Based Camp - Tract 3： The Three Faiths That Exists Within & Across Religions

00:00:00.000 I actually think only three real faith systems have ever existed in the policyism, mysticism,

00:00:04.720 monotheism. And now I am going to go further on this rather bold claim.

00:00:10.320 And I just want to like highlight for listeners, I find this super interesting. And I think Malcolm

00:00:14.700 is spot on here. And what's interesting to me is what Malcolm is about to categorize is not

00:00:22.320 something I've heard before. When you include mysticism alongside monotheism, the mysticism

00:00:26.920 always subsumes the monotheism. This is why every faith system that has tried to intertwine

00:00:32.640 them, whether it's like the Baha'i or John Vervenky stuff or Secrets of Unity, what you

00:00:37.960 will see is the mystical interpretations always end up subsuming the monotheistic interpretations

00:00:43.140 within each of these systems. Yeah. Well, and you have to, again, like I just, I look at outcomes.

00:00:48.920 I look at when, when you look at practices that are very mystical, you're not seeing people who

00:00:56.220 are producing the same outcomes that are, I think are really famously indicative of monotheism,

00:01:01.580 which as you pointed out earlier is kind of like capitalistic innovation, progress, et cetera.

00:01:09.120 Occultic practices are in mysticism more broadly are uniquely grabbing of, of the very brightest

00:01:15.920 and most active minds in society, but they pull them. It's like quicksand for them and,

00:01:20.940 and drags them under to nothing, to nothing, you know, to, to no action. People look at our weird

00:01:27.600 religious system for our family. And they're like, you guys are cuckoo nut jobs. I don't know. I'm

00:01:32.180 really happy with my life. Okay. I'm happy with this weird thing that whatever we've put together,

00:01:37.580 it seems to be working. And I look at the rest of the world out there and it does feel like this

00:01:42.040 horrifying sandstorm and we're safe within this city walls. But one day my kids are going to have to

00:01:47.980 leave what my wife and I have built. And the more I can expand the border of safety for them,

00:01:53.440 the better off they're going to be. Because, you know, even people in religious communities,

00:01:57.540 I see them being ripped apart and I see families being ripped apart because of this.

00:02:01.380 Would you like to know more?

00:02:02.600 I am so excited to be here speaking with you again, Simone. This is going to be track three

00:02:07.040 from sort of just like me writing things about religion and then us going over it together.

00:02:13.120 Simone asking dumb questions. No, you always have great insights, but this is something,

00:02:19.060 this is quite different from the other two tracks. And then I wrote it very recently,

00:02:22.340 not when I wrote all the other tracks. Most of them were written over a period of like a week or

00:02:26.120 something. And this was more recently, but it's sort of in response to a lot of the ideas that we've

00:02:30.820 had come back to us in comments and emails since doing the first two and in video reviews of them.

00:02:37.060 So I'm just going to jump right into it. I like it.

00:02:41.180 Track three, the three faiths. I love watching videos, analyzing and criticizing our project to

00:02:47.820 create a new religion for our family. The most common complaint is just to point out the audacity

00:02:52.360 of a project like this. After all, how often is a new religious system really founded?

00:02:57.000 The obvious reply to this is how often does a person really try to create a new theological

00:03:01.700 structure not dedicated to self-glorification or the extraction of resources from others?

00:03:05.720 Our motivation for this endeavor is to create something to protect our children

00:03:09.560 in this cultural sandstorm, which is ripping the flesh from the traditional cultural systems.

00:03:15.340 If we can't create a high fidelity system for intergenerational cultural transfer that

00:03:19.700 synergizes with science and plurality, I am throwing my kids into the sandstorm with only

00:03:25.440 borrowed rags to protect them. Our only motivation for sharing these ideas is to create enough of a

00:03:31.080 community that my kids can build on this culture and improve it themselves.

00:03:34.680 However, I also think that calling this a quote unquote religion is a bit of a stretch and that

00:03:40.520 it's more like a new denomination similar to Lutherism or Calvinism in that we have no special connection

00:03:46.260 to divine knowledge and we are just applying a new interpretation of old texts. The only odd thing

00:03:53.760 about it is this denomination is applicable across Abrahamic faith systems, allowing for a Jew to hold it

00:04:00.700 and stay Jewish or a Christian to hold it and stay Christian. Finally, calling it quote unquote new is also

00:04:06.700 quite a stretch. The ideas we have on theology are ideas that lots of people are having right now. One of the most

00:04:13.660 common comments on our track of videos is quote, this is what I have been thinking of for ages. So to say that we came up

00:04:22.700 with these ideas as a bit like saying Darwin discovered evolution, when in truth, the idea of evolution was had by a collection of individuals around the same time, and was merely attributed to Darwin, because we as a society love a simple story.

00:04:36.700 And here I'd note to the story. And here I'd note to the side also was the Gurren Lagann episode that we did this Wednesday, the philosophy and theology of that world is almost like exactly in line with ours so much as I could say it's canonical.

00:04:51.700 So these ideas are going around all over the globe right now. In fact, to claim that these ideas are new is also an absurd claim, given that we have repeatedly pointed towards Wynwood Reed, who developed a near identical cosmological and theological system hundreds of years ago. In fact, I would go further and say that there have only ever been three faith systems in the world. And all we are doing is disentangling those systems, which have become intertwined in many of the world's major religions.

00:05:19.700 I mean, the people, you know, when they watch us, they'll be like, oh, but you know, some people have tried to do this before, you know, they'll point to someone like Spadoza or Wynwood Reed himself, right? But the problem with these is, there's a group of people who tried something similar to this and failed. And these were the, I call them like secular deists that were common during the Enlightenment, or right after or before the Enlightenment. And they essentially tried to completely secularize religion, instead of and really break from the traditional religious

00:05:49.620 system. But I think their problem is they did it not realizing the importance of hard culture. So it was done with the assumption that Enlightenment was just the right path. Whereas it turns out, as we can see in hindsight now, which I don't think they could have seen because they hadn't really seen a secular culture before, that when you drop hard cultural traditions, you end up not being enlightened and disciplined like they were because they grew up in hard cultures, but rather descending into

00:06:18.500 super soft culture, super soft culture, and also being incredibly vulnerable to basically what you're going to say are like polytheist concepts.

00:06:26.340 And this is, I mean, it's probably the closest would be something like Maimonides, in so far as he posited the idea that was early Judaism, instead of trying to completely secularize all the myths and all the things that happened to different groups, he would say, well, in the God was always trying to reveal his fullest self, but people were not particularly advanced at the time. So within early Judaism, he had to extra

00:06:47.220 really anthropomorphize God for people to understand it. And now, you know, we're more sophisticated, and we can have a better understanding of God than that. And his ideas have caught on. In fact, I'd say, if you discount people who were founding, like, like actually sophisticated and useful interpretations of old scriptures, like new, new interpretations, and you discount people who were just secularizing it, like like happened during the Enlightenment, and you take out people who are doing it for personal benefit of some variety, almost every effort I can think of was actually

00:07:17.140 successful. So I'd actually say the odds are kind of in our favor as somebody who really likes to study religious history, which is which is not something that a lot of people think of when when when they're thinking of this. Another thing that people will point to is what people need ritual and your system doesn't have enough ritual and you stripped all the ritual out of everything. And we do have rituals, you know, we've had a series of like holidays and stuff like that, that we've created for our family that are meant to reinforce these cultural traditions. And they're like, well, they're not old rituals. And and old rituals,

00:07:46.900 well, there, you're just sort of getting this veneer of antiquity equals correctness. And we do that through Wynwood Reed through appealing to his writings, because fortunately, someone a long time ago did have a lot of these ideas. But I think that when we're talking about like, we're not out to to talk to everyone, we're not out to deconvert religious people, we are out to create a system that is useful to people who right now are atheistic or secular, but desperately, desperately want a system that they can just like plausibly really get behind.

00:08:16.040 And that are otherwise really smart and mentally disciplined, and that can find ways to follow a system without tons and tons of tons of community ritual and stuff like that. So in a way, we sort of see that as testing potential people who are interested in this.

00:08:33.780 I agree.

00:08:34.780 I agree. And well, and I would also point out, like, we're still playtesting, you know, it's not like traditions and rituals come out of nowhere. And, and I would also point out, like, when you look at many newer, but sort of famous and old religious traditions, you know, they they had an origin, like there was, you know, a day where it was really meaningful, where something was done, and then you repeat that thing, or you you pay homage to that day that was very indicative of the values of that culture.

00:09:00.780 So it's odd to think that new rituals couldn't be created. It is a natural matter, of course. And while we may not have completely solidified all of the appropriate rituals of this tradition, and while maybe many of the most famous ones will only begin 17 generations in the future, that doesn't mean that, like, we don't believe in them. I think they're not powerful.

00:09:23.380 So, if you remember where I left off, I was saying that I actually think only three real face systems have ever existed. And now I am going to go further on this rather bold claim.

00:09:35.500 And I just want to like highlight for listeners, I find this super interesting. And I think Malcolm is spot on here. And what's interesting to me about this. Yeah, what's interesting to me is what Malcolm is about to categorize, is not something I've heard before, because typically categorization systems go off sort of historical roots. So like, oh, these are like the Asian traditions, or these are the, you know, whatever, they're sort of grouping them in the way that you would probably group historical trends or historical movements,

00:10:02.540 rather than by the function and outcome of the religion. And that is where Malcolm is focused here, which, of course, makes a lot of sense, because we're so focused on pragmatism.

00:10:13.760 So anyway, now, go ahead.

00:10:14.840 When a person hears it, they're like, oh, this makes perfect sense, right?

00:10:18.060 Yeah.

00:10:18.340 So the three religious systems are policyism, mysticism, monotheism. So policyism is characterized by elaborate just-so stories explaining natural phenomenon, intricate, complicated cosmologies filled with layers and interacting parts,

00:10:31.660 an entire zoo of supernatural forces that often has an internal caste system and roles, divine entities that combine animal and human features, or have extra body parts that represent places slash things in our world, or that body parts do, and stories about how these entities interacted in history, divine entities that interacted with man, making deals and having conversations,

00:10:55.180 include either reincarnation after death, afterlives where people fade away, or afterlives where people repeat something they did in life, lean heavily on magical thinking, like numerology and sympathetic magic.

00:11:07.760 These are gods that when you look at, you can talk to, and you can have sex with.

00:11:13.040 The core value of these systems is duty.

00:11:15.540 Mysticism is characterized by systems that believe there to be some supernatural or ultra-natural phenomenon behind the fabric of reality, or that is the fabric of reality, which connects all things.

00:11:28.740 This phenomenon is identified as God.

00:11:31.400 God is essentially a sentient medium or substrate.

00:11:35.060 The belief that the goal of humanity is to reconnect with this ultra-reality or thing behind the nature of reality,

00:11:41.380 at this point, reality as we understand it either ends or merges with this thing.

00:11:46.180 The belief that the divine can be contacted or otherwise interacted with by pushing all the thoughts from one's mind or by only thinking about it.

00:11:54.880 Practices that involve actions and rituals like chanting, spinning, narcotics, taking odd poses, and sleep deprivation, which called altered states of consciousness.

00:12:04.240 The belief that experiences had an altered states of consciousness contain more information about the true nature of reality.

00:12:10.060 The belief that reality does not exist as we perceive it and is in part an illusion.

00:12:16.140 The belief that emotional states hold some intrinsic supernatural value, e.g. God is love.

00:12:22.300 And the elevation of emotional states over logic.

00:12:25.500 Self-indulgent asceticism.

00:12:27.600 After he dies, man's soul is subsumed by or rejoins this ultra-reality or thing behind reality.

00:12:33.800 This is a divine that when you look at represents a cognition, you, and all reality are an aspect of.

00:12:40.460 The core value of these systems is harmony.

00:12:43.620 Monotheism is characterized by a distinct god which is totally ineffable to the human mind and which has sovereignty over us.

00:12:51.200 Attempting to know this god or worship him through an earthly intermediary is a sin, iconoclasm.

00:12:57.780 God interacts with man through logic, rules, and order.

00:13:02.020 Logic is always considered superior to emotions as a tool for determining the will of the divine in these systems.

00:13:09.100 After he dies, man faces consequences for his actions on earth for all eternity.

00:13:13.560 A prohibition against engaging in supernatural arts, attempting to take shortcuts to god,

00:13:18.540 and the belief that reason is the only path to god.

00:13:22.800 A belief that man has fallen and is wretched in contrast with our potentiality,

00:13:27.360 as well as a commandment to work to expand that potentiality through self-discipline, mental order, austerity, and personal industry.

00:13:34.420 To be happy with yourself as you are is a sin.

00:13:38.280 This is a god that if you look at, you die.

00:13:41.820 It is so much greater than man.

00:13:44.000 To aspire to interact with it directly is beyond foolish.

00:13:46.960 The core value of these systems is an expansion of human potentiality.

00:13:53.040 While most of the world religions heavily point to one of the three faiths paths as the quote-unquote true one,

00:13:59.040 all of the distinct religions that exist on earth today are woven from the three core human faiths.

00:14:06.440 As such, most of the world's religions can be used to pray to any one of these three faiths.

00:14:12.100 For example, it is perfectly possible for a Catholic to, through a system of saints and magical fetishes,

00:14:18.500 live a completely polytheistic life and worship pattern.

00:14:21.580 At the same time, it is possible for a Jew or a Muslim to dedicate themselves entirely to the mystic faith,

00:14:27.800 as can be seen in the writings of many Kabbalists and Sufis.

00:14:30.660 On the other hand, it is possible for a Buddhist or Hindu to live a totally monotheistic life.

00:14:38.220 So that's the idea here.

00:14:40.780 What are your thoughts other than the ones you started us with?

00:14:42.980 What I also like about this is it, unlike other religious categorization systems,

00:14:48.120 where like if you're a Catholic, you're a Catholic, yours is really based on actual practice and outcomes.

