Based Camp - Avoiding Hippy Nonsense When Searching for Theological Truth

00:00:00.000 Generally, we think that people are following both a more accurate iteration of God by following the conservative traditions of their face and that they are following a totally true iteration of God.

00:00:14.520 So what I mean by that is the human mind is unable to really conceive of a four-dimensional space.

00:00:21.360 And we think of God as like a four-dimensional entity in this metaphor.

00:00:25.420 When a person is looking at the shadow of a three-dimensional cube and they just go as the shadow that was projected and they say this is what a cube is, they are actually saying something that is 100% true.

00:00:39.020 They are seeing a full and complete revelation of that cube as that cube can be revealed to someone of their intellect in that time in history.

00:00:49.060 If we were evangelizing to an average person, that evangelization doesn't look like follow us.

00:00:54.400 It looks like it go back to your traditions because that's the closest to truth you're going to get.

00:00:59.240 Would you like to know more?

00:01:00.720 Hello, you beautiful creature.

00:01:02.700 Hello, you beautiful creature.

00:01:04.960 You are the best, Simone.

00:01:06.520 And we are going to have a conversation today about a topic that I briefly touched on in the Our Religion video topic, but I want to get a lot deeper on.

00:01:16.300 Because one of the real risks around any religious belief system that believes that there can be multiple revelations from God or multiple prophets.

00:01:28.260 And this is why most of the more simple religious systems will say, no, no more prophets after this one, nothing else after this one.

00:01:38.180 Because it's easy to pass that culture with intergenerational fidelity. 0.93

00:01:42.020 Because if you don't, then any random person who's like a fucking magician can come along and claim, yeah, I'm the next prophet. 0.97

00:01:48.600 Or you can get the softening of the religion. 0.96

00:01:53.100 So a lot of people who will say something like, every religion has an element of truth, they say this in an attempt to soften their religious framework, right?

00:02:01.600 Going with the logic that if all religions have an element of truth to it, if any religion allows some behavior they want to undertake, then all religions should allow it.

00:02:10.380 Or that if any religion doesn't demand some action or penance from them, then no religion should demand that action or penance from them.

00:02:18.240 And you've seen people who do this.

00:02:21.540 They have some weird hippie nonsense as their belief system, and it's just pointless.

00:02:26.260 They end up forming what we call in the book, the pragmatist guide of crafting religion, a super soft culture or a super soft religious framework.

00:02:33.920 So when a person is building a world framework outside of any traditions or outside of science, like when you have dug down to the bottom, completely drained the ocean of their mind.

00:02:46.020 A lot of people think what is under there is secularism, and it is not.

00:02:51.000 Secularism, you know, when practiced rigidly is actually very – it can have a lot of religious aspects to it that cause people to go against their basal instincts.

00:03:00.780 Instead, what you find is this sort of like pre-programmed human religion, I guess I'd call it.

00:03:07.200 It's the scars of our evolutionary history.

00:03:10.540 You know, it's the belief that we're all connected, we're all sort of one.

00:03:15.300 They'll often have fetishes.

00:03:17.000 When I say a fetish, I don't mean like a sexual fetish.

00:03:20.200 I mean like an item that they believe has some sort of power to it, like a crystal or something like that.

00:03:26.920 They often believe that humans are divided into distinct categories.

00:03:31.340 You know, this would be like astronomy or is it astrology?

00:03:35.840 Astrology.

00:03:36.860 Astrology.

00:03:38.180 Astrology or like, you know, and I'm not saying that, you know, the secularists can't fall into this with stuff like Myers-Briggs nonsense.

00:03:46.180 Or like in Japan, you know, you've got your blood types.

00:03:49.600 Blood types, yeah.

00:03:50.500 But if you want to go into that, go into the Pragmentist Guide to Crafting Religion.

00:03:54.100 We go really deep into super soft cultures.

00:03:56.660 To go over some of the aspects of super soft cultures I forgot to discuss here.

00:04:00.900 They often have ceremonies tied to forgetting an adherence identity while dancing.

00:04:05.920 They often attribute agency to inanimate objects or animals.

00:04:09.600 And they often attribute power to intention.

00:04:12.300 We call this the power of wishy thinking.

00:04:14.220 Face.

00:04:14.700 What is it?

00:04:17.180 The simple answer is, we don't know.

00:04:20.580 Or at least we didn't know until now.

00:04:23.240 Hello, I'm Douglas Renham and I'm not a scientist.

00:04:26.440 But I do have a better understanding of what space is than any scientist living today.

00:04:32.200 Where did I gain these insights?

00:04:34.340 From this man, the founder of spaceology.

00:04:37.680 Beth Gargashaggy is the founder of spaceology.

00:04:41.680 A religion, not a cult.

00:04:44.260 In other words, when it comes to space, he's the man with his head screwed on tight.

00:04:48.940 This is what he told me when I met him on holiday.

00:04:51.640 Space is invisible mind dust.

00:04:53.740 And stars are what wishes.

00:04:55.120 I mean, think about that.

00:04:58.280 That means every star you can see in the night sky is a wish that has come true.

00:05:04.280 And they've come true because of something he calls space star ordering.

00:05:09.440 Space star ordering is based on the twin scientific principles of star maths and wishy thinking.

00:05:16.280 If that doesn't convince you, well then, maybe you just don't deserve to get what you want.

00:05:22.240 And they are really dangerous.

00:05:23.400 Like, people are like, well, how is that not obvious that that's the true culture?

00:05:26.720 Like, if it seems to be pre-programmed into us.

00:05:29.700 And the answer is, well, because cultures that fall into those practices almost immediately die out.

00:05:36.860 It is not an effective culture.

00:05:39.360 It does not seem to help people do well in our current world or environment.

00:05:45.080 Examples of God is love.

00:05:47.320 Like, that would be like a super soft culture thing to say.

00:05:50.120 Where they often see this sort of interconnectedness of all of humanity.

00:05:54.440 God being this big, like, emotional state, etc., etc.

00:05:57.980 We definitely do not take that perspective at all.

00:06:01.920 And I think that that perspective is really dangerous.

00:06:03.760 And it's always a danger if you are in a culture that is looking for truth and believes that truth has come through multiple iterations.

00:06:12.500 So you have, one, the new prophet problem. 0.70

00:06:14.660 Where a new prophet comes up and now says, I'm the last prophet.

00:06:17.480 And here's the new thing I'm adding.

00:06:18.840 Or you have the problem of just, like, the general begging.

00:06:22.580 And then somebody may say, well, but then why would you run the risk of teaching your kids that there will be other prophets in the future?

00:06:29.480 Or that there have been multiple prophets after any of the core prophets?

00:06:33.760 Well, for two reasons.

00:06:34.660 One is just the logical reason that we went over last time.

00:06:37.240 It would seem very capricious for God to give a message that you needed to know to be saved to people in ancient Israel.

00:06:45.600 And then not have that message spread to people in the Americas for, like, a thousand years.

00:06:50.000 Or, you know, all of the people who would have lived and died before that message was released.

00:06:54.620 That seems overly capricious to me.

00:06:56.060 Instead, we think God has always done his best at giving people the fullest prophecy they could comprehend in their time period.

00:07:02.760 And that could realistically become widely believed within their time period for each cultural group.

00:07:08.420 But two, and more importantly, if you are part of any of the major Judeo-Christian traditions, they all say this very explicitly.

00:07:16.580 That there will be future prophets.

