Spot on. For some time I have found the innumeracy of "elites" in media and politics as well as the mass of citizens astonishing. They have not the foggiest on basic descriptive statistics let alone rates of change. If the majority of the population in the u.s. and u.k. had a basic grasp of what was 10th grade math when I was in high school those advocating masks, shutdowns and vaccines of children would be laughed at and mocked mercilessly--I would argue that if western populations possessed basic numeracy the whole covid scare would have been over a year ago.
One more..to your point. As a younger man I recall that second order thinking was fairly common among people in business and the professions. Now its very rare--for example the fact that the covid shutdowns led to economic contraction, ruining lives and ad infinitum eludes the majority of even "experts". I would suggest that second order thinking is what leads to civilization. Without it--the concept of the future etc cannot be grasped and thus we see many living in a meaningless present distracted by phones, media and consumption.
30 March 2021 at 14:31
Anonymous said...
Unwin noticed rational thinking disappearing within 3 generations in his studies, along with Deism and monogamy - if prenuptial chastity was abandoned. With hindsight it's obvious he got the disease and symptoms mixed up but even then I never quite understood why the ability to reason might go.
You'd think a more materially grounded society would have superior thinking ability, much like the atheist fantasy future often envisioned. I did understand the point Vox often makes, that without Christianity, there can be no real science, because the duty to and value of Truth disappears - still I couldn't quite make that fit with the ability to reason seemingly dissolving in cultures that decide to trade the eternal for the temporal.
Along with the loss of coherent thought there is a steady increase in mental instability, witness the hysterical over-reactions to almost every public incident nowadays. Even if the flames are whipped up by the media which, of course, they are, people, especially certain sections of the populace, still react excessively, emotionally and irrationally. This is because we have no solid ground anymore with the absence of God.
30 March 2021 at 15:49
Anonymous said...
This is so true....One day the birdemic is disappearing, the next day it's worse than ever....Kids don't catch it, but they're required to take an experimental injection anyway...and most people don't notice the inconsistencies. In the 20th century I don't think this agenda would have worked, because people still believed in objective truth and logic. What's weird to me is that people aren't afraid of other psyops such as ebola, random shootings, etc., but they're terrified of a bad flu.
@ToL--a friend called the birdemic pushed by the media as a Pharma advertising buy. IN U.S alone pharma spends 10billion in ads so its hardly surprising they are pushing it hard again. With Trump gone they need to juice up ratings so disaster and pestillence and new "mutant strains" will emerge to keep the masses scared, glued to pharma ads and easy to govern and control....
@Bruce Charlton -- Another great post! I appreciate how you always are able to tie our material decline to spiritual cases. Prior to reading your blog I had never encountered the word Sorathic or Sorath. I looked him up today and learned: "Rudolf Steiner said Sorath is the Sun-demon of Revelation, a great evil power far mightier than Lucifer and Ahriman."
Meanwhile I've just finished reading "Creation and the Persistence of Evil" by Jon Levenson. Levenson argues (on historical-textual grounds) that the Old Testament presumes (and hints at) a cosmic struggle between God and malevolent chaotic forces of destruction and entropy, which God subjugates prior to his acts of ordered creation. (As opposed to the traditional answer that God created everything from nothing, either including evil or with evil being the mere privation or absence of God).
Do you think it would be reasonable to see Sorath as the chaotic force opposing God in the context of the Biblical or Mesopotamian "chaoskampf"? On a related note, as a Christian Pluralist, do you believe God created Sorath, or is Sorath a pre-existing enemy of God since before creation? (You have a much more refined intuition on such matters than I do, so I hope you don't mind sharing your thoughts.)
30 March 2021 at 19:38
Charlie said...
@TruthtoLife, good point about the ridiculous inconsistencies. I would argue that the inconsistencies are deliberate. They serve several functions:
1) They make the acceptance or rejection of the narrative a more perfect proxy for obedience to worldly power. 2) They add to the overall environment of chaos and fear they are trying to promote. 3) They deliberately humiliate people. "Look what we can make you believe! You are part of this now. Time to wear a second mask over the first!"
