I get that I hurt your feelings, but you should stop placing yourself in a position that you know better than me. These posts just are not going to age well for you.

Unlike you, I understand that posts don't age -- they just fade away.

Good luck with your endeavors.

craig, allow me to tell you a story.

Back in the mid-90’s, I was following an old man from Missouri on CompuServe (do you remember CompuServe?). He was amazing. He was a self-proclaimed prophet with unbelievable knowledge of the Bible, and life, really. He would write volumes. I read and responded to the posts I could, but there was just too much.

So, I printed out his long volumes. I have a dozen, 3-inch, 3-ring binders in the basement full of his stuff.

The problem came when he started “recruiting”. There were a number of us who would have dropped everything and went to Missouri. One did. But then he got irrational. It went from solid knowledge, and rational thought, to weirdness. Like, “Jesus of the 90’s” type stuff.

I will never read all those volumes in my basement, and my kids will just throw them away when I die.

Moral: old posts just fade away.

And yet, it is you who will soon be locked up in a small room with metal bars on the window. Are you excited already? No internet, just some wardens who keep saying "Yeah, allright" when you tell them bits of your precious wisdom.

I appreciate you sharing this. Do you realize that because you experienced this and hold the memory that you are far less likely to have it repeat? It’s understandable to retreat back into the familiar and rationality after this, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not worth taking another risk.

I had my own experience of getting burned a while back. I got duped into believing that a computer program I paid for could influence the subconscious mind which turned out to be a complete scam when the people behind it got exposed and were never heard from again. It was a reality check and made me much less open to external guidance, but it’s not a final judgment on the irrational desire for the meaning and fulfillment that calls to us.

Our internal desires aim us and guide us the more we engage them. The reason why we can get mislead by external guidance is because we get seduced by the appeal of bypassing the struggle. We don’t try the hardest options first. Getting burned by the external is part of the process of turning inward. The idea that because we are unable to bypass the struggle means we should quit is simply an idea to get us to quit.

Yep. That's exactly what the old Missouri prophet would have said.

Ill respond to what you said, but I got one follow up question:

Do you believe we already know most of life & universe or would you agree with me that there is still waaaaay more to discover than what we discovered so far?

If you only see the discussion through the lens of manipulation or status competition, then this is how you will respond. It can also be seen as a collaboration toward closer contact with reality/truth.

I would agree with you. But don't push some emotional belief on me without sound evidence.

"Miracle is faith's dearest child. and the deeper the faith, so much more does man snatch at miracles, however foolish, to be its stay and support." ~ Erwin Schrodinger, My View of the World

"No religion is truth but truth is found in them all." Come on. This is kindergarten comparative religion.

The act of believing in miracles as a last ditch effort to cling to hope and meaning is completely understandable to me. Accepting the truth of nihilism is difficult for everyone. At least these people are still in the game and haven’t quit the journey even if they are resisting the next level.

It's the person discounting this world for the magical and miraculous perfect next one that has devalued this life. The person who has not sacrificed this world is the one living on bravely without panacea fantasies along the trek. Try some Nietzsche or Viktor Frankl. We don't need any of the thousands of gods to avert meaninglessness ... they are obviously all made up anyway (where did we get the thousands, oh, we made them up). So what kind of meaning do they provide except mythological?

The place where people need to get is to see an unjust world but still pursue meaning with an obsession and ambition. That level of faith is difficult to get to; it needs to be developed.

Trust in the pursuit of meaning has to be conditioned into people before they can hold onto hard truths. An unjust world says the pursuit of meaning with willpower and ambition is futile. When they are faced with that, they have to draw on their established relationship with meaning in order to defy it. Otherwise, they will give up. Nietzsche took that for granted or overlooked it.

It’s the practice of seeing in the light to prepare for faith in the darkness. Believing in future rewards adds enough meaning to shift the balance of an unjust world to a just world. The more just and accommodating people see the world, the more they will pursue meaning. Think of it as a useful delusion if it helps you.

If you are implying that the meaning people get from the status quo religious offerings is ultimately insufficient, then I agree with you. But most of them are not ready to defy that resistance I previously mentioned. They haven’t amplified their desire for meaning enough yet. It needs to become entitlement. They need more irrationality and more delusion before they are ready for the hard truths. They also need more belief in their own potential, so they need more secularity and individualism also.

Well I'm a psych/lit major and that is a wowser. Let's dumb it down some:

Which religion is the right one and why?

If RGT does die I'm sure it will go to a better place

You’re asking that question because you are still very much a theist when it comes to rational, objective truth, so you approach spiritual development like getting the right answers for the quiz.

Unless we resign ourselves to agnosticism regarding rational, objective truth, then we won’t be able to become theists for irrational, objective truth, which turns spiritual development into more of a maze combined with an obstacle course. Does that make sense?

Perhaps you are invested in defending the wrong, indefensible answer. Any chance of that?

You really don't get to redefine "theist" to mean equating the quest for understanding with searching for god. That's either convoluted or a lie.

1. Which religion is the right one and why?
2. And why do the other thousands of religions exist when they are false?
3. And what does that mean for the nature of the dueling religions?

I'll take a shot at the numbered question strategy. A little while back I did it and someone spoke up for killing witches, like the good book says, right here in 2020, with no compunction he stood up for his god.

Determining whether I am right or wrong is not the issue. The question is whether or not you are willing to expose yourself to the judgment that comes with being wrong in a such a serious way. As long as the answer to that is no, then you have no freedom to determine whether I am right or wrong.

And you have to say the exact same thing for the other 10,000 religions. Hello. How you gonna do that? Pascal's Wager is entirely unbiblical anyway, because it is an insincere hedge, not a committed discipleship. Anyone employing Pascal's Wager is not a Christian according to the Bible.

You guys are intent on blatantly showing me how much I am wasting my time here aren’t you?

You are totally stymied. You have no argument for the FACT that Pascal's Wager is totally un-Biblical yet you have bee relying on it or for the FACT that if you employ it for Christianity you have to employ it for all the religions, which you utterly fail to realize. You have nothing.

And so if I were to ask:

Why is mass murder, rape, slavery, blood sacrifice, stoning children to death for being disobedient, stoning women to death for not being a virgin, not wearing blends or eating shellfish, misogyny. sickness caused by demons ... why is all this featured in the Bible ...

IS IT BECAUSE IT ISN'T COMING FROM AN OMNISCIENT LOVING GOD BUT FROM PRIMITIVE MAN HIMSELF (ITS ALL JUST EXACTLY LIKE HIS SOCIETY, after all)???

If I ask that, you have to lie to defend the content of the good book.

I tried to nicely explain that to you in my old Missouri prophet story, but as usual, you didn't get it.

I repeat the quote. Einstein said: "There are three kinds of religion (and he didn't say it because he believes in myths):

1 Fear-based religion
2. Morality-based religion
3. Cosmos-based religion."

The first group is a disgrace to intelligence and dignity. The second group is an improvement. The third group bears the potential of becoming enlightened.