00:07:18.100 And a lot of people don't know this because the iterations of those traditions that pretend like the Bible or the Koran or Mormons are much more aware that their books say this than other traditions.

00:07:28.580 But the iterations that pretend like they say there's not going to be any more prophets, they have an easier time spreading for the reason that we've talked about before.

00:07:35.020 And they stay healthier in terms of intergenerational cultural transfer than the ones who accept what's actually written in the books.

00:07:41.820 So, for Christians, if you look at something like Matthew 23-34, Jesus says,

00:07:46.020 In Ephesians 3-5, Paul refers to the prophets and apostles in the early church,

00:08:14.600 saying that there were, like, active prophets in the early church.

00:08:17.980 In Revelation 11-10, there is a reference to two prophets that will come in the end times.

00:08:23.740 So, all pretty clear indications there's going to be more prophets.

00:08:26.880 If you look at Mormons, when a journalist asked Joseph Smith if he was the prophet of God,

00:08:31.420 he said yes, and so is everyone else with the testimony of Jesus.

00:08:34.720 So, for Mormons, everyone is literally a prophet to some extent.

00:08:37.520 We don't believe that.

00:08:38.600 Well, kind of.

00:08:39.420 But we believe that some people have much more clear prophecies than others.

00:08:43.260 If you look at the Book of Mormon, Nephi says,

00:08:46.380 There came many prophets prophesying unto the people that they must repent,

00:08:50.080 or the great city Jerusalem would be destroyed.

00:08:53.360 That's 1 Nephi 1-4.

00:08:55.940 Or in Enos 1-2-2, Enos said that there were, quote,

00:08:59.820 Exceedingly many prophets among them, end quote.

00:09:02.140 Now, you might be thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:09:03.520 But I have heard from Muslim preachers that their book definitely says that Muhammad was the last prophet.

00:09:10.240 Well, what their book actually says is, quote,

00:09:13.620 Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the messenger of God and the seal of the prophets.

00:09:20.700 And God has full knowledge of all things.

00:09:23.260 That's Quran 3340.

00:09:24.800 That's what they use.

00:09:25.860 It's the line that's most commonly used to argue that the Quran says Muhammad is the last prophet.

00:09:30.400 It doesn't really say that, though.

00:09:32.100 It says that God knows all things, not that Muhammad knows all things. 0.95

00:09:37.520 It also says that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, but that can mean one of any number of things.

00:09:43.340 And when you take it in the context of other quotes from the Quran,

00:09:46.540 it seems pretty clearly not to mean that he is the last prophet of all times.

00:09:51.780 So if you look at, for example, Quran 1636.

00:09:55.680 For we sent amongst every people a messenger with the command, serve God and eschew evil.

00:10:02.940 So there's a messenger for every people.

00:10:05.100 And then Quran 3524.

00:10:07.540 Verily, we have sent you with the truth as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.

00:10:12.320 And there never was a nation, but a warner passed through them.

00:10:15.780 So there's never been a country without a prophet.

00:10:18.580 And then, quote,

00:10:20.120 Indeed, we have sent it down to you as an Arabic Quran that you might understand it.

00:10:25.060 This is Quran 12.2.

00:10:26.460 So this is, if it's sent down in Arabic, so you may understand it.

00:10:29.920 This is clearly speaking to Arabic speakers in the Arabic community.

00:10:33.960 Muhammad was meant to be the prophet to the Muslim community.

00:10:37.940 And that is what it says in the Quran.

00:10:40.020 So much so that it says, you know, similar to we believe,

00:10:43.440 which is very interesting that Islam has a lot in common with our beliefs,

00:10:46.420 or at least what's written in the Quran has a lot in common with our beliefs,

00:10:49.120 is that the different revelations were meant for different people.

00:10:53.800 So 548.

00:10:55.640 And we sent down to you the book in truth confirming what was before it of the scripture

00:11:01.120 and as a criterion over it.

00:11:02.980 So judge between them by what God has revealed

00:11:05.940 and do not follow their inclinations away from what has come to you of the truth.

00:11:10.420 This is 548.

00:11:11.800 So that's saying that the Quran was meant to confirm

00:11:17.360 both the Christian Bible and the Jewish Bible as true,

00:11:21.120 but conform it as true for their people,

00:11:23.720 as can be seen in some of these other lines.

00:11:25.740 So you've got 547.

00:11:28.040 So let the people of the Christian gospel judge by what God has revealed in it,

00:11:33.000 and those who do not judge by what God has revealed in it are truly rebellious.

00:11:37.520 That seems exceedingly clear to me that the Quran is saying that Christians

00:11:42.040 who don't follow what are in the Bible are living in open rebellion to God.

00:11:47.460 Now look at Quran 262.

00:11:50.100 Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians,

00:11:55.040 whoever believes in God and the last day, and does good,

00:11:58.800 they shall have their reward from the Lord,

00:12:00.700 and there will be no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.

00:12:03.840 So again, this is saying that you get rewarded if you're a Christian for following the Christian scriptures,

00:12:08.260 if you're a Jew for following the Jewish scriptures,

00:12:10.340 and if you're a Muslim for following the Muslim scriptures,

00:12:12.660 and that every country has a warner.

00:12:14.600 So presumably there's many more warners than just these warners.

00:12:18.520 Now you might say,

00:12:19.680 why don't I hear this from my Muslim friends?

00:12:22.620 And the answer is, is because a religion that's structured this way

00:12:26.000 is just going to do a very bad job at spreading, as you can see with us.

00:12:29.720 Like, there is no reason to proselytize an iteration of a faith

00:12:33.580 that thinks that most people already have a correct faith.

00:12:36.760 So those iterations of Islam that followed what the Quran actually said

00:12:40.920 didn't spread as far as the iterations that didn't.

00:12:44.040 And the way, or the story we will use with our kids to help them get around this,

00:12:50.700 and also understand the value of hard cultural traditions,

00:12:53.900 is the Tesseract.

00:12:56.500 The Tesseract model of God, we'll call it.

00:12:59.220 Or the four-dimensional model of God.

00:13:01.100 So I talked about this briefly, but I'd like to go a bit deeper into it.

00:13:05.160 So for people who are not familiar how four-dimensional shapes work,

00:13:08.800 vis-a-vis three-dimensional, two-dimensional shapes.

00:13:11.340 So a one-dimensional shape is a line.

00:13:14.080 A two-dimensional shape is like a flat drawing.

00:13:17.900 Like a square would be a two-dimensional shape.

00:13:19.800 A three-dimensional shape is something like a cube.

00:13:23.020 And a four-dimensional shape, a four-dimensional cube, is a Tesseract.

00:13:26.160 Now, we as humans cannot perceive four-dimensional shapes.

00:13:29.400 We can't even think about them.

00:13:30.980 It is, no human can think about a four-dimensional shape.

00:13:33.840 Very interesting story here.

00:13:35.760 The guy who invented the concept of the Tesseract

00:13:38.460 and was a real prodigy of four-dimensional space,

00:13:42.400 what he thought is he's like,

00:13:43.560 okay, I as a person don't often engage with three-dimensional spaces.

00:13:50.740 And maybe if I engaged with three-dimensional spaces more,

00:13:54.380 I would have a better time being able to imagine

00:13:56.940 what a four-dimensional shape would look like,

00:13:59.060 like in my developmental stages.

00:14:01.060 So he invented the, do you know what he invented?

00:14:03.920 The jungle gym.

00:14:05.240 The jungle gym, yes.

00:14:06.640 He created a jungle gym.

