Creation myths are not supposed to be true, they are the artistic expression of a peoples soul. And that is fine and good, but then along came da joos and their platonic theocracy... we iz superior dat nigga yahweh dun fuk yew up. It is not really their fault, despite being scum the jews never anticipated christian and muslim imitators. The roman empire and their 'jew domestication device' aka christianity aka repurposed caesar god cult led to goys wanting to be jews albeit by accident. By the 4th century the romans said fuck it and switched out the caesar imperial cult for churchianity due to stability issues... this would lead to islam the best jew larp cult. Unlike schizoanity it is straightforward, we iz jew now bow before allah tha yahweh or we buss caps in yo ass. This jewish warrior cult is maintained by moronic promises in exchange for martyrdom aka being violent to kuffir.
Xianity has the major problem of being two religions sandwiched together.... paranoid christophrenia. One part hoodaic supremacy fairy tale (stolen from better civilizations) one part julius caeser cult 'peace an luv mayn'. It doesn't know whether to be a platonic theocracy or transcendental buddhist shit. And yes plato is the creator god of the ''abramic'' religions, he invented 'Theocracy' in his Republika. What is a theocracy? Elites want sheep to follow rules - invent religion - lay out rules for plebs - claim gawd made them - profit
And that is how Plato, Jews and romans ruined god and spirituality... 30% of the worlds population worship caesar as god lmao, but due to christophrenia they also worship yahweh le demiurge at the same time. The joos state that yahweh is baal btw, 'no longer call me baal but ishi'. Baal = Lord christfags...
"It is my firmly held belief that religion without mysticism and a spiritual discipline at its core is an empty husk of itself. The stated dogmas of the religion have to be verifiable through the application of a spiritual praxis and not simply accepted on blind faith for generations on end. At best, faith ought to be a stepping stone in one’s disciplined progression towards knowledge and becoming."
It is my experience that mysticism IS and we Christians are expressly invited/urged to a safe, sane and Spirit-guided rapprochement leading to divine union. We become co-workers, kundalini (divine union on this side of the veil) operatives. I was guided in the crib as I think many are, experienced many failed attempts with religions and finally set myself on the path of direct relationship or bust. THAT worked. It was deep desire/need rather than technique that created the drawing of Lightning (electricity below the earth and above tracking each other as in nature) An intrepid, blessedly unconventional, powerful path that leads beyond the known paths, but even then signs are given. I made no sense in American spiritual culture and generally found myself at war with it, often exposing it's dark underbelly. I found a sense of place in an Orthodox bookstore where a slim volume spoke about the progression of a soul from the cradle of the church who outgrows the cradle, the natural experiences of life, the monastery, the hermitage and continues to the mountaintop. In that tradition, it was normative to experience the Light, disperse the gifts and to become Christed.
The Case for Reforming Christianity is outstanding, full of insights, spiritually intelligent criticism, raw honesty, great rants and well-reasoned thoughts. Heartfelt thanks Mr. Slavskiy!!!
I have been introduced to Kriya Yoga and re-read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda. I recommend it to others. I grew up in the Methodist Church which offered a bland version of Christianity. I discovered the Anglican Church mass as a young adult which did offer a more spiritual worship through the transubstantiation. It would be decades later, still searching, a house guest introduced me to Kriya praxis.
I would argue that such a religious practice does now exist. It is not built on the traditional Meditation-Yoga-Dream Work pattern, but it has proven more effective for those willing and able to indulge.
A similar anti-spiritual transformation, by the way, happened to Hinduism some thousands of years earlier here on Earth. It is reported in Dena Merriam's latest book, and perhaps elsewhere. Anti-spiritualism is a problem here on Earth, and in fact throughout this universe.
Mysticism is condemned in the Bible....the Bible is God's breathed word.; the only good spirit is God's Holy Spirit AKA Holy Ghost; any other "spirit" is of prince of the power of the world AKA the devil:
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. - 1Corinthians 2: 12-14
Moses wrote of two priesthoods of YHWH. The finite priesthood of Aaron and the infinite, perfect priesthood of Melchizedek. Moses wrote that the greater of the two is the Order of Melchizedek. Judaism is the Order of Aaron. So Moses believed Christianity is greater than Judaism. St. Paul said that Christianity is the Order of Melchizedek. YHWH shut down the Order of Aaron when they murdered his son.
