Psychology

The Iron Prison of The Incoherent God

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I continue to speculate on the future of Christianity and “anthropomorphic monotheistic” religions. Mostly Christianity because I live in America. I’ve started looking at some of the utter crazy I see, from Christian Nationalists, to conspiracy theorists, to politicians who manage more than two faces. I’ve started thinking it’s a kind of prison.

Let me back up a bit.

First, when I discuss monotheism, I’m describing anthropomorphic monotheism, which assumes an all powerful omniscient deity who is also possessed of identifiable human traits and idiosyncrasies. I’m not talking the more abstract or neo-Platonic or transcendent ideas, but “ultimate power that in its true form is basically a superpowered person.” I find it’s an idea people who believe rarely question theologically despite the fact it’s hard to reconcile considering.

Anyway, I noticed people who had these beliefs also contain a heavy amount of weird instability if not outright insanity. It finally struck me that be it true believer or religious scam artist, this idea will drive you nuts as it’s about prison.

If you truly believe in a god that is all-powerful, all-seeing, and as biased and emotional as you that’s utterly terrifying. There is no escape from them. There is no bargaining with them. They are just as messed up as the average person and they control the universe. To believe in such a god is to believe you are permanently trapped and at their mercy.

You are in prison you are never getting out and the being in charge is is just as erratic as anyone else. Try figuring how people cope with that.

But let’s say you’re a megachurch pastor or conspiracy podcaster. Truth doesn’t matter a lot, as you’re here to make money. You just have to talk about the Superpowerful Man Who Controls all, but you don’t have to believe. You might not even be able to believe considering your career in bullshit.

But you’ll still go a little crazy and definitely sound crazy because you’re still in prisoni

If you’re just a religious scam artist who praces anthropomorphic monotheism, you essentially have a writing problem – your prison is the tales you spin.. You have to explain why the god you don’t believe in is like they are. You have to explain their human side and their omnipotent and omniscient sides. You are essentially managing the theological equivalent of an extended cinematic universe, mixing marketing and continuity, and almost certainly failing. Your theology is going constantly need maintenance.

This is going to be hard. There are always going to be holes in your story and you’re always editing and re-editing your theology. After awhile that will probably make you a little unbalanced, as you’re always changing and always under threat at making a mistake. This probably explains why so many “religious” public figures seem to give up after awhile and just mouth platitudes.

I think in our complex modern world, facing so many challenges, with so much knowledge, it’s hard for anthropomorphic monotheism to continue. The rapid changes of the world are hard to explain. The theological challenges difficult. The burden of mass media “keeping up” is hard.

I think there future of Christianity is going to be more crazy from people coping with the prison experience and the constant rewrites. But I also think there’s going to be more shrugging and mouthing platitudes because people who are faking belief are tired and figure they can just lie and get away with it. Hypocrisy and insanity.

Our world is more complex than limited theological ideas. Ramming it into such a mold is madness, and the wages of such activity is madness as well.

-Xenofact

Doing Or Watching Myself Do?

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One of the weird things about meditation is what you learn about yourself – like it or not. I have sometimes said that whatever other values meditation has, the things along the way are beneficial. A lot of it comes from understanding your own habits, obsessions, and mistakes.

In this case, I’d like to talk about learning the difference between doing and watching.

My meditative practice, as noted often, is informed by The Secret of the Golden Flower (Cleary Translation) among other readings. I tune my breath to be slow and even as I watch it, refining my breath and my awareness as I go. I sometimes call it the Triple Action as following, slowing, and evening is all one.

Without going into the benefits and experiences – as I and others note discussing goals often distracts from the act – it’s fascinating to see what happens when I get off track. If you’re not a meditatior and wonder “how can you get off track by just breathing evenly and slowly” then my advice is “try to do it consistently for five minutes.”

So anyway there I am meditating and tuning my breath, feeling strangely distracted and distant, and of course I continue to meditate since that continuity is part of the point. I continued and still felt like something wasn’t quite right, that I couldn’t quite focus. Then suddenly I become aware of what’s happening.

I’m not just there following my ever-refining breath, I’m watching myself do it. I’m following the watching of myself. It’s like doing something by looking in a mirror – just a lot of what we do is looking at reflections of ourselves in our own mind, our own self-image. I was so intent on the mirror I kept losing focus on the thing I wanted to pay attention to – my breath.

Now I kept up with my practice – insights can be distractions – but that stuck with me when I was done. Sometimes you’re not watching something, you’re watching watching. Sometimes you’re not thinking, you’re thinking about yourself thinking. The human mind can get into some pretty wild infinite recursion, which is immediately obvious as soon as you remember your last neurotic obsession.

This was a reminder of how we can make simple things very complex, how we over-think, over-monitor, and end up abstract from our lives. It’s pretty amazing what following your tuned breath can reveal to you.

But don’t let such realizations distract you.

  • Xenofact

The Intake

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The five colors blind the eye.
The five sounds deafen the ear.
The five tastes harm the palate.
Dashing about riding and hunting injure the mind.
Rare goods lead one astray.
The sage is for the root not the eye.
They take one, discard the other.

-Tao Te Ching Chapter 12, interpretation

This chapter from the Tao Te Ching is one that I hadn’t thought of initially, just assuming it was about getting caught up in things. Over the last few years I’d come to realize how profound it is, and I have to say the internet played a huge role in that.

Not using the internet for research. But watching how overloaded with crap it is, and how it sells us crap. Does it seem like we’re overloaded with things to buy? Is there endless hype and things you’re told you want? Are you trying to keep up with the latest hyped game and getting the graphic card you’ll need? The internet in Web 3.0 is a gigantic device meant to overload the senses, keep us online, sell ads, and sell products.

And, as I became disgusted with the state of Web 3.0, I began to really get this chapter.

Humans can only process so much information. Some of that is the limitations of our senses and systems, but some of it is a blessing because we’re information, and taking in too much ruins who we are. To be who you are, you can’t drown yourself in information, but process it so you grow effectively. Information is a lot like nutrition, you choose the right input, the right amount, and you’re healthy and functional.

Web 3.0 is a mixture of buffet, processed food, and force feeding for the mind. It’s not good for us, and people are using it to drain our attention, money, and time.

So now I get this quote. Too much stimuli, unselected and unchosen, numbs us, distracts us, and misguides us. We have to be selective, we have to keep aware of who we are, centered, so we don’t numb and distract ourselves. It also keeps us from being exploited.

Its a reminder of how some common sense has been written down over the aeons . . . and how we have to keep rediscovering it.

-Xenofact