00:14:08.000 But these early jungle gyms were just three-dimensional grids 0.95

00:14:11.220 that kids would climb within.

00:14:12.440 Yeah, I remember there was one in like

00:14:14.380 one of my top childhood playgrounds.

00:14:16.580 It was sufficiently dangerous and perfect.

00:14:19.300 One of these total four-dimensional grids.

00:14:21.460 I mean, three-dimensional grids.

00:14:22.660 Yeah, and he would label the points on it

00:14:24.820 with different things and be like,

00:14:26.580 go to point A, three, B or something.

00:14:28.940 Oh my God.

00:14:29.860 And the kids would have to run.

00:14:31.220 Like that was the game he played to the point.

00:14:33.080 So he tried to, turns out it did not help his kids

00:14:35.560 be able to imagine four-dimensional shapes.

00:14:37.360 It just turns out that humans are not biologically equipped

00:14:39.940 to imagine a four-dimensional shape

00:14:42.260 because there was no evolutionary pressure

00:14:44.380 for our brains to be able to do that.

00:14:46.240 So why would they?

00:14:47.420 I mean, our brains need to be able to really, really well

00:14:50.560 understand three-dimensional space

00:14:52.140 because humans, just so people don't know,

00:14:54.380 like evolutionarily, one of humans' big advantages,

00:14:56.720 like other than intelligence and persistence,

00:14:58.880 is our ability to throw things with high accuracy.

00:15:02.700 Other animals don't have anything like this.

00:15:04.700 Most other animals don't, at least.

00:15:06.360 You know, humans can throw things like really well,

00:15:08.460 which it turns out was probably-

00:15:09.520 Probably bad parents for not playing catch

00:15:11.460 in the backyard with our kids.

00:15:13.160 Well, I guess we can do that more.

00:15:14.800 I do it sometimes.

00:15:15.580 But yeah, we, you know, evolved to throw stone,

00:15:19.220 spears, stuff like that.

00:15:20.680 It was a very useful technology for us

00:15:22.760 being bipedal and everything.

00:15:24.800 But anyway, back to this concept of the Tesseract God.

00:15:27.540 So if you lived in a two-dimensional plane

00:15:31.820 and you were trying to understand three-dimensional shapes,

00:15:34.720 what they would look like is the shadow

00:15:37.640 of the three-dimensional shape, okay?

00:15:40.440 So if you are looking at a cube

00:15:44.480 from the perspective of a two-dimensional plane,

00:15:47.560 you can look at a cube under a light,

00:15:50.460 like have it cast down a light.

00:15:51.800 And the shadow that it's casting on the paper

00:15:53.540 is the two-dimensional representation

00:15:55.440 of that three-dimensional shape.

00:15:58.560 And you can spin it around

00:16:00.820 and that two-dimensional representation will change.

00:16:04.720 Right?

00:16:06.680 Well, four-dimensional shapes

00:16:08.740 leave three-dimensional representations.

00:16:11.480 And I'll put like a little video of a Tesseract here

00:16:14.140 spinning so you can get sort of an idea

00:16:15.820 of what this looks like.

00:16:16.740 But there can be no such thing of a video of a Tesseract.

00:16:20.920 No, but there can be a thing

00:16:22.660 of a three-dimensional shadow of a Tesseract.

00:16:26.460 Okay.

00:16:27.140 As a Tesseract is rotating.

00:16:29.300 So when we talk about this

00:16:31.740 from the perspective of religion

00:16:33.060 and we say God is like a Tesseract

00:16:34.900 being viewed from different angles,

00:16:36.480 suppose you were trying to understand

00:16:40.100 a three-dimensional cube

00:16:42.760 from the shadow it's leaving on a sheet of paper.

00:16:45.580 Okay?

00:16:46.200 There's various approaches you could take to this.

00:16:48.540 But the way most people do,

00:16:50.060 who are like,

00:16:50.600 well, let's stitch together

00:16:51.980 different understandings of the cube,

00:16:54.560 is they'll say,

00:16:55.320 okay, on average,

00:16:56.580 what spots are dark?

00:16:58.580 You know, on average,

00:16:59.360 what spots are shadow?

00:17:00.220 Or they'll say,

00:17:02.000 what are the spots that are always covered by the shadow?

00:17:05.760 Or, and nobody does this that I'm aware of,

00:17:08.080 but it's kind of what we do.

00:17:09.280 They'll say like,

00:17:10.300 maximally,

00:17:11.060 what are the spots that are covered by the shadow?

00:17:12.960 Now, if you take the average

00:17:14.700 or the minimum shadow perspective,

00:17:17.780 the shape that you are going to think of

00:17:19.980 is an accurate two-dimensional representation

00:17:22.200 of a cube is going to be a sphere,

00:17:25.900 which is the furthest,

00:17:29.000 it is a much further

00:17:30.360 or much more distant representation

00:17:32.180 of what the cube actually looks like

00:17:34.260 than any individual representation

00:17:37.040 of the cube through its shadow.

00:17:39.740 So what we're saying here,

00:17:41.880 when we talk about this Tesseract God or whatever,

00:17:44.160 right,

00:17:44.640 is while we believe

00:17:46.580 that different revelations of God

00:17:48.500 have been given to different people

00:17:49.860 for their people for their time period,

00:17:52.760 people of that time period

00:17:54.340 and of that cultural tradition

00:17:55.960 most accurately follow

00:17:58.180 what God actually wanted from them

00:18:00.260 and a true vision of God

00:18:02.800 by following strictly

00:18:05.740 and as a conservative interpretation

00:18:08.460 their religious system,

00:18:11.100 not in trying to stitch it together

00:18:12.880 with other systems.

00:18:14.080 So in other words,

00:18:15.340 literal translations

00:18:16.440 have higher religious fidelity.

00:18:18.520 when we're talking about,

00:18:20.500 because what you're trying to say

00:18:21.620 is a Tesseract is a proxy

00:18:23.780 in this metaphor for God.

00:18:25.800 So literal translations of God

00:18:27.880 or the Tesseract

00:18:28.840 are higher fidelity

00:18:30.400 than overanalyzed amalgams,

00:18:33.960 averages, minimums, maximums,

00:18:36.200 medians, modes, etc., right?

00:18:38.220 Yes.

00:18:39.480 So generally a person who,

00:18:42.940 and this is where we,

00:18:43.980 obviously people are like,

00:18:45.160 yeah, but you guys don't do that

00:18:46.440 with your faith.

00:18:47.100 And it's like, yes,

00:18:47.580 but every faith thinks

00:18:48.480 they're a little different

00:18:49.220 and a little better

00:18:49.900 and that they have access

00:18:51.020 to information

00:18:51.600 which allows them to do things

00:18:52.900 that other cultural traditions

00:18:54.380 can't easily do.

00:18:55.560 Of course, everybody thinks

00:18:56.560 their own religion

00:18:57.140 is like a little better

00:18:58.080 than everyone else's.

00:18:58.920 And it gets them

00:18:59.300 very smugly, yes.

00:19:00.700 But generally we think

00:19:02.260 that people are following

00:19:03.520 both a more accurate iteration

00:19:06.120 of God

00:19:06.760 by following the conservative

00:19:08.040 traditions of their faith

00:19:09.200 and that they are following

00:19:12.720 a totally true iteration of God.

00:19:15.800 So what I mean by that

00:19:18.120 is the human mind

00:19:19.200 is unable to really conceive

00:19:21.940 of a four-dimensional space.