Many a year ago, I heard this from a Franciscan monk when asked about his faith on tv:
🗨 I don‘t believe in God, I *know*.
Stuck with me ever since.
--
For I see glides on tangents are not frown upon here, yet another one might be à propos 🤸
The reports of ‘recalcitrant resistance of Church authorities’ to science is a myth greatly exaggerated & forever perpetuated. ‘The conflict is well known’, acc to Rolo 😝 Tim O'Neill of History for Atheists does an amazing job in dispelling the inane tall tales generations grew up with and hence never question --> https://historyforatheists.com/the-great-myths/.
The default no-brainer mainstream view from time immemorial was that God wrote whole two books, not one: the Scripture and the Nature. They were not in conflict nor in substantive tension by any stretch of imagination 🤷 The escalation to a perceived all-out war between the two is a fairly recent development, essentially dates back to the last century only. Not ‘historically typical, much less intellectually necessary.‘
🗨 [M]odern science had its roots in medieval Judeo-Christian religion, with its belief in universal, rational laws given a supreme lawgiver. Without this philosophical background, it is not clear that modern science as we know it would have ever developed in the West. British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, for example, noted that modern science was based on "faith that at the base of things we shall not find mere arbitrary mystery".
Ortodox who left Russia persecuted for avoiding military service had strong morals and work ethos so they easily merged with Prussian/Polish german-masurians - material success and change of times killed them.
Still discipline, ora et labora is based. Its required to give you edge over neighbours in outbreeding and materially dominating/keeping_them_in_check
But all these late Christianities have common genetic disease - not being monotheism at all but a kind of fluid hinduism with many objects of cult. that's why they loose vs crude but ortodox and simple Islam.
Christianity was similar except it's total communitarian inclusiveness. Arianism was fully mono without any added Augustinian nonsenses, heresies and crazy virtual ideas (inventing virtual soul and nonmaterial realms) which are assimilated in modern scientific astrophysics and cosmology (equally absurd as unscientific). Arianism was revived many ages later as Unitarianism and f.e. Polish Brothers who then were persecuted by contrreformers. But there are fully preserved bibles in this rite.
So you get:
Discipline of will in daily life ortodox and protestan style, ethos of work and developing talents with edge over others
Christianity with actual 1 God and strong core opposition to adapt any other nonsense. Plus original Christian soul - divine part of God but fully human, from your flesh and blood, bound with flesh and blood until death. Then still existing and kicking.
Christian individual born way - free will, conscious of good and evil, sins recognised in own conscious without publish shaming, original inherited sin or group responsibility.
Christian groupism - being born in family, being born Christian, being born with bonds and extended families - blood relatives of ethnic community and nation/tribe.
So nationalistic clan Christianity as you have national churches and national flavour civilization.
Your children raised with only a few but strict rules.
You are one of US from US. You continue us. You breed with us (no fkd up ideas here) or you bring someone and your blood become us or leaves permanently.
And the divine and profound aspect.
Soul is sacred as well as blood it comes from.
You don't spill blood in useless fights. Continuity and multiplying blood is the basic direction of whole creation.
It means being physically and mentally strong. Fertile and talented. Healthy and clear minded.
You achieve it by healthy human species proper diet and so herding and eating own animals organic meat.
As well as training body and mind.
Slavs were known for living close to nature, in isolated hard to conquer places - deep in forests, murches, mountains. Decentralised with varying customs and social systems in each Ród. With very faithful wives. But with yearly "open visitting" day outside villages with all kinds of fun things banned in Christianity going on (between Slavic kin not rapefugees)
Slavs were open, inviting, hospitable, commercially curious and tax free like Rome in its origins, weren't xenophobic but weren't having visitors often and these were usually merchants or prisoners of war not foreign hordes, erasmus lefties or tourists...
And they bordered nearly only other slavic tribes not always on good terms.
United democratically in case of common enemy.