People have lost the ability to think and discern. And they are failing the litmus tests and embracing evil. And Sorathic evil is undermining/replacing Ahrimanic evil.
But, for the sake of argument, I'd like to humbly submit that there is also a lot of rational thinking going on at various levels of the birdemic cult. I'm curious what you think of the below:
Many of the birdemic cult reject God and reject the concept of an afterlife. Either via aggressive atheism or via a cultural Christianity so watered down and woke as to be almost the same as atheism. This is evil, self-destructive, and yes, stupid.
But if atheism is a given for them, if they view This World as primary, then a lot of their behavior after that can be seen as quite rational.
The tiny minority of globalist planners: While you're right that their utopian dreams won't come to pass, SOME of what they want IS coming to pass. From the birdemic scheme alone, they have captured the greatest upward transfer of wealth in human history and captured massive political power. Yes, they are destroying the economy below them on which they predate, but that's what they consciously want to do. They care more about power and relative wealth than about absolute wealth.
The politicians and the expert class know where their bread is buttered. They serve the globalist planners. The order came down to promote "the pandemic" and they did it. And they've gained in power and wealth as a result. It almost doesn't matter whether they are cynically following orders or whether they've willed themselves to "believe" in nonsense. Either way, there's a certain self-serving rationality to it.
The useful idiot Karens too are rationally "going along to get along" and even overdoing their eager compliance to gain status and virtue-signalling points. And now they see an opportunity to become first-class pecked citizens instead of second-class dirty doubters. The useful idiots will of course never be invited to share power with the globalist plotters. But they still see some advantage in pledging allegiance to worldly power.
And the ignorant and credulous masses are just going along to get along, keeping their heads down, and not bothering to waste a lot of their limited brain power on understanding the ins and outs of the coup that already happened.
Of course the people at all these levels are embracing evil, renouncing God, and possibly forfeiting eternal life, which is stupid and insane. And even within This World, they are embracing obvious lies and hysteria, which certainly doesn't help with clear thinking.
But when you, Bruce, look at people and see the stupidity of their publicly professed beliefs, it seems to me that you may be ignoring the thinking that they never make public. Consciously or unconsciously, they are making rational decisions to pledge allegiance to worldly power.
The "smart" nonbelievers I know are rushing to get the peck, and, more importantly, to *announce* that they've gotten the peck. While they aren't as aware as I am of the SCOPE of the evil and illogic behind the birdemic, I suspect that they have little personal fear of getting ill. They are just signalling their willingness to embrace the new normal. They (not irrationally) think that things will go easier for them in this world if they do that.
Again, I agree with your overall point that people are both failing the litmus tests and increasingly failing to think straight. I'm not trying to argue, but rather to ask you a question about a nuance of the phenomenon you're describing. What do you think? Is there anything to this idea that many of the birdemic cult members are actually making rational decisions (given their focus on This World.)
@Charlie - I don't dispute that people are capable of single-step reasoning about doing the most expedient thing in the short term - but almost everybody used to be capable of a great deal more! Like thinking a few months, years, even decades ahead.
For example, the Luddites risked beatings, prison and death to preserve their livelihood. The aristocracy used to try and preserve the prosperity, power and security of their family a few generations ahead. Enlightened self-interest - a thing of the past.
That is leaving aside the large numbers of people who voluntarily suffered all manner of hardships on the basis of religious moral principle - a thing of the past.
@RO - I am mostly thinking of Sorath as a Type of demon, rather than a specific Being.
While there can be a 'lawful evil' demonic leader - Satan/ Ahriman - who plans and coordinates evil plans; it is not really possible for a chaotic evil demon to be a leader; or for chaotic evil demons to cooperate to any great degree.
My assumption is that when lawful, systemic evil becomes established (evil cooperating to maximize evil in the longer term) - then conditions are ripe for virulent strains of ultra-short-termist (no plans, just immediate gratification) evil demons to emerge, out-competing their less-fully-evil rivals.
@Bruce, thank you for that great answer! Good point--I'm citing "doing the most expedient thing in the short term" as impressive rationality! When in fact it's anything but.
