Mammalia, Christianity, and The Singularity

 Thinking a lot about christianity and human nature lately.

Well, “nature” is a bit of a misnomer, but I am thinking about what it means to be human and how this intersects with christianity.

The singularity will come later.

In its essence, christianity purports to turn you, a formerly mortal mammal, into an eternal being. How this is done is not sufficiently explained. Entropy is undefeated in physics; any christian explanation, metaphysical it can claim, will not remedy the problem of parallelism. For example, christianity can claim humans are never mammals but eternal “souls” from the get go. Again, how do souls, eternal, very unphysical, immaterial beings, interact with physical bodies, i.e. mammals?  

So christianity promises to change the nature of humans from mortal mammals to eternal souls. But it doesn’t deliver on its promise. Worse, it has eroded public health in the process.

Perhaps technology is our real savior–salvation being a relative concept, and a very earthly one. Ray Kurzweil claims that in the very near year of 2045, humanity will merge with technology to create a new species. Behold, the singularity. 

See https://futurism.com/kurzweil-claims-that-the-singularity-will-happen-by-2045 for some fun.

Will this suffice for salvation? Is it more realistic than believing a man from 4 B.C. can turn you into an eternal being? 

If one digs into Kurzweil or historian Yuval Harari one will discover that immortality will still lose out to entropy, though life can be greatly extended–Kurzweil talks about uploading your brain/cognitions into various substrates. Kooky.

I may be down for an extended life with some more earthly pleasures like seeing grandkids and being in a band again but if you asked me to bet that I would live long enough to see the Browns win a superbowl, I wouldn’t take the bet.

The End of Optimism in Cleveland

I have given Terry Pluto a bit of a hard time over the last few years. I have read Terry from way back in the mid 80’s when he covered my Cavs.

You see Terry is, or was, blindly optimistic about the Browns. As I had a problem with here. And a little bit here I guess.  

But, low and behold, has Terry had enough of the Browns?

Cleveland Browns: Was it worth them coming back? -- Terry Pluto

Whoa!

Well if Terry is done with optimism for the Browns, then I am too. So goes Terry so goes I.

But let us not end there. Let us implore some others to beat back their "beloved" Browns optimism with sticks and baseball bats and lead batons and maces and other items that are really heavy that can get the job done. Because some folks just don’t know when to quit.

Take Mary Kay Cabot for instance – eternal optimist when it comes to the Browns. Mary is upset with me because I call her out about this but maybe I am a little snarky about it but she doesn’t realize that optimism is dangerous and doesn’t help the Browns. The Browns need reality, not optimism.

Along comes Kyle Kelly with this nonsense:

Really Kyle? One win in two seasons and you are going to talk about wild card. You shouldn’t be talking about playing cards.

So I

And Mary got upset.

Her right. Totes.

But my point for all, especially those who write about the Browns, is that objectivity is your friend, your very good friend who curbs your wishes and dreams and hopes of this and that and instead fills you with facts and stats that in and of themselves are all the context a Browns fan needs. After all we have endured 1 win in 32 games.

As my father used to say: put wishes in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up faster.

The Least Of All Possible Worlds

For some reason I was thinking about Leibnitz last night. My shining moment in grad school was during my continental rationalism class. In this class students had to teach certain sections and I got selected to teach Leibnitz’ concept of pre-established harmony and how it relates to free will. The concept is beyond crazy but my approach to teaching it was, as I said, my shining moment in grad school.

So for Leibnitz, god was perfect and this perfection implies that god is not subject to time. If god were subject to time he would be becoming – potential and not actual. This was important for Leibnitz. God is perfect through and through and there is nothing god has yet to become perfect at. God doesn’t need to practice to become better at say, playing the piano.

Ok, so that is established.

Next, god, not being subject to time, created the universe/multiverse/world and everything in it when god came in to being. Everything, all at the same time.

Why?

Because god is perfect and not subject to time.

Stay with me here.

A perfect being, god, cannot create anything imperfect. God is not subject to time and neither are god’s creations subject to time.

Stay with me.

So you think time is unfolding and that there is a past of events already occurred and a future with events yet to occur.

But nein mein freund.

You are not subject to time because you my friend are the creation of a perfect being.

Fun huh.

So how does Leibnitz account for this seeming unfolding of time? Like the time you went to first grade and when you got your driver’s license, your first date with your future spouse, the bad chili you ate from 99, and the future events like tripping and falling into a fountain at the local mall?

The answer lies in the inspection of another attribute of Leibnitz’ perfect god. God, for Leibnitz, cannot be passive. Things cannot happen to god. Things can only happen from a perfect being.

Now you, as a created perfect being are also not passive. Things only happen from you (sans existence).

So the time you met your first grade teacher happened from you, not to you.

Here is where it gets kinky, the same is true for your first grade teacher. You happened from her, you didn’t happen to her.

Here is how Leibnitz reconciled this kinkiness: Though the two of you never really met, because you would have to be passive for that, god pre-established this meeting, at the moment of creation, so that the unfolding of you meeting your teacher, which happens from you, coincides with your teacher meeting you, which happens from her.

Man is this fun.

For those that like visuals, you are a windowless being according to Leibnitz. Nothing comes in but ah, smart guy Leibnitz said that you are a mirror – you reflect your world…and all the events seemingly unfolding.

Don’t’ even think of mentioning solipsism at this point.

Get to your supposed shining moment there Leibinshitz.

So, how does this pre-established harmony jibe with your sense of free will? You know, that crazy idea that you are in charge of raising your arm and walking across the street and overpaying for Springsteen tickets?

Good question when you think about it. God established all events at the moment of creation but yet it isn’t determined that you struck out in that little league game in 82 or did that keg stand in 95 or backed into that tree last year.

