscretions, often used philosophical truth in his arguments about religion that are valid about Christianity´s coherence and correspondence to reality. I am working on a historical sociological argument that is comparable to J Hannam´s historical work about the History of Science and Religion. · Reply · 39m Write a reply… Mark Rego Monteiro Ed Reit Excellent point. To get clear about that, we can use a simple philosophical exercise. "There is no truth." is simply a verbal statement. Yet, we can perceive that it tries to state a truth, and negates its own message. Simply put, "The truth exists" would appear to be true. "Science is the truth" then, would be Tyson´s claim, along with that of others. However, the definition of "science" is narrower, something like "the use of the scientific philosophical method to study conventional physical phenomena." Oh, and note that they usually neglect to identify it as philosophical. As for religious and Christian truth, and truths, many commentators appear immersed in the doctrine of their Christian upbringing. I was raised atheist humanist, embraced interfaith Taoist UUism, got a degree in bio anthro, and later perceived I could become an interfaith UU Christian as an empirical theist. Thus, my discovery of Eliot Chapple´s emotional-interactional principles of religion didn´t conflict with my empiricism. Basically, historical sociological truth reveals that Christian truth has taken ancient Greek philosophy to University-based study, including all modern disciplines. "Hypocrisy" and "integrity" would be the principles to assess ongoing Christian truth in modernization. Scholars including M Mueller, WR Smith, R Otto, and M Eliade have developed Comparative Religious Studies that reveals various forms of religious truths, whether resonant with Christian truths or natural truths. WL Craig´s argument for God´s existence uses Cosmological physics as the platform for the truths of its modern Kalam Cosmological argument. "Anything that begins to exist has a cause. The Universe began to exist. The Univese has a cause." The truth of that First Cause can then be considered. F Turek used that basic philosophical case about truth. It is related to Goedel´s Incompleteness Theorem, but not the same.

The "Invisible Hand" Was Not God´s Hand, Although When It Comes Down To It....

Avatar Bish • 2 days ago 'Invisible hand' a term coined by adam smith 1776 in the book wealth of nations. That term was expressing that business as an entity, has no use of virtue. The system of working for a living is natural. Working for a business is incorporating the working collective. The ability to harness a collective is how a business, city, state, country becomes powerful. Now even the education systems are being used to impose proprietary of knowledge. Likewise business offers a venue of circumventing responsibility without personal responsibility. That is how and why it can be used to exploit about every rule in the book. Avatar greenpeaceRdale1844coop Bisha • 2 days ago Fortunately, those were ideas by individuals, and can be simply adjusted and shifted despite the overwhelming and indoctrinating influence of the abusers of economic ideology. It is the intensity, material impact, reinforcing complex, and inertia impacting habituation and conditioning that increases the challenge. Thus, Robert Owen was sparked by contact with a Christian medical doctor working on occupational medicine and developed some pro-social ideas and practices. That happened as the Quaker-Friends anchored the T Clarkson-led abolition campaign in the UK and led it in the US North. By the 1840s and the success of the anti-slavery social movement, the pro-social co-op co-ownership biz model was developed by workingpeople at Rochdale, UK. The rise of Mondragon Co-op Corp industries in Spain starting in the 1950s anticipated developments in Social Europe, and the US, as the co-op biz model developed an international org in 1895, a US org in 1920, and a UN international forum in COPAC for co-op biz in 1970. • Edit • Reply • Share › Avatar Bishadi greenpeaceRdale1844coop • 2 days ago people created the commandments, and business codes. Big difference between the intentions of both. Invisible hand, is a metaphor for the entity. • Reply • Share › Avatar greenpeaceRdale1844coop Bish • 2 days ago The "invisible hand" was developed by Adam Smith in his 1759 book on Moral Sentiments about the public and social good resulting from selfish economic behavior by individuals. Undoubtedly, it recalled God to readers´ minds. As you point out, the "codes" of commandments in Judeo-Christianity had one purpose, moral conduct. Business in Christian society in the era of the British East India Co when the British gained knowledge of Portuguese riches in trading around 1600, began to link complex private business organizing and profiteering on a new scale. By 1670, the British began to benefit from their University-based scholarship with the likes of gunpowder weapons of the 1400s, DesCartes´ math, Newton´s physics, and Boyle´s chemistry, Harvey´s biology, and moral philosophy like Locke´s. The concepts of joint stock and limited liability, and developments like the Dutch´s Amsterdam stock exchange which followed the Dutch´s own East India Co. Intentions need to be made clear, and that is what Big Biz corp execs they have tried to hide mostly by intimidation and enchantment, and the paralysis of inequality in influence. It was thus that FDR´s accomplishments began to be overcome by Reagan´s pleasantries masking the vicious impacts of pro-rich, anti-social profiteering. • Edit • Reply • Share › Avatar Bish greenpeaceRdale1844coop • a day ago 'Invisible hand' was a metaphor for the business. It was a description. Again, a man created