These people are basically saying, "Powerful entities are assaulting me and my society--it might be advantageous for me to go along with it." That's a path to self-destruction in a few easy steps. It's hyperbolic discounting, aka extreme short-termism, and is indeed irrational.
It's also often evidence of a lack of courage. A lot of these forces are interconnected: Godlessness, irrationality, lack of discernment, lack of courage, short-termism, etc. It's increasingly obvious that only an embrace of God can help people address many of these problems. Non-believers don't realize it, but an embrace of God enables clearer and more logical thinking.
@Bruce Charlton - Thank you for your answer. Within the theory of Christian pluralism, do you believe God created demons (of whatever Type), or were they pre-existent? I am assuming the latter but it hasn't been entirely clear to me from you writing.
@BC - But why would the Ahrimanic demons, who I would think would be more competent given that the retain some of the more pragmatic aspects of Good, get out competed by the insane and thoughtless Sorathic demons?
@TLM - I was thinking of the way that psychopaths thrive in our evil, anonymous, mobile, xenophilic culture; whereas in better eras with coherent and Godly communities they were usually rapidly detected, and exiled or executed.
@RO - Essentially, by my understanding, there is not a single plan of destiny - but God tailors situations for the best chance of each soul. The hope is that Men will all choose Heaven, but for this they must follow Jesus and be resurrected, transformed so as to enter the place of eternally-committed love which is Heaven... But and some (many? most?) will reject this.
Souls are ach unique, from eternity. Ultimately I think some souls are, and always have been, evil; always opposed to God and the idea of creation - incapable of love. In pre-mortal life, these never-incarnated spirits very quickly chose to oppose the divine project. These are the demons.
Thanks for the thoughtful answer. Much to chew on.
31 March 2021 at 05:24
Hamish said...
One thing I notice is people have lost a sense of number. They don’t seem to have a approximate feel for a magnitude of a quantity and how to estimate it. As a consequence all sorts of numerical nonsense about health and environmental scares keeps rolling on, and economic figures are divorced from reality. Its as if computers and information gathering devices/procedures are magical oracles that need no justification for their answers. People really are mentally lost.
@Hamish - I don't think people have ever had any sense for numbers; but it used to be that they privileged their own experience about abstract numbers. Now they believe the numbers - or rather what the media tell them the numbers mean - https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2020/05/one-million-dollars-30000-people.html - and ignore their own experience.
1 April 2021 at 07:12
Hamish said...
Yes it’s true it’s not a general ability, but the ‘professional people’ increasingly don’t seem to have it, which makes it so worrying.
@Hamish - I was a professional epidemiologist in the early 1990s, and (with a mere handful of exceptions, mostly in the USA) they were incapable of brain thinking even then.
1 April 2021 at 07:32
The Engineer said...
I believe a big factor is a lack of humility. When you refuse to accept the truth of "I am wrong.", there is no way for 'science' or 'logic' to move forward from error. Insufficient humility develops Pride and thus enables the 'one step' solution from the 'never wrong' individual presenting it.
Dr. Charlton - is there anything, materially, that would make sense to do in response to an inevitable collapse? Such as move to a farm and stock it with hand tools?
It looks like the plan will be to shift the population to a managed food supply and depopulation, and presumably it is the duty of a family with young children & foreknowledge to at least try and avoid that fate.
Yes, I agree it is the fate of many and certainly may be required of us. However, isn't it our duty to try up to our limits physically/materially (if LOTR is any guide) even when things appear hopeless?
I think God wants us to do as-much-as-we-can and He may provide the rest - but I could be wrong, maybe he really does only want us to prepare spiritually.
