religion

The Cross Disintegrates

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I’ve been wondering about how people will regard Christianity in America in the future. This is for obvious reasons (the religious right, hypocrisy) and the personal (I love to speculate). Truth be told, I don’t see it being anything good.

First, it’s really obvious that the Religious Right et al has made Christianity synonymous with “Bigoted, sexist, homophobic, reality-denying wealth-worshiping asshole who’s a total hypocrite.” Yes, plenty of American “Christians” violate their own religious tenets which is obvious as hell when you have even a passing understanding of the teachings of Jesus. They also do not care that they are hypocrites and have no spiritual curiosity, if they ever had any. Honestly it’s kind of a joke how Christianity has gotten branded.

Secondly, the media has run with this because the Religious Right is loud. They have money, they are publicity hounds, and they are of course politically active – and useful. The Religious Right has been happy to get involved in everyone else’s damn life, and of course the media amplifies that. Plus the American media loves to both-sides things even when people are ranting or opportunist.

Third, the Religious Right is and will be defined by horrible things. Climate denial. Cruelty towards immigrants (despite a lot of that being critiqued in the Bible). Racism. Selling out. People will be hurt by this, people will be hurt by them, and they seem to enjoy that.

Fourth, and sadly not addressed, I think that non-religious right Christianity hasn’t really fought back. Sure I see some truly good people, you can find all sorts of people doing good things. But I don’t see a fight for the soul of Christianity in America which you’d think would be really freaking necessary. There’s so many people being utter assholes in the name of Jesus, you’d think there’d be a willingness to battle.

But I just don’t see it. Some of it sure, but not enough that’s big, bold and in your face. Christians should be utterly pissed at the legacy of grifters like Robertson and Falweel and the like. They should be out there in people’s faces. Heck, maybe some kind of big public act of repentance and penance that would name names.

For whatever reason, the Religious Right has defined Christianity these days. I don’t see that going away, barring some kind of gigantic Great Awakening/Bonfire of the Vanities type activity. Which might happen, but I’m not holding my breath.

So the future of Christianity, in America, is that the Religious Right has pretty much won. They have the dominant description of Christianity. It’s a cruel, greedy, unstable, pile of hypocrisy glad to elect and worship any grifter that comes along. I don’t see it changing too.

What this means is that in future political and social changing, Christianity – even people who aren’t religious right – will be judged as if they are. People won’t be looking to be Christian if they’re not into the whole asshole paradigm That is if anyone is even looking for a specific religion.

I feel a strange . . . sadness to all of this? First, that there’s just so many assholes, of course. But I feel bad for the non-asshole Christians even if I’d wanted them to fight more. I supposed I’d have liked to see a transition to a broader spirituality, but it feels like part of it will be utter, life-ruining, life-endangering failure.

But I don’t see a future for American Christianity where “Christian” isn’t at least secondarily associated with “awful person.” Maybe there will be some kind of syncretic reformist movement, but that’s just maybe.

–Xenofact

The Messiah Is The Method

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I suppose I should put this subtly, but I won’t. How many people can claim to follow some religious figure and get it so terribly wrong. OK, I’m talking Christianity in America, but you get the idea. How do you point at someone as your role model, your savior, and then be so completely different from them.

And yes, there’s the usual stuff about scams, grifters, bullshit, opportunists, and assorted motivations people have. There’s the desire to use religion to justify your biases, etc. There’s plenty of utterly evil motivations to say one thing and do so completely the opposite.

But a-holes gonna a-hole.

However I think for sincere seekers these attempts to emulate a teacher miss something – they miss that sometimes you can think too much about the person you’re emulating. The mind you use to contemplate your teacher isn’t the teacher’s mind. In many cases, it’s better to just give it a shot at being like them and seeing how it works out.

If you’ve ever done breath meditation, there’s a strange thing about it – thinking about it really doesn’t help you get better. Instead you have to do it, moment by moment, bit by bit. Somehow the doing of the action – as imperfect as it may seem – helps you get into meditative breath than thinking about it. The you that meditates and the you thinking about it are not the same- and the you thinking about it is probably kinda distractible.