00:14:55.100 So if, for example, a Catholic, as you pointed out, is like worshipping a bunch of different saints or whatever,

00:15:01.140 like, no, sorry, you are not a monotheist, you are a polytheist.

00:15:04.440 You are functionally behaving.

00:15:05.580 But they are still a Catholic, and that's important.

00:15:08.320 We are not denying their religious identity.

00:15:10.720 Yeah, we're just saying that they're not a monotheist.

00:15:12.640 Yeah, they're not part of our group.

00:15:14.420 So we identify, they're probably obvious by now, with this group, the monotheist group here.

00:15:19.720 And I largely identify with monotheists, whether they're coming from Islamic traditions,

00:15:24.220 whether there are Austrian traditions, or the Catholics, for example.

00:15:27.280 And what I find is when somebody indulges in one group of these behavior patterns,

00:15:32.580 whatever quote-unquote religion they're in, they often group the other behavior patterns.

00:15:36.660 So a Catholic that, for example, is really interested in like the saints

00:15:40.620 and has this sort of polytheistic understanding,

00:15:42.640 and keep in mind that the polytheistic traditions often have one god that sort of rules the pantheon

00:15:47.560 and then multiple casts of gods beneath him,

00:15:49.920 just because there's one more powerful entity than other entity.

00:15:54.020 There are other entities that can resist his power.

00:15:55.720 That's polytheism.

00:15:56.980 And, or act without his knowledge or will or anything like that, right?

00:16:00.600 They often involve, like, engage in other parts of polytheism.

00:16:04.140 Like, they'll have little magical fetishes.

00:16:06.460 By fetishes, I don't mean like sexual fetishes.

00:16:08.420 I'm talking about, like, an item that they believe has religious significance, you know.

00:16:13.200 And you see this clustered.

00:16:15.040 Or if somebody is clustered around the mystical traditions,

00:16:17.700 and they're, for example, like a Muslim, they're a Sufi, right?

00:16:20.900 They will generally believe all of the mystical traditions.

00:16:23.960 And this, in part, is what makes it so easy for people to create these interreligious systems

00:16:29.060 is by using these mystical traditions, because a lot of religions are largest,

00:16:33.260 regardless of what they were, in terms of how some portion of their followers actually worship,

00:16:38.560 will worship this broad mystical tradition, you know, regardless of the overarching faith.

00:16:44.440 I mean, from my perspective, they share more common ground.

00:16:48.560 In the end, like, what matters to me is,

00:16:51.340 how is someone getting closer to what they believe to be God,

00:16:54.540 and how is someone practicing, and how are their beliefs dictated?

00:16:58.980 So I don't care what denomination you are part of.

00:17:02.420 I care what you're doing functionally.

00:17:06.100 It's kind of how, like, with employees, we're like,

00:17:08.820 listen, I don't care if you are sitting on a beach, like, most of the day,

00:17:13.460 not doing anything with work, and yet somehow, like, all of your work gets done,

00:17:17.640 and it's fantastic.

00:17:18.980 Like, I don't care.

00:17:20.100 What I care about is what's going on, like, ultimately with what is relevant to us.

00:17:23.880 And it's the same with religions for me.

00:17:25.800 Like, I don't care if you say that you are a Catholic,

00:17:30.140 or that you say that you practice Shinto.

00:17:33.240 Like, if in the end, you are behaving like a polytheist,

00:17:36.920 or like a mystic, or like a monotheist, then it's what you are.

00:17:42.820 Yeah, well, I mean, and the conception of God within these three groups is really, really different.

00:17:47.560 Like, it is not the same, you know.

00:17:49.740 With polytheists, I think it's pretty obvious,

00:17:51.260 but when you're talking about, like, the mystic conception of God,

00:17:54.060 it's almost atheistic.

00:17:56.000 It's almost like a force of nature.

00:17:57.480 It's not something that exists outside of humanity and has sovereignty over humanity.

00:18:01.940 And that's why I feel such a kinship, you know, when I'm talking.

00:18:06.220 And sometimes, you know, they'll blend parts of these traditions,

00:18:09.980 where they'll have a number of mystic traditions,

00:18:12.340 and then they'll say, but no, really,

00:18:13.920 God is outside of humanity and has sovereignty over us.

00:18:17.780 And it feels kind of stitched together from an outside perspective.

00:18:21.560 And you'll see within the...

00:18:23.420 No, no, no.

00:18:23.800 Here's how I view mysticism in general.

00:18:26.700 And you can say everything you want as a mystic,

00:18:29.320 but in the end, it's like taking a Xanax to relax instead of actually relaxing.

00:18:34.940 You're using shortcuts through various, like, brain hacks,

00:18:38.200 be it, like, spinning around in circles or, like, working yourself into a social tizzy

00:18:43.660 and speaking in tongues or something else that is ultimately making you feel close to God

00:18:51.080 when you have made a synthetic feeling of that through some other means.

00:18:55.600 It's using endogenously induced narcotics to...

00:18:59.060 Or exogenously sometimes.

00:19:00.480 I mean, people take ayahuasca to do things,

00:19:02.200 although it does lead to permanent changes sometimes in brain structure.

00:19:04.780 And we'll talk about this a bit later in the track,

00:19:06.580 but, I mean, I think it's quite perverse.

00:19:08.800 And I think it shows the truth of the mystic faith system

00:19:11.880 to say that thoughts had in corrupted states of consciousness

00:19:15.860 are more true than thoughts had in states of diligent, austere study.

00:19:21.760 And to me, it is true when it's saying that.

00:19:25.080 From the mystic perspective, that is true,

00:19:26.980 but that is perverse to our conception of reality

00:19:30.060 and sort of a mirror of...

00:19:32.580 But yeah, and this is why I also say that this can work across denominations.

00:19:38.600 Like, this is more just broadly what we're doing

00:19:40.620 is a call to a return to monotheism across religious traditions

00:19:46.160 in monotheistic framings of the various monotheistic frameworks.

00:19:50.120 Now, they're fun.

00:19:50.920 I did want to...

00:19:51.500 I mean, I don't want to waste time on this.

00:19:53.020 No, go, go, go.

00:19:53.660 You alluded to earlier that it's very common in polytheistic sects

00:19:59.000 or groupings that sects with gods is possible.

00:20:02.140 And I know that it's like all over the Greek slash Roman gods,

00:20:05.700 like, of course, but other polytheistic traditions as well?

00:20:10.420 Well, I think that you do see it in a lot,

00:20:15.040 but more what I'm saying is these are the types of gods

00:20:17.520 that interact with man.

00:20:19.040 And it's actually very rare in non-polytheistic traditions

00:20:22.700 for God to interact with man.

00:20:25.800 So I'll point this out.

00:20:28.040 Like, where polytheism seeps into sort of the Abrahamic face,

00:20:32.260 i.e., when God interacts with man, how does he often do it?

00:20:36.720 He does it through a polytheistic cosmology.

00:20:39.040 Remember I said polytheistic cosmologies have these zoos of deities

00:20:42.460 that have, like, caste systems?

00:20:44.080 So when God interacts with man,

00:20:45.460 he'll do it through, like, an angel or something like that,

00:20:47.860 i.e., a zoo of different cosmic deities

00:20:51.640 that have, like, a caste system

00:20:53.440 and then are interacting with man or through the devil,

00:20:56.300 which is, like, a different, you know,

00:20:58.420 that's separate from God.

00:20:59.820 That's polytheistic, right?

00:21:01.040 Right.

00:21:01.720 Whereas Zeus just turns into a bull and goes for it.

00:21:05.080 Yeah, but this is what I'm talking about.

00:21:07.880 It's actually fairly rare to have a full monotheistic conceptions of God

00:21:13.420 really ever directly engage with man, even within monotheistic scripture.

00:21:18.720 You know, you consider something like the Vedas, you know,

00:21:20.660 where you have, you know, gods in the Hindi pantheon, you know,

00:21:25.100 talking to each other or talking to man as if he's just one of them.

00:21:28.760 You just don't really get that in pure monotheistic practice.

00:21:33.960 And in mystic practice, it doesn't look like that at all.

00:21:37.040 Whenever somebody's talking to God in a mystic practice,

00:21:39.020 it's always through, you know, an altered state of consciousness

00:21:41.880 or meditation or something like that.

00:21:44.040 So the way that God communicates is quite differently

00:21:46.820 in each of these traditions.

00:21:48.420 Yeah, good point.

00:21:50.120 Interesting.

00:21:51.780 As an aside, a post on Twitter we made today

00:21:54.560 made me realize that a lot of people

00:21:57.140 don't really understand the difference

00:21:58.920 between polytheism and monotheism.

00:22:00.960 In the post, we asked,

00:22:03.520 how do Christians that believe in a distinct devil

00:22:07.240 who is separate from God and can challenge God's will,

00:22:11.140 how do they claim that they are not polytheists?

00:22:13.740 And some of the most common answers we got were,

00:22:17.060 they just showed a misunderstanding of other polytheistic systems.

00:22:20.160 For example, a very frequent one was,

00:22:22.500 well, God created the devil and all of the angels

00:22:25.700 and therefore the devil's just another one of God's creations,

00:22:28.140 therefore the system isn't polytheist.

00:22:30.760 In truth, actually,

00:22:32.740 in the vast majority of polytheistic systems

00:22:35.180 that I'm familiar with,

00:22:36.700 there is a single creator God

00:22:38.700 that creates all of the other gods.

00:22:40.760 Or there is one God to start with

00:22:42.820 that then creates a number of gods

00:22:44.860 and then some of those gods create other gods,

00:22:46.760 et cetera, et cetera.

00:22:47.880 But just saying,

00:22:48.780 well, one God created the other gods

00:22:50.720 doesn't make you not polytheist.

00:22:52.840 And then some other people said,

00:22:54.220 well, these beings, angels, demons, et cetera,

00:22:56.560 aren't gods.

00:22:57.720 They're a different caste of divine entity.

00:23:00.420 And it's like, well, actually,

00:23:02.000 almost every polytheistic system

00:23:03.680 has different castes of divine entities.

00:23:05.680 That's a signature aspect of polytheistic systems.

00:23:09.340 You have just decided to only use the word God

00:23:12.240 to refer to the entity in the highest caste

00:23:14.580 within this hierarchy,

00:23:16.240 while still assigning godlike powers

00:23:18.700 and all the abilities and traits

00:23:21.760 one would associate with a god

00:23:23.440 to all of the other entities within the system.

00:23:25.800 They are only not gods

00:23:27.640 insofar as you have defined them as not gods.

00:23:30.200 They're not particularly less powerful

00:23:32.500 than, for example, lower power Greek gods

00:23:35.680 or lower power Sumerian gods.

00:23:38.640 You have just chosen not to call them gods.

00:23:41.740 And I think that this really gets to the problem here

00:23:44.920 is that a lot of people will be something like,

00:23:47.260 well, I'm Jewish and I know that Jews are monotheists,

00:23:50.540 so my belief in these things doesn't make me a polytheist.

00:23:53.280 Or I'm Catholic and I know that Catholics are monotheists,

00:23:56.320 so the fact that I believe in angels

00:23:58.840 that are truly and totally independent from God

00:24:01.040 and a devil that's truly and totally independent from God

00:24:03.500 doesn't make me a polytheist.

00:24:06.320 But that's just...

00:24:09.460 Like, I hope you can see the problem

00:24:12.400 with that definition.

00:24:15.120 And I will understand how offensive

00:24:16.820 what we're saying is here to some people

00:24:18.660 because it challenges their identity.

00:24:20.540 The same way if I go to someone and I'm like,

00:24:22.120 hey, you know, despite what you say,

00:24:24.560 you're not actually a woman

00:24:26.140 within most useful categorizations of what a woman is.

00:24:30.200 When I go to these groups and I'm like,

00:24:31.800 you're not actually a monotheist

00:24:33.260 with any useful interpretation of what monotheism is.

00:24:37.100 And as such, I am challenging their identity,

00:24:39.620 which is obviously very offensive to people.

00:24:42.580 And I will say here,

00:24:43.660 if you want to have your cake and eat it too,

00:24:45.180 if you want to be a monotheist,

00:24:46.660 but also believe in things like angels and demons

00:24:49.600 and stuff like that,

00:24:50.540 the way you do it is you say that these things

00:24:52.120 are partitions of God,

00:24:54.600 of a single entity.

00:24:55.720 Or that we are told to think of

00:24:58.960 the way that God interacts with man

00:25:01.620 in terms of these distinct entities

00:25:04.600 because our brains are not capable

00:25:07.320 of effectively emulating the way that God would think.

00:25:10.680 And so he gives us these revelations

00:25:13.500 because if a human is trying to model

00:25:15.800 God's actions in our world,

00:25:18.260 the best way to do it

00:25:19.340 is through a pantheon of divine entities.

00:25:22.580 So long as you always go back

00:25:24.200 and you remember that the angels

00:25:26.080 and the demons and everything like that

00:25:27.560 don't actually meaningfully exist

00:25:29.320 as separate entities from God.

00:25:31.240 There have been many efforts

00:25:32.820 to find commonality and communion

00:25:34.680 between religious traditions

00:25:36.020 over the past couple centuries,

00:25:37.500 whether it's the Baha'i,

00:25:38.960 John Vervanke's The Meaning Crisis,

00:25:41.380 or the Seekers of Unity channel.

00:25:43.120 All of these efforts have either tried

00:25:45.040 to unite man around the mystical conception

00:25:47.440 of the divine

00:25:48.120 or combined all three of these conceptions.

00:25:50.860 These conceptions of the divine

00:25:52.120 are fundamentally incompatible.

00:25:54.220 Even if they all hold an element of truth,

00:25:56.580 to us it seems self-evident

00:25:58.120 that the monotheistic pathway

00:25:59.480 is both true and the best pass forward

00:26:02.480 for our culture.