15 April 2021 at 21:41
It is a very striking aspect of the 2020-21 situation that has become blazingly obvious to those capable of discernment; is that 'brain-thinking', reason, logically-coherent thought - the kind of processing typically associated with Science (in its largest conception as procedural systematic knowledge) - has all-but collapsed, very nearly disappeared; almost everywhere - and at every level of society from top to bottom. From the tiny minority of globalist planners in their invisible but totalitarian planetary government, down to the increasingly ignorant and credulous masses; and through the supposedly expert class in-between - all are unable to think coherently or in a sustained fashion. All that happens now is an ignorant 'parroting' of the superficial forms of brain-thinking - such as managerialist flow-charts and checklists - whose application is rigid but whose content is increasingly arbitrary and incoherent. More exactly, people can do single-step thinking - "if we do this, then that should happen; If A then B" - but they cannot continue their thinking beyond a single step to address what will happen next, what will be C after B. People cannot connect or relate even as few as two facts when they occur in separate one-step sequences; so that 'knowledge' now consists of isolated, atomic 'facts' which have no discernible relationship or pattern (and any suggested pattern that relies upon two-step - or more than two-step logic, is regarded as crazy/ wild/ speculative 'conspiracy theorizing'). Life seems impossibly complex to nearly-everyone; because they have rejected the heart thinking/ intuition which is the only thing that can make sense of it. Even if you can guide somebody through thinking, in a one-step-at-a-time fashion, from A to be and beyond to C and perhaps D; reminding them continually of the validity of each step... by the time they have reached the conclusion, they have long-since lost their grip on the process. They (accurately) no longer trust their own capacity to reason. So, after the detailed explanation, they simply reset to... whatever was their prior assumption. Thus - once established - error is intractable. I say unable to think, because that is the problem. It is not that they can think but are too lazy, or too distracted, or are prevented by their ideology; nor am I talking about a quantitative decline in thinking ability (due to reduced intelligence and increased mutational accumulation) - I am talking about an actual incapacity to think. Why? Well, at the deepest explanatory level I believe this is because Mankind has rejected destiny, has rejected final participation, heart thinking and the primacy of intuition - has rejected a life based upon the reality of God and the spiritual realm. Instead, Man has chosen to remain in what was supposed to be a transitional 'adolescent' phase of the 'consciousness soul' - which state is innately self-destroying. When proper development is rejected; we cannot just choose to stay as we are - because what we are is non-viable. Insightful individuals foresaw that if we did not move onwards from the alienated state of positivistic, reductionist, scientistic, materialistic thinking, then we would cease to be able to do even that. This has come to pass, and is all around us. People have given-up on understanding because they have rejected meaning and purpose in life; without which there can be no understanding. Thinking can only be purposive, and without purpose thinking will wither and die. Has died. So, although many of the Global Establishment envisage a single international society of monolithic ideology and socio-economic control; they cannot achieve this, because their inability to think (compounded by their compulsion to lie), is continually sabotaging their own desires. The same inability of the expert class and the masses, then further ensures that any System will be incoherent and ineffective, continually self-corrupting, collapsing faster than it can be built.On top of which there are now increasingly powerful and influential 'Sorathic' Beings (whether human or demonic) whose purpose is almost-wholly negative and destructive; and who delight in corruption, collapse, fear and suffering - and who add a positive purpose to the down-trend established by negative incapacity. But even as the corruption and collapse happen as a matter of daily experience; the capacity to recognize it has declined even faster. As individuals are submerged beneath the tsunami of accumulating chaos, they will remain utterly puzzled and clueless about what is happening to them, and why. The just cannot think it through...
"The ongoing collapse of brain-thinking"
27 Comments -
Spot on. For some time I have found the innumeracy of "elites" in media and politics as well as the mass of citizens astonishing. They have not the foggiest on basic descriptive statistics let alone rates of change. If the majority of the population in the u.s. and u.k. had a basic grasp of what was 10th grade math when I was in high school those advocating masks, shutdowns and vaccines of children would be laughed at and mocked mercilessly--I would argue that if western populations possessed basic numeracy the whole covid scare would have been over a year ago.
30 March 2021 at 14:24
One more..to your point. As a younger man I recall that second order thinking was fairly common among people in business and the professions. Now its very rare--for example the fact that the covid shutdowns led to economic contraction, ruining lives and ad infinitum eludes the majority of even "experts". I would suggest that second order thinking is what leads to civilization. Without it--the concept of the future etc cannot be grasped and thus we see many living in a meaningless present distracted by phones, media and consumption.