Nature is the key. Going back to land as basic wealth source, pure land without toxic chemical inventions and core of self-sufficient localised economy. And then on top of that comes local industry and focus on spending internally and earning surplus exporting externally.
Minimalism in life. All focused on hardware not virtual crazyness. Burning wood, seeding trees.
Adapting all safe and as natural and fitting technologies as possible. Not giving a shit about changed in wide world far away.
Doing own shit own way.
Amish community in USA is a great example.
If Russia was sane it would already invite them as they are persecuted by new world order in USA.
And yeah being scientifically driven. God can be understood better with science - book is just a basic spirit to follow not sacred word - since it's a fkg writing of humans and translation after year in non original words Dah!!!
What doesn't block metaphysical sphere at all. Science is a collection of theories to best of our actual knowledge. not some absolute truth and full of small mistakes
Humans also aren't perfect and they don't die with a perfect soul neither.
So shortcomings of science are literally point out the need of perceiving world with out divine sences through power of the only God who listens always and responds to those of strong enough belief!
Without any praying to seven ghosts
or fkg sitting years breathing like an idiot without measuring if it even works.
Learning and perfecting oneself of course.
Performing useless impractical voodoo because of some guru hell no.
Fasting is a part of human life as in live of carnivores or hunters.
We get fat only for winter if necessary. we eat carbs only in one season of fruits if needed for winter.
Your Yakuts eating a fkg orange and bread is a fkg blasphemy to own ancestors. It gives them cancers they never had. The same as plastic dishes and shampoos. Soap from tallow can do.
You can be a programmer from a yakut yurt no problem. Just don't code stuff for corporation, employ yourself for yourself of do stuff for community or to export to others to bring value to community.
You repeat the old marxist canard : religion is the opium of the people. This is simply not true. I understand that you preach so exaggeration is to be expected. I would like more nuance in eventual posts.
You also write that Christianity has no mysticism, save for the Hesychasts and that it has always suppressed mystics. This is plainly untrue. Starting from Saint Anthony the Great and the desert fathers of the 4th century till the present days, Christianity has always had a robust contemplative wing and numerous writings describing mystical experiences and teaching the methods to do so. Many mystics have been declared saints. In the Catholic world, mysticism starts with orison or prayer in the silence of the mind. Orison has been required of the clergy and promoted among the laity since the end of the 19th century. The reality is that most priests do not actually practice orison and few laymen are interested.
Please do not spread falsehoods on the place of mysticism in Christianity.
It seems to me that your criticisms of Christianity , at least thus far, miss the mark. Not because your analysis is incorrect precisely, but because you are failing to understand (or at least address) the point, and therefore the goals, of Christ's message and the faithful Christian.
Your main points appear to be that
- Christianity, at least as currently practised, is inferior to other religions in enabling its followers to successfully compete for power.
- Christianity eschews mysticism which you correctly define as magic. Whether or not one belives that "magic" exists, the purpose of the pursuit of magical knowledge is again power.
It is worth noting that power does not exist in isolation. Power is inherently political, and implies the domination of others. In essence you are advocating that Christianity should be "adjusted" to support being the biggest bully in the schoolyard. And you correctly note that it has been applied that way in the past, but is not being so applied today.
In essence you are repeating Satan's message, tempting people to acquire power to compete for dominion. You have explicitly defined a goal of acquiring dominion over other people but are, of course, already straying into the land of competition with God himself. And I say "of course" because, as Milton so eloquently described, that is where the path you are laying out always leads. A ever-repeating cycle of destruction, devastation, death and suffering. In your world there is only one winner and everyone else whom they defeat. And the winner only stays on top as long as he keeps killing all his challengers.
Christ's message is on a higher plane altogether. He tells us that we must avoid the temptation of seeking to be the greatest demon, wielding power and dominion over others. Instead we must be strong and steadfast in our resistance to all such ideas. This is true strength, completely different in nature from the vain pursuit of fleeting power and cycle of perpetual destruction which you are advocating. And it is the only hope we have for peace and a world where all have a chance to lead good and fulfilling lives. We should aim for neither mastery of nor slavery to other men, but freedom tempered by obedience to God.