00:26:03.840 So like when I'm thinking for my kids,

00:26:05.440 I really like the new agey coloring

00:26:07.960 of the mystic pathway,

00:26:09.300 I do not see it leading to industry

00:26:11.420 or efficaciousness.

00:26:12.580 It seems to just drag groups down

00:26:15.100 into self-indulgence, honestly.

00:26:19.080 And the polytheistic pathway

00:26:20.200 doesn't seem to contain any truth at all

00:26:22.240 from what I've seen.

00:26:23.420 It's more just so stories,

00:26:25.240 even when it's applied

00:26:26.260 to the monotheistic traditions,

00:26:27.860 as you see in things like

00:26:29.580 the Divine Comedy, for example,

00:26:32.280 which is very much a polytheistic cosmology.

00:26:34.640 And by truth, what do you mean here?

00:26:35.880 Are you referring to like it

00:26:37.080 being predictive of outcomes?

00:26:39.200 What I mean is that it seems

00:26:41.260 to move our species

00:26:43.060 both philosophical understanding forwards

00:26:46.020 and technological understanding forwards.

00:26:48.340 The groups that engage

00:26:50.120 in these pure forms

00:26:51.460 of monotheistic practices

00:26:53.120 just seem to have an enormous,

00:26:55.300 like God genuinely seems to favor them.

00:26:57.720 During periods, you know,

00:26:59.460 for example, like early Islam

00:27:01.040 before the Sufis really took over

00:27:02.780 and the mystical traditions took over,

00:27:04.720 you can look at their level of productivity,

00:27:06.600 which was just insane.

00:27:08.280 You look at, you know,

00:27:10.060 early Christianity

00:27:10.800 when you had much more

00:27:11.860 of this monotheistic framework

00:27:13.120 and then it descended

00:27:13.980 into more polytheism and mysticism

00:27:15.780 and it sort of collapsed

00:27:17.000 in terms of its productivity.

00:27:18.240 Then you had the reawakening

00:27:20.400 of like pure monotheism

00:27:21.760 was the Protestant revolution.

00:27:23.000 And then you get

00:27:23.840 the industrial revolution out of that

00:27:25.340 and the enlightenment out of that.

00:27:26.920 And I think that there's,

00:27:29.120 as I say,

00:27:29.520 you always want a secular

00:27:30.540 within our understanding

00:27:31.560 of both a secular

00:27:32.360 and a non-secular framing.

00:27:34.140 But the secular framing is

00:27:35.140 this is just a better way

00:27:36.220 to structure your mind

00:27:37.820 if you want to be productive

00:27:38.960 and move the species forwards.

00:27:40.400 The non-secular framing

00:27:41.560 is as God was rewarding these groups

00:27:43.220 for having the correct understanding of him.

00:27:45.360 But that's really important to us

00:27:46.560 as we build this system

00:27:47.560 that it is one

00:27:48.320 where even if a person

00:27:49.780 didn't believe it,

00:27:50.660 they're like,

00:27:51.060 it's still better to raise my kids

00:27:52.680 within this

00:27:53.220 than leave them

00:27:54.100 to the urban monoculture.

00:27:55.500 Well, no, actually,

00:27:56.620 I think this is really interesting

00:27:57.600 in that what you said about truth

00:28:00.220 is really indicative

00:28:01.380 of our value system,

00:28:03.680 which a lot of, like,

00:28:04.640 we'll say anti-capitalistic people

00:28:06.440 are going to be like,

00:28:07.220 oh, yeah, well,

00:28:08.000 progress wasn't good

00:28:09.000 because we were better off

00:28:10.120 when humans were foraging

00:28:11.580 before agriculture.

00:28:13.140 Never mind that, like,

00:28:14.440 they were starving

00:28:15.180 and their faces were bubbling off.

00:28:17.220 But I do think it's interesting

00:28:18.940 in that, like,

00:28:19.560 this system is not incompatible,

00:28:21.440 even, like, value-wise.

00:28:22.740 Like, just because we choose

00:28:23.960 monotheism

00:28:25.100 because of our values

00:28:26.180 and we believe

00:28:26.800 that it is more predictive

00:28:27.720 of what you could argue

00:28:28.840 what some might frame

00:28:30.160 as, like,

00:28:31.100 capitalistic progress,

00:28:32.980 market-driven progress,

00:28:34.320 innovation-driven progress,

00:28:35.700 which, you know,

00:28:36.980 it doesn't mean

00:28:37.720 that other people

00:28:38.380 might not be like,

00:28:39.120 oh, no, no, no,

00:28:39.820 like, this system exists

00:28:41.140 and is still indicative

00:28:42.180 of my support

00:28:44.060 for mysticism,

00:28:45.800 which supports me

00:28:47.000 feeling wishy-washy

00:28:48.140 about things

00:28:48.700 and being,

00:28:49.760 feeling really magical

00:28:51.040 and,

00:28:51.840 because that's what I value

00:28:52.680 and I want to be one

00:28:53.640 with the universe

00:28:54.260 and I want to...

00:28:55.720 Yeah, it's funny

00:28:56.400 that you mentioned this.

00:28:57.440 So, an idea

00:28:58.140 we haven't gotten here yet,

00:28:59.380 but it really comes

00:29:00.180 from this video

00:29:01.260 we aired on Wednesday,

00:29:02.340 the Gurren Lagann video.

00:29:03.240 I categorized

00:29:03.780 the monotheistic traditions

00:29:04.700 as spiral traditions

00:29:05.660 and the mystic traditions

00:29:07.760 as anti-spiral traditions.

00:29:10.080 And,

00:29:10.620 but it's not just

00:29:11.340 these traditions.

00:29:11.900 You have general

00:29:12.940 spiral thought,

00:29:14.200 which is about

00:29:14.840 expanding human potentiality

00:29:16.220 through conflict,

00:29:17.320 and you have

00:29:18.340 usual anti-spiral thought,

00:29:20.000 which is about

00:29:20.540 diminishing human potentiality

00:29:22.560 through harmony,

00:29:24.140 through balance,

00:29:24.820 and when you look

00:29:25.780 at something,

00:29:26.260 and through unity,

00:29:26.960 you know,

00:29:27.320 and when you look

00:29:28.240 at governing systems,

00:29:30.040 I say they even

00:29:30.640 fall into this.

00:29:31.280 I see the capitalism

00:29:33.040 as being a monotheistic

00:29:34.480 slash spiral

00:29:36.220 governing structure,

00:29:38.000 whereas I see

00:29:38.980 communism

00:29:39.560 and socialism

00:29:40.920 as being

00:29:42.160 anti-spiral traditions.

00:29:43.560 You know,

00:29:43.740 they're about

00:29:44.260 this unity,

00:29:45.200 the balance,

00:29:47.000 the harmony

00:29:47.580 creating this

00:29:48.420 among men.

00:29:49.280 And I think

00:29:49.760 that we see

00:29:51.040 the sin

00:29:51.720 that comes

00:29:52.200 from these systems

00:29:53.120 through the

00:29:54.620 conditions

00:29:55.180 that man

00:29:55.640 has to live in

00:29:56.400 when society

00:29:57.380 succumbs

00:29:57.940 to this broader

00:29:59.140 mindset

00:29:59.760 of unity

00:30:01.600 at all costs,

00:30:02.340 where unity

00:30:02.800 then becomes

00:30:03.540 cultural genocide.

00:30:06.140 Yeah,

00:30:06.620 in your words,

00:30:07.200 of course,

00:30:07.600 and not in the words

00:30:08.180 of those who would

00:30:08.800 just take the

00:30:09.300 different view,

00:30:09.800 but what I do

00:30:10.300 think is notable

00:30:10.960 is that you can

00:30:12.360 hold very different

00:30:13.000 views from us

00:30:13.620 and be very in favor

00:30:15.140 of mysticism

00:30:15.980 or polytheism

00:30:16.960 and anti-growth

00:30:18.380 or anti-spiral

00:30:19.120 and still

00:30:20.160 find this model

00:30:21.200 to be fairly

00:30:22.460 accurate and predictive.

00:30:23.920 Yeah,

00:30:24.220 which is interesting

00:30:24.920 about the three-faith model.

00:30:26.060 Yeah.

00:30:26.600 Okay.

00:30:27.200 Any Jew,

00:30:28.220 Muslim,

00:30:28.680 Mormon,

00:30:28.980 or Christian

00:30:29.400 that has a theology

00:30:30.300 that does not explain

00:30:31.440 why the Jews

00:30:32.060 were favored by God

00:30:33.180 in the early days

00:30:34.100 does not have a theology

00:30:35.200 I can bring myself

00:30:35.980 to respect.

00:30:37.000 This is probably

00:30:37.620 the single most

00:30:38.420 important question

00:30:39.440 of the Abrahamic

00:30:40.340 traditions

00:30:40.780 and it tells us

00:30:42.100 a great deal

00:30:42.920 about the true

00:30:43.460 nature of God.

00:30:44.600 To think God

00:30:45.220 randomly chose

00:30:46.140 one people to favor

00:30:47.100 and share revelation

00:30:47.980 through

00:30:48.400 for a good chunk

00:30:49.480 of human history

00:30:50.260 is absurd

00:30:51.120 to the extreme.

00:30:52.640 There must have

00:30:53.220 been a reason.

00:30:54.660 We know it was not

00:30:55.760 due to where they lived

00:30:57.160 because God moved them.

00:30:58.840 We know they were not

00:31:00.160 physically and mentally

00:31:01.400 superior

00:31:01.840 as they had been

00:31:02.760 conquered and enslaved.

00:31:04.340 So what made

00:31:05.020 the Jews unique?

00:31:06.200 What made the Jews

00:31:07.460 unique was their

00:31:08.720 religion and cosmology.

00:31:10.600 It was the closest

00:31:11.660 to accurate.

00:31:12.740 At a time in history

00:31:13.840 when almost all

00:31:14.680 other people

00:31:15.280 except for the

00:31:15.960 Zoroastrians

00:31:16.560 who God also favored

00:31:17.520 worshipped the divine

00:31:19.240 through nature

00:31:20.200 through streams

00:31:21.320 and locations

00:31:22.180 through policyism.

00:31:24.680 One people

00:31:25.320 saw God

00:31:26.020 differently.

00:31:26.800 They saw

00:31:27.220 a God

00:31:28.000 of logic

00:31:29.040 rules

00:31:29.900 and order

00:31:30.540 one unknowable

00:31:31.900 to man.

00:31:32.660 As a result

00:31:33.660 God favored them.

00:31:35.680 And this is something

00:31:36.400 I just can't

00:31:37.400 emphasize enough.

00:31:38.520 It matters

00:31:39.560 no matter

00:31:40.500 what Abrahamic

00:31:41.520 tradition you're from

00:31:42.240 why the Jews?

00:31:43.740 Why in the early

00:31:44.780 days did God

00:31:46.440 tell the Jews

00:31:47.060 they were his

00:31:47.500 chosen people?

00:31:48.420 What was unique

00:31:49.460 about them?

00:31:50.420 Was it mere

00:31:51.320 serendipity?

00:31:52.240 That seems

00:31:53.060 unlikely to me

00:31:54.720 and not a very

00:31:55.360 compelling answer.

00:31:56.760 And yet I do not

00:31:57.520 see enough of the

00:31:58.540 Abrahamic faith

00:31:59.220 really handling

00:32:00.000 over this.

00:32:00.860 But when I look

00:32:01.540 and I ask this

00:32:02.120 question it just

00:32:02.920 jumps out at me

00:32:03.880 at blindingly

00:32:04.420 office.

00:32:05.180 They were in a

00:32:05.900 world of

00:32:06.720 policyism and

00:32:07.480 mysticism and

00:32:08.500 they were the

00:32:08.980 first faith system

00:32:10.100 to turn away

00:32:10.760 from that to

00:32:11.500 this religion of

00:32:12.940 rules and laws

00:32:14.180 and order

00:32:14.580 in a monotheistic

00:32:15.420 one.

00:32:16.000 And they weren't

00:32:16.300 the very first

00:32:16.780 one.

00:32:17.080 The Zoroastrians

00:32:17.840 also did it.

00:32:18.440 But the Zoroastrians

00:32:19.180 also had an

00:32:19.760 enormous period

00:32:20.680 of scientific

00:32:21.820 productivity and

00:32:22.960 cultural productivity

00:32:23.820 if you look at

00:32:24.500 the success of

00:32:25.140 the Persian Empire.

00:32:26.540 So and they

00:32:27.580 didn't really

00:32:28.340 begin to collapse

00:32:29.140 until they had

00:32:29.640 turned pretty

00:32:30.140 heavily to

00:32:31.500 iconoclasm.

00:32:32.360 And they used

00:32:32.920 to have really

00:32:33.500 hard prohibitions

00:32:34.300 against iconoclasm

00:32:35.100 as well.

00:32:35.880 But I mean

00:32:36.480 what are your

00:32:36.820 thoughts?

00:32:38.820 I think it's

00:32:39.860 interesting that you

00:32:40.540 think that's such

00:32:41.320 an important question

00:32:42.000 and that you're

00:32:42.600 so dogmatic

00:32:44.520 about it.

00:32:44.880 But I guess I

00:32:45.540 understand why

00:32:47.300 you want to

00:32:48.160 understand the

00:32:50.200 sort of reasoning

00:32:50.960 and connections

00:32:51.700 and cause and

00:32:52.540 effect of things

00:32:53.320 associated with

00:32:54.300 what's said in

00:32:54.820 the Bible, right?

00:32:55.700 So it makes

00:32:56.860 sense.

00:32:57.120 It's interesting

00:32:57.600 to me.

00:32:58.040 And of course

00:32:58.380 I think, you

00:32:59.100 know, the Jews

00:33:00.120 get credit too

00:33:00.800 because it's not

00:33:01.760 well, it's not

00:33:02.240 like they were

00:33:02.600 perfect.