the words, terms and analogy, just like every religion ever written or described. The intentions of the commandments was to enable a mind to learn them, apply them and sustain them for the purpose of civil interactions among people. They are man made rules that even to this day, work quite naturally in civil society. • Reply • Share › − Avatar greenpeaceRdale1844coop Bisha • 3 minutes ago • edited You´re not actually getting the meaning of the "Invisible Hand" metaphor, since by "the business" you can only speak vaguely and unspecifically. As a "description," it needed to be weighed with the tools of empirical philosophy to be taken seriously in any way. It was, however, taken in relation to a discipline concerning the conduct of the rich, powerful, and influential. How would that impact the development of "economics" after all? Personally, I took the definition from one source, and it basically means that "a guiding influence or structural parameter will ensure that everything works for the best interests of everyone if they are self-interested businesspeople in free markets." It´s naive, and plays into the hands of the most powerful, influential, and talented. As for your attempt to equate that metaphor to religion, that´s the problem with not studying and reflecting sufficiently or humbly enough. Adam Smith´s ability to try philosophizing about economics using ethics and physics as his models around the 1770s was done within a very specfic context. It´s a context that has generated enough complexity in University-based society to allow secular materialist projects to advance enough to permit egotistical delusions of status and Civil Rights freedom to comment extremely unaccountably. Economics, like religion, is in fact referring to empirical phenomena of one type or another. It is clarity and precision with the love of knowledge and truth that has made Western civilization capable of advancing with such effectiveness in Jesus´ legacy of loving integrity. Ignoring that fact is its own human phenomenon in need of acknowledgement, description, and analysis. Indeed, religion is itself a fundamentally human behavior, although your ideological reductionism and oversimplification ignores basic issues. Your expression "man created" is fallacious in ignoring phenomena. The thrill for scientists has been differentiating their realm of knowledge from religion and often imprudently making the non-sequitor conclusion that all of religion is useless, malevolent, or a delusion. Science, i.e. scientific philosophy, is itself a "human creation," however, it is the result of Christians working with ancient Greek philosophy and eclectics in the study of natural phenomena. Thus, a basic dynamic of human activity reflects ideas and their referents. In fact, theology has been sustained in the humanities as an academic discipline, as is Comparative Religious Studies. Yet, the philosophy of religion, formerly known as metaphysics, is multidisciplinary. Comparative religious studies helps clarify how China´s and other prevailing systems developed until Western influences arrived, and can examine the high integrity nature of FDR´s US-UN human rights community interacts with the syncretic forms since then. Whether the specific subject is Confucius, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Pantanjali, Jeremiah, or Socrates, there is a transcendental point of reference in some way indicating a Creator and Source. Socrates´ own career involved an apparent priestess named Diotima, not his wife Xanthippe, and his friend Chaerophon asking the Oracle at Delphi´s Temple of Apollo a question. The survival of ancient Greek philosophy and its transformation involved the Islamic use of Christian translators at the outset, and the establishment of the Spanish Reconquista Toledo Translator School by the French Benedictine Bishop Raymond. Christian legacy, in conjunction with monasticism, was very much conducted in relation to a transcendent and lawful God who was already considered all powerful in relation as Father to Jesus the Son. That very clear focus contrasted with such attitudes as Aristotle´s assertions that the Universe is eternal, so that there was no First Cause, and that objects cannot move in curved lines. "the commandments ... are man made rules that even to this day, work quite naturally in civil society." You seem a little unclear about how the United States of America has had subgroups since President Reagan and the GOP advocate for businesspeople corp execs and a pro-rich, profiteering ideology that was swallowed by the Dems. It has been causing, overtly or covertly, human rights and sustainability problems around the world that are already at extreme crisis levels and indicating catastrophically worsening trends. US mass murders are fairly well-known, not least of all, along with police brutality not least of all against Afro-Ams. You´re not able to be honest, and that comes from the intense pressure of corporate-consumer culture and other issues. That´s key because the solution requires understanding and action, as with the way Christians ended slavery, absolute monarchy, and established constitutional democracy, Civil Rights, social co-op biz, not for profits, and human rights. Science has studied meditation and prayer as basic practices of spirituality and religion. Social Scientific and humanities analysis addresses or provides the analytical skills to understand the various levels of coherence, correspondence to reality, and emergent properties that reflect the phenomena of religious traditions. Jesus legacy in University-based society with globalization has become central to understanding the role of his loving integrity in legitimating pluralism and spiritual-religious phenomena no less.

