Horse-woman of the apocalypse

 

This is evidently "the big thing" this week: Ayaan Hirsi Ali has converted to Christianity. She was previously an atheist and before that, a Muslim. The atheist critic in the YouTube clip above calls her "the fifth horseman of New Atheism". Apparently, Hirsi Ali is also a former Dutch politician! She currently resides in the United States. Hirsi Ali´s short essay describing her reasons for converting is linked below. Not sure why it´s published at the British site UnHerd. I assumed they were more "pro-Russian"? 

As many atheists have already pointed out, Hirsi Ali´s essay is strangely non-religious. Her reasons for embracing Christianity sound almost exclusively "cultural" and political. She doesn´t believe that Wokeness and secularism can equip the West to win the clash of civilizations with Russia, China and indeed Islam. Only Christianity can fill the cultural and personal void created by secularization. 

Note, however, that Hirsi Ali´s Christianity is very moderate. It´s essentially a form of center-right liberalism, compatible with the *secularized* wing of the Republican Party in the United States. It´s frankly not clear to me why center-right BAU would become stronger if provided with a nominally transcendental foundation supposedly rooted in the Bible? 

An interesting possibility that suggests itself is that Ayaan Hirsi Ali´s conversion is an example of what Oswald Spengler calls "the Second Religiosity", whereby secularized intellectuals return to the old religion of their civilization when Reason manifestly fails. Since Hirsi Ali clearly identifies with Western civilization, her becoming a Christian would perhaps count. 

Or maybe it´s just another Tuesday on the web, who knows. 

Why I am Now a Christian

At the killing fields of Kurukshetra

 

Tantric teacher Christopher Wallis comments "the Middle East situation" (i.e. the Israel-Hamas conflict). 

He tries very hard to be neutral, quietist or perhaps "against both sides", but given the current cultural situation, his video will probably be seen as pro-Israeli. The reason is the strongly anti-Hamas angle of the presentation. Note also his initial comment on Yemen! Well, exactly. 

Worth pondering.

Kenny, come home

 

I never heard this Area 51-related story before. Crazy (of course) but also kind of sad. UFO enthusiast, inventor and extreme hiker Kenny Veach claimed to have discovered a mysterious cave in the Mojave Desert and then disappeared when trying to locate it again. The "M Cave" seems to have been situated on government land close to Area 51 and emitted strong energy currents!

Secret weapons? A paranormal phenomenon? Did the military block the entrance to hide some kind of alien conspiracy? A more disturbing (and tragic) scenario is that Kenny took his own life somewhere in the desert - he was fighting depression at the time. 

Which doesn´t disprove the existence of the "M Cave" or that something fishy is going on in the Nevada badlands...

Tantric copium

 

Is Tantrism (or this particular form of Tantrism) just a gigantic cope, then? 

Why I´m not a Unitarian Universalist

 

And, apparently, not a Presbyterian either. Is there no depth of depravity to which "liberal" Christianity won´t sink?! Note that the local UUA were in on the sado-masochistic stuff, as well. But sure, somebody who is really sick could perhaps interpret the Bible as torture porn...

Rhodes college chaplain tries to hold BDSM workshop

Should Rhodes chaplain be able to host BDSM event on campus? 

Lärdomar

 

Svenskar, kristna irakier och danskar får inte "provocera" muslimer. Detta lärde vi oss under Koran-krisen (som verkar ha inträffat för en miljon år sedan i en annan galax).

Den senaste månaden har vi även lärt oss två andra saker. Enligt vänstern får muslimer förolämpa judar. Och enligt högern får judar förolämpa muslimer...

Det var ju...intressant. Särskilt nummer två. Varför måste svenskar gömma sig bakom judarna för att kunna bedriva radikal islamkritik i Sverige? Förklara den, ni!  

Någon ljuger

 

Någon ljuger, men vem? Dramat fortsätter...

Jamal El-Haj har ingen sonhustru

The simple and the complex

 

Many people still believe (or want to believe) that the original message of the Buddha (or Jesus, or any religious founder) was pure, pristine and simple. All the complexities are degenerate products of a later time. This scenario is based both on a implicit evolutionary perspective whereby all phenomena go from the simple to the complex, and a Protestant perspective in which the complexities are seen as a degeneration. How *that* combo works is, I suppose, anybody´s guess! More importantly, is there any actual evidence for this position? Or is it just an assumption floating around in intellectual meta-space? 

Are there any new religions *today* which exhibit the scheme "from very simple to  more complex" (and degenerate)? Maybe, but from the top of my head, I can´t think of any! Take Mormonism. It´s extremely complex theological speculations were developed by founder Joseph Smith himself during his lifetime, and continued by the Utah branch of Mormonism after his death. By contrast, the Reorganized Church developed a much simpler theology which over time moved closer to "mainline" evangelical Christianity - but that wasn´t a return to a pure and pristine original message, but a deviation from it, since Joseph Smith´s original message wasn´t particularly evangelical. Rather, he was the mage of Palmyra! 

Or take Theosophy. It could be argued that "The Secret Doctrine" was "dumbed down" by all branches of Theosophy after Blavatsky´s death, although the "Pasadena" branch later tried returning to it. Or take Charles Taze Russel. Didn´t Judge Rutherford actually make his message simpler? I´m sure other examples of the same phenomenon can be adduced: complexity comes first, simplification later. This is of course perfectly logical: the founder of any truly new spiritual tradition would have to be very sophisticated in terms of either ideas or techniques (or both), while the later adaptation - drawing in the masses - would have to be simpler. 

That being said, there is also another tendency at work in some religious traditions towards an increase in "scholastic" complexity, presumably when the message of the original founder attracts the intelligentsia (or people trying to pass themselves off as such). Both tendencies - populism and scholasticism - can indeed be seen as "degenerations" from the message of the founder, but that doesn´t mean the founder was some rustic simpleton. He (or she) may have been free-wheeling, ecstatic and charismatic, but also very, very complicated...  

 

Sources please

 

Angry disenchanted believer in scientism, when
reading JMG´s blog 

Perhaps not big news, but both the blog post linked below and the discussion afterwards are interesting. And yes, modern science is definitely an enchantment in itself, rather than a "dis-enchantment". 

Indeed, the entire scientific enterprise is clearly an ersatz mythology, but then, you knew that already!   

Science as Enchantment

The actual truth?

 

So Elon Musk has been accused of anti-Semitism. Again. I´m not a great fanboy of my man Elon, but here is the entire conversation in context for those who don´t have access to X.

Charles Weber says:

To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting "Hitler was right": You got something you want to say? Why dont you say it to our faces…

The Artist Formerly Known as Eric says:

Okay. Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.

Elon Musk says:

You have said the actual truth

Elon Musk says:

The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel. This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat. It is not right and needs to stop.

whatsupfranks says:

Yes, but this is not fair to say or truthful to say that ‘Jewish communities’ promote dialectical hatred towards white. Say what you want about the ADL, but don’t generalize the Jewish community.

Elon Musk says:

You right that this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL.

Elon Musk says:

And, at the risk of being repetitive, I am deeply offended by ADL’s messaging and any other groups who push de facto anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind. I’m sick of it. Stop now.