When I break up a fight between my children, each inevitably excuses his behavior with the explanation that the other struck first. My counterpoint is always that if the correct response to a blow being struck is to retaliate with another blow, the world would be filled only with people hitting each other. Love, understanding and forgiveness are superior to retaliation and violence. It requires far deeper understanding and greater strength, which is why children frequently resort to blows, and grandparents rather less often :-).
The man who builds a house is superior to the man who knocks it down.
And true Christianity - following the teachings of Christ - is not weak at all. It requires strength, conviction, immense courage, self-restraint, and self discipline. It is worth considering that those seeking dominion over the world today understood that they could not achieve their goals without first infiltrating the church, corrupting it, and in turn destroying peoples' faith in Jesus and his teachings. That they have succeeded is not an indication that Christianity needs to embrace the teachings of Satan as you advocate. It is simply an indication that we need to restore what has been lost - true faith in, and adherence to, Christ's teachings as he spoke them himself, and as they are recorded in the Gospels. The same faith that our enemies knew they had to destroy to achieve their goals.
Oh - and you are only partially correct when you equate mysticism with spirituality. True - mysticism is one form of spirituality - albeit I believe a fundamentally destructive form. But faith, prayer, and obedience to God are also perfectly valid forms of spirituality.
This comments section is damn good. Thanks, Rolo, for taking the time to thoughtfully reply to so many questions/comments. It really enhanced my understanding of the essay.
II. The Case For Reforming Christianity
Creation myths are not supposed to be true, they are the artistic expression of a peoples soul. And that is fine and good, but then along came da joos and their platonic theocracy... we iz superior dat nigga yahweh dun fuk yew up. It is not really their fault, despite being scum the jews never anticipated christian and muslim imitators. The roman empire and their 'jew domestication device' aka christianity aka repurposed caesar god cult led to goys wanting to be jews albeit by accident. By the 4th century the romans said fuck it and switched out the caesar imperial cult for churchianity due to stability issues... this would lead to islam the best jew larp cult. Unlike schizoanity it is straightforward, we iz jew now bow before allah tha yahweh or we buss caps in yo ass. This jewish warrior cult is maintained by moronic promises in exchange for martyrdom aka being violent to kuffir.
Xianity has the major problem of being two religions sandwiched together.... paranoid christophrenia. One part hoodaic supremacy fairy tale (stolen from better civilizations) one part julius caeser cult 'peace an luv mayn'. It doesn't know whether to be a platonic theocracy or transcendental buddhist shit. And yes plato is the creator god of the ''abramic'' religions, he invented 'Theocracy' in his Republika. What is a theocracy? Elites want sheep to follow rules - invent religion - lay out rules for plebs - claim gawd made them - profit
And that is how Plato, Jews and romans ruined god and spirituality... 30% of the worlds population worship caesar as god lmao, but due to christophrenia they also worship yahweh le demiurge at the same time. The joos state that yahweh is baal btw, 'no longer call me baal but ishi'. Baal = Lord christfags...
"It is my firmly held belief that religion without mysticism and a spiritual discipline at its core is an empty husk of itself. The stated dogmas of the religion have to be verifiable through the application of a spiritual praxis and not simply accepted on blind faith for generations on end. At best, faith ought to be a stepping stone in one’s disciplined progression towards knowledge and becoming."
Precisely.
It is my experience that mysticism IS and we Christians are expressly invited/urged to a safe, sane and Spirit-guided rapprochement leading to divine union. We become co-workers, kundalini (divine union on this side of the veil) operatives. I was guided in the crib as I think many are, experienced many failed attempts with religions and finally set myself on the path of direct relationship or bust. THAT worked. It was deep desire/need rather than technique that created the drawing of Lightning (electricity below the earth and above tracking each other as in nature) An intrepid, blessedly unconventional, powerful path that leads beyond the known paths, but even then signs are given. I made no sense in American spiritual culture and generally found myself at war with it, often exposing it's dark underbelly. I found a sense of place in an Orthodox bookstore where a slim volume spoke about the progression of a soul from the cradle of the church who outgrows the cradle, the natural experiences of life, the monastery, the hermitage and continues to the mountaintop. In that tradition, it was normative to experience the Light, disperse the gifts and to become Christed.