30 March 2021 at 14:31
Unwin noticed rational thinking disappearing within 3 generations in his studies, along with Deism and monogamy - if prenuptial chastity was abandoned. With hindsight it's obvious he got the disease and symptoms mixed up but even then I never quite understood why the ability to reason might go.
You'd think a more materially grounded society would have superior thinking ability, much like the atheist fantasy future often envisioned. I did understand the point Vox often makes, that without Christianity, there can be no real science, because the duty to and value of Truth disappears - still I couldn't quite make that fit with the ability to reason seemingly dissolving in cultures that decide to trade the eternal for the temporal.
Good post. Things are a little clearer.
30 March 2021 at 14:43
ANON - Please use a pseudonym -
You may be interested by https://corruption-of-science.blogspot.com/ in which I describe exactly the mechanism you mention.
30 March 2021 at 14:52
Along with the loss of coherent thought there is a steady increase in mental instability, witness the hysterical over-reactions to almost every public incident nowadays. Even if the flames are whipped up by the media which, of course, they are, people, especially certain sections of the populace, still react excessively, emotionally and irrationally. This is because we have no solid ground anymore with the absence of God.
30 March 2021 at 15:49
This is so true....One day the birdemic is disappearing, the next day it's worse than ever....Kids don't catch it, but they're required to take an experimental injection anyway...and most people don't notice the inconsistencies. In the 20th century I don't think this agenda would have worked, because people still believed in objective truth and logic. What's weird to me is that people aren't afraid of other psyops such as ebola, random shootings, etc., but they're terrified of a bad flu.
30 March 2021 at 18:05
@ToL - It's pitiful to see; but an inevitable consequences of choices people have made, yet deny they have made.
30 March 2021 at 18:29
@ToL--a friend called the birdemic pushed by the media as a Pharma advertising buy. IN U.S alone pharma spends 10billion in ads so its hardly surprising they are pushing it hard again. With Trump gone they need to juice up ratings so disaster and pestillence and new "mutant strains" will emerge to keep the masses scared, glued to pharma ads and easy to govern and control....
30 March 2021 at 19:25
@Bruce Charlton --
Another great post! I appreciate how you always are able to tie our material decline to spiritual cases. Prior to reading your blog I had never encountered the word Sorathic or Sorath. I looked him up today and learned: "Rudolf Steiner said Sorath is the Sun-demon of Revelation, a great evil power far mightier than Lucifer and Ahriman."
Meanwhile I've just finished reading "Creation and the Persistence of Evil" by Jon Levenson. Levenson argues (on historical-textual grounds) that the Old Testament presumes (and hints at) a cosmic struggle between God and malevolent chaotic forces of destruction and entropy, which God subjugates prior to his acts of ordered creation. (As opposed to the traditional answer that God created everything from nothing, either including evil or with evil being the mere privation or absence of God).
Do you think it would be reasonable to see Sorath as the chaotic force opposing God in the context of the Biblical or Mesopotamian "chaoskampf"? On a related note, as a Christian Pluralist, do you believe God created Sorath, or is Sorath a pre-existing enemy of God since before creation? (You have a much more refined intuition on such matters than I do, so I hope you don't mind sharing your thoughts.)
30 March 2021 at 19:38
@TruthtoLife, good point about the ridiculous inconsistencies. I would argue that the inconsistencies are deliberate. They serve several functions:
1) They make the acceptance or rejection of the narrative a more perfect proxy for obedience to worldly power.
2) They add to the overall environment of chaos and fear they are trying to promote.
3) They deliberately humiliate people. "Look what we can make you believe! You are part of this now. Time to wear a second mask over the first!"
30 March 2021 at 19:38
Charlie has left a new comment [edited]
I agree with what you're saying, Bruce.
People have lost the ability to think and discern. And they are failing the litmus tests and embracing evil. And Sorathic evil is undermining/replacing Ahrimanic evil.
