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[Actually Deep]

I can't shake the sense that god is power hungry. I spoke to a reverend today and whilst it was illuminating on a personal level I cannot shake his lack of answer about god's motives and blind rebuttal.

It looks to me that god wants power over all interpretation and most are complict in the church's arbitrary decisions about valid interpretations on life. There are many contradictions implicit and explicit across the churches and anyone in particular holding the highest truth seems unlikely and dishonest. It seems inevitable a data collecting society would use that information for a form of religious final judgement. It looks that conventional advertising techniques and political outrage machines and social media cascades are working for the church's aims now.

There is no place left to hold an original thought, a secret or a valid intepretation that god has not elevated to a powerful position. I get an unerring sense that the blind are leading the blind. It's a mess.

I distrust the motives of the religious establishment. The freedom of eastern nihilism seems more honest than a church with face recognition cameras and secret scandals for the sake of appearing persecuted.

Is god seeking to control all via power rather than voluntary submission?

It looks to the awake outsider that society has lost its way. I don't seek to restrain god, nor could I. Dignity be damned, there must be someone else who sees the nature of society at this time, for what it is.

[jimwalton]

> I can't shake the sense that god is power hungry.

Just off the bat I'll let you know He's not, but then I'll address your particular points.

> It looks to me that god wants power over all interpretation

Here's the thing: Since God is truth, it's impossible for anything He says or does to be false. When you say He wants power over all interpretation, you are seeming not to grasp the idea that He is truth, and therefore the proper interpretation is the Godly one and also the true one. He can't NOT be the truth.

> most are complict in the church's arbitrary decisions about valid interpretations on life.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, so some explanation would help.

> There are many contradictions implicit and explicit across the churches and anyone in particular holding the highest truth seems unlikely and dishonest.

Different church perspectives come about because Christians are thinking people, and we use our minds to draw conclusions. Sometimes those vary from each other, just like any other person and any other field. But I'm not sure what you mean by "anyone in particular holding the highest truth seems unlikely and dishonest."

> It seems inevitable a data collecting society would use that information for a form of religious final judgement. It looks that conventional advertising techniques and political outrage machines and social media cascades are working for the church's aims now.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Wow. Something's going on in your head that's not making its way to the page.

> There is no place left to hold an original thought

There are actually lots of these in Christianity. The number of books published every year with original thoughts is astounding.

> a secret or a valid intepretation that god has not elevated to a powerful position.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

> I distrust the motives of the religious establishment.

That's obvious, but I can't understand why. Try to express your thoughts again.

> The freedom of eastern nihilism seems more honest than a church with face recognition cameras and secret scandals for the sake of appearing persecuted.

Are you talking about the Roman Catholic Church's sex scandals? Face recognition cameras in church? I'm not sure what you're talking about.

> Is god seeking to control all via power rather than voluntary submission?

No, He's not. Voluntary submission is the only way to God. I'm not sure what you're talking about here.

> It looks to the awake outsider that society has lost its way.

That would be my perspective as well. Society has definitely lost its way. Culture, especially American culture, is in a bad place right now.

> there must be someone else who sees the nature of society at this time, for what it is.

Yep, lots of us do, but I'm not sure what you're seeing that makes you write this. Can we talk more?

[Actually Deep]

There's an inevitable pattern of metaphor that weaves it's way through the visual and literary media we consume. The timing of metaphors and ideas in most popular culture can be mapped. There are too many examples to be discussed in a reddit post. Categories of ideas move in and out of the light, most of it is not arbitrary chaos from which we pick something we enjoy. Most of it exists on a preplanned spectrum.

The catholic sex scandals are perfectly balanced to allow both sides to vent outrage against a monolith and maintain a sense of innoncence under the persecution of the evil spirits. There is no coincede the cardinal pell incident had no result and the themes in the case progression line up with the larger map.

Some large tv series and films operate like a front for some catholic, protestant and jewish views.

This draws the picture that few valid and original interpretations of the world can ever suceed in art. If god is the one true source of all things and the 1800s-1900s appreciation of original thought born from material discovery is predestined to die, then there is nowhere else to be. If there is nothing new under the sun and endlessly varying symbolic themes is not something new, originality is dead.

There is a history of financial debt. Most debt accrued by individuals ended up with the religious after the collective was done with it. There is an equal chance that once all the collected data has lost its commercial value it will end up in religious hands. All that which is not collected by the churches already. There are cameras in full view of the pews and altars that can trivially be collecting data, so must be considered as such.

We are coming to the end of a 2000yr old social tradition of following jesus's power into the unknown and people's having livelihoods that depend on religious commitment to the good. The industrial revolution, ww2 and computers have been hallmarks of the end. We can see an end of violence and waspy reign in media, the earthy girl being lifted into heaven is the new order of the day.

It depends on god accumulating power over the free citizens, who have no wilderness left to explore and no useful will to exert. An endless regulatory nightmare fueled by infinite data and absolute control over one's economic fate is the likely outcome. There is no target left to shoot at, that is worth hitting. We are slaves to the sun, money and god. The past was a era of belief in truth and a common dream... our individualized ontologies divide us and our inability to decide our own fates cripples us. The end.

[jimwalton]

> The catholic sex scandals

The neglect and refusal of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) to take a stand against these sexual predations and to prosecute and imprison the perpetrators is nothing short of horror. This is no reflection on the character of God or His ways, but instead the moral and spiritual failures of people who know better to act in righteous, just, and moral ways.

> Some large tv series and films operate like a front for some catholic, protestant and jewish views.

They obviously act to endorse religious views, but I'm not sure what you mean by "like a front," as if they are designed to cover up some atrocity.

> 1800s-1900s appreciation of original thought born from material discovery is predestined to die

I'm not convinced this is true. Originality expands with cultural advancement, especially in artistic and technological expression, but also in the potential for unique avenues of pursuit.

> Most debt accrued by individuals ended up with the religious after the collective was done with it.

Do you have evidence of this?

> It depends on god accumulating power over the free citizens

It seems as if you are referring to the abuses of the religious establishment, particularly the RCC, not of God Himself. Personally I think God is horrified by the behavior of the RCC as an institution and of their leaders as individuals. I would never confuse the two (God Himself and the RCC) as being complicit in their play for power.

[Actually Deep]

No the RCC scandals was just an example of religious advertising. It's a handy reference point for the crossover between occult, traditional advertising and narrative methods for storytelling. I am not horrified by the act and it lines up with other people tripping over themselves to expose sexual abuse of minors in other religions like islam. There's no coincidence this followed #metoo and the events of 2015/16/17.

I don't mean like a front to cover up an atrocity. I mean like a mafia laundromat proproses to clean clothes but really does a second task. Many media products sell the ideas inside religions and the media creators sit on fat stacks of cash for reselling existing ideas. Fans of most media products have signed up for a religion-lite without being aware of its origins. The media that does not do this, does not succeed as easily.

Ahh it doesnt matter im not going to fit the big picture into a few paragraphs. Thanks for your time.

David graeber does some work on the history of debt.

[jimwalton]

Sure, I am well aware of the horrors of the RCC through the eras, and also of the trivialization of Christianity through religious marketing, but I don't know what any of this has really to do with the subject at hand: Is God power hungry? Assuredly God is not complicit in the abuses of some who claim to associate with Him, but do it only for self-gratification, power, sexual satisfaction, or wealth. It's fair to say that a movement shouldn't be defined by extremists or those who abuse that movement for their own self-advancement.