We Are Not Saved

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/and-there-was-silence-in-heaven/  In the Book of Revelation we read that when the seventh seal was opened there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. In this post I'm going to engage in some spurious scriptural speculation about what that might mean. 

Delve into the intriguing world of supernormal stimuli and their impact on human behavior. Explore how exaggerated stimuli, like artificial foods and pornography, distort our decision-making and societal health. The podcast examines the blurry lines between reality and porn, noting the growing influence of virtual reality technologies. Critical questions arise about morality and the shifting cultural landscape. It also highlights the addictive nature of VR pornography and its potential dangers, linked to our deep-rooted evolutionary drives.

Somehow I got the two audio files mixed up. So I published my substack thinking it was my Patheos piece, so now I'm publishing that Patheos piece. I will go through and try and fix some links, but I don't think I can fix it entirely... In any case here's the Patheos Audio: Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/technological-salvation/  Two groups have a narrative of human potential — a sense of humanity’s ultimate destiny: the Actively Religious and the Radical Humanists. The former our ultimate salvation will occur in partnership with the divine (e.g. God). For the latter we are destined to be saved by our own efforts. These similarities invite us to consider both as paths to salvation, albeit very different ones.  

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/tribe-by-sebastian-junger-and-the  The Siege of Sarajevo killed 20% of the population, a horror most of us can scarcely grasp, yet those who survived it look back on the siege as a period of unique happiness. Why should that be?

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/chestertons-fence-and-technology/ G. K. Chesterton noted that one shouldn't remove a fence until you understand why it was there in the first place. This is a great analogy for the concept of the traditions which have been passed down to us by religion. Technology allows us to remove a lot of fences, but are we sure we understand why they were there to begin with?

Expanding on Nick Bostrom's metaphor for technological development — it's like drawing balls of various shades from an urn, and if you ever draw a pure black ball, the world ends...

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/separating-the-beneficial-from-the-barbarous/ Clearly there are some traditions which should be abandoned. And just as clearly there are some which should be preserved. But what are we to do with the vast majority which fall in the middle?

There's significant evidence that traditional practices were beneficial and adaptive. But many reject traditions as relics of a barbarous past. How do we make that determination?

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/the-technology-of-religion-vs-the-technology-of-progress/ Religion is a very old technology, and the wisdom contains is often hard to identify. This is unlike the technology we create intentionally, where the goal is always obvious. When these two technologies come into conflict who should we decide between them. It's easy and attractive to go with the new, but by dispensing with the old we may be incurring harms that will only manifest years or decades later.

Feminism Against Progress by: Mary Harrington Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine by: Robert H. Lustig Categories by: Aristotle Prior Analytics by: Aristotle The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field by: Mike Michalowicz The Butcher's Masquerade: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 by: Matt Dinniman  Xenocide (The Ender Saga, 3): by: Orson Scott Card When We Cease to Understand the World by: Benjamin Labatut The Sandman 3 by: Neil Gaiman The New Jerusalem by: G. K. Chesterton