But, for the sake of argument, I'd like to humbly submit that there is also a lot of rational thinking going on at various levels of the birdemic cult. I'm curious what you think of the below:
Many of the birdemic cult reject God and reject the concept of an afterlife. Either via aggressive atheism or via a cultural Christianity so watered down and woke as to be almost the same as atheism. This is evil, self-destructive, and yes, stupid.
But if atheism is a given for them, if they view This World as primary, then a lot of their behavior after that can be seen as quite rational.
The tiny minority of globalist planners: While you're right that their utopian dreams won't come to pass, SOME of what they want IS coming to pass. From the birdemic scheme alone, they have captured the greatest upward transfer of wealth in human history and captured massive political power. Yes, they are destroying the economy below them on which they predate, but that's what they consciously want to do. They care more about power and relative wealth than about absolute wealth.
The politicians and the expert class know where their bread is buttered. They serve the globalist planners. The order came down to promote "the pandemic" and they did it. And they've gained in power and wealth as a result. It almost doesn't matter whether they are cynically following orders or whether they've willed themselves to "believe" in nonsense. Either way, there's a certain self-serving rationality to it.
The useful idiot Karens too are rationally "going along to get along" and even overdoing their eager compliance to gain status and virtue-signalling points. And now they see an opportunity to become first-class pecked citizens instead of second-class dirty doubters. The useful idiots will of course never be invited to share power with the globalist plotters. But they still see some advantage in pledging allegiance to worldly power.
And the ignorant and credulous masses are just going along to get along, keeping their heads down, and not bothering to waste a lot of their limited brain power on understanding the ins and outs of the coup that already happened.
Of course the people at all these levels are embracing evil, renouncing God, and possibly forfeiting eternal life, which is stupid and insane. And even within This World, they are embracing obvious lies and hysteria, which certainly doesn't help with clear thinking.
But when you, Bruce, look at people and see the stupidity of their publicly professed beliefs, it seems to me that you may be ignoring the thinking that they never make public. Consciously or unconsciously, they are making rational decisions to pledge allegiance to worldly power.
The "smart" nonbelievers I know are rushing to get the peck, and, more importantly, to *announce* that they've gotten the peck. While they aren't as aware as I am of the SCOPE of the evil and illogic behind the birdemic, I suspect that they have little personal fear of getting ill. They are just signalling their willingness to embrace the new normal. They (not irrationally) think that things will go easier for them in this world if they do that.
Again, I agree with your overall point that people are both failing the litmus tests and increasingly failing to think straight. I'm not trying to argue, but rather to ask you a question about a nuance of the phenomenon you're describing. What do you think? Is there anything to this idea that many of the birdemic cult members are actually making rational decisions (given their focus on This World.)
30 March 2021 at 20:27
@Charlie - I don't dispute that people are capable of single-step reasoning about doing the most expedient thing in the short term - but almost everybody used to be capable of a great deal more! Like thinking a few months, years, even decades ahead.
For example, the Luddites risked beatings, prison and death to preserve their livelihood. The aristocracy used to try and preserve the prosperity, power and security of their family a few generations ahead. Enlightened self-interest - a thing of the past.
That is leaving aside the large numbers of people who voluntarily suffered all manner of hardships on the basis of religious moral principle - a thing of the past.
30 March 2021 at 20:32
@RO - I am mostly thinking of Sorath as a Type of demon, rather than a specific Being.
While there can be a 'lawful evil' demonic leader - Satan/ Ahriman - who plans and coordinates evil plans; it is not really possible for a chaotic evil demon to be a leader; or for chaotic evil demons to cooperate to any great degree.
My assumption is that when lawful, systemic evil becomes established (evil cooperating to maximize evil in the longer term) - then conditions are ripe for virulent strains of ultra-short-termist (no plans, just immediate gratification) evil demons to emerge, out-competing their less-fully-evil rivals.
30 March 2021 at 20:39
Good description of the concept of nihilism.
30 March 2021 at 21:13
@Bruce, thank you for that great answer! Good point--I'm citing "doing the most expedient thing in the short term" as impressive rationality! When in fact it's anything but.
