Much of life’s wisdom may be found in the original Star Trek. In the episode “What are Little Girls Made Of?” a scientist has made androids into which he was able (he thought) to transfer his own consciousness, but in the end, realized he had become only a machine after all. Pinocchio in reverse, as it were. Much of this wisdom is gone by The Next Generation and further iterations. At one point in the original, Lt. Uhura had the line “Don’t you see? They aren’t talking about the sun up in the sky, but the Son of God.” TNG later referred to other civilizations as going through their superstitious/religious phase. By Deep Space 9, religion is totally corrupt and venal. Oh, well…
A great irony is that this conversation itself is the guy in the gorilla suit (especially this installment), but those that have aligned, or aspire to align, their wetware towards being human are the most likely readers: the rest are staring Yuval Harari in the eyes while a guy in a gorilla suit is walking right behind him.
The thing about Harari though is, if he’s right, he’s right. If there’s no God, we have no value. No rights. I’m surprised Atheists are drawn to him. He should be terrifying to them. I think he’s the greatest anti-atheist argument going.
You do need to discuss books with others, especially the Bible. One might think Onan was put to death by God for self-gratification, but it was actually a sacred tradition he was failing, by not giving his elder brother’s widow a child.
Then there are words, whose pronunskiation (I got that from the Popeye movie) is almost impossible, without a dictionary + a proper education, or someone telling you how to pronounce it. Absolutely no one gets “askance” correct the first time. And with today’s education, I don’t think kids know how to read phonetic spelling, or have a clue that the upside down lowercase e is the schwa sound. 🤷🏼♂️
I’m 63 and I was horribly educated in public schools. In Dover in the very early 70’s, the entire day was phonetic spelling. Having never encountered that before I spent the 2nd half of second grade absolutely lost. High school was an even bigger disaster.
I’m from Queens originally and went to Catholic school there and then in the DC suburbs of Maryland. The standards in each place were about the same. I had phonics, reading, penmanship, and the typical subjects. We had religion/theology as a subject, but we never read and discussed the Bible. I believe that was a mistake on the archdioceses’ part.
I was in Aberdeen, MD 4-12 grades. The first 4 in a Catholic school grade school. 7-12 at the local high school. This was the late 70’s. The teachers seemed exhausted and taught us the craziest things. One I remember the most was that states rights led to slavery, so very bad. The other was that our Constitution was based in part on the constitution of the 5 tribes of NY 🫤
I never heard anything like that from my Catholic school teachers. Even when Roe v Wade was passed, the Bernadine sisters (including the principal) let us debate it in 8th Grade class. They liked how we handled it that we took the debate to church, so the parents could watch. We had to use the church because we didn’t have an auditorium.
I mean.... I guess it's a little creative to turn Child sacrifice to the sex Gods into "choice" "freedom" and "gender affirming care". Granted, it is a predatory creativity. And also granted that if more of us were reading and learning to think, We wouldn't be lured quite so easily.
In his recently released book, "Experience Jesus. Really.", John Eldridge makes the case that we have all been discipled by the internet. Very reminiscent of conforming to the image of the idol we are worshipping. This discipling is more about the process than the details or the info, much as a worshipper comes to rely on the idol.
Or as René Gerard put it a memetic contagion in his theory in “I saw satan fall like lightning “ a thesis’s of an online “pile on” all be it a dull & ever lasting one , similar to the human behaviour that got Jesus nailed to a post minus the internet & dreary prose .
Except in this case the victim in the victim mechanism lives a ground hog day experience . instead of being dispatched nailed to a post you’er nailed to an inbox !
Let’s all hope , nay believe in the resurrection as that’s the only escape form the long excruciating death by dull ever lasting email contagion .