Nobody Knows Anything For Sure

Nico Her Leo Clar yeah, I would consider myself an agnostic as well. Nobody KNOWS anything for sure, in the realm of beliefs, that's kind of the point. But I like to leave room for openness, optimism and curiosity. Without turning one's back at science. I think, both is possible, and has their justification. It's two "tools" for the curious mind. One looking outward (studying the world), one looking inward (at things mind, consciousness, "soul". One can find both intriguing, right? Just leave others their freedom to do the same in their way.)🙂 &&& Actually, your assertion, "Nobody KNOWS anything for sure in the realm of beliefs" is self-negating. That very assertion intends to know something for sure, after all. Yet, it negates itself. It implies that somebody does know something for sure, but it´s not you. What you know for sure, however, you didn´t clarify. That You don´t know anything for sure, would be legitimate enough for you. Meanwhile, Socrates´ wisdom is about someone knowing their own "ignorance" or lack of knowledge about things. Jesus´ wisdom is about loving oneself and loving others at the same level. The path through Jesus´ legacy of loving integrity in University-based society has much to teach in that regard.

Catalytic and Emergent Substitutionary Atonement that Potentializes Spiritual Practice for Personal Effort in Transpersonal Psychosocial Development

brmckay greenpeaceRdale1844coop • 3 hours ago • edited "By Jesus´ birth, ...Aristotle´s peripatetic philospher school with some scientific potential had long since been reduced to neoplatonism. ...Buddha´s, Pantanjali´s, Lao Tzu´s, and like legacies had interesting roads to follow." Plotinus (c. 205 – c. 270) doesn't seem "reduced" to me. And Buddha, Patanjali, and LaoTsu represent heroic high points in human comprehension. (by my standards) Much like Christ, if you don't get distracted by Christians. (to paraphrase Gandiji) "Divine Love is amazing. Thank you, Jesus. Stay blessed in that protective and providential condition." "Divine Love" would clearly represent the Quality of first cause. Though I admit a literal reading of "mirrors" understates it. (relying on leaps of intuition and direct experience to fill the gap) • Reply • Share › − Avatar greenpeaceRdale1844coop brmckay • a few seconds ago Recognizing Plotinus as "reduced" requires more than opining on personal perceptions. Let me help clarify the meaning of reductionism, that is when we are talking about empirical sense-perceived phenomena and the knowledge domains developed from them, most extensively in Christian-based modern University scholarship. Thus, at that time, Aristotle´s empirical proto-scientific work was "reduced" in that neoplatonists subordinated his work to their neoplatonic musing. As a neoplatonist, he was limited by that system of metaphysical logic. Galen and some other odd-men-out appeared as more empirically scientific still in Roman times, but not in the Academy that was ended in 529. Plotinus no less was pagan as Christianity was spreading despite persecution, part of Christianity´s spreading for very substantive reasons. Rodney Stark studied it in depth most recently. You are able to appreciate a span of resources like Buddha, Pantanjali, and Lao Tzu, besides Plotinus, Aristotle, et al BECAUSE OF the existing development of modern University-based scholarship in the Western world, now globalized. Your perception of them as high points firstly involves that, and that system reflects what? Christians following the pivotal work of the monk Thomas of Aquinas and his reflecting on Aristotle and the nature of epistemology, in the same era as proto-modern scientific philosophers like Bishop Robert Grosseteste. Further essential steps include the renowned but undervalued efforts of Martin Luther to end Roman church autocracy, T Jefferson in leading the end of absolute monarchy with constitutional democracy and Civil Rights, the 1893 Chicago Parliament of World Religions as University-based Comparative Religious Studies was developing with the likes of Max Mueller, WR Smith, and R Otto. Your standards have some strong points, but you´re not honoring the water you´re swimming in, so to speak. When you cite Gandhi´s critique of "Christian hypocrisy," you have to examine your own interpretation of that. Is Gandhi´s comment a full and comprehensive scholarly analysis calling all of Christianity a hypocritical folly? That´s untenable, and unjustifiable. Gandhi wasn´t attacking all of Western civilization. Gandhi´s statement was addressing the common condition