00:19:23.200 And we think of God

00:19:24.160 as like a four-dimensional entity

00:19:25.920 in this metaphor.

00:19:27.760 As Wynwood Reed writes,

00:19:29.400 the supreme power

00:19:30.140 is not a mind,

00:19:30.960 not a force,

00:19:31.720 not a being,

00:19:32.540 but something higher

00:19:33.640 than a being,

00:19:34.560 something for which

00:19:35.160 we have no words,

00:19:36.420 something for which

00:19:37.040 we have no ideas.

00:19:38.060 When a person

00:19:39.560 is looking at the shadow

00:19:41.380 of a three-dimensional cube,

00:19:43.140 right?

00:19:43.420 And they just go

00:19:44.300 as the shadow

00:19:44.800 that was projected

00:19:45.560 and they say,

00:19:46.820 this is what a cube is.

00:19:48.160 They are actually saying

00:19:49.540 something that is 100% true.

00:19:51.840 They are seeing

00:19:52.740 a full and complete revelation

00:19:54.780 of that cube

00:19:56.020 as that cube

00:19:57.280 can be revealed

00:19:58.440 to someone of their intellect

00:20:00.320 in that time in history.

00:20:01.520 Okay?

00:20:02.200 But this is also

00:20:03.320 what we believe

00:20:03.980 about religions.

00:20:05.400 People who are following

00:20:06.420 conservative iterations

00:20:07.620 of their religion

00:20:08.480 are actually seeing

00:20:10.520 a full and complete revelation

00:20:12.680 insofar as their mind

00:20:14.780 can understand it.

00:20:16.180 Right.

00:20:16.460 It only gets dangerous

00:20:17.840 when they start

00:20:18.540 to water it down.

00:20:20.480 Or interpret it

00:20:23.380 in some way.

00:20:25.680 Well, I mean,

00:20:26.840 try to combine it

00:20:27.740 with different things,

00:20:28.860 stuff like that.

00:20:29.900 Yeah.

00:20:31.020 Yeah.

00:20:31.720 And this is

00:20:33.460 a perspective

00:20:34.400 that I haven't really

00:20:35.200 heard anyone

00:20:36.140 sort of talk about

00:20:37.740 or preach before.

00:20:39.000 But it is one

00:20:40.100 that feels

00:20:41.680 intuitively true to me

00:20:43.540 when I look at the data

00:20:45.280 and the gifts

00:20:46.300 that are being given

00:20:47.120 to people

00:20:47.660 who stick with

00:20:49.000 stricter iterations

00:20:49.980 of their religious frameworks.

00:20:52.180 Yeah.

00:20:52.680 What I like about it

00:20:53.400 and you and I

00:20:54.240 discussed this offline

00:20:55.600 was that

00:20:56.380 it reminds me

00:20:57.740 of the

00:20:58.460 like

00:20:59.460 four men

00:21:00.300 and an elephant

00:21:01.360 like blind men 0.98

00:21:02.240 and an elephant

00:21:03.120 metaphor

00:21:03.880 where people are like,

00:21:04.880 well, you know,

00:21:05.560 if a bunch of people

00:21:06.600 are all blind

00:21:07.420 and they're all

00:21:08.600 trying to feel an elephant

00:21:09.500 but they're standing

00:21:10.080 at different angles of it,

00:21:11.020 they're going to have

00:21:11.380 very different descriptions

00:21:12.440 of what they're encountering.

00:21:14.560 But that's a very bad metaphor

00:21:16.780 compared to this metaphor.

00:21:18.360 Because your point is that

00:21:19.240 the elephant is knowable

00:21:20.600 by us.

00:21:21.280 Like if they weren't blind 0.99

00:21:22.300 or if someone turned

00:21:22.900 the lights on,

00:21:24.160 there is an easily

00:21:25.600 seeable elephant

00:21:26.600 whereas a tesseract

00:21:27.640 is literally something

00:21:28.520 that we are incapable

00:21:29.620 of picturing accurately,

00:21:32.560 comprehending, etc.

00:21:33.360 Yeah, well,

00:21:34.400 but not just to that

00:21:35.920 but it also allows you

00:21:37.160 to point out,

00:21:37.940 you know,

00:21:38.200 is the shadow

00:21:38.800 of the three-dimensional cube

00:21:40.260 and somebody saying

00:21:40.740 this is a cube,

00:21:41.900 you can say yes,

00:21:42.900 they are literally correct.

00:21:44.380 That is a cube.

00:21:45.740 Right.

00:21:46.100 And then people will be like,

00:21:47.460 but this seems incompatible

00:21:49.180 with this other revelation

00:21:50.340 by this different prophet

00:21:51.460 and it's like,

00:21:52.160 yes,

00:21:52.380 that's because you live

00:21:53.180 in a two-dimensional space.

00:21:54.440 Like it's one person

00:21:55.620 holding up one shadow

00:21:56.680 of a cube

00:21:57.060 and another person

00:21:57.660 holding up another shadow

00:21:58.540 of a cube

00:21:58.980 and they're both saying

00:22:00.420 these are obviously

00:22:01.780 two different objects.

00:22:02.620 Look at how they're incompatible.

00:22:03.980 Look at this one's point here.

00:22:05.280 Look at this one's point here.

00:22:06.660 And yet they both

00:22:07.500 actually have

00:22:08.500 complete revelations

00:22:09.660 in so far

00:22:10.740 as they are capable

00:22:11.560 of understanding

00:22:12.200 a complete revelation.

00:22:13.220 And keep in mind here

00:22:13.920 that we believe

00:22:14.660 that as humanity develops,

00:22:17.440 their capacity

00:22:18.180 to understand

00:22:19.100 a more complete revelation

00:22:20.500 increases

00:22:21.340 and it increases

00:22:22.700 at different rates

00:22:23.500 between cultural groups

00:22:24.780 to understand specific aspects

00:22:26.300 of a more complete revelation.

00:22:28.160 And therefore,

00:22:28.900 a more complete revelation

00:22:30.100 is always being drip-fed

00:22:32.560 to any group

00:22:33.880 that is improving,

00:22:35.500 thus the need

00:22:36.020 for continued profits

00:22:37.040 and thus why

00:22:38.420 we see this need

00:22:39.740 for intergenerational improvement

00:22:42.040 and intergenerational sharpening

00:22:44.000 of one's mind

00:22:45.120 and understanding

00:22:46.040 of the world

00:22:46.720 to be a religious imperative.

00:22:48.940 As Wynwood Reed writes,

00:22:50.080 Persons with feeble 1.00

00:22:51.740 and untrained intellects

00:22:52.860 may live according

00:22:53.520 to their conscience,

00:22:54.680 but the conscience itself

00:22:56.360 will be defective.

00:22:57.820 To cultivate the intellect

00:22:58.900 is therefore

00:22:59.520 a religious duty.

00:23:00.640 Any group

00:23:01.500 that has lost

00:23:03.240 the continued prophecy

00:23:04.360 that was promised to them

00:23:05.320 in their original

00:23:06.180 religious texts

00:23:07.120 has lost to that

00:23:08.700 because they are not

00:23:10.020 improving enough

00:23:11.020 to understand

00:23:12.800 a more complete revelation

00:23:14.580 at this point.

00:23:15.860 Which the elephant story

00:23:17.480 doesn't really do.

00:23:18.380 What I find with the elephant story

00:23:19.560 is that is often used

00:23:20.840 to justify

00:23:22.060 sort of the watered-down approach.

