Seneca On Religion As Useful to the Rulers, and Then Came Jesus

Ir Mi "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Mark Rego Monteiro Ir Min Ah, he died 65 AD/CE. While Christianity is subject to the humanity, the biological tendencies of its humans, its special accomplishments reflect an unusual ability to generate effective resurgent integrity proponents of Jesus´ loving integrity. Thus, Christians developed monasticism, monastic schools into Universities, broke off from Roman church autocracy, unleashed the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, and economic organizations, began to end absolute monarchy, ended slavery with Civil Rights and pioneered social and ecological movements, and founded the UN with human rights and now sustainability. FDR and Eleanor were raised on the Social Gospel, Gandhi loved Jesus and read the Bible regularly as a Hindu and trained lawyer, and Rev MLK helped lead the 1960s counterculture for Civil Rights. The cynical secular materialists that buys into Seneca don´t quite understand themselves and the chains they refuse to doff. Seneca the Younger - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger Irene Minerick Mark Rego Monteiro what chains? I know exactly what I am without following a religious organization. I know for a fact I’m free from any religious dogma that people use to control the masses. The religious “leaders” twist every thing that mankind has written in their bibles, Torah, Quran, Sutra etc..., to suit their own agendas, as they killed in the name of their god. They use their “books” to control the masses to their way of thinking and judge others who don’t walk in lockstep with their “beliefs.” Christianity did not unleashed scientific, economic revolution or enlightenment of any kind, it tried to stifle it. Plus religion had nothing to with the Civil War either. Do you know what Christians have done to scientists, doctors and great thinkers? They prosecuted and harmed them in so many ways. BTW, no “god” wrote anything. If there was a “god,” wouldn’t you think there would be only ONE holy book and not the many that exist today? There would be only one religion, one set of tenets/rules that people must follow, not the many dozens that exists today that people use to harm and judge others. I’m a Humanist, I believe there are a lot of good people out there vs evil. My favorite quote by Thomas Paine captures what I believe and strive for every single day.... “The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” Check out how religion destroyed people. This is just one small example of the harm religion has caused throughout mankind’s history... https://www.wired.com/.../famous-persecuted-scientists/amp Galileo to Turing: The Historical Persecution of Scientists WIRED.COM Galileo to Turing: The Historical Persecution of Scientists Galileo to Turing: The Historical Persecution of Scientists · Reply · 11h Peter Smith Mark Rego Monteiro since almost everyone had to be everyone had to be Christian (at least outwardly) in those days, its no surprise "Christians" did those things! Again, you are confusing correlation with causation. · Reply · 4h Mark Rego Monteiro Irene Minerick You´re free of chains? So, a fixation on scapegoating a human institution and behavior with no balanced and well-informed scholarship except for a dirty laundry list is your standard of "free thinking"? That´s a fixated viewpoint, and tendentious scholarship, at best, and ideological bigotry on the bad side. Thus, you fail entirely to grasp any sense of my points because of the lens of your humanist materialist anti-religionist dogma. So, to help disclose the commitments to truth over ideology, I have a degree in Bio Anthro, worked in social services, activist, interfaith seeker become Christian, and masters in IR and more, and when you start scapegoating religion, nothing remains for me but to point out your fallacious ideology and correct your fixation. Max Weber made an effort to identify the "spirit of capitalism" in comparative perspective to identify why capitalism arose in Western Europe. That´s another point to add to what I already mentioned about "economic organizations." But the point applies from another angle. Chinese authorities have committed their own inquisitions and atrocities, as with the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang who killed millions. The Chinese Literary Inquisitions have been a recurring historical phenomena hardly linked to the abstractions of Christian theology, involving such offenses as a writer offending an emperor in which whole families would be killed. King Ashoka in India converted to Buddhism because of the brutality of the wars he led. Let´s go to Islam, the Aztecs, the ancient Greeks, and the Romans, for starters in assessing human bio-psychological tendencies. Thus, what distinguishes Christianity is not the appearance of human indulgence and violence, but how that violates the integrity standard set by Jesus and the early Christians. And then the manner in which that integrity resurged related to spiritual-religious experience. Your attempt to scapegoat religion and limit it to violence and "mind control" misses the point of establishing human beings´ bio-psychological tendencies as a standard. Unlike Christianity, Islam began with violent conquest, for its part. Its Golden Age of scholarship collapsed for a lack of cohesive forces. Yet, Islam has consolidated its presence, and its culture stands now in relation to Western Civilization, making clarification of Christianity´s role in the West quite important. And your kind of poorly informed anti-religious ideological extremism. (continued) · Reply · 1h Mark Rego Monteiro Irene Minerick "Christianity did not unleashed (sic) economic etc revolution of any kind....it tried to stifle it" You are trying to make an intelligent statement, but are just making an unjustified assertion that