he encountered related to the basic conditions of British colonialism and greedy materialism, not least of all characterized by his other famous quote about there being enough for everyone´s need, but not their greed. You are clearly making a reductionist use of Gandhi´s phrase about "Christians being unlike Christ," and missing the larger substance of modernized loving integrity in Jesus´ legacy. Another angle would be appreciating how Gandhi´s law degree, reading of Thoreau and Ruskin, and written contact with Tolstoy related to his own non-violent satyagraha and renaming of the Untouchable Dalits as Harijan Children of God. That is a spirit of Civil Rights democracy, and it makes one additional refutation of any claim that Gandhi harbored an anti-Christian ideology. I would capitalize First Cause, not least of all in association with Divine Love. As a quality, it is merely divine love. First Cause, interestingly, is a philosophical and logical extrapolation using empirical methods in metaphysical induction and deduction. The qualities of the First Cause firstly would include its being timeless, spaceless, and immaterial, for starters. The reflection further that mechanicism doesn´t make sense in a timeless, and eternal, condition, making its Act of Creation of the physical Universe an act of intention and expression, and personal. The physical Universe itself is challenging, and the appearance of human tool-using cognition and social behavior and later fully symbolic cognition object-related and relationally underlie then one level of emergence. In that level, human spiritual-religious experience emerged in parallel strikingly in shamanism. The quality of expression of Divine Love has no comparison to what emerged with Jesus, with the Four Gospels recording material that now lends God´s full blessing for insight in the process and practice of Comparative Religious Studies. How does "mirrors" as a term relate to that? Buddha summed it up nicely with "Hate never ends with hate, only with the end of hate." That has a more salubrious quality than "an eye for an eye...." that Moses began to reorient with God´s top 10 Commandments. In the persistence of greed and anti-sociality called sin in standard OT Jewish life, the prophets expressed God´s perceptions in their coherence and developmental correspondence with events. Humans were mirroring each others bio-psychosocial tendencies to sin in their various ways, that Buddha nicely sums up as ignorance, greed, and hatred. Jesus´ full complement and range of healing and other miracles and teaching of loving principles then has its significance usually interpreted with limited insight around the concept of "substitutionary atonement." The clear meaning is better expressed as "catalytic emergent substitutionary atonement for potentialized spiritual development in spiritual practice." (Catalytic and Emergent Substitutionary Atonement that Potentializes Spiritual Practice for Personal Effort in Transpersonal Psychosocial Development) Anthony of the Desert represents a significant and undervalued development with his asceticism that prompted Christian monasticism. Jesus´ execution at the prompting of local religious leaders and by imperial government assumed the form and significance of religious theological sacrificing of animals. His subsequent Resurrection marked his mission and teaching messages for their special significance, and his post-Resurrection contact with his Disciples catalyzed them in promoting this new level of expression of God´s Divine Love embodied in the world. Mary Baker Eddy understood the concept that Jesus was reflecting that Love, and demonstrated its results. Thus, as the Disciples reflected that new mirroring, a new kind of Hall of Mirrors was being developed, making it recognizably emergent. The Buddha had sparked an important form for comparison and invigoration. Anthony of the Desert the ascetic by 300, inspired Pachomius after 318, who sparked modern Christian monasticism and its spiritual practice for spiritual development. That is the process that led to Thomas of Aquinas and Christian modern Universities and philosophical forms. Their deviation into materialistic development now requires the insight of Jesus as a catalytic and emergent influence that makes possible, i.e. "potentializes," new levels and forms of spiritual practice and personal growth to achieve what can perhaps best be called in modernity as "sustainable spirituality." That identifies a number of processes that I think address your reference to "leaps of intuition and direct experience."