00:23:24.480 And a really dangerous

00:23:25.980 source of revelation

00:23:27.100 that a lot of people

00:23:28.040 who use these super soft

00:23:29.300 cultural traditions do

00:23:30.540 is psychedelics.

00:23:33.180 We talk a lot about this

00:23:34.360 in our book

00:23:34.740 and there's a lot of research

00:23:35.640 on this.

00:23:36.560 Psychedelics are not

00:23:37.640 a useful source of revelation

00:23:39.060 nor are altered states of mind

00:23:41.820 that are equivalent

00:23:42.840 to psychedelics.

00:23:43.740 So you can create

00:23:44.880 similar effects

00:23:45.720 to psychedelics

00:23:46.600 by doing things like

00:23:47.740 chanting,

00:23:48.240 not sleeping a lot,

00:23:49.800 dancing in a large group,

00:23:51.380 stuff like that.

00:23:52.360 And a lot of religious traditions

00:23:54.040 have evolved

00:23:54.600 to do these sorts of rituals

00:23:56.960 where they'll like chant

00:23:58.120 and march around

00:23:58.840 because it,

00:24:00.460 or, you know,

00:24:01.520 bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, 0.94

00:24:02.520 you know,

00:24:02.800 music, simple rhythms

00:24:03.980 combined with this

00:24:05.020 can create

00:24:05.980 these effects

00:24:07.480 where you will feel

00:24:09.400 a sense of profundity

00:24:10.480 and go on what we call

00:24:12.080 a ghost ride.

00:24:14.660 But we'll talk about

00:24:15.620 what a ghost ride is

00:24:16.700 in a second.

00:24:17.360 First, let's talk about

00:24:18.340 the feelings of profundity.

00:24:19.560 So humanity,

00:24:20.380 one of the big problems

00:24:21.420 with religion

00:24:22.820 as it's revealed to humans

00:24:23.940 is we as people

00:24:25.080 who believe in human evolution

00:24:26.040 and everything like that,

00:24:27.180 we did not evolve

00:24:28.460 in an environment

00:24:29.800 where we were rewarded

00:24:31.620 for correctly

00:24:32.560 recognizing profundity.

00:24:34.520 Humans are unable

00:24:36.100 to recognize

00:24:37.680 profundity, basically.

00:24:39.000 We can create

00:24:40.340 profundity in the human mind

00:24:41.580 with things like psychedelic,

00:24:42.860 with things like group chanting.

00:24:44.720 We can,

00:24:46.760 or like

00:24:47.660 sort of tricking our brains

00:24:49.360 to like, quote unquote,

00:24:50.160 thinking about the vastness

00:24:51.200 of the universe

00:24:51.780 and stuff like that

00:24:52.520 can create

00:24:53.180 these senses of profundity

00:24:54.740 or thinking about concepts

00:24:56.360 that are vague

00:24:57.220 but not

00:24:57.880 in and of themselves

00:24:59.700 not fully understandable,

00:25:01.500 i.e.

00:25:01.940 the Trinity would be

00:25:02.720 something like this.

00:25:04.140 To say that God

00:25:04.700 is both fully

00:25:05.880 three separate things

00:25:06.860 and fully one thing

00:25:08.220 because this statement is,

00:25:10.560 when you talk about

00:25:11.320 Buddhist traditions

00:25:12.240 doing this a lot

00:25:13.000 was cones

00:25:13.840 where they'll create

00:25:16.380 this sense of profundity

00:25:17.360 by giving a person

00:25:18.540 a concept

00:25:19.300 which is supposed

00:25:21.100 to not be fully understandable

00:25:22.820 and through it

00:25:24.160 not being fully understandable,

00:25:26.080 so a cone would be 0.69

00:25:26.880 something like

00:25:27.280 a tree falls in the forest

00:25:28.340 doesn't make a noise.

00:25:29.480 Or what is the sound

00:25:30.260 of one hand clapping?

00:25:33.300 What they're actually doing there

00:25:34.720 is gaslighting people.

00:25:36.200 Because there's actually a sound,

00:25:37.480 there was this,

00:25:38.080 one of my former classmates

00:25:39.140 could actually make,

00:25:40.720 like,

00:25:40.960 because I guess

00:25:41.380 his fingers

00:25:41.860 were kind of disjointed,

00:25:42.960 his hand clap.

00:25:44.160 Yeah,

00:25:44.340 so let's talk about

00:25:45.040 what I mean

00:25:45.360 when I say

00:25:45.660 they're gaslighting people

00:25:46.460 with these concepts.

00:25:47.520 So if I then went to them

00:25:48.580 and I was like,

00:25:49.080 okay,

00:25:49.300 this is what a sound,

00:25:50.240 like,

00:25:50.420 it's a definitional problem.

00:25:50.960 Yeah,

00:25:50.980 I recorded the sound

00:25:51.960 of one hand clapping.

00:25:53.700 Or I'm like,

00:25:54.360 yeah,

00:25:54.480 or it's a definitional problem,

00:25:55.780 right?

00:25:56.040 Like,

00:25:56.240 are we defining sound

00:25:57.460 as like vibrations

00:25:58.240 or something?

00:25:58.580 They'd be like,

00:25:58.920 oh no,

00:25:59.200 you don't understand it,

00:26:00.140 right?

00:26:00.400 They are showing

00:26:02.260 that you cannot rely

00:26:04.200 on your own internal logic

00:26:07.280 to come to an understanding

00:26:08.460 of reality.

00:26:09.260 You have to be submissive

00:26:10.840 to their understanding

00:26:12.220 of reality.

00:26:12.560 Yeah,

00:26:12.680 a lot of it's gatekeeping

00:26:13.580 and I,

00:26:14.100 oh,

00:26:14.340 it makes me so mad.

00:26:15.620 Well,

00:26:15.940 it's gatekeeping

00:26:17.120 combined with gaslighting.

00:26:20.080 They are telling a person

00:26:21.400 that their understanding

00:26:22.440 of the world

00:26:23.080 that they think they know

00:26:24.160 is just wrong

00:26:25.200 and then the only way

00:26:26.300 to get a correct

00:26:27.120 understanding of the world

00:26:28.120 is to take it from them.

00:26:29.620 And so they use this

00:26:30.480 to pass cultures

00:26:31.280 intergenerationally

00:26:32.260 with fidelity

00:26:32.800 a bit higher,

00:26:34.220 but I do not think

00:26:35.120 it's a good mechanism

00:26:36.420 because it teaches

00:26:37.640 uncompromising

00:26:40.040 sort of following

00:26:41.160 of your elders

00:26:42.620 in a way that I think

00:26:43.820 is really psychologically unhealthy.

00:26:45.940 Yeah,

00:26:46.140 like a lot of it's kind

00:26:46.960 of like blind following,

00:26:48.200 right?

00:26:48.400 Like,

00:26:48.920 you have to know

00:26:50.900 it's not right

00:26:51.920 or you have to know

00:26:52.660 they're kind of lying to you,

00:26:53.940 but then you have to develop

00:26:54.840 a blind faith regardless

00:26:56.740 and that's sick. 0.59

00:26:58.960 Yeah,

00:26:59.200 I do not have a high opinion

00:27:01.380 of cultural groups

00:27:02.120 that really engage

00:27:03.060 in that over heavily,

00:27:04.400 but it can also create

00:27:05.200 a feeling of love.