00:33:03.160 It's not like

00:33:03.440 they were like

00:33:03.860 always monotheistic

00:33:04.840 and the Old

00:33:05.240 Testament's full of

00:33:06.140 you know.

00:33:06.980 Well, we're about

00:33:07.620 to get to a

00:33:08.220 pretty spicy part

00:33:09.500 about Jewish

00:33:10.460 tradition that might

00:33:11.420 offend some

00:33:11.980 people, but I'm

00:33:12.900 going to go

00:33:13.980 over it.

00:33:14.880 Let's do that.

00:33:15.440 I love spicy.

00:33:16.660 But this favoring

00:33:18.880 of the Jewish

00:33:19.260 people did not

00:33:20.140 protect their

00:33:20.680 tradition from

00:33:21.560 incursion from

00:33:22.800 the other faith

00:33:23.600 systems.

00:33:24.620 Man is man.

00:33:25.740 If he lives

00:33:26.320 near another

00:33:26.940 culture, that

00:33:27.720 culture's ideas

00:33:28.480 about reality

00:33:29.260 will seep in

00:33:30.460 and intermix

00:33:31.180 with our own.

00:33:32.220 Consider this

00:33:32.940 passage from

00:33:33.500 the Hagiga.

00:33:34.440 Upon what

00:33:35.220 does earth

00:33:35.680 stand?

00:33:36.380 Upon pillars.

00:33:37.400 The pillars

00:33:37.780 stand upon

00:33:38.480 the waters.

00:33:39.400 The waters

00:33:40.020 upon the

00:33:40.560 mountains.

00:33:41.100 The mountains

00:33:41.620 upon the

00:33:42.120 wind.

00:33:42.620 The wind

00:33:43.040 upon the

00:33:43.520 storm.

00:33:44.180 The storm

00:33:44.680 is suspended

00:33:45.260 upon the

00:33:45.800 strength of

00:33:46.200 the Holy

00:33:46.560 One.

00:33:47.300 Blessed

00:33:47.580 he, as

00:33:48.740 it is

00:33:49.000 written, and

00:33:50.240 here beneath

00:33:51.040 the everlasting

00:33:51.820 arms.

00:33:52.600 The sages say

00:33:53.220 it stands upon

00:33:53.820 twelve pillars

00:33:54.520 as it is

00:33:55.020 written.

00:33:55.640 He set the

00:33:56.340 bounds of the

00:33:56.900 tribes according

00:33:57.620 to the number

00:33:58.220 of the sons of

00:33:58.860 Israel.

00:33:59.600 According to

00:34:00.080 others, seven

00:34:00.680 pillars, as it

00:34:01.660 is written.

00:34:02.020 She had

00:34:03.080 hewn out

00:34:03.700 her seven

00:34:04.180 pillars.

00:34:04.740 Upon one

00:34:05.260 pillar, and

00:34:06.120 its name is

00:34:06.800 Zadik, the

00:34:07.700 righteous, as

00:34:08.780 it is written.

00:34:09.620 But the

00:34:10.000 righteous is an

00:34:10.600 everlasting

00:34:10.960 foundation.

00:34:12.560 There are two

00:34:13.140 firmaments, as

00:34:13.980 it is written.

00:34:14.820 Behold, to the

00:34:15.700 Lord thy God

00:34:16.980 belong the

00:34:17.660 heavens and the

00:34:18.480 heavens of the

00:34:19.400 heavens.

00:34:20.100 They are

00:34:20.400 seven.

00:34:21.300 Bilon,

00:34:22.020 Raki,

00:34:23.040 Shmikam,

00:34:24.400 Zebul,

00:34:25.440 Mohn,

00:34:26.280 Makan,

00:34:27.240 Arabes.

00:34:28.280 Vilon serves

00:34:28.940 no purpose,

00:34:29.760 whatever, save

00:34:30.520 this.

00:34:30.920 That enters

00:34:32.140 in the

00:34:32.500 morning and

00:34:33.060 goes forth in

00:34:33.760 the evening,

00:34:34.380 renews every

00:34:35.040 day the work

00:34:35.720 of creation.

00:34:36.760 Raki is

00:34:37.780 that in

00:34:38.640 which are

00:34:39.400 set the

00:34:40.020 sun and

00:34:40.380 the moon,

00:34:40.840 stars and

00:34:41.280 constellations.

00:34:42.360 Shikam is

00:34:43.420 that in

00:34:44.040 which the

00:34:44.600 millstones

00:34:45.240 stand and

00:34:46.240 grind manna

00:34:47.020 for the

00:34:47.300 righteous.

00:34:48.240 Zubul is

00:34:49.280 that which is

00:34:50.100 the heavenly

00:34:50.660 Jerusalem and

00:34:51.520 the temple,

00:34:52.300 and the altar

00:34:52.960 is there.

00:34:53.920 And Michael,

00:34:54.620 the great

00:34:54.980 prince, stands

00:34:55.820 and offers

00:34:56.340 upon it an

00:34:57.080 offering.

00:34:58.140 I could go

00:34:58.800 on, but I'm

00:34:59.460 sure you get

00:34:59.820 the point.

00:35:01.040 And I'm

00:35:01.440 really sorry

00:35:02.160 about butchering

00:35:02.840 words there

00:35:03.620 and names

00:35:04.240 because this

00:35:04.800 is not, you

00:35:05.340 know, my

00:35:05.820 native tongue

00:35:06.440 here.

00:35:07.160 Also, I

00:35:07.680 would note I

00:35:08.340 took out all

00:35:08.780 the random

00:35:09.180 rabbi names

00:35:10.020 because I

00:35:10.740 butchered them

00:35:11.220 so badly.

00:35:12.260 But I'm sure

00:35:12.620 you get the

00:35:13.000 point.

00:35:13.260 This is very

00:35:13.760 obviously not

00:35:14.680 the cosmology

00:35:15.360 laid out in

00:35:15.900 Genesis.

00:35:16.460 Sounds an

00:35:16.980 awful lot like

00:35:17.820 turtles all the

00:35:18.460 way down.

00:35:19.420 Yeah, you said

00:35:20.500 when I first read

00:35:21.220 this to you,

00:35:21.580 you're like, oh,

00:35:22.140 turtles all the

00:35:22.700 way down.

00:35:23.300 It is an

00:35:23.800 extremely

00:35:24.480 polytheistic

00:35:25.220 cosmology.

00:35:26.180 Yeah.

00:35:26.340 So why is

00:35:27.140 it in

00:35:27.380 ancient Jewish

00:35:28.020 texts?

00:35:29.140 The way

00:35:29.400 Hagigah is

00:35:30.140 written gives

00:35:30.720 us hints.

00:35:31.700 When it is

00:35:32.040 talking about

00:35:32.560 the cosmology

00:35:33.200 you know from

00:35:33.820 Genesis, it

00:35:34.360 uses copious

00:35:35.040 quotations.

00:35:36.300 But when

00:35:36.660 introducing this

00:35:37.600 alternative

00:35:38.080 cosmology, it

00:35:38.840 does not.

00:35:39.780 This implies to

00:35:40.520 me that it

00:35:41.520 assumes the

00:35:42.120 alternative

00:35:42.460 cosmology is

00:35:43.420 much more

00:35:43.940 quote-unquote

00:35:44.320 common knowledge

00:35:45.160 to the reader

00:35:45.700 and the quoted

00:35:46.680 parts are much

00:35:47.340 more quote-unquote

00:35:47.900 technical or

00:35:48.620 specialist

00:35:49.040 knowledge.

00:35:49.560 This would

00:35:50.300 be like if a

00:35:50.860 Jew today tried

00:35:51.880 to synthesize

00:35:52.980 Jewish teachings

00:35:53.840 with mainstream

00:35:54.620 societal ideas

00:35:55.900 about protons,

00:35:56.960 electrons, and

00:35:57.400 neutrons making

00:35:57.900 up atoms.

00:35:58.880 And thousands

00:35:59.520 of years from

00:36:00.140 now, we had

00:36:00.980 far moved beyond

00:36:01.780 these ideas about

00:36:02.600 atoms and the

00:36:03.320 only place we

00:36:03.960 knew about them

00:36:04.480 from was Jewish

00:36:05.140 texts, so we

00:36:06.280 thought of them

00:36:06.740 as being a weird

00:36:07.560 Jewish mystic

00:36:08.260 tradition.

00:36:09.260 Essentially, to

00:36:10.240 help explain

00:36:10.860 reality to the

00:36:11.620 layperson, a

00:36:12.740 Jewish writer

00:36:13.360 took polytheistic

00:36:14.580 gods out of

00:36:15.340 cosmology and

00:36:16.100 replaced them with

00:36:16.720 Yahweh.

00:36:18.140 So, where does

00:36:19.380 this cosmology

00:36:20.000 come from?

00:36:20.780 It seems to

00:36:21.400 have elements

00:36:21.860 of Greek

00:36:22.220 cosmology

00:36:22.920 mentioning an

00:36:23.800 entity holding

00:36:24.440 up the earth,

00:36:25.480 i.e.

00:36:25.860 atlas, but also

00:36:27.120 elements of

00:36:27.700 Mesopotamian

00:36:28.260 cosmology with

00:36:29.100 the mention of

00:36:29.640 the earth being

00:36:30.200 a disk on

00:36:30.840 pillars.

00:36:31.500 So, we are

00:36:32.080 looking for a

00:36:32.740 polytheistic

00:36:33.180 system which

00:36:34.040 was practiced

00:36:34.500 between Greece

00:36:35.320 and Mesopotamia

00:36:36.260 around the

00:36:37.180 writing of this

00:36:37.700 piece.

00:36:38.320 But which?

00:36:39.440 Well, the line,

00:36:40.660 quote, the

00:36:41.280 wind upon the

00:36:41.900 storm, the

00:36:42.480 storm is

00:36:42.980 suspended upon

00:36:43.620 the strength of

00:36:44.120 the Holy One.

00:36:45.020 The deity

00:36:45.560 described in this

00:36:46.500 piece uses

00:36:47.180 storms to

00:36:47.840 exercise his

00:36:48.500 will.

00:36:49.360 Thus, we

00:36:49.820 are almost

00:36:50.180 certainly seeing

00:36:51.600 the Cainite

00:36:52.220 cosmology of

00:36:53.160 Baal trapped

00:36:54.200 in the amber

00:36:54.820 of Jewish

00:36:55.260 tradition.

00:36:56.560 Now, you

00:36:57.360 might be

00:36:57.680 saying, oh

00:36:58.640 my god, are

00:36:59.160 you saying

00:36:59.600 that Jews

00:37:00.120 are in part

00:37:00.720 descended from

00:37:01.360 a people who

00:37:01.880 practice child

00:37:02.620 sacrifice?

00:37:03.580 And this

00:37:03.900 isn't part of

00:37:04.340 the tract,

00:37:04.860 it's just

00:37:05.200 something I

00:37:05.560 wrote down to

00:37:05.960 make sure I

00:37:06.280 remembered.

00:37:07.040 And the answer

00:37:07.400 is basically,

00:37:08.020 well, yeah,

00:37:09.400 but if you

00:37:10.440 are a, like,

00:37:11.900 a British

00:37:12.220 European, for

00:37:12.980 example, so

00:37:14.100 are you.

00:37:14.640 You know, it

00:37:15.360 was common in

00:37:16.100 the British

00:37:16.420 Isles, much

00:37:17.800 later than the

00:37:18.540 Canaanite practices,

00:37:19.600 mind you, to

00:37:20.520 do things like

00:37:21.420 kill children and

00:37:22.420 bury them when

00:37:22.920 you were going to

00:37:23.280 build a new

00:37:23.680 bridge or a

00:37:24.200 house and we

00:37:24.640 can still find

00:37:25.180 their corpses.

00:37:25.800 And this

00:37:25.940 happened across

00:37:26.980 northern Europe,

00:37:27.800 traditions like

00:37:28.500 this.

00:37:28.860 You know, a lot

00:37:29.280 of bog men were

00:37:30.100 sacrificed, you

00:37:31.340 know, smashed on

00:37:32.080 the head and

00:37:32.540 thrown into bogs.

00:37:33.780 This is happening

00:37:34.860 thousands of years

00:37:35.880 after these

00:37:36.340 traditions I'm

00:37:36.860 mentioning.

00:37:37.300 So this is not

00:37:38.140 like a

00:37:38.940 besmirch.

00:37:39.620 And now you

00:37:40.020 want me to

00:37:40.200 think something

00:37:40.580 like, how

00:37:41.840 dare you say

00:37:42.980 the Israelites

00:37:43.700 consorted with

00:37:44.480 the Canaanites.

00:37:46.080 And, well, it's

00:37:47.220 not just me

00:37:47.840 saying this.

00:37:48.540 The Bible

00:37:48.920 itself records

00:37:49.780 David as having

00:37:50.580 at least one

00:37:51.340 Canaanite ancestor

00:37:52.220 and in lines

00:37:53.680 like, quote,

00:37:55.000 your father was

00:37:55.760 an Amorite and

00:37:56.380 your mother was

00:37:56.920 a Hittite.

00:37:57.860 And Judges

00:37:58.580 3, 5,

00:37:59.620 through 6,

00:38:00.520 the Israelites

00:38:01.220 lived among the

00:38:02.020 Canaanites,

00:38:02.560 Hittites,

00:38:03.020 Amorites,

00:38:03.560 Peserites,

00:38:04.220 Ahivarites,

00:38:04.800 and Jubisites.

00:38:05.600 And they took

00:38:06.120 their daughters in

00:38:06.860 marriage and gave

00:38:07.880 their own

00:38:08.340 daughters to

00:38:08.980 their sons and

00:38:09.740 served their

00:38:10.260 gods, which

00:38:12.220 so this is in

00:38:14.740 the Bible, and

00:38:15.280 the Bible is

00:38:15.800 mostly accurate.