The Case for Reforming Christianity is outstanding, full of insights, spiritually intelligent criticism, raw honesty, great rants and well-reasoned thoughts. Heartfelt thanks Mr. Slavskiy!!!
I have been introduced to Kriya Yoga and re-read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda. I recommend it to others. I grew up in the Methodist Church which offered a bland version of Christianity. I discovered the Anglican Church mass as a young adult which did offer a more spiritual worship through the transubstantiation. It would be decades later, still searching, a house guest introduced me to Kriya praxis.
I find your analysis quite astute and meaningful.
And this is from a student of Scientology!
I would argue that such a religious practice does now exist. It is not built on the traditional Meditation-Yoga-Dream Work pattern, but it has proven more effective for those willing and able to indulge.
A similar anti-spiritual transformation, by the way, happened to Hinduism some thousands of years earlier here on Earth. It is reported in Dena Merriam's latest book, and perhaps elsewhere. Anti-spiritualism is a problem here on Earth, and in fact throughout this universe.
Mysticism is condemned in the Bible....the Bible is God's breathed word.; the only good spirit is God's Holy Spirit AKA Holy Ghost; any other "spirit" is of prince of the power of the world AKA the devil:
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. - 1Corinthians 2: 12-14
Moses wrote of two priesthoods of YHWH. The finite priesthood of Aaron and the infinite, perfect priesthood of Melchizedek. Moses wrote that the greater of the two is the Order of Melchizedek. Judaism is the Order of Aaron. So Moses believed Christianity is greater than Judaism. St. Paul said that Christianity is the Order of Melchizedek. YHWH shut down the Order of Aaron when they murdered his son.
Hesychasm: gotta love it: an anti-dogma dogma?
Many a year ago, I heard this from a Franciscan monk when asked about his faith on tv:
🗨 I don‘t believe in God, I *know*.
Stuck with me ever since.
--
For I see glides on tangents are not frown upon here, yet another one might be à propos 🤸
The reports of ‘recalcitrant resistance of Church authorities’ to science is a myth greatly exaggerated & forever perpetuated. ‘The conflict is well known’, acc to Rolo 😝 Tim O'Neill of History for Atheists does an amazing job in dispelling the inane tall tales generations grew up with and hence never question --> https://historyforatheists.com/the-great-myths/.
The default no-brainer mainstream view from time immemorial was that God wrote whole two books, not one: the Scripture and the Nature. They were not in conflict nor in substantive tension by any stretch of imagination 🤷 The escalation to a perceived all-out war between the two is a fairly recent development, essentially dates back to the last century only. Not ‘historically typical, much less intellectually necessary.‘
🗨 [M]odern science had its roots in medieval Judeo-Christian religion, with its belief in universal, rational laws given a supreme lawgiver. Without this philosophical background, it is not clear that modern science as we know it would have ever developed in the West. British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, for example, noted that modern science was based on "faith that at the base of things we shall not find mere arbitrary mystery".
[https://www.sciencemeetsreligion.org/blog/2022/11/have-science-and-religion-always-been-at-war/ <-- an adorable short essay adorned with entertaining anecdotes 🙂]
To wrap up, one would be excused for asking: What else do we know that isn‘t so?
--
PS Great choice of pics; Bruegel Sr in particular is a doozy! 🔥
Ortodox who left Russia persecuted for avoiding military service had strong morals and work ethos so they easily merged with Prussian/Polish german-masurians - material success and change of times killed them.
Still discipline, ora et labora is based. Its required to give you edge over neighbours in outbreeding and materially dominating/keeping_them_in_check
But all these late Christianities have common genetic disease - not being monotheism at all but a kind of fluid hinduism with many objects of cult. that's why they loose vs crude but ortodox and simple Islam.