00:27:06.020 Like,

00:27:06.120 if you think about

00:27:06.640 a concept like that,

00:27:07.380 but then you're not

00:27:07.920 constantly being gaslit.

00:27:09.000 This is what Catholics 1.00

00:27:09.580 do as a trinity.

00:27:10.800 Because it's a not

00:27:12.940 fully understandable concept.

00:27:14.740 Yeah,

00:27:14.900 like inherently unknowable

00:27:16.040 by humans.

00:27:17.020 Yeah,

00:27:17.240 it begins to fill up

00:27:18.400 a lot of your brain

00:27:19.700 and if you also feel

00:27:21.380 like a safety

00:27:22.160 from that thing

00:27:22.920 or an attachment

00:27:23.540 to that thing,

00:27:24.180 you will develop

00:27:25.120 a feeling of love

00:27:25.940 towards it

00:27:26.440 or a feeling

00:27:27.080 of profundity from it,

00:27:28.280 which is similar

00:27:28.900 to like thinking

00:27:29.480 about the vastness

00:27:30.100 of the universe

00:27:30.600 or something like that.

00:27:31.660 So there's ways

00:27:32.160 you can trick

00:27:32.660 these mental systems

00:27:33.560 and I actually think

00:27:34.160 that that's a healthy

00:27:34.860 thing for a culture to do.

00:27:36.120 That's very different

00:27:36.960 than like a master

00:27:37.760 being like,

00:27:38.780 you don't understand,

00:27:39.900 you know.

00:27:40.460 Then you go to

00:27:42.300 the scary ghost train

00:27:44.460 that I'm talking about.

00:27:45.160 So when I talk

00:27:45.640 about a ghost train ride,

00:27:46.540 right,

00:27:47.140 if people are familiar

00:27:48.040 from like a theme park

00:27:50.820 or something like that,

00:27:51.520 you can go on these things

00:27:52.360 called ghost trains

00:27:53.300 where you sit

00:27:54.240 in a train

00:27:54.720 and then these

00:27:55.900 preset experiences

00:27:57.040 like a ghost

00:27:57.820 falls from the ceiling

00:27:58.640 and goes,

00:27:59.160 boo.

00:28:00.180 And it's like a set track

00:28:02.660 and a set series

00:28:03.700 of things that you are

00:28:04.680 seeing as you are

00:28:05.440 riding around the tracks.

00:28:08.240 Well,

00:28:08.820 that is kind of

00:28:09.840 what psychedelics are.

00:28:11.240 People think

00:28:11.780 they're getting

00:28:12.180 these really unique

00:28:13.940 and personalized

00:28:14.800 experiences for them,

00:28:16.440 but really what

00:28:17.360 they're doing often

00:28:18.480 is just sort of

00:28:19.340 depending on the psychedelic

00:28:20.260 they're taking,

00:28:20.700 and we go into this

00:28:21.400 a lot

00:28:21.820 in the Pragmatist

00:28:22.720 Guide to Crafting Religion,

00:28:24.020 they're going on

00:28:24.700 sort of preset experiences

00:28:26.300 that are just going

00:28:27.040 to have a lot of

00:28:27.580 similarities to everyone else.

00:28:29.500 There are articles

00:28:30.060 and even like

00:28:30.920 there's scientific research

00:28:31.700 on this,

00:28:32.200 like that people

00:28:33.120 describe these

00:28:33.840 very,

00:28:34.780 very,

00:28:35.160 very similar

00:28:35.740 and consistent

00:28:36.360 things happening

00:28:37.140 to them.

00:28:38.080 Yeah,

00:28:38.320 and I should be clear,

00:28:39.140 they're not similar

00:28:39.700 because they're seeing

00:28:40.360 something that's real.

00:28:41.460 Like one of the things

00:28:42.240 that they'll see

00:28:42.660 is like elves

00:28:43.680 that exist behind reality

00:28:45.480 and are like

00:28:46.700 constructing reality

00:28:50.160 or something.

00:28:51.360 It's the elf hallucination, 0.99

00:28:53.400 which is like obviously,

00:28:54.700 I don't know,

00:28:54.940 to me that seems 1.00

00:28:55.480 obviously stupid. 0.99

00:28:56.540 Our reality is not 1.00

00:28:57.620 constructed by elves.

00:28:58.880 That's what they want you

00:28:59.780 to think.

00:29:00.800 But what it is

00:29:02.620 is they are sort of

00:29:03.540 activating parts

00:29:04.860 of the human brain

00:29:05.660 where I talk about

00:29:07.100 sort of tracks

00:29:07.840 wearing in a road

00:29:08.900 for a really long

00:29:09.680 period of time

00:29:10.420 where you've ever

00:29:11.420 driven on a ruddy road

00:29:12.440 that a lot of people

00:29:13.000 have driven on, 0.62

00:29:13.520 you will get sucked 0.82

00:29:14.200 into the tracks

00:29:15.020 that other people

00:29:15.840 have driven on

00:29:16.460 and then you're sort of

00:29:17.180 stuck in the tracks

00:29:18.540 that everyone,

00:29:19.020 and you're making

00:29:19.500 them incrementally deeper.

00:29:20.960 Well, this happened

00:29:21.660 to humans

00:29:22.140 throughout evolutionary history

00:29:23.580 and we have some

00:29:24.800 of these tracks

00:29:25.320 in our brain,

00:29:25.960 but largely

00:29:26.640 we have gotten good

00:29:27.980 at covering them up.

00:29:29.600 What the drugs drew

00:29:30.760 is they basically

00:29:31.620 uncover these hidden tracks

00:29:33.360 and then snap you

00:29:34.840 onto them

00:29:35.380 and you go through

00:29:36.420 these preset experiences

00:29:37.840 that the higher order

00:29:39.640 human mind

00:29:40.440 has been able

00:29:41.380 to suppress.

00:29:42.840 They are not

00:29:43.460 leading you to truth.

00:29:45.200 They are degrading

00:29:46.940 your understanding

00:29:47.800 of reality

00:29:48.660 through delivering

00:29:50.000 false prophecy,

00:29:51.500 through delivering

00:29:52.260 false information

00:29:53.460 that then people

00:29:54.260 use to try to

00:29:55.360 construct a world

00:29:56.340 perspective.

00:29:57.460 And this is something

00:29:58.200 that we often see

00:29:58.900 in the boomer generation

00:29:59.800 where a lot of them

00:30:00.580 tried to understand

00:30:02.240 the world

00:30:02.880 through,

00:30:04.820 and the hippie generation

00:30:05.740 did this a lot,

00:30:07.020 through these sorts

00:30:08.340 of psychological hacks,

00:30:12.140 like through these

00:30:12.760 ghost train rides,

00:30:13.580 and they end up

00:30:14.800 with really,

00:30:15.900 I think,

00:30:16.880 very philosophically

00:30:18.000 unsophisticated

00:30:19.000 understandings of reality

00:30:20.140 that lead to them

00:30:21.140 being generally

00:30:21.920 unhappy and unproductive

00:30:23.620 people that is generally

00:30:24.880 like all man is love,

00:30:26.360 all religion is love,

00:30:27.440 God is love,

00:30:28.240 we're all one thing.

00:30:30.240 No, I don't.

00:30:32.000 I think that's patently

00:30:33.320 untrue if we look

00:30:34.660 at the world today,

00:30:35.980 if we look at,

00:30:36.880 I mean, look,

00:30:37.480 not even talking

00:30:38.300 about humans,

00:30:38.940 like we live in a world

00:30:39.780 where like for a lion

00:30:40.820 to eat,

00:30:41.380 it needs to regularly

00:30:42.560 like kill other animals. 0.65

00:30:44.460 Grizzly bears like

00:30:45.160 eat animals alive,

00:30:46.460 like that's the normal

00:30:47.360 way they kill things.