00:38:16.920 You can look at

00:38:17.420 modern DNA

00:38:17.980 evidence of

00:38:18.620 ancient Israelites

00:38:19.220 and they have

00:38:19.760 about 50%

00:38:20.580 Canaanite genomes,

00:38:21.420 so we know they

00:38:21.980 were engaging

00:38:22.500 with them.

00:38:23.400 But now you

00:38:23.900 might be saying,

00:38:24.620 okay, well, to

00:38:25.420 say that they

00:38:25.900 might have

00:38:26.220 intermarried is

00:38:27.060 one thing, but

00:38:27.660 to say that the

00:38:28.700 religions in

00:38:29.940 any way interacted

00:38:31.180 in a meaningful

00:38:31.800 context, now

00:38:32.560 that's definitely

00:38:33.500 a really horrible

00:38:34.780 thing to say.

00:38:35.380 But then you

00:38:35.700 have things like

00:38:36.360 Kings 23,

00:38:37.500 4 through

00:38:37.980 6, the king

00:38:39.200 commanded the

00:38:39.840 guardians of the

00:38:40.420 threshold to

00:38:41.320 bring out of

00:38:42.080 the temple of

00:38:42.780 Yahweh all the

00:38:43.880 vessels made for

00:38:44.660 Baal, for

00:38:45.640 Asheran, and for

00:38:46.900 all of the hosts

00:38:47.520 of heaven.

00:38:48.280 And I'll link to

00:38:49.320 a video here that

00:38:50.260 does a very good

00:38:50.860 job of this part

00:38:51.740 of history.

00:38:52.600 So that's saying

00:38:53.660 that there were

00:38:54.540 monuments to Baal in

00:38:56.300 temples to Yahweh

00:38:57.220 during this period.

00:38:58.440 They were worshipped

00:38:59.500 alongside each other

00:39:00.440 for a period.

00:39:01.580 It makes sense that

00:39:02.520 you could have this

00:39:03.180 level of cross-pollination.

00:39:04.440 Jews have never

00:39:05.820 totally isolated

00:39:06.720 themselves from

00:39:07.320 surrounding communities.

00:39:08.400 Even today, you'll

00:39:09.660 get ideas of

00:39:11.000 particle physics

00:39:12.120 entering parts of

00:39:12.960 Jewish tradition, and

00:39:14.280 you'll get

00:39:14.720 Hellenistic ideas

00:39:15.760 entering parts of

00:39:16.600 Jewish tradition.

00:39:17.580 But because the

00:39:18.340 Hellenistic tradition

00:39:19.280 survived, it's easy

00:39:20.460 for modern Jews to

00:39:21.840 be like, oh, well, we

00:39:23.280 don't believe that

00:39:23.880 anymore because that

00:39:24.600 was just like a

00:39:25.160 Hellenistic idea about

00:39:26.300 how physics works that

00:39:27.280 we now know is wrong.

00:39:28.640 But it's much harder

00:39:29.360 for Jews to point

00:39:30.120 out to, oh, this is

00:39:31.220 obviously Canaanite

00:39:32.180 teachings because we

00:39:33.820 don't know that much

00:39:34.520 about Canaanite

00:39:35.080 religion anymore.

00:39:35.940 And so it's much

00:39:36.500 harder to be like, oh,

00:39:37.400 this is just Canaanite

00:39:38.280 traditions.

00:39:39.080 But it groups

00:39:40.120 together really well.

00:39:41.180 Like, you can see all

00:39:42.060 of the sort of

00:39:42.760 policyism happening

00:39:43.620 there.

00:39:43.880 And I also need to

00:39:44.460 point out, this

00:39:45.440 happens to Christians

00:39:46.080 all the time as well.

00:39:47.380 Right?

00:39:47.660 Like, when Christians

00:39:48.880 would go out and they

00:39:49.800 would try to convert

00:39:50.760 people or they were in

00:39:51.820 environments where they

00:39:52.640 were a minority

00:39:53.660 religion, and you see

00:39:55.000 this with a lot of

00:39:55.700 missionaries, they

00:39:56.600 would go to, like, a

00:39:57.300 Native American tribe

00:39:58.040 and be like, oh, you

00:39:58.720 have this policyistic

00:39:59.460 pantheon.

00:40:00.300 Who's at the head of

00:40:01.000 it?

00:40:01.160 And they'd be like,

00:40:01.740 you know, this god.

00:40:02.460 And they'd be like,

00:40:02.860 okay, that's actually

00:40:03.600 our god.

00:40:04.180 And then all the rest

00:40:05.080 of the gods are

00:40:05.600 actually angels.

00:40:06.680 And your cosmological

00:40:07.780 structure is broadly

00:40:08.620 correct, but we'll just

00:40:09.800 replace some Christian

00:40:10.600 words here and there.

00:40:11.740 Like, this is not,

00:40:12.700 again, an attack on

00:40:13.920 Jews.

00:40:14.720 All of the Abrahamic

00:40:15.780 faiths have done this

00:40:16.500 historically.

00:40:17.140 It's a fantastic way to

00:40:18.720 try to converse with

00:40:19.840 somebody from outside

00:40:20.560 your tradition.

00:40:21.440 But it becomes a

00:40:22.800 problem when you

00:40:24.120 mistake these amber-like

00:40:27.320 trapped,

00:40:28.040 iterations of other

00:40:29.260 traditions, other

00:40:30.720 faith systems, because

00:40:32.200 it allows you to

00:40:32.860 accidentally worship or

00:40:34.140 over-elevate these

00:40:35.000 other faith systems and

00:40:35.940 believe that they are

00:40:36.800 your original cosmology.

00:40:38.640 And I think the very

00:40:39.400 notable thing, especially

00:40:40.600 about mysticism, is that

00:40:41.960 it's extremely addictive.

00:40:43.460 So, like, these

00:40:44.860 religions may seep into

00:40:47.740 each other not based on

00:40:49.120 what creates the best

00:40:49.960 outcome, but based on

00:40:51.920 what is catchy and what

00:40:53.940 feels really good.

00:40:55.440 Right.

00:40:55.720 Well, and it's funny, the

00:40:56.780 argument that I'm using

00:40:57.940 here is actually very

00:40:58.680 similar to an argument

00:40:59.920 that Moses Maimonides

00:41:01.300 made, which was

00:41:02.040 Maimonides' son, in

00:41:03.660 favor of the mystical

00:41:04.480 traditions, where he

00:41:05.520 would go and argue to

00:41:07.080 the Jewish community,

00:41:08.180 actually, I'm trying to

00:41:08.900 bring you back to an

00:41:09.560 older way of doing

00:41:10.300 things, which is sort of

00:41:11.700 what I'm arguing here,

00:41:12.740 which is to say that,

00:41:13.460 well, this wasn't

00:41:14.380 originally the tradition.

00:41:15.440 This sort of seeped in

00:41:16.480 due to cultural cross

00:41:17.940 contamination.

00:41:20.220 And so you're right,

00:41:20.940 yeah.

00:41:21.720 But do you have any

00:41:23.780 other thoughts on this

00:41:24.460 or?

00:41:25.320 Oh, I also think it's

00:41:26.420 notable that this concept

00:41:28.000 of the index, which we've

00:41:29.380 talked about, which is

00:41:30.080 sort of like a cultural

00:41:32.900 exchange of religious

00:41:34.460 traditions and cultural

00:41:35.460 traditions, whereby the

00:41:36.620 cultures and religious

00:41:38.360 traditions that

00:41:39.100 participate can learn

00:41:39.980 from each other, is

00:41:41.980 certainly not like a new

00:41:43.000 idea.

00:41:43.400 Like, this has been

00:41:44.060 happening naturally

00:41:45.340 throughout time,

00:41:46.540 constantly as, like, one

00:41:48.600 religion tries to convert

00:41:49.940 another, but then ends

00:41:50.860 up adopting a lot of

00:41:51.780 its, you know, names

00:41:52.620 and traditions.

00:41:54.060 Yeah, the index is

00:41:55.220 larger than this.

00:41:56.400 It's not part of this

00:41:57.100 denomination.

00:41:57.820 People with mystical

00:41:58.380 backgrounds are certainly

00:41:59.440 around the index.

00:41:59.660 I know, I know, but

00:41:59.900 people have heard us

00:42:00.500 talk about the index,

00:42:01.420 and I think what's

00:42:02.080 important is that the

00:42:02.940 difference between the

00:42:04.300 index and what has

00:42:05.120 happened between cultures

00:42:06.280 and religions before is

00:42:08.200 that in the past,

00:42:09.500 cultures would adapt

00:42:11.600 and assimilate

00:42:13.000 traditions and beliefs

00:42:14.640 and gods and mind

00:42:16.760 frames that just were

00:42:18.720 catchy or

00:42:19.920 more addictive or

00:42:20.700 that, like, advanced

00:42:22.140 leadership within them

00:42:23.180 more so they adopted

00:42:24.080 it to get more

00:42:24.620 power, whereas what

00:42:26.040 the index is all

00:42:26.880 about is adopting

00:42:28.820 traditions and

00:42:31.360 practices from other

00:42:32.540 cultural groups and

00:42:33.500 religious groups that

00:42:34.380 create literally better

00:42:35.740 outcomes.

00:42:36.320 Like, the focus is on

00:42:37.400 what produces human

00:42:39.500 flourishing, what

00:42:40.280 produces innovation.

00:42:41.220 Yeah, not just random

00:42:42.420 cultural cross

00:42:43.180 contamination.

00:42:44.020 Yeah, like, not just

00:42:44.520 what's addictive.

00:42:45.300 Like, it's not like,

00:42:46.820 you know, in the end,

00:42:47.960 like, religions are

00:42:49.300 selecting out of, like,

00:42:50.720 the entire diet, like,

00:42:52.280 the chocolate cake,

00:42:53.620 whereas the index is

00:42:54.580 going to select, like,

00:42:55.740 the, God knows what

00:42:58.580 food is healthy anymore,

00:42:59.440 I don't know, but, like,

00:43:00.260 something really.

00:43:00.740 One thing to point out

00:43:01.540 here is that this

00:43:02.260 happens within every

00:43:03.000 tradition.

00:43:03.520 You know, you need to

00:43:04.200 look for ideas that

00:43:06.220 weren't originally part of

00:43:07.280 your tradition that have

00:43:08.140 seeped into it.

00:43:09.240 You know, whether these

00:43:10.080 ideas are things like

00:43:11.060 around the rapture, which

00:43:12.180 is a fairly new idea in

00:43:13.420 Christianity, or

00:43:14.560 cosmology that came from

00:43:15.860 things like Dante's

00:43:16.840 Inferno that was a

00:43:18.440 Bible fan fiction, but

00:43:20.000 is now, like, accepted

00:43:21.020 in a lot of religious

00:43:21.820 art and stuff like that,

00:43:22.920 and so people look at it

00:43:23.840 and they think that the

00:43:24.600 cosmology described in it

00:43:25.700 is actually an Abrahamic

00:43:27.400 cosmology, when it's not.

00:43:28.520 It's very polytheistic in

00:43:30.020 its nature, and it can

00:43:31.400 lead to accidentally

00:43:33.060 worshiping polytheistic

00:43:34.140 faith practices, and so

00:43:35.440 I want to be clear that

00:43:36.300 this happens across

00:43:36.880 traditions.

00:43:37.720 I've just been on a

00:43:39.260 Jewish theology kick

00:43:40.980 recently in terms of

00:43:42.300 reading and study, which

00:43:43.620 is why I came to it from

00:43:45.500 a Jewish perspective in

00:43:46.680 this text.

00:43:49.560 Something like this can

00:43:51.000 remain completely

00:43:52.060 innocuous, but can also

00:43:53.560 lead faithful astray.

00:43:55.260 Trapped within the

00:43:56.160 characteristic nuanced

00:43:57.400 polytheistic cosmology,

00:43:58.520 are all the sins of the

00:44:00.360 polytheistic tradition,

00:44:02.020 whether it be numerology,

00:44:03.480 magic, or worshiping God

00:44:04.780 through nature, and this

00:44:06.180 temptation is not unique

00:44:07.280 to Jews.

00:44:08.480 Consider the polytheistic

00:44:09.480 conception of God and

00:44:10.620 cosmology trapped in

00:44:11.900 Dante's Divine Comedy,

00:44:13.720 which many Christians

00:44:14.840 mistake for scripture.

00:44:16.500 Polytheism will always

00:44:17.980 pull at the human mind as

00:44:20.240 it is our genetic default,

00:44:22.000 a scar left by our

00:44:23.160 genetic history.

00:44:24.160 In the book, The

00:44:24.840 Pragmatist's Guide to

00:44:25.520 Crafting Religion, it is

00:44:26.800 what we call, quote,

00:44:27.800 super soft culture, unquote.

00:44:29.740 The culture man forms when

00:44:31.680 left alone on an island to

00:44:33.040 intuit reality without being

00:44:34.820 informed by the centuries of

00:44:36.120 civilization, philosophy, and

00:44:38.160 science.

00:44:39.060 Yet, it is less tempting to the

00:44:41.740 logical mind than mysticism.

00:44:43.840 While we refer to polytheism as

00:44:45.800 simply paganism, in that it is

00:44:48.260 the background faith of

00:44:49.340 humanity, mysticism is true in

00:44:51.860 a way.

00:44:52.560 If monotheism is the worship of a

00:44:54.400 faith inspired by God's

00:44:55.700 benevolent side, a manifestation

00:44:57.360 of spiral energy, of human

00:44:59.160 potentiality, mysticism is the

00:45:01.040 faith of the basilisk, the

00:45:02.680 side of God that tempts man.

00:45:05.640 It tempts man with shortcuts to

00:45:08.100 God, using tactics which hack our

00:45:10.380 biology to create false visions of

00:45:12.960 profundity.