Christianity was similar except it's total communitarian inclusiveness. Arianism was fully mono without any added Augustinian nonsenses, heresies and crazy virtual ideas (inventing virtual soul and nonmaterial realms) which are assimilated in modern scientific astrophysics and cosmology (equally absurd as unscientific). Arianism was revived many ages later as Unitarianism and f.e. Polish Brothers who then were persecuted by contrreformers. But there are fully preserved bibles in this rite.
So you get:
Discipline of will in daily life ortodox and protestan style, ethos of work and developing talents with edge over others
Christianity with actual 1 God and strong core opposition to adapt any other nonsense. Plus original Christian soul - divine part of God but fully human, from your flesh and blood, bound with flesh and blood until death. Then still existing and kicking.
Christian individual born way - free will, conscious of good and evil, sins recognised in own conscious without publish shaming, original inherited sin or group responsibility.
Christian groupism - being born in family, being born Christian, being born with bonds and extended families - blood relatives of ethnic community and nation/tribe.
So nationalistic clan Christianity as you have national churches and national flavour civilization.
Your children raised with only a few but strict rules.
You are one of US from US. You continue us. You breed with us (no fkd up ideas here) or you bring someone and your blood become us or leaves permanently.
And the divine and profound aspect.
Soul is sacred as well as blood it comes from.
You don't spill blood in useless fights. Continuity and multiplying blood is the basic direction of whole creation.
It means being physically and mentally strong. Fertile and talented. Healthy and clear minded.
You achieve it by healthy human species proper diet and so herding and eating own animals organic meat.
As well as training body and mind.
Slavs were known for living close to nature, in isolated hard to conquer places - deep in forests, murches, mountains. Decentralised with varying customs and social systems in each Ród. With very faithful wives. But with yearly "open visitting" day outside villages with all kinds of fun things banned in Christianity going on (between Slavic kin not rapefugees)
Slavs were open, inviting, hospitable, commercially curious and tax free like Rome in its origins, weren't xenophobic but weren't having visitors often and these were usually merchants or prisoners of war not foreign hordes, erasmus lefties or tourists...
And they bordered nearly only other slavic tribes not always on good terms.
United democratically in case of common enemy.
Nature is the key. Going back to land as basic wealth source, pure land without toxic chemical inventions and core of self-sufficient localised economy. And then on top of that comes local industry and focus on spending internally and earning surplus exporting externally.
Minimalism in life. All focused on hardware not virtual crazyness. Burning wood, seeding trees.
Adapting all safe and as natural and fitting technologies as possible. Not giving a shit about changed in wide world far away.
Doing own shit own way.
Amish community in USA is a great example.
If Russia was sane it would already invite them as they are persecuted by new world order in USA.
And yeah being scientifically driven. God can be understood better with science - book is just a basic spirit to follow not sacred word - since it's a fkg writing of humans and translation after year in non original words Dah!!!
What doesn't block metaphysical sphere at all. Science is a collection of theories to best of our actual knowledge. not some absolute truth and full of small mistakes
Humans also aren't perfect and they don't die with a perfect soul neither.
So shortcomings of science are literally point out the need of perceiving world with out divine sences through power of the only God who listens always and responds to those of strong enough belief!
Without any praying to seven ghosts
or fkg sitting years breathing like an idiot without measuring if it even works.
Learning and perfecting oneself of course.
Performing useless impractical voodoo because of some guru hell no.
Fasting is a part of human life as in live of carnivores or hunters.
We get fat only for winter if necessary. we eat carbs only in one season of fruits if needed for winter.
Your Yakuts eating a fkg orange and bread is a fkg blasphemy to own ancestors. It gives them cancers they never had. The same as plastic dishes and shampoos. Soap from tallow can do.
You can be a programmer from a yakut yurt no problem. Just don't code stuff for corporation, employ yourself for yourself of do stuff for community or to export to others to bring value to community.
Hello Rolo,
You repeat the old marxist canard : religion is the opium of the people. This is simply not true. I understand that you preach so exaggeration is to be expected. I would like more nuance in eventual posts.
