This is a fascinating video. At 7:00, Tom Rowsell (SurviveTheJive) reads out some excerpts of the Srimad Bhagvatam(an important hindu scripture) where many if not every single prophecy comes true. The higher values are replaced by lower ones. Ones only worth in society is based upon their level of affluence and sex, people have no loyalty to their own family, culture or values. The only thing people will satisfy will be their genitals and bellies.
Everything will decay but there is a glimmer of hope. Just taking the name of Krishna would help one escape life and attain moksha.
Tom makes references from other indo european religions as well, this is not a culture war or culture war adjacent thing, mostly just something I found super fascinating given that they all were faiths that were very similar for the most part and got many things about the future right. The issue with kaliyuga is that of values, we have seen astounding technological and economical growth, the truth in many places is that many have lost values that were considered important by those who appreciate antiquity (I do at least). Many will not agree but even then, would appreciate any thots on this.
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Notes -
The level of invective acceptable against atheists here is totally wild to me. Religious posters here get away with shit others never would, simply because the average atheist California software developer that posts here is vaguely self-hating and sees it as an exotic and cool worldview. Like if there were an Amish poster here he could probably say literally anything and he’d be showered in upvotes and praise.
Like at this point, yes, most posters have come around to the Peterson-style view that religion is a useful social technology that has tangible benefits. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to either start hitting my head with a hammer until I believe it, or raise my kids with an elaborately larped lie. Unfortunately the box can’t be closed and I just have to figure out how to get those same benefits another way
I see this too and it's interesting to me from a cultural perspective. It's like, among the 'less wrong' crowd, religious people (i count myself as one) see ourselves as something of a persecuted minority who now has license to lash out at the main group.
Although, in this case, i think the Fruck is mocking people who say our ancestors were stupid, not antheists themselves. The author says there are 'benefits to atheism' but doesn't say what they are.
I couldn't bring myself to do this either.
This is the approach I've ended up taking: I'm honest with them.
My daughter asks, "Is god real?" I say, 'I don't really know. I can't see him or touch him or feel him. At times, i really do have my doubts. But this is true of lots of other things besides God; most things that are remotely complicated or bigger than me in size is something i basically have to take on trust. I've never seen Uranus, for example, but i trust that it's there. I've never seen the united nations, only pictures or photos or videos of it. The way we find out what is true is by experimenting and seeing what happens, trusting ourselves, and finding other people we trust to tell us about the experiments they did. I do know for sure, though, what kind of man I want to be. I also know, through my own experiments, that the more i pray, the more i go to church, the more it try to act as if God is real, the less anxious i feel, the less selfish i am, the more patient i am, and the more able i am to be patient and loving towards Mommy and you kids. I don't know any other experiment that helps me be those things."
There are times i'm really tempted to just fudge it, go all the way, say i'm certain. But I keep thinking, if any of this is true, i show more adoration for God by saying, "you are some property of reality, i know that for sure, having the right attitude towards you helps me to act better, i know that for sure, you are the wisdom inherent in all of nature and the beauty of mathematical truth, i know that for sure as well, but i don't really know what you are, if you're a preson or just some abstract tautological principle. I don't know which of man's attempts to reach you are accurate and which are wrong. I don't know what you want from me, if anything. But i'll keep striving to better understand you and live in a way that feels in alignment with that understanding, because nothing else i've tried seems effective."
This personal attempts are my evidence, by the way. At first i had very little faith. I had the peterson style view but couldn't' bring myself to play along. I studied major world religions, trying to understand them as maps of some territory including psychology and sociology. It wasn't until i felt consumed by anxiety and stressed, unable to sleep, that i started trying to 'fudge it' by thinking about my ancestors with reverence, and trying to imagine how the distant future felt about me; i felt as if i was loved by beings so far in the future that they were almost God-like in their intelligence, capabilities, and awareness. This feeling really did help.
I also noticed that my faith in bitcoin seemed to help me relax. "I dont' care what stupid thing happened in the news today, i'm confident bitcoin will be far higher in the future." ended up being a really useful thing to think. This gave me more evidence of the utility of faith. So the I sent to work trying to figure out a deeper way of articulating a faith rooted in physics. I think i've gotten a pretty decent solution that seems to line up with very recent 'far from equilibrium physics' as well as ancient religions.
Hope this is helpful for you :)
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