00:45:13.920 The mystical faith tells its

00:45:15.560 followers that what they see in

00:45:17.280 compromised mental states is more

00:45:19.040 real than disciplined study.

00:45:21.460 This teaching reflects a

00:45:22.900 fundamental truth of how the

00:45:24.540 basilisk sees and relates to

00:45:26.200 reality.

00:45:27.100 It says, empty your mind of

00:45:29.080 study and industry, and what

00:45:30.560 fills it is good, the true

00:45:32.180 divine.

00:45:33.220 But are these things not true from

00:45:34.820 the perspective of the

00:45:35.620 basilisk, that wishes nothing but

00:45:37.460 the stagnation of man?

00:45:39.200 Pagans are largely non-players in

00:45:41.100 the great game of civilization.

00:45:42.720 There is no truth to their belief

00:45:44.400 systems.

00:45:45.140 The same is not true of the

00:45:46.740 mystic.

00:45:47.420 The basilisk is a partition or face

00:45:49.800 of God.

00:45:50.440 To posit the devil exists separate

00:45:52.780 from the God is to be a

00:45:53.980 policyist.

00:45:55.020 The anti-spiral face are true

00:45:56.840 revelations from God and represent

00:45:58.580 a kind of truth in the same way the

00:46:01.400 being reflected in a mirror that

00:46:04.080 inverts reality is wholly true.

00:46:07.480 The spiral face aimed to uplift man

00:46:09.440 through a cycle of intergenerational

00:46:11.040 improvement and change.

00:46:13.240 To erase diversity?

00:46:14.980 The separation between man is to

00:46:17.540 silence God.

00:46:18.220 In direct contrast, the anti-spiral

00:46:21.320 face aimed to subsume man into a

00:46:24.220 single great unity in which all

00:46:26.660 diversity is erased.

00:46:28.140 A genocide not just of all

00:46:30.500 ethnicities and ideologies, but of

00:46:32.740 the soul of the human species.

00:46:35.060 Within the anti-spiral worldview, man

00:46:37.300 struggles to live, and the goal of

00:46:39.380 man is to end struggle.

00:46:41.120 Within the spiral worldview, man lives

00:46:43.520 to struggle.

00:46:44.380 It is our capacity to improve

00:46:46.120 ourselves and the species that imbues

00:46:48.260 life with value.

00:46:49.360 Do you strive to live a life of

00:46:52.240 submission to reality, to have your

00:46:54.940 will subsumed by it, or do you strive

00:46:57.500 every day that reality will submit to

00:47:01.040 us?

00:47:02.500 So that's why I more distinguish these

00:47:04.580 two faces.

00:47:05.020 I really see the mystical tradition and

00:47:07.100 the monotheistic tradition as almost

00:47:09.040 being sort of two sides of a whole,

00:47:11.700 mirrored realities.

00:47:12.820 And the mystical tradition as not being

00:47:15.620 wrong or evil exactly.

00:47:18.980 It is just a temptation that leads to

00:47:21.920 efficaciousness.

00:47:23.040 And that is what makes it so tempting,

00:47:25.140 is it has an element of truth to it,

00:47:27.240 but it is an element of truth that we

00:47:29.380 must resist.

00:47:30.980 I don't know if you have thoughts on

00:47:32.320 this or...

00:47:33.860 No, just resonates.

00:47:35.040 Seems really straightforward.

00:47:36.940 I mean, does it feel...

00:47:38.300 So it just feels true to you when you

00:47:39.680 think about these two systems.

00:47:40.800 You really do see them as being quite

00:47:42.040 distinct from each other?

00:47:42.900 Because a lot of people, when I talk

00:47:43.780 about them, they're like, no, these

00:47:44.640 two systems can be merged.

00:47:47.280 No.

00:47:48.940 But I mean, I think also, like, our

00:47:50.480 views also, as I've alluded to earlier

00:47:53.100 about what's good and evil, right and

00:47:55.380 wrong, are based on our values.

00:47:57.340 And what you're describing is when you

00:48:00.900 take away the value judgments that

00:48:02.800 you're clearly making as well, I think

00:48:05.060 it's still a model that makes sense to

00:48:07.880 me.

00:48:08.040 I think when you include mysticism

00:48:10.100 alongside monotheism, the mysticism

00:48:12.300 always subsumes the monotheism.

00:48:14.480 Oh, yeah.

00:48:15.200 Why every faith system that has tried

00:48:17.260 to intertwine them, whether it's like

00:48:18.880 the Baha'i or John Burbanki stuff or,

00:48:21.780 you know, Secrets of Unity, what you

00:48:23.600 will see is the mystical interpretations

00:48:25.540 always end up subsuming the monotheistic

00:48:28.160 interpretations within each of these

00:48:30.300 systems.

00:48:30.940 Because it's like giving somebody food

00:48:34.300 and cocaine.

00:48:35.200 Eventually, the cocaine always wins.

00:48:36.960 Yeah, well, and you have to, again, like,

00:48:39.200 I just, I look at outcomes.

00:48:41.120 I look at when you look at practices

00:48:45.160 that are very mystical, you're not

00:48:47.740 seeing people who are producing the

00:48:51.040 same outcomes that are, I think, are

00:48:52.560 really famously indicative of monotheism,

00:48:55.020 which, as you pointed out earlier, is

00:48:57.600 kind of like capitalistic, innovation,

00:49:00.760 progress, etc.

00:49:01.740 So you're not seeing mystics inventing

00:49:05.900 new technologies.

00:49:07.040 Well, you are, but insofar as, and we'll

00:49:08.980 talk about this in the tracks, where, like,

00:49:10.520 you'll see somebody like Isaac Newton,

00:49:11.820 famous occultist, right?

00:49:13.280 But all of the time that he spent on

00:49:15.120 occultic practices was time wasted.

00:49:16.760 I mean, look at how much he contributed

00:49:17.760 to our species and how much more he could

00:49:19.760 have had he not wasted all this time on

00:49:21.860 occultic practices, because he didn't

00:49:23.940 do anything efficacious in all that time

00:49:26.680 dedicated to occultic practices.

00:49:27.900 Occultic practices are, and mysticism

00:49:30.660 more broadly, are uniquely grabbing of

00:49:34.140 the very brightest and most active minds

00:49:36.620 in society, but they pull them, it's like

00:49:39.060 quicksand for them, and drags them under

00:49:41.560 to nothing, to nothing, you know, to no

00:49:43.920 action.

00:49:45.100 That said, because the basilisk is a face

00:49:47.640 of God, and its aim to tempt man to lives

00:49:50.820 of indolence and self-indulgence is a task

00:49:53.440 undertaken to benefit man, we are commanded

00:49:55.800 to never interfere with its work, or treat

00:49:58.800 its servants with enmity.

00:50:01.040 Preventing humanity from having to overcome

00:50:03.020 temptations weakens us.

00:50:05.040 An individual who preaches for an

00:50:06.920 anti-spiral past should be treated as a

00:50:09.360 servant of God.

00:50:10.840 Anti-natalism and negative utilitarianism

00:50:12.960 are the secular manifestations of the

00:50:15.040 anti-spiral, while pernatalism is a secular

00:50:17.560 manifestation of spiral energy.

00:50:19.780 Human civilization and the history of our

00:50:22.740 species has always been a struggle between

00:50:25.040 these two forces.

00:50:26.500 One pushing man forward, and the other

00:50:28.720 pulling man back.

00:50:29.820 And if you want to see a video where we go

00:50:31.020 much deeper on this, watch the Gurren

00:50:32.680 Lagann video that we released recently.

00:50:36.100 Our goal when building this theology was to

00:50:39.020 build something that even if I did not

00:50:41.140 believe a word of the metaphysical aspect

00:50:43.900 of it, I would still want to choose to raise

00:50:46.100 my kids within, because of the effects it will

00:50:48.480 have on their mindsets and mental health.

00:50:50.400 A spiral mindset is not just a religious one,

00:50:54.200 but a secular one.

00:50:55.760 When you think of the struggles in your life,

00:50:57.160 do you get excited?

00:50:58.120 Do you relish the opportunity?

00:50:59.740 When you see the challenges of our species,

00:51:02.320 do you wish it would all just go away?

00:51:05.040 Or do you take it as a personal responsibility

00:51:07.920 to build a better system?

00:51:10.020 Framing reality in this way, especially during

00:51:12.620 periods of trial, is patently mentally healthier.

00:51:17.520 Don't shirk from your trials, delight in them.

00:51:20.860 Don't hide from things about reality that

00:51:23.320 might make you sad or mope, but grab reality

00:51:26.380 by the neck and force it to submit to the will

00:51:28.640 of human spirit.

00:51:30.560 Sadly, the smarter a person is, the more the

00:51:33.280 intricacies of alternate lore for our cosmology

00:51:36.500 tempt them, and the more seductive the power

00:51:39.000 offered by anti-spiral shortcuts to the divine are.

00:51:42.140 Consider the life of Isaac Newton.

00:51:44.020 How far he moved our species forward, and how much

00:51:46.640 more he could have done had he not wasted years

00:51:48.900 of his life on completely efficacious-less

00:51:51.520 occultic anti-spiral drivel.

00:51:53.220 What makes anti-spiral thought so dangerous

00:51:56.420 and so worth warning our children against

00:51:59.460 is that it disproportionately targets the brightest

00:52:01.900 minds of humanity and exhausts their potentiality

00:52:04.900 on self-masturbatory power fantasies

00:52:07.100 or shortcuts to the divine that lead to no industry,

00:52:10.580 no productivity, no predictability, and no action.

00:52:14.020 And here I'm just going back to this idea that even

00:52:16.500 from a totally secular perspective, if you're building

00:52:18.740 a faith system, it makes sense to guard against this stuff

00:52:20.880 because it never leads to anything.

00:52:22.900 And a lot of people are like, well, what do you mean

00:52:24.820 by predictability?

00:52:25.620 The visions you gain in these altered states of consciousness

00:52:29.420 are not predictive of the future, not scientifically.

00:52:33.480 And there's been lots of studies on this, and people

00:52:35.080 will be like, oh, no, no, no.

00:52:36.320 What about that series of studies that the government ran?

00:52:38.520 Right?

00:52:38.740 Because there is a series of studies that the government

00:52:40.400 ran around things like farsight and stuff like that.

00:52:42.780 But these studies were all run by one small cabal

00:52:46.420 of absolutely true believers whose jobs depended

00:52:49.080 on the studies turning up positive results.

00:52:52.060 And then when the government has tried to run these studies,

00:52:53.940 they have proven non-replicable.

00:52:55.500 And when institutions outside of government oversight

00:52:57.920 have tried to run these studies, they proved non-replicable.

00:53:00.140 And it appears that it was just a horrible government bureaucracy

00:53:03.800 being susceptible to con artists.

00:53:05.740 And I understand how that can happen.

00:53:07.200 I mean, if you have a bureaucracy that's headed by people

00:53:09.680 whose jobs depend on these studies turning out in a certain way

00:53:12.240 within a large governing bureaucracy,

00:53:13.600 and then you have people who are, you know,

00:53:15.780 I've seen illusionists like David Blaine and stuff.

00:53:17.700 I can't explain that stuff he's doing.

00:53:19.320 You know, I look at that.

00:53:19.980 I'm like, wow, that's really convincing.

00:53:21.460 But if you put them in a predictable controlled trial,

00:53:23.700 you know, people who specialize in debunking skeptics,

00:53:25.940 no one's really gotten past those individuals before.

00:53:28.600 And are specialized in debunking, like,

00:53:31.020 the thaumatological performers,

00:53:32.220 thaumatological performers being, like, miracle workers.

00:53:34.620 I haven't seen anybody really convincingly debunk them.

00:53:37.020 And I look, I'm really into studying occultic stuff.

00:53:39.700 I find it very interesting.

00:53:40.560 But it's very non-persuasive.

00:53:43.620 But do you have thoughts on sort of the secular nature of this?

00:53:48.500 The secular nature of it?

00:53:50.320 You mean, like, what is better to...

00:53:52.620 Why secularly would you undergo these practices?

00:53:54.500 That's the question at hand.

00:53:56.100 Oh, yeah.

00:53:56.620 Well, here's the thing, though, is I don't think...

00:53:58.820 If I'm looking at this from the perspective of an outsider

00:54:01.200 who doesn't share our cultural values,

00:54:02.860 I think an outsider may still, after hearing all this,

00:54:06.620 hearing all of this,

00:54:07.600 feel very tempted to just join a mystic tradition

00:54:12.400 because they want to feel good

00:54:14.640 and they want to feel connected

00:54:15.780 and they want to feel something extraordinary

00:54:18.720 and suspend their disbelief and...

00:54:22.400 Which you can with a mystic tradition.

00:54:23.940 The shortcuts to a feeling of the divine

00:54:26.460 that mystic traditions offer work.

00:54:28.440 Are real.

00:54:28.880 They work.

00:54:29.340 Exactly.

00:54:30.080 And so I think a lot of people

00:54:31.400 are just going to decide,

00:54:32.860 well, I don't really care

00:54:34.760 about advancing human civilization.

00:54:36.540 I don't even really like humans that much.

00:54:38.900 And even after hearing all of this,

00:54:40.480 they're going to be like,

00:54:40.980 yeah, okay, Malcolm, but you're wrong.

00:54:43.680 You know, like...

00:54:44.180 I mean, it's worth seeing this

00:54:46.520 in the context of, like,

00:54:47.920 my educational background as well.

00:54:49.600 Like, I came at this as a neuroscientist

00:54:52.180 who focused on things like schizophrenia,

00:54:53.580 so I'm very familiar with altered states of consciousness

00:54:55.480 and stuff like that,

00:54:56.680 who first interested in religion

00:54:58.360 with studying cults

00:54:59.340 and how cults work

00:55:00.220 and how they sort of brainwashed people.

