Nerd-E 🎩🔮 on Warpcast

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Reading medieval History has broken my brain and now I’m obsessed with the idea of a CME destroying the electrical grid and satellites, plunging the world into chaos and darkness and having this being interpreted as divine punishment like the Black Plague was. God’s wrath for TikTok, crypto, lab grown meat and the people who lie about the efficacy of their shitty gummy vitamins

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Nerd-E 🎩🔮

It would be crazy to watch all the electric cars and power lines catch fire.

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keccers pfp

And you wouldn’t know what was happening. Like you could intuit but there would be no way to confirm

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That’s the fun part. Knowing what likely happened but telling stupid people that it was gnomes or god or Woke or whatever, just for kicks.

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Dude if it happens it was God. I mean I know what it is but also God did that. On purpose. To punish us. I am rolling with that absolutely

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Nerd-E 🎩🔮

That’s good, but include a twist. Either an obscure god, or divine punishment for something like “mixing cooking oils.”

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No but I really believe this Nerdy and the cause is our collective moral collapse 😭

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Just for kicks, define “our?” The whole world? And when were we moral? As an aside - All gods exist for the same reason: they’re created (or adopted with scripture changes) to justify the reign of the current local leadership. Every single god was created for that purpose. So naturally their punishment must be related to questioning the local god-king/king/emperor/regent. Therefore we must mock them with nonsensical motives.

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Well the “we” here is the Western world! The creators of the moral universals we now ignore! Your view of God is so cynical! Yes religion has often been co opted by rulers but it is so much more than that !

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Nerd-E 🎩🔮

My view may be cynical but it is also correct. Religion has other roles in society, sure. Leaders aren’t co-opting religion. They’re using it for its intended purpose: the divine right of kings. Enforcing social order and power structures. Affording rulers excuses for their failures, and justifying their excesses. Keeping a large portion of the population subservient. “I know it seems wrong but it’s god’s will and who are we to question it?”Everything else is window dressing.

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It feels reductionist and intellectually lazy to me to boil down all of religion as an instrument of power, not to mention incredibly materialist Your view says humans invented God to control one another But it’s just as plausible humans felt the presence of the divine and built systems around that The religious ideals you view as systems of control also produce the ideals that led people to challenge rulers not to submit to them If it’s all about control it did a horrible job of staying only in the hands of the powerful!

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I mean fair enough, I am definitely being reductionist. And the role of religion has shifted after the enlightenment in many western countries (although probably not a permanent shift). But in my defense, it would take all day to begin with greek city-states and their local deities from among the pantheon, travel over to god-kings of ancient Egypt, China, Japan, then pop over to Rome’s adaptation and alteration of greek then Christian gods. Chart how after the fall of Rome, the Catholics church’s monopoly on ordaining monarchs and approving royal marriages. Track the corruption causing the Protestant reformation (fracturing into several religions doing the same thing). Following its progress until the founding of the Church of England, and the role of religion in America…

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Well and exactly! the exact fact that religion has so many different expressions, across wildly different cultures and political systems, is what makes it irreducible to just a tool of power I would say 😊

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I would argue that each culture’s leaders adopted a religion (based on indigenous beliefs) for the purpose of control, then made that religion into formal institutions to preserve their own power. The US is pretty unique in that there was a deliberate separation between religion and government, leading to many branches of protestantism. But even in the US, you’ve got the Southern Baptist church, which was founded to preserve slavery (an entrenched power structure that propped up their elite), Mormons (an attempt to found a new nation around Smith), and the adherents of prosperity gospel which is trying to ordain Trump a divine ruler.

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If every religious institution is just a control mechanism invented by elites, then what isn’t? What belief system do you think is worth building on?

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Sorry I couldn’t help myself 😂

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It was a serious question!!!

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Nerd-E 🎩🔮

But for real, empathy is the only thing worth building on.

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It just fascinating to me to hear you say this while also outright dismissing the theological work that makes the word “empathy” mean something Underneath this word I believe there is a Christian moral framework empathy is not self evident (the value came from somewhere) nor self justifying (it depends on claims about what people are) It didn’t come from nature where the strong eat the weak It didn’t come from materialism — why suffer for a stranger if we are but machines It comes from the Judeo-Christian tradition itself imo! Christianity gives empathy moral grounding. It says that all humans are made in the image of God and so no one is expendable, all have infinite worth Without it you can just say oh I’m empathetic but reserve it for only like, your pets!

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I live in a nation that’s language, philosophy, and culture is heavily influenced by Christianity. So while the word I use may have origins there, the thing it represents (compassion and understanding for others) certainly does not. Placing value on human life crossed cultural boundaries, crosses time, and likely predates modern humans. We evolved to be cooperative and communal, it’s why we have whites in our eyes (to direct the focus of a group quickly and silently) when most predators don’t. But even if it didn’t, and even if empathy was uniquely Christian, I wouldn’t reject it. And I wouldn’t reject my assertion about why gods are created. I’m not saying all aspects of religion are bad. Just commenting on the role of god within power structures.

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So if it fits your perspective better, I’d say: Reject what others claim is the word of god. Build upon your god-given sense of empathy.

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The only thing that gives me pause here is "We evolved to be cooperative and communal, it’s why we have whites in our eyes (to direct the focus of a group quickly and silently) when most predators don’t." Biology explains behavior, not obligation. Why should iI treat everyone with dignity when they aren't in the ingroup? Or when it's hard for me? If you're trying to say empathy is valid because it’s natural, that’s a naturalistic fallacy — you’re jumping from what is to what ought. Religion or moral frameworks otherwise answer the "the ought" Evolution also says that reproduction is the goal by any means. But most moral frameworks don't let us go around raping people

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The biological argument wasn’t to validate the importance of empathy, it was to highlight that it is part of the human condition. And that it probably has a biological basis, like love/oxytocin. It was largely me balking at the idea that empathy was Christian in origin. But I was misinterpreting your point, I think. Christianity can provide a good argument that anchors empathy to moral behavior, sure. If scripture is interpreted that way, which I think today it largely is. But there are other logical/moral/philosophical arguments without Christian roots that center empathy as well. It’s not like people first started helping each other after the sermon on the mount.

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