shows ideology at work, not understanding. Try to justify your point. You have heard of Galileo and maybe Darwin, and are stereotyping as badly as any Christian fundamentalist. I made empirical references to events, such as Christians developing monastic schools into modern Universities. That´s basic scholarly procedure. The educated monk Thomas of Aquinas at the U of Paris in the 1200s made historical foundational intellectual efforts that applied Christian standards to Aristotle´s incoherent position. First Cause logic by him explained led to an implication that there was a common origin of all things. He couldn´t reconcile that with an Eternal Universe, but stuck with the Eternal Universe. His God was an inaccessible Unmoved Mover, and he couldn´t correct his own ideas like there is no curved motion." Aquinas created the comprehensive philosophical educational foundations by applying the Christian logic to First Cause logic that linked Jesus´ omnipotent lawful personal and parental God to a lawful Creation. The church, meanwhile, is made of individuals, and Bishop Tempier of Paris responded to complaints that there were slavish followers of Aristotle adhering to his limiting assumptions. Tempier issued a Condemnation affirming God´s lawful omnipotence. That was good. The rest is fascinating and as basic as the church-monastic-University networks making all the scholarly work available to Newton, work by Kepler, Descartes, etc. "The Civil War....no religion" You apparently mean the US Civil War. You mean after groups like the Quaker Christians led abolition in the US North, with Lucretia Mott noteworthy in association with Afro-Am Marg Forten? Or Wm L Garrison influenced by Presbyt Rev John Rankin´s book? Or Quaker daughter Susan B Anthony´s pre-women´s suffrage abolitionism? Or Harriet B Stowe´s involvement with Christian abolitionist projects? Yeah, you´re not well informed and are wearing ideological blinders. "If there was a god (sic), there´d be only ONE holy book" You´re projecting and apparently rebelling against some doctrine that was likely forced on you. "Science" does provide a powerful perspective of sorts, but the Big Bang didn´t create monotony, but diversity. Same with sacred abiogenesis. The same with human evolution. The same with shamanism. The same with Christian-based University philsophical liberal arts that includes "science." My dad was ex-Catholic atheist humanist. I was raised valuing education and empiricism. We can trace biological evolution to human diversity. Jesus´ loving integrity for Moses and God has made possible modern University-based archeology and anthropology etc. That development has led to globalization and the UN human rights community. Even before that, Catholic missionaries already began studying China, leading to things like Schopenhauer´s and Emerson´s studying Hinduism, and later Swedenborgian Christian CC Bonney´s initiating the 1893 Parliament of World Religions. High integrity Christians led such initiatives despite church opposition. CC Bonney expressed a pluralist view, " But, properly understood, these varieties of view are not causes of discord and strife, but rather incentives to deeper interest and examination." In fact, pluralism goes back in Christianity to Jesus´ teachings to "go and learn" and the likes of the Apostle Paul´s reasoning and philosophers like Justin Martyr. It is the process that led to the high integrity Social Gospel educated FDR´s vision of the UN human rights that put up a high integrity Christian-based secular standard for the world´s religions. (continued) · Reply · 34m Mark Rego Monteiro Irene Minerick So, you´re a Humanist, and believe there are "good people vs evil." And where do you think you got your standards from? In terms of biological survival, the ancient Greek Alexander the Great had "good" down. Get in power when your polygamous mom goaded a jilted ex-lover ex-bodyguard of her husband King Philip of Macedon to assassinate him. Then, Alexander executed his family rivals. Is your good, "Might Makes Right"? And your "evil" Christian "Love thy neighbor as thyself"? Thomas Paine was the son of a Quaker, and his ideas reflect that. He also said, "My mind is my church" I recall. He remained a Deist, but opposed to church institutions. Yet, at his death, he requested burial in a Quaker cemetery. They refused because of his rather rebellious, scathing, and indiscreet reputation. That was Paine´s life. The Quakers have many fine examples, and their founder George Fox is excellent, with his spiritual reflection and identification of sitting in silent waiting for God´s inspiration based on an inner light in relation to Jesus. He´s usually linked to a group of sixty founders, including Marg Fell who became his wife, and wrote for women´s rights. You want to sustain your anti-religious fixation. That is not sufficient to understand not just the "good," but the healing power of love. Philosopher Spinoza had a key insight about emotional awareness around the time of George Fox, but even more comprehensive and linked to the Quaker community was Elias Hicks around the time of Paine´s passing. Lucretia Mott was influenced by Hicks. Also of note was the native Seneca prophet Handsome Lake, who was an prominent tribal figure and alcoholic who had a vision. The vision has been analyzed for how it combines Quaker and Native values. HL´s alcoholism was cured, as were others. Jefferson wrote him a letter of congratulations. Harriet Tubman is another interesting figure. Injured on the head, she began having visions in her life of spiritual significance that are associated with her becoming devoutly religious. As Rev MLK said, "I would urge you to give priority to the search for God. Allow his spirit to permeate your being....If you don not have a deep and patient faith in God, you will be powerless to face the delays, disappointments, and vicissitudes that inevitably come.”