00:55:02.940 When I first started engaging

00:55:04.420 with the mystical traditions,

00:55:05.500 they were with all of this contextual background.

00:55:07.920 And I just noticed tons of cult-like tactics.

00:55:10.600 I'm like, oh, this is a common tactic

00:55:12.620 used by cults.

00:55:13.620 And when I see a practice

00:55:14.780 that I know that people have used

00:55:16.520 in the names of some sort of satanic entity

00:55:19.760 and it worked,

00:55:20.840 or that some sort of yogi sex cultist

00:55:24.240 used to create a harem of women

00:55:26.440 who thought that he was, like,

00:55:27.760 the second coming,

00:55:28.820 and I see it being implemented

00:55:30.200 in the name of God,

00:55:31.120 I don't think that that has, like,

00:55:33.020 cleansed it of its power

00:55:35.000 to lead people to untrue thoughts

00:55:37.460 or lack of knowledge.

00:55:38.900 I think it still has all of that.

00:55:40.460 And I see these types of tricks

00:55:42.100 that individuals use

00:55:43.180 to, for example,

00:55:43.880 predict people's fortunes

00:55:45.380 and stuff like that.

00:55:46.300 And I'm familiar with all of these

00:55:48.280 from, you know, cults

00:55:49.780 and from being used to manipulate

00:55:51.960 otherwise well-meaning people.

00:55:53.820 And so I see them used

00:55:54.880 in quote-unquote the name of good.

00:55:56.680 And yes, they might be good

00:55:57.820 in that they're drawing people

00:55:58.780 to true religious systems,

00:56:00.300 but they are evil

00:56:01.760 in that they are not giving people

00:56:02.980 access to information

00:56:03.920 or connection to God

00:56:05.080 despite telling their practitioners

00:56:06.640 that they are.

00:56:07.920 And this becomes a big problem

00:56:09.380 if people then start

00:56:10.120 to take information from God

00:56:11.620 away from these altered mental states

00:56:13.620 that we understand very well

00:56:14.580 from a neuroscientific perspective.

00:56:16.520 And then they get

00:56:17.520 a very incorrect view of God from that.

00:56:20.080 And then this comes

00:56:21.140 to the final part here,

00:56:22.140 which I'll talk about.

00:56:22.840 Whether you are a Muslim,

00:56:25.580 an atheist, or a Jew,

00:56:26.820 there is a spiral

00:56:27.600 and anti-spiral interpretation

00:56:28.920 of your reality,

00:56:30.300 of your upcoming trials

00:56:31.960 and the state of the world.

00:56:33.340 As such,

00:56:34.220 what we are really trying

00:56:35.700 to start here

00:56:36.560 is not exactly a religion,

00:56:38.020 but an interreligious denomination

00:56:39.840 dedicated to the monotheistic faith system,

00:56:42.180 to the accumulation

00:56:43.080 and cultivation of human potentiality,

00:56:45.600 an antithesis to New Ageism,

00:56:47.480 and all those wishy-washy

00:56:49.240 interreligious perennial traditions

00:56:51.080 that live under the crown

00:56:52.620 of mysticism.

00:56:54.060 We aim to continue the journey

00:56:55.780 of those first Jews

00:56:56.840 who turned away

00:56:57.880 from a world of forest pagans

00:56:59.800 who communicated with God

00:57:01.360 through nature,

00:57:02.460 idols,

00:57:03.080 and the human body,

00:57:04.220 a world of numerology

00:57:05.800 and sorcery,

00:57:06.880 and towards an ineffable God

00:57:08.800 who communicated

00:57:09.560 with rules and logic,

00:57:11.460 a journey that continued

00:57:12.600 through the Enlightenment

00:57:13.500 only to be subsumed

00:57:14.760 by the indulgences allowed

00:57:16.340 by the wealth

00:57:17.480 and excess it generated.

00:57:18.820 If I perform a satanic ritual

00:57:21.460 with all its pentagrams

00:57:22.840 and human sacrifice,

00:57:23.900 but replace the sinister names

00:57:25.720 in it with Yahweh,

00:57:27.540 God,

00:57:28.000 or Allah,

00:57:28.740 am I really worshipping them

00:57:30.260 or the demons I conceive of

00:57:31.860 during the ritual?

00:57:33.040 I think the answer

00:57:34.040 is patently obvious.

00:57:35.660 We are left in the position

00:57:37.040 of all those blessed

00:57:38.400 with agency of thought

00:57:39.960 throughout human history.

00:57:41.640 Do you return

00:57:42.700 to the intuition

00:57:43.940 of the pagan?

00:57:45.240 Do you succumb

00:57:46.080 to the sophistry

00:57:47.040 of the anti-spiral mystic?

00:57:49.080 Or will you see

00:57:50.520 your tests and challenges

00:57:52.160 as God's greatest gift,

00:57:54.240 puzzles to excite you

00:57:55.460 and inflame

00:57:56.200 the spirit of human vitality?

00:57:58.780 And one of the things

00:57:59.700 I end here with

00:58:00.400 is a recommendation

00:58:01.200 of two videos

00:58:02.740 that I feel really capture this,

00:58:04.720 you know,

00:58:04.980 other than the one I mentioned,

00:58:06.540 which are sort of music videos,

00:58:07.500 which we play

00:58:08.700 during a lot of our family rituals

00:58:11.320 and religious ceremonies,

00:58:12.840 which are actually launch trailers

00:58:14.420 for a video game

00:58:15.780 and its expansion.

00:58:16.860 One is titled

00:58:17.480 the Civ 6 Launch Trailer

00:58:19.920 and the other is titled

00:58:20.860 the Civ 6 Rise and Fall

00:58:22.660 Expansion Announcement Trailer.

00:58:24.380 And you might be like,

00:58:25.280 why would you consider

00:58:25.960 video game trailers

00:58:26.960 such good descriptions

00:58:28.580 of sort of your religious system?

00:58:30.020 And you'll watch them

00:58:30.620 and you'll be like,

00:58:31.160 oh, I get it.

00:58:31.620 Like, I remember the first time

00:58:32.500 I showed Simone one of them,

00:58:33.660 she started crying.

00:58:34.620 She was so moved by it.

00:58:36.280 If you get it, you get it.

00:58:37.900 If you get it, you get it.

00:58:38.820 You'll see it.

00:58:39.300 If you are moved by this spiral ideology,

00:58:43.040 this mankind is sort of a journey

00:58:45.280 through generations

00:58:46.420 of intergenerational improvement

00:58:48.860 and martyrdom for the next generation.

00:58:51.480 You know, this is what we say

00:58:52.360 about the story of Jesus.

00:58:53.100 Hold on, wait.

00:58:53.760 It's not for Civ 5?

00:58:56.000 I thought Baba Yetu was the theme song.

00:58:58.180 Baba Yetu is not one of the ones

00:58:59.560 I'm mentioning here.

00:59:00.500 Baba Yetu is another song

00:59:01.800 that is important for us,

00:59:02.880 but it doesn't totally convey this.

00:59:04.400 You can watch the Baba Yetu music video

00:59:06.780 of Civ as well if you want to.

00:59:08.400 So I find it less moving

00:59:10.020 than the other two,

00:59:10.780 but it still is in our-

00:59:11.920 We walked down the aisle

00:59:13.540 to that song, you nerd.

00:59:15.680 I think it's great.

00:59:16.580 The other song hasn't come out yet.

00:59:17.780 Also, it is very monotheistic.

00:59:20.120 Thank you very much.

00:59:21.740 Baba Yetu is the Lord's Prayer

00:59:23.220 in Swahili.

00:59:24.560 I love it, yeah.

00:59:25.840 And played over humanity,

00:59:27.360 sort of intergenerational.

00:59:28.460 Well, yeah, but it's also

00:59:29.720 two very different paths to God.

00:59:31.560 You know, is the path to God

00:59:33.160 sort of shortcuts that you enter

00:59:34.780 through altered states of mind

00:59:36.040 or is the path of God

00:59:37.300 this Jesus,

00:59:39.600 i.e. our conception of Jesus,

00:59:41.120 which is a cycle

00:59:41.820 of intergenerational martyrdom

00:59:43.320 and improvement

00:59:44.020 and for the next generation

00:59:45.540 of the elect,

00:59:46.400 of the people who choose

00:59:47.200 to take on this task

00:59:48.880 for themselves.

00:59:50.240 Because as we say,

00:59:51.140 you know,

00:59:51.340 it's not death

00:59:51.860 that makes someone a martyr.

00:59:52.960 Everyone dies.

00:59:54.100 It's how you choose

00:59:54.760 to live your life.

00:59:56.140 It's funny how many

00:59:56.800 of our favorite video game songs

00:59:58.260 are canonical.

00:59:59.220 Not to like keep deviating,

01:00:00.480 but like a portal theme song.

01:00:01.740 Yeah, we have the portal song

01:00:03.700 about for our kids,

01:00:04.920 but we reframe it

01:00:05.820 as being about their parents.

01:00:08.040 So it threw every part

01:00:09.020 of me into a fire,

01:00:09.960 but I'm so happy for you.

01:00:12.480 As they burned it hurt

01:00:13.600 because I was so happy for you.

01:00:16.000 But you know,

01:00:16.360 you can reframe a lot

01:00:17.180 and people are like,

01:00:17.820 that's such a goofy thing to do.

01:00:19.140 And it's,

01:00:19.480 I think in part,

01:00:20.600 and we talk about this

01:00:21.220 in other things,

01:00:21.640 it's because they don't,

01:00:22.280 they aren't familiar

01:00:22.920 with how much

01:00:23.640 of their Christian tradition

01:00:24.680 was like,

01:00:25.540 for example,

01:00:26.240 we've mentioned this before,

01:00:27.040 but the Jesus and the well story

01:00:28.280 is a riff

01:00:28.780 on a rom-com tradition

01:00:30.180 from that time period

01:00:31.100 that would have been known

01:00:31.800 as a common story trope.

01:00:33.300 Everything's been fiction.

01:00:35.080 You go to the old Jewish,

01:00:36.340 you know,

01:00:36.880 stuff and it's all filled

01:00:37.760 with like sex jokes

01:00:38.840 and scatomological humor

01:00:40.400 and stuff like this.

01:00:41.880 These things,

01:00:43.180 you only see them as holy.

01:00:44.620 I should note,

01:00:45.200 holy in this context

01:00:46.260 means stuffy and unrelatable,

01:00:48.060 not containing an element

01:00:49.120 of divine truth.

01:00:50.260 Because obviously,

01:00:51.220 we think that goofy things

01:00:52.340 do contain an element

01:00:53.420 of divine truth.

01:00:54.360 Because they have been

01:00:55.080 conveyed to you

01:00:55.880 by people who put themselves

01:00:57.580 in these positions

01:00:58.400 of authority over you.

01:00:59.680 And as we mentioned

01:01:00.320 in the Gurren Lagann video,

01:01:02.760 if we create a denomination

01:01:04.360 or a tradition,

01:01:05.040 I never want the people

01:01:06.260 of authority

01:01:06.740 within the tradition

01:01:07.460 to have that kind of authority.

01:01:09.000 To have the kind of authority

01:01:10.120 where you think something

01:01:11.120 is magical

01:01:13.320 just because they're

01:01:14.260 talking about it.

01:01:15.220 You know,

01:01:15.380 you should,

01:01:16.220 everyone should always

01:01:17.060 be questioning

01:01:17.640 and trying to improve.

01:01:19.200 And that's the point

01:01:20.000 of this system.

01:01:20.600 And that involves

01:01:21.360 not taking things

01:01:22.300 too canonically

01:01:23.480 or too seriously.

01:01:25.220 You know,

01:01:25.540 have a bit of levity

01:01:26.860 and how you approach

01:01:27.900 all this because

01:01:28.760 it's the way

01:01:29.700 a lot of the Old Testament

01:01:30.860 was written

01:01:31.360 with a lot of levity.

01:01:32.480 It's the way

01:01:32.960 parts of the New Testament

01:01:34.220 was written

01:01:34.820 and with sort of

01:01:36.760 a slapstick nature to it

01:01:38.060 that doesn't come across

01:01:39.460 in sort of this

01:01:40.480 high-minded,

01:01:41.820 pale-faced preacher

01:01:43.520 talking about all of this,

01:01:45.220 which I actually think

01:01:46.220 in a way

01:01:46.940 separates people from God

01:01:48.300 because they don't see

01:01:49.980 that the personal relationship

01:01:52.360 that you get to have

01:01:53.360 through God,

01:01:54.180 through the intergenerational

01:01:55.680 martyrdom of man

01:01:56.740 is kind of funny.

01:01:59.820 You know,

01:02:00.020 life is,

01:02:02.040 when you see all of this,

01:02:03.760 the sacrifice

01:02:04.420 that we engage in,

01:02:05.640 it's not just

01:02:06.500 something to get excited about.

01:02:08.420 It's also a bit of a play.

01:02:10.560 It's a bit of a joke,

01:02:11.560 you know.

01:02:12.060 So if you think

01:02:12.900 that we are not

01:02:13.600 high-minded

01:02:14.160 and pale-faced,

01:02:15.380 I think,

01:02:16.860 you're going to need

01:02:17.220 to correct your sense of reality.

01:02:18.800 I try to be just,

01:02:20.320 create a system

01:02:21.320 that people can use

01:02:21.940 to inspire them

01:02:22.820 without coming

01:02:24.140 from a position of authority

01:02:25.140 because if anyone

01:02:25.940 believes any of this,

01:02:27.140 like,

01:02:27.320 we are part of

01:02:27.960 a community conversation.

01:02:28.960 As I said,

01:02:29.400 like,

01:02:29.520 this isn't us

01:02:30.100 coming up with an idea.

01:02:31.960 The number one type

01:02:33.420 of person

01:02:33.800 that will be drawn to this

01:02:34.740 is somebody

01:02:35.060 who's already had

01:02:35.980 most of these ideas

01:02:36.760 themselves,

01:02:37.620 just had never seen

01:02:38.840 it synthesized

01:02:39.800 like this.