00:30:48.820 Why?

00:30:49.000 This was not set up

00:30:50.040 by like less chance

00:30:51.920 of getting disease,

00:30:52.740 so what they'll do 0.91

00:30:53.520 is they'll maim an animal 0.99

00:30:55.120 and then they'll put it 0.98

00:30:56.380 in a pile with other

00:30:58.020 maimed but dying animals,

00:30:59.640 so maimed enough

00:31:00.260 they can't get away, 0.79

00:31:01.100 but they'll keep them alive,

00:31:02.040 sometimes for days,

00:31:03.080 and then eat them later.

00:31:03.600 Won't they like bleed out?

00:31:05.660 Or they're just collecting

00:31:06.500 for later?

00:31:07.260 They're just like collecting.

00:31:07.860 Well, so yeah,

00:31:08.820 they'll eventually bleed out,

00:31:10.020 but that will be a period

00:31:11.280 from when they're first maimed

00:31:12.720 to when they bleed out

00:31:13.680 that they are not

00:31:14.760 developing disease

00:31:16.120 within them,

00:31:17.020 which is obviously

00:31:18.120 a risk to the grizzly bear.

00:31:19.400 That's why it does this.

00:31:20.280 It's like instead

00:31:20.800 of refrigeration,

00:31:22.340 you just keep the animal

00:31:23.300 partially alive,

00:31:24.700 but then they eat them

00:31:25.580 while they're still alive,

00:31:26.520 of course.

00:31:27.240 Horrible, horrible way

00:31:28.520 to die, by the way,

00:31:29.500 and this is why 1.00

00:31:30.260 I fucking hate grizzly bears. 0.99

00:31:31.720 Teddy bears? 0.99

00:31:32.460 You know what we're doing

00:31:32.980 with teddy bears?

00:31:33.760 We are teaching kids

00:31:35.060 to not fear bears

00:31:36.800 as much as they should.

00:31:38.600 Bears are monsters

00:31:40.000 and we need 1.00

00:31:41.360 to get rid of them.

00:31:42.200 Well, but that's

00:31:42.640 what Theodore Roosevelt

00:31:43.460 was, you know,

00:31:45.720 supporting conservation

00:31:46.960 through hunting.

00:31:50.080 He was all about 0.98

00:31:50.800 killing the bears.

00:31:52.400 Conservation through hunting.

00:31:53.220 He just didn't kill

00:31:53.860 that one bear

00:31:54.440 that was tied up to a tree.

00:31:55.440 He had to do it sportingly.

00:31:56.700 Well, yeah,

00:31:57.060 because it's all

00:31:57.720 about good form,

00:31:58.400 which is something

00:31:58.840 that I'm obsessed with.

00:32:00.620 But here's the thing

00:32:01.460 I wanted to discuss

00:32:02.180 on this subject

00:32:02.780 is I think that,

00:32:03.760 you know,

00:32:03.940 a lot of what draws

00:32:04.900 people to religion

00:32:07.020 and what,

00:32:07.560 like,

00:32:07.940 we would say,

00:32:08.860 like,

00:32:09.200 you're slightly above average

00:32:12.340 to average

00:32:13.120 and below average

00:32:14.040 constituent

00:32:15.940 or parishioner

00:32:17.380 would need to believe

00:32:18.100 is just like,

00:32:18.720 yes,

00:32:19.080 like,

00:32:19.420 what is being told

00:32:21.300 to me is true.

00:32:22.360 I am going to heaven,

00:32:24.120 blah, blah, blah.

00:32:24.740 Like,

00:32:24.980 this is exactly

00:32:25.800 the way everything works.

00:32:26.740 Everything is true

00:32:27.840 and accurate

00:32:28.420 and I'm not going

00:32:29.440 to live my life

00:32:30.080 a certain way

00:32:30.760 if, like,

00:32:32.240 the literal interpretation

00:32:33.480 that my religion has

00:32:34.780 is just, like,

00:32:36.480 the best we can do

00:32:37.540 with an unknowable concept,

00:32:39.200 right?

00:32:39.380 Like,

00:32:39.560 I feel like maybe

00:32:40.480 this concept

00:32:41.200 hasn't been discussed

00:32:42.560 at length

00:32:43.120 or people don't like

00:32:44.240 I want to be clear.

00:32:44.820 I do not think

00:32:45.360 the concept is unknowable.

00:32:46.540 I think the concept

00:32:47.100 is unknowable for us.

00:32:49.540 Yeah, but

00:32:49.860 I think our distant descendants

00:32:51.260 will be able to easily

00:32:52.440 grasp the concept involved.

00:32:53.340 Totally agreed

00:32:53.740 and that's why

00:32:54.620 we brought this

00:32:55.280 descendant worship

00:32:55.760 but I'm still saying,

00:32:56.580 like,

00:32:56.660 I feel like most people

00:32:57.520 wouldn't want to get on board

00:32:58.800 with anything

00:32:59.580 when they know

00:33:00.760 it's being fudged.

00:33:02.140 Hence,

00:33:02.500 that this is not a concept

00:33:03.640 that's palatable

00:33:04.300 to anyone who

00:33:05.000 has religious tendencies

00:33:06.200 because it's

00:33:07.400 too deeply uncomfortable

00:33:08.640 to know that

00:33:09.240 one is doing

00:33:11.180 the best one can

00:33:12.160 at the moment

00:33:12.600 but one is technically wrong.

00:33:14.180 Wrong in the right direction

00:33:15.480 if they have a hard religion

00:33:16.840 we would argue.

00:33:18.000 Yeah.

00:33:18.400 But still wrong, right?

00:33:20.560 Well, no,

00:33:21.160 and that's why

00:33:21.580 we don't just then follow

00:33:23.000 a traditional hard religion

00:33:24.740 because if we didn't believe that,

00:33:27.040 you know,

00:33:27.300 we would just go back

00:33:28.240 to following a traditional

00:33:29.220 hard religion.

00:33:30.320 Right.

00:33:30.640 What we think

00:33:31.100 is with this knowledge

00:33:32.720 an individual

00:33:33.900 through intellectually

00:33:35.860 studying messages,

00:33:38.000 like intellectually

00:33:38.680 studying prophets,

00:33:39.820 which we talk about

00:33:40.380 in our video

00:33:40.740 of like identifying prophets

00:33:41.840 and stuff like that,

00:33:43.080 can not,

00:33:44.200 not with like drugs

00:33:45.520 or something,

00:33:46.120 not with like meditation,

00:33:47.460 none of this new agey nonsense

00:33:48.820 with like a book

00:33:50.840 and studies

00:33:51.800 and time

00:33:52.920 and history

00:33:53.500 and detailed

00:33:55.100 intellectual investigation

00:33:57.580 can come to truth

00:34:00.000 but they need

00:34:01.000 to be thinking

00:34:01.740 about it

00:34:02.320 not as this truth

00:34:04.060 is going to be

00:34:04.720 a three-dimensional truth.

00:34:08.240 They need to be,

00:34:09.280 they need to be,

00:34:09.880 if there are these two people

00:34:10.860 arguing about what shape

00:34:11.880 is accurate,

00:34:12.440 they need to say,

00:34:13.120 look,

00:34:13.800 this is a three-dimensional shape

00:34:16.120 we're trying to construct here.