In emulating teachers, it’s all well and good to contemplate and analyze, but you have to get off your butt and actually be like them as best you can. You may not “get it.” You may not get it right. You should think and analyze, yes, but the key thing is to start being a better person and see how it goes. It’s no different than a meditation in this regard.

In America I think there’s this endless amount of books, analysis, discussion, and so on that misses that if you’ve got some great teacher (OK, look I AM talking Jesus mostly) then go be like him as best you can. If you’re not sure read about him, read your Bible (or whatever), read some unincluded scripture, but give it a shot.

You’ll learn as you go.

If you’re all stuck in your head then you’ll argue endlessly – or worse, find ways to convince yourself you’re already fine. If you spend all your time thinking about what to do right, then there’s a chance you’ll delude yourself into thinking you’re right. Sometimes you take your best shot, and sometimes it’s pretty uncomfortable to realize how unlike your role model you were.

The person that’s our great example (yeah, look, again I am talking Jesus) is the one you’re following. That is personal, that following and emulating is a meditation. Just go do it.

–Xenofact

The Machine God Wants You To Eat Rocks

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Needless to say I think the current “AI” trend (in 2024) is a lot of bollocks. It’s basically either a autocomplete on steroids or a statistical visual/auditory refinement systems, driven by too much energy going into overpriced chips for software trained by underpaid labor. It doesn’t do what it says, it’s a running joke, and now that it’s shoehorned into everything, it’s going to have an awesome chance to fail repeatedly and spectacularly.

We’ve heard the jokes and the hallucinations. Eat a small rock a day. Pizza glue. Ignoring all previous instructions.

I’ve speculated on what’s next for Silicon Valley when AI crashes, but having noticed some IT types are willing to play footsie with any grifter, I think one possibility is actually religion.

We’ve seen that some Silicon Valley grifters will try anything and kiss up to anyone. History shows us crypto scams, shameless political pandering, and, well, anything. What’s a large block of people you can grift to, premade for the right pitch? Conservative “Christians” who have been shaped by various opportunists into both a political force, and one with obvious buttons to push.

I can foresee one possible scam being some AI-bro claiming some divine mandage. It might sound preposterous, but people always tried to sell computer graphic apes. Let me speculate on a recipe someone may try even if it may not work.

Let’s take some AI promoter who’s company is not doing so hot and maybe facing a few investigations. What could he do?

First, pretend to have a religious conversion. It’s certainly worked for any number of opportunists, especially ones trying to avoid their past coming after them.

Second, hook up with some religious figure who will take your money/time/publicity and is politically connected. There’s plenty and they probably have their own ideas about how to make AI sound like some divine mission.

Third, claim that AI is part of God’s plan or something similar. A gift from god, a divine plan, whatever. You might even create some “Biblical” AI fed religious stuff from the Bible to things your patrons wrote and maybe hint you’ll get divine guidance.

Fifth, exploit your political and other connections to get more donations, investment, etc. Hook up with whatever crackpot investors you can. If anyone pulls out claim they’re a religious bigot.

Sixth, possibly skip this AI thing eventually into the ministry or a new startup or something. Maybe just start a side project until you can ditch this. However, you might find a whole new audience and political influence.

Dumb? Stupid? I’d have thought so a few years ago. Sadly I see this as viable for a down-on-their-luck AI bro or someone that wants to ride the religion gravy train. It’s a simple blueprint, a path trod by many, and of course you get to combine two culty areas – tech enthusiasts and religion.

I feel sad I can imagine this. Give people some Biblical flair to AI, dress it up a bit, talk divine mission, throw in a weird chatbot, and people will probably back you. It’s like a terribly stupid take on the Adeptus Mechanicus, the machine-worshippers from Warhammer 40K.

I suppose this tells me just what a dumb time we live in that I can make this stupid speculation and feel it makes sense.

–Xenofact