We could have a serious problem here because if free will is out the window, then morality and ethics go with it. Makes no sense to talk about “ought or ought not” when every event is determined. And how would we spend our free time if we couldn’t judge people on what they should and should not be doing? “Use yah blinker! Don’t taze me bro!” You get the idea.

Solution:

Consider an old style movie projector running. The projector is showing a movie: The movie that is your life.

(HINT: remember god is not subject to time)

So god watches the movie of your life, the movie where you are indeed in charge of your decisions and choose freely to do the things you do – like major in philosophy or choose teriyaki over buffalo wings – and ultimately decides to implement you and your free choices movie/life into the universe.

Just because god knows what you are going to do doesn’t determine what you do.

God may have watched several versions of your freely chosen life but only selected one for the actual universe. Think of your life having various pilots prior to existence, but only one made it to screen.

God can watch all of the pilots because god isn’t subject to time.

Here is the kinkiest part of all, because god is perfect and only perfect creations can happen from a perfect being, the universe is perfect and you, yes you, and your life with all of those zany decisions are also perfect and make up the best of all possible worlds.

The best?

Yep. Best ever.

Even when I got drunk and threw up in my shoes?

Best ever.

Really?

Uh-huh.

I just feel like in the best of all possible worlds, the Browns would be better.

You are thinking of the least of all possible worlds.

Reality Radar

The optimism of Terry Pluto just can’t be corralled. You could put a shit burger in front of Terry and he’d say “Aww, you toasted the bun. How nice.” I’m not against optimism, it just rubs my reality radar the wrong way is all and in Terry’s Case, his blind optimism for the Browns borders on some sort of dissociative fugue state dating all the way back to his beat reporter days. Terry is optimistic after the Browns began the season 0-3 losing in overtime to the winless/hapless/less-and-less Dolphins in which the Browns missed three field goals. Yep, time to make lemonade from those lemons because the Browns are going places. In this case, this place is last in the AFC North but you already knew that. Oh wait did I mention that they will be in last place next year too? You see, the Browns are stockpiling draft picks and have a bunch of Kurt Gödel’s running stats into a Texas Instruments calculator while the current players run up not only the loss column but also the hospital bills because the team sucks so bad. 

Here’s the thing and you don’t have to memorize lines from The Natural to know this: 

“Losing is a disease…as contagious as syphilis.”

 And the Browns lose. A lot. The most actually and the next two years isn’t going to change the losing but the Terry Pluto’s of the world think that because there is a plan in place to get younger that somehow the Browns will get “winnier.” Yep, the stats and the Ramanujan’s tell us to get younger and build through stockpiling draft picks. 

Just one question: Who is going to change the culture of losing that permeates and saturates the ethos that has become the Browns? 

I lied. Just two questions: How is the culture of losing that permeates and saturates the Browns going to get changed?

…especially after two seasons of unprecedented losing with (got to follow the plan!) young players?

Young players are vulnerable. Psychologically. To losing. The disease of losing may be curable but we shouldn’t rely on the ones in the hospital beds, figuratively and literally, to do the curing should we? It's hard to play football let alone win at football when you are in traction.

Coach Hue Jackson will be the salesman of the millennium if he can get his young players to believe the team will win IN THE FUTURE even as the losses pile higher than the number of slings and crutches in the locker room. 

And I don’t want to sound like a walking tautology but isn’t the only way to not lose, to win? The ethos and the losing culture won’t change until wins happen.

The Pluto’s of the world are banking on the future and the “plan.” 

Be optimistic, wear rose colored glasses if you want, get season tickets for 2019 if you want; just know that getting into the playoffs is based on win-loss record. If you don’t believe me, ask the Steelers, Ravens, and Bengals. 

Hell, ask Butch Davis if you want.

Employing Reason For Manual Labor

Plodding along with The Power of Myth when I came across two very striking sections:

How would today’s conservatives survive if they knew the founding fathers were deists?

How would today’s conservatives survive if they knew our nation did not trust in the god of the bible but the god of reason?

So of course today’s conservatives just don’t believe the founding fathers were deists and they don’t trust in the god of reason.

Fair enough.

I can’t get over this deists statement. Campbell makes the statement like it is no big deal.

The difference:

Theism – god created the universe and plays an active role in daily outcomes

Deism – god created the universe but plays no role in daily outcomes

I was educated such that deism considers god a cosmic watch winder; he wound up the universe and then just lets it go. Hands off.

That, my friends, will not sit too well with people who depend a whole lot on god’s interaction with our ku-ra-zee world. What with the prayers, the trusting, the blaming, the moral authority, the reason the Browns suck, etc.

But Campbell is saying these men, these founding fathers thought it was up to us. Soooooooooo much responsibility Mr. Jefferson. Are you sure we can handle it?

Answer: No

Reason why? See second striking section where Campbell references the Chief Seattle Letter.

Provenance aside, the content is the matter here:

Chief Seattle's Letter
to the President of the United States, 1852
(attributed to Chief Seattle, but unverified; this is one of several versions)

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you sell them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of a pony, and man, all belong to the same family.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The waters murmur in the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the river the kindness you would give any brother.

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow Flowers.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our Mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: Our God is your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.

As we are a part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: There is only one God. No man, be he Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are all brothers."

-Chief Seattle

Ah but sure, you can say we are a nation of laws and we simply deemed land ownership a matter of law. Sure you can say that.

What about land stewardship? Is that a matter of law?

And that brutal, cutting, honesty-sucks-just-like-reality line: The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Roll that up and smoke it.

 

So what if it is up to us to steward our living and our environment? What if god can’t help us? What if the founding fathers were desists and what if they were right about the fall of man?

What if reason is the god you should be praying to – no wait, instead of praying to reason, what if we had to use it? What if reason was the god you chose to employ?

mind=blown