00:34:17.280 We live in the two-dimensional world.

00:34:18.780 This is why these two things

00:34:20.120 look at odds

00:34:20.840 with each other.

00:34:21.480 While the whole truth

00:34:23.320 can be mapped out

00:34:24.520 by somebody exploring the spaces

00:34:26.240 in between the individual prophets,

00:34:29.160 it is not going to feel

00:34:31.040 like something

00:34:31.900 that an individual human mind

00:34:33.940 can easily wrap itself around.

00:34:36.300 It is going to be something

00:34:38.380 that you can sort of

00:34:39.940 mathematically chart out

00:34:41.740 and get some ideas about

00:34:43.740 but not something

00:34:44.740 that you can holistically hold

00:34:46.460 in your mind at any time.

00:34:48.540 One thing to note

00:34:49.520 is it definitely

00:34:50.160 does not sound

00:34:51.880 or look

00:34:52.920 like something

00:34:53.740 that you want to hear.

00:34:56.080 It doesn't sound

00:34:57.280 like some sort of

00:34:58.060 distributed hedonism,

00:34:59.740 whether that's

00:35:00.680 compassion

00:35:01.480 or love

00:35:02.760 or other euphemisms

00:35:04.160 for hedonism.

00:35:05.100 That it is not true

00:35:06.120 that all religions,

00:35:07.640 whatever they may be,

00:35:09.020 were founded by

00:35:10.100 a real prophet.

00:35:11.560 So, for example,

00:35:13.180 Christ was almost certainly 0.99

00:35:14.340 a real prophet.

00:35:15.340 The Jews follow real prophets. 0.99

00:35:17.240 Probably Muhammad 0.99

00:35:18.320 was a real prophet.

00:35:19.120 Maybe the Mormons 0.96

00:35:21.400 follow real prophets.

00:35:22.740 Other than that,

00:35:23.800 there's no groups

00:35:24.560 that I can see

00:35:25.100 are very obviously

00:35:26.340 following real prophets.

00:35:27.580 And obviously,

00:35:28.060 we think that one would read

00:35:29.000 with a real prophet

00:35:29.720 or the most recent

00:35:31.040 real prophet.

00:35:31.980 And I do not think

00:35:34.280 that this is a useful thing

00:35:35.980 for most people to do.

00:35:37.500 I think it is a thing

00:35:38.620 that some people can do

00:35:39.920 and some people should

00:35:40.660 dedicate their lives to.

00:35:42.040 But I do not think...

00:35:42.400 Do they just have to lie

00:35:43.340 to everyone else?

00:35:44.160 Like, what do you do

00:35:44.820 about the people

00:35:45.300 who cannot be comfortable

00:35:46.560 with an imperfect...

00:35:48.120 No, I mean,

00:35:48.600 I don't think it's our...

00:35:49.720 I think that for most people,

00:35:52.460 they're better off

00:35:53.200 just following a hard tradition

00:35:55.060 from an existing

00:35:55.780 religious framework.

00:35:56.840 I think for the vast majority

00:35:58.440 of people,

00:35:58.960 that is the right answer.

00:36:00.600 That's why I would never

00:36:01.540 try to pull someone

00:36:02.480 away from that path

00:36:03.280 and why,

00:36:04.080 in a lot of our advocacy

00:36:05.040 and when we talk to people,

00:36:06.060 we encourage them

00:36:06.980 to go back

00:36:07.900 to their religious traditions.

00:36:09.740 Whatever those traditions are,

00:36:11.240 A lot of people think

00:36:12.300 that's very weird

00:36:13.280 for people who are

00:36:13.960 technically secular to do.

00:36:16.000 Why are you pushing people

00:36:17.320 back towards

00:36:17.860 their religious traditions?

00:36:19.160 And we think it is

00:36:20.080 because for the average person,

00:36:23.240 that is as close to truth

00:36:25.080 as they are going to get.

00:36:27.440 Even for a very intellectual person,

00:36:29.940 that's as close to truth

00:36:30.840 as they're going to get.

00:36:31.620 And this is why we,

00:36:32.960 historically in our videos,

00:36:33.880 we took a long time,

00:36:34.680 like hundreds of episodes in

00:36:36.240 before we really started

00:36:37.120 laying out

00:36:37.680 our religious framework

00:36:39.000 because it's sort of

00:36:40.940 a sad religious framework

00:36:42.080 and it's like,

00:36:42.900 it's not meant for everyone.

00:36:44.540 People can know

00:36:45.420 that we think it

00:36:46.080 and be like,

00:36:46.580 I want to join you guys

00:36:47.620 and we can be like,

00:36:48.320 well, then study, right?

00:36:49.600 Like it's not something

00:36:51.280 that is necessarily

00:36:52.860 going to be study,

00:36:55.220 write, communicate, you know,

00:36:56.680 but it almost sort of

00:36:58.080 gatekeeps itself to an extent

00:36:59.740 in that we just don't believe

00:37:01.000 it's meant for everyone.

00:37:02.120 And if we were evangelizing

00:37:03.980 to an average person,

00:37:05.720 that evangelization

00:37:06.720 doesn't look like follow us.

00:37:08.020 It looks like it go back

00:37:09.140 to your traditions

00:37:09.960 because that's the closest

00:37:11.400 to truth you're going to get.

00:37:12.900 Yeah.

00:37:13.940 Which is a very odd

00:37:16.260 religious framework

00:37:17.140 and a lot of people

00:37:17.760 will be like,

00:37:18.080 well, that's not going to

00:37:18.680 spread intergenerationally

00:37:19.880 and we'll see with our kids.

00:37:21.480 We'll see with our kids.

00:37:22.900 Yeah.

00:37:23.360 Yeah.

00:37:23.600 We're not saying we're right.

00:37:24.640 We're just saying

00:37:25.180 we're trying our best

00:37:26.280 and we'll see.

00:37:27.960 Yeah.

00:37:28.800 And I really love you, Simone.

00:37:30.760 And I love these religious topics.

00:37:32.800 You know,

00:37:33.060 I love talking to you

00:37:33.940 about this and stuff,

00:37:34.680 but I don't know

00:37:35.200 if our audience likes it,

00:37:36.260 so we can keep them shorter.

00:37:38.480 One I'd love to do

00:37:39.420 is on teddy bears

00:37:40.020 because I really want

00:37:40.620 to do a video

00:37:41.080 on why kids have teddy bears.

00:37:44.980 Oh, yeah.

00:37:45.920 No, no, no.

00:37:46.300 Yeah.

00:37:46.560 We've had some fun covering.

00:37:47.440 Yeah.

00:37:47.600 We have theories about this.

00:37:49.120 Yeah.

00:37:49.420 Okay.

00:37:50.320 Anyway,

00:37:50.840 I love you to death

00:37:51.920 and you are a great wife.

00:37:53.380 You are a perfect husband

00:37:54.560 and I love how clever you are.

00:37:56.160 Mr. Testarack, man.

00:37:59.480 Bless I.

00:38:00.140 Bless I.

00:38:00.260 Bless I.

00:38:00.320 Bless I.

00:38:00.380 Bless I.

00:38:00.440 Bless I.

00:38:00.500 Bless I.

00:38:02.380 Bless I.

00:38:04.380 Bless I.

Based Camp - December 29, 2023

Avoiding Hippy Nonsense When Searching for Theological Truth

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