P. S. This was written on a computer by a human being , now breathe out !
Much of life’s wisdom may be found in the original Star Trek. In the episode “What are Little Girls Made Of?” a scientist has made androids into which he was able (he thought) to transfer his own consciousness, but in the end, realized he had become only a machine after all. Pinocchio in reverse, as it were. Much of this wisdom is gone by The Next Generation and further iterations. At one point in the original, Lt. Uhura had the line “Don’t you see? They aren’t talking about the sun up in the sky, but the Son of God.” TNG later referred to other civilizations as going through their superstitious/religious phase. By Deep Space 9, religion is totally corrupt and venal. Oh, well…
A great irony is that this conversation itself is the guy in the gorilla suit (especially this installment), but those that have aligned, or aspire to align, their wetware towards being human are the most likely readers: the rest are staring Yuval Harari in the eyes while a guy in a gorilla suit is walking right behind him.
The thing about Harari though is, if he’s right, he’s right. If there’s no God, we have no value. No rights. I’m surprised Atheists are drawn to him. He should be terrifying to them. I think he’s the greatest anti-atheist argument going.
You do need to discuss books with others, especially the Bible. One might think Onan was put to death by God for self-gratification, but it was actually a sacred tradition he was failing, by not giving his elder brother’s widow a child.
Then there are words, whose pronunskiation (I got that from the Popeye movie) is almost impossible, without a dictionary + a proper education, or someone telling you how to pronounce it. Absolutely no one gets “askance” correct the first time. And with today’s education, I don’t think kids know how to read phonetic spelling, or have a clue that the upside down lowercase e is the schwa sound. 🤷🏼♂️
If God put people to death for ‘self gratification’ he would have killed me several times a day when I was younger.
Basically, the entire male population. 😂
I’m 63 and I was horribly educated in public schools. In Dover in the very early 70’s, the entire day was phonetic spelling. Having never encountered that before I spent the 2nd half of second grade absolutely lost. High school was an even bigger disaster.
I’m from Queens originally and went to Catholic school there and then in the DC suburbs of Maryland. The standards in each place were about the same. I had phonics, reading, penmanship, and the typical subjects. We had religion/theology as a subject, but we never read and discussed the Bible. I believe that was a mistake on the archdioceses’ part.
I was in Aberdeen, MD 4-12 grades. The first 4 in a Catholic school grade school. 7-12 at the local high school. This was the late 70’s. The teachers seemed exhausted and taught us the craziest things. One I remember the most was that states rights led to slavery, so very bad. The other was that our Constitution was based in part on the constitution of the 5 tribes of NY 🫤
I never heard anything like that from my Catholic school teachers. Even when Roe v Wade was passed, the Bernadine sisters (including the principal) let us debate it in 8th Grade class. They liked how we handled it that we took the debate to church, so the parents could watch. We had to use the church because we didn’t have an auditorium.
I mean.... I guess it's a little creative to turn Child sacrifice to the sex Gods into "choice" "freedom" and "gender affirming care". Granted, it is a predatory creativity. And also granted that if more of us were reading and learning to think, We wouldn't be lured quite so easily.
What a bleak future for my grandchildren if their parents are not very careful with their education.
In his recently released book, "Experience Jesus. Really.", John Eldridge makes the case that we have all been discipled by the internet. Very reminiscent of conforming to the image of the idol we are worshipping. This discipling is more about the process than the details or the info, much as a worshipper comes to rely on the idol.
Well said, Spencer.
Or as René Gerard put it a memetic contagion in his theory in “I saw satan fall like lightning “ a thesis’s of an online “pile on” all be it a dull & ever lasting one , similar to the human behaviour that got Jesus nailed to a post minus the internet & dreary prose .
Except in this case the victim in the victim mechanism lives a ground hog day experience . instead of being dispatched nailed to a post you’er nailed to an inbox !
Let’s all hope , nay believe in the resurrection as that’s the only escape form the long excruciating death by dull ever lasting email contagion .
P. S. This was written on a computer by a human being , now breathe out !
So, we are in danger of becoming like Pygmalion? Those ancient Greeks knew a lot.
Amen.