These people are basically saying, "Powerful entities are assaulting me and my society--it might be advantageous for me to go along with it." That's a path to self-destruction in a few easy steps. It's hyperbolic discounting, aka extreme short-termism, and is indeed irrational.
It's also often evidence of a lack of courage. A lot of these forces are interconnected: Godlessness, irrationality, lack of discernment, lack of courage, short-termism, etc. It's increasingly obvious that only an embrace of God can help people address many of these problems. Non-believers don't realize it, but an embrace of God enables clearer and more logical thinking.
30 March 2021 at 21:39
@Bruce Charlton -
Thank you for your answer. Within the theory of Christian pluralism, do you believe God created demons (of whatever Type), or were they pre-existent? I am assuming the latter but it hasn't been entirely clear to me from you writing.
30 March 2021 at 21:39
@BC - But why would the Ahrimanic demons, who I would think would be more competent given that the retain some of the more pragmatic aspects of Good, get out competed by the insane and thoughtless Sorathic demons?
30 March 2021 at 22:30
@TLM - I was thinking of the way that psychopaths thrive in our evil, anonymous, mobile, xenophilic culture; whereas in better eras with coherent and Godly communities they were usually rapidly detected, and exiled or executed.
@RO - Essentially, by my understanding, there is not a single plan of destiny - but God tailors situations for the best chance of each soul. The hope is that Men will all choose Heaven, but for this they must follow Jesus and be resurrected, transformed so as to enter the place of eternally-committed love which is Heaven... But and some (many? most?) will reject this.
Souls are ach unique, from eternity. Ultimately I think some souls are, and always have been, evil; always opposed to God and the idea of creation - incapable of love. In pre-mortal life, these never-incarnated spirits very quickly chose to oppose the divine project. These are the demons.
30 March 2021 at 23:01
Thanks for the thoughtful answer. Much to chew on.
31 March 2021 at 05:24
One thing I notice is people have lost a sense of number. They don’t seem to have a approximate feel for a magnitude of a quantity and how to estimate it. As a consequence all sorts of numerical nonsense about health and environmental scares keeps rolling on, and economic figures are divorced from reality. Its as if computers and information gathering devices/procedures are magical oracles that need no justification for their answers. People really are mentally lost.
1 April 2021 at 06:43
@Hamish - I don't think people have ever had any sense for numbers; but it used to be that they privileged their own experience about abstract numbers. Now they believe the numbers - or rather what the media tell them the numbers mean - https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2020/05/one-million-dollars-30000-people.html - and ignore their own experience.
1 April 2021 at 07:12
Yes it’s true it’s not a general ability, but the ‘professional people’ increasingly don’t seem to have it, which makes it so worrying.
1 April 2021 at 07:27
@Hamish - I was a professional epidemiologist in the early 1990s, and (with a mere handful of exceptions, mostly in the USA) they were incapable of brain thinking even then.
1 April 2021 at 07:32
I believe a big factor is a lack of humility. When you refuse to accept the truth of "I am wrong.", there is no way for 'science' or 'logic' to move forward from error. Insufficient humility develops Pride and thus enables the 'one step' solution from the 'never wrong' individual presenting it.
4 April 2021 at 16:50
Dr. Charlton - is there anything, materially, that would make sense to do in response to an inevitable collapse? Such as move to a farm and stock it with hand tools?
It looks like the plan will be to shift the population to a managed food supply and depopulation, and presumably it is the duty of a family with young children & foreknowledge to at least try and avoid that fate.
15 April 2021 at 20:06
@MA - The most that could be achieved would be to delay death - and probably not by much. There is no hiding place, nowhere to escape-to.
My intention is to prepare spiritually for what may become inevitable. This has, after all, been the fate of *many* Christians in the past.
15 April 2021 at 20:18
Yes, I agree it is the fate of many and certainly may be required of us. However, isn't it our duty to try up to our limits physically/materially (if LOTR is any guide) even when things appear hopeless?
I think God wants us to do as-much-as-we-can and He may provide the rest - but I could be wrong, maybe he really does only want us to prepare spiritually.
15 April 2021 at 21:41