You also write that Christianity has no mysticism, save for the Hesychasts and that it has always suppressed mystics. This is plainly untrue. Starting from Saint Anthony the Great and the desert fathers of the 4th century till the present days, Christianity has always had a robust contemplative wing and numerous writings describing mystical experiences and teaching the methods to do so. Many mystics have been declared saints. In the Catholic world, mysticism starts with orison or prayer in the silence of the mind. Orison has been required of the clergy and promoted among the laity since the end of the 19th century. The reality is that most priests do not actually practice orison and few laymen are interested.
Please do not spread falsehoods on the place of mysticism in Christianity.
It seems to me that your criticisms of Christianity , at least thus far, miss the mark. Not because your analysis is incorrect precisely, but because you are failing to understand (or at least address) the point, and therefore the goals, of Christ's message and the faithful Christian.
Your main points appear to be that
- Christianity, at least as currently practised, is inferior to other religions in enabling its followers to successfully compete for power.
- Christianity eschews mysticism which you correctly define as magic. Whether or not one belives that "magic" exists, the purpose of the pursuit of magical knowledge is again power.
It is worth noting that power does not exist in isolation. Power is inherently political, and implies the domination of others. In essence you are advocating that Christianity should be "adjusted" to support being the biggest bully in the schoolyard. And you correctly note that it has been applied that way in the past, but is not being so applied today.
In essence you are repeating Satan's message, tempting people to acquire power to compete for dominion. You have explicitly defined a goal of acquiring dominion over other people but are, of course, already straying into the land of competition with God himself. And I say "of course" because, as Milton so eloquently described, that is where the path you are laying out always leads. A ever-repeating cycle of destruction, devastation, death and suffering. In your world there is only one winner and everyone else whom they defeat. And the winner only stays on top as long as he keeps killing all his challengers.
Christ's message is on a higher plane altogether. He tells us that we must avoid the temptation of seeking to be the greatest demon, wielding power and dominion over others. Instead we must be strong and steadfast in our resistance to all such ideas. This is true strength, completely different in nature from the vain pursuit of fleeting power and cycle of perpetual destruction which you are advocating. And it is the only hope we have for peace and a world where all have a chance to lead good and fulfilling lives. We should aim for neither mastery of nor slavery to other men, but freedom tempered by obedience to God.
When I break up a fight between my children, each inevitably excuses his behavior with the explanation that the other struck first. My counterpoint is always that if the correct response to a blow being struck is to retaliate with another blow, the world would be filled only with people hitting each other. Love, understanding and forgiveness are superior to retaliation and violence. It requires far deeper understanding and greater strength, which is why children frequently resort to blows, and grandparents rather less often :-).
The man who builds a house is superior to the man who knocks it down.
And true Christianity - following the teachings of Christ - is not weak at all. It requires strength, conviction, immense courage, self-restraint, and self discipline. It is worth considering that those seeking dominion over the world today understood that they could not achieve their goals without first infiltrating the church, corrupting it, and in turn destroying peoples' faith in Jesus and his teachings. That they have succeeded is not an indication that Christianity needs to embrace the teachings of Satan as you advocate. It is simply an indication that we need to restore what has been lost - true faith in, and adherence to, Christ's teachings as he spoke them himself, and as they are recorded in the Gospels. The same faith that our enemies knew they had to destroy to achieve their goals.
Oh - and you are only partially correct when you equate mysticism with spirituality. True - mysticism is one form of spirituality - albeit I believe a fundamentally destructive form. But faith, prayer, and obedience to God are also perfectly valid forms of spirituality.
This comments section is damn good. Thanks, Rolo, for taking the time to thoughtfully reply to so many questions/comments. It really enhanced my understanding of the essay.
Rollo, I'm afraid you'll mock my comment, but I need to publish it :
you said "In short: Mysticism = Magic."
For me, as a total newbie in this kind of stuf, "magic=practical ritual which give me practical results (money, sex, health, peace, etc.)
Is it a OTANnazidecadentcrusader stupid thought ?
Is it reasonable ?
Is it totally off-topic ?
Please, enlight me on this matter.
Thanks for a second instalment, Rolo, and for folk discussing.
What is your/anyone's opinion on "The Ladder of Divine Ascent" (St John Climacus) ?
Thanks.
Pretty wordy mysticism.