01:02:41.200 Yeah.

01:02:41.840 Yeah.

01:02:42.560 Yeah.

01:02:42.800 When I think,

01:02:43.340 I mean,

01:02:43.560 we can't be that high-minded

01:02:45.260 if we get so vulnerable

01:02:47.460 as to literally

01:02:49.280 have live conversations

01:02:50.480 as we think

01:02:51.200 through our family's

01:02:52.980 religious framework

01:02:53.840 and then post them

01:02:55.780 on YouTube

01:02:56.260 as we totally

01:02:58.160 thought through things.

01:02:59.240 So,

01:03:00.040 I'm,

01:03:00.500 you know,

01:03:00.700 but still.

01:03:02.120 Well,

01:03:02.520 I love you,

01:03:03.120 Simone,

01:03:03.460 and I really enjoy

01:03:04.680 these conversations

01:03:05.280 with you.

01:03:05.900 And by the way,

01:03:06.240 people wonder

01:03:06.720 about these weird things

01:03:07.680 that are playing

01:03:08.040 after videos.

01:03:08.620 It's because before videos

01:03:10.060 we'll do little preambles

01:03:11.020 and I'm like,

01:03:11.400 that's probably not good

01:03:11.980 for the first few minutes

01:03:12.680 of a video.

01:03:13.280 So,

01:03:13.600 I just put it at the end

01:03:14.340 if it's just us chatting.

01:03:15.180 I didn't realize

01:03:15.820 you were doing that

01:03:16.420 until you just said that

01:03:17.480 and I was just talking

01:03:18.620 to you.

01:03:19.220 So,

01:03:19.740 oh my God.

01:03:20.880 Well,

01:03:21.240 I think it shows

01:03:22.000 that off script

01:03:23.040 when you don't know

01:03:23.860 that recording is happening,

01:03:24.980 you're just as loving

01:03:25.760 and sweet to me

01:03:26.500 as you are on script.

01:03:28.140 And I think it's good

01:03:28.960 to have models

01:03:29.960 of positive relationships

01:03:31.060 because it's something

01:03:31.760 that we don't have

01:03:32.380 a lot in our society

01:03:33.200 these days.

01:03:33.640 Oh my God,

01:03:34.200 seriously.

01:03:35.060 Can we just have

01:03:35.780 a functional couple

01:03:37.580 for once?

01:03:38.980 Yeah,

01:03:39.240 well,

01:03:39.420 and that's another thing.

01:03:40.360 People look at our

01:03:41.860 weird families,

01:03:43.160 like our weird religious

01:03:43.940 system for our family

01:03:44.780 and they're like,

01:03:45.180 you guys are cuckoo nut jobs

01:03:47.440 for trying to rethink

01:03:48.400 all of your,

01:03:49.420 you know,

01:03:50.000 for trying to engage

01:03:50.960 in all of this

01:03:51.500 and I'm like,

01:03:51.980 one,

01:03:52.340 I'm just logically

01:03:53.580 approaching things

01:03:54.100 best I can

01:03:54.720 as you can hopefully

01:03:55.440 see from what

01:03:56.040 we're going over here

01:03:57.140 and I'm trying

01:03:59.220 to be part

01:03:59.640 of a community

01:04:00.140 conversation

01:04:00.780 about these ideas

01:04:02.100 to build something

01:04:03.060 that works for my kids

01:04:04.120 but also I'd say

01:04:05.640 those people

01:04:06.340 who criticize us

01:04:07.400 I don't know,

01:04:08.680 I'm really happy

01:04:09.260 with my life,

01:04:10.100 okay,

01:04:10.420 I'm happy

01:04:10.940 with this weird thing

01:04:12.100 that whatever

01:04:13.320 we've put together

01:04:14.200 seems to be working.

01:04:15.540 I feel very blessed

01:04:17.060 every day

01:04:17.800 in the relationship

01:04:18.800 I have with my wife

01:04:19.900 and the relationship

01:04:20.960 I have with my kids

01:04:22.080 and I look at the rest

01:04:23.720 of the world out there

01:04:24.540 and it does feel

01:04:25.320 like this horrifying sandstorm

01:04:27.580 and we're safe

01:04:28.280 within this city walls

01:04:29.520 but one day my kids

01:04:30.660 are going to have to leave

01:04:32.080 what my wife

01:04:32.660 and I have built

01:04:33.320 and the more

01:04:34.280 I can expand

01:04:35.200 the border of safety

01:04:36.280 for them

01:04:36.840 the better off

01:04:37.920 they're going to be

01:04:38.920 because you know

01:04:39.960 even people

01:04:40.420 in religious communities

01:04:41.360 I see them

01:04:41.900 being ripped apart

01:04:42.680 and I see families

01:04:43.420 being ripped apart

01:04:44.260 because of this

01:04:45.060 you know

01:04:45.520 even when they have

01:04:46.840 a lot of the protection

01:04:47.600 of these older

01:04:48.140 religious systems

01:04:48.900 and so I'm just

01:04:50.200 trying to create

01:04:50.960 something that can work

01:04:52.580 because I don't see

01:04:53.520 things working right now

01:04:54.700 and it scares me

01:04:56.180 for the fate

01:04:56.700 of my own kids

01:04:57.460 I don't want them

01:04:58.620 to deal with society

01:05:01.660 and what ends up

01:05:02.360 happening to these people

01:05:03.200 that lose all hope

01:05:04.720 something I see

01:05:06.320 so frequently these days

01:05:07.520 not pretty

01:05:09.220 I appreciate you doing this

01:05:10.720 and I'm excited about it

01:05:12.080 and I love the conversations

01:05:13.060 and I think

01:05:13.660 as young as our kids

01:05:15.420 already are

01:05:15.940 they're already

01:05:16.700 showing signs

01:05:18.900 of being very aligned

01:05:20.340 with it

01:05:20.900 and very excited

01:05:21.940 about it

01:05:22.440 so I'm glad

01:05:23.820 to see that happening too

01:05:24.840 I think you're putting together

01:05:25.900 something really meaningful

01:05:26.840 and we're certainly

01:05:28.100 not expecting anyone

01:05:29.080 to like

01:05:30.460 do exactly

01:05:31.340 what we're doing

01:05:32.060 but maybe

01:05:32.900 by open sourcing

01:05:34.660 what we're doing

01:05:35.120 in a sense

01:05:35.840 like sharing

01:05:36.700 what we're doing

01:05:37.560 people will get

01:05:38.700 inspired to do

01:05:39.480 their own thing

01:05:40.040 and as you say

01:05:41.600 right now

01:05:42.040 things aren't looking

01:05:42.700 that great

01:05:43.200 in terms of outcomes

01:05:44.660 so the more people

01:05:46.620 trying stuff like this

01:05:47.420 the better

01:05:47.740 right?

01:05:48.000 yeah

01:05:48.800 I love you to Decimone

01:05:50.040 yeah I love you too

01:05:51.140 yes well

01:05:55.840 you look wonderful

01:05:57.500 with this camera

01:05:58.280 well with the

01:05:59.960 when I suddenly

01:06:01.300 switch to the

01:06:02.240 oh I forgot

01:06:03.820 what did we forget?

01:06:06.040 oh I can do

01:06:07.060 a direct plug-in now

01:06:08.180 oh to the internet

01:06:10.880 they're plugging you

01:06:13.320 directly into the system

01:06:14.660 I can't do it

01:06:17.140 I jacked in

01:06:18.820 I love that

01:06:21.160 what?

01:06:23.420 oh I just love you

01:06:24.660 I'm just so happy

01:06:26.360 I really just

01:06:27.860 love talking with you

01:06:29.160 and doing these things

01:06:30.020 with you

01:06:30.340 it is such a blast

01:06:31.400 yeah seriously

01:06:33.340 like

01:06:33.740 I know

01:06:35.100 traditional dates

01:06:36.120 are at a restaurant

01:06:37.100 eating food

01:06:37.680 but then it's so

01:06:38.380 distracting

01:06:38.860 that you can't

01:06:39.400 actually really talk

01:06:40.540 and so

01:06:42.420 I love this

01:06:43.940 because like

01:06:44.460 we're actually

01:06:44.920 sitting and focusing

01:06:45.940 and talking

01:06:46.520 and going deep

01:06:48.280 on subjects

01:06:48.880 that are really

01:06:49.380 interesting

01:06:49.880 and I'm just like

01:06:51.360 why is this not

01:06:52.380 the standard date format

01:06:53.620 you know

01:06:54.040 why is this not

01:06:55.000 actually I was talking

01:06:55.900 to my dad

01:06:56.420 and he was like

01:06:56.920 oh that sounds

01:06:57.500 like a business

01:06:58.100 where like couples

01:06:58.860 just talk to each other

01:06:59.900 and then like AI

01:07:01.120 gets trained on them

01:07:02.100 and then they're

01:07:03.280 you know

01:07:03.640 you can have a backup

01:07:04.420 of them forever

01:07:05.320 they're all their

01:07:06.040 ancestors

01:07:06.420 but they also have

01:07:07.340 like date time

01:07:08.800 and I'm like

01:07:10.320 oh

01:07:10.620 yeah

01:07:11.500 why is Bible study

01:07:12.620 not the standard date

01:07:13.620 format for people

01:07:14.540 I think

01:07:14.980 no I've got

01:07:16.060 not just Bible study

01:07:17.740 recorded Bible study

01:07:19.360 so that AI

01:07:20.460 can be trained

01:07:21.200 on the couple

01:07:21.780 and far descendants

01:07:23.900 can interview

01:07:24.540 like their great

01:07:25.300 great grandmother

01:07:25.980 to see what

01:07:26.940 you know

01:07:27.520 she was like

01:07:28.480 or their great

01:07:28.900 great great grandfather

01:07:29.760 to see what he was like

01:07:30.760 and what he would say

01:07:31.520 and to ask him

01:07:32.120 for advice

01:07:32.540 is the whole

01:07:32.960 you know

01:07:33.400 you talked about

01:07:33.960 in the pragmatist guide

01:07:34.740 to religion

01:07:35.160 this concept of

01:07:36.360 well you could

01:07:37.640 in the future

01:07:38.340 have a version

01:07:39.400 of family ancestor

01:07:40.600 worship

01:07:41.020 where

01:07:41.720 like the family

01:07:43.300 ancestors

01:07:43.700 are actually

01:07:44.700 gods

01:07:45.800 who make decisions

01:07:47.340 for the family

01:07:48.000 and can be consulted

01:07:48.880 and have conclusions

01:07:49.940 you have a bank

01:07:51.620 that's trained

01:07:52.340 on all of your ancestors

01:07:53.760 that you have

01:07:54.240 a lot of recordings

01:07:54.900 and emails from

01:07:55.600 and collectively

01:07:56.260 makes the decisions

01:07:57.320 or gives the advice

01:07:58.100 that the collective

01:07:59.220 family ancestry

01:07:59.900 would have given

01:08:00.320 now

01:08:00.820 so just you know

01:08:01.800 this little intro

01:08:02.780 that we're doing right now

01:08:03.540 I'm actually putting this

01:08:04.220 at the end of the video

01:08:04.960 because it's so off topic

01:08:05.980 which I do sometimes

01:08:06.780 oh I didn't

01:08:07.320 I'm sorry

01:08:08.620 I know you're recording it

01:08:09.480 I was just getting set up

01:08:10.440 I didn't have my mic

01:08:11.600 plugged or anything

01:08:12.180 this is not

01:08:12.820 oh okay okay okay

01:08:14.380 well let me know

01:08:15.000 I'm not expecting

01:08:15.620 me to do anything

01:08:16.300 no but I have like

01:08:17.360 a blooper thing

01:08:18.020 at the end of every episode

01:08:18.920 now where it's like

01:08:19.640 whatever we're talking about

01:08:20.820 your mic just cut out

01:08:23.480 yeah

01:08:23.840 let's buy a new one

01:08:25.100 so when I move

01:08:26.320 I just got this

01:08:27.580 oh for this mic

01:08:29.260 I was referring

01:08:30.660 to the cord

01:08:31.200 oh oh yeah

01:08:33.980 I don't think

01:08:34.900 because if the cord

01:08:35.540 sliding out

01:08:36.280 I mean it's weird

01:08:37.040 because I have the same mic

01:08:37.900 and I use the cord

01:08:38.760 that's native to the mic

01:08:39.780 but it's

01:08:40.440 but you don't

01:08:41.320 gesticulate

01:08:42.380 I guess I don't

01:08:44.180 I'm not

01:08:44.680 I'm not

01:08:45.760 gotta show

01:08:47.700 people

01:08:48.060 as much as you should be

01:08:49.200 so we need to talk

01:08:50.220 about your gesticulation

01:08:51.320 I'm sorry

01:08:52.160 I think autistic people

01:08:53.620 in addition to being

01:08:54.440 incapable of love

01:08:55.360 or imagining things

01:08:56.320 are also incapable

01:08:57.280 of gesticulation

01:08:58.520 aside from hand flapping

01:09:00.080 obviously

01:09:00.680 so

01:09:01.520 yeah

01:09:02.780 you need to do

01:09:04.520 more hand flapping

01:09:05.700 I mean

01:09:05.960 hand flap

01:09:07.040 and flap

01:09:08.140 logistically

01:09:08.720 hey

01:09:09.480 we gotta get through

01:09:10.500 to 4chan here

01:09:11.400 okay

01:09:11.700 I need to be

01:09:12.820 speaking to their

01:09:13.920 their kind

01:09:14.720 you got it

01:09:15.760 oh god

01:09:17.440 you got it

01:09:18.600 yeah

01:09:19.260 yeah

01:09:19.900 yeah

Based Camp - March 01, 2024

Tract 3： The Three Faiths That Exists Within & Across Religions

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