Category: Philosophy & Ideas

The progeny of God’s beloved father of the multitudes, אברהם אבינו, gave us Moses, Jesus and Mohammed according to the dogma of their respective religions; altogether known as the Abrahamic religions.

Abraham is the direct descendant of Shem who was one of the 3 offspring of Noah. No one who lived since or is alive today isn’t directly descended from one of these three lines as all of antediluvian humanity was wiped out by the great flood save Noah, his sons and their wives.

Shem’s brothers, Ham and Japeth are responsible for all the people of this earth except the S(h)emites who generally multiplied between the Nile and the Euphrates.

In other words, the three religions that today occupy more territory on this planet than any other religion individually or collectively all grew out of a tiny crescent and were established by or caused to be established by a narrow lineage in a Semitic language.

To be sure, from a population perspective, Jews, Christians and Muslims account for only 50% of humanity. But that inconsisitency is due to the numerosity of the Chinese and Indians and their religions’ disinterest in conversion.

Judaism isn’t interested in conversion either and their adherents’ numbers reflect that. Christians and Muslims on the other hand, well, “Do you have a few minutes to talk about the Lord?”

I would wager that we’re living in a period of time when conversion rates are fairly stagnant across the board. Most conversions occurred during the Middle Ages and in periods when indigenous populations were colonized.

As most people inherit their religious affiliations there is strong momentum that would have to be opposed to witness contractions in membership. The growing number of Muslims in the world is consistent with Muslim population growth. Miss that and you’re inclined to think there’s something else at play there – Taliban really winning infidels over with their charm and finesse.

There is a sense that newer generations are generally less observant than previous generations. Given the pace of technological advancement, membership numbers will eventually dwindle and go the way of pagan systems if Humanity doesn’t wipe itself out first or AI exterminates us; both highly likely outcomes.

So how do we make sense of where we are today along this arc?

The majority of members are comfortable attributing the ascendancy of Abraham’s legacy to its being the Truth; more precisely, the Truth revealed to us by The Creator. The majority are not sufficiently concerned with the details or uncomfortable with the circular logic underpinning their beliefs. They have made the lowest risk choice and are getting on with it.

Ironically, it is a majority that has the most tenuous relationship with its religion and God that creates the momentum and legitimacy that elevates their system of beliefs from esoteric cult status.

This is by necessity a dialectic relationship. The religion must have profound, gnostic and esoteric qualities to be the real deal but in order for these to be expounded, dissected, and compounded across generations, there must be sufficient interest from a large enough population to produce people who are capable of and willing to do the work. In order for there to be sufficient interest, the Faith has to be watered down for mass consumption.

Otherwise you’re shelved next to New Age or Zoroastrianism.

Heirs to the Big 3 who tangle with the questions that arise from their interactions with these “traditions” end up on the fence or on either side of it.

Contrary to what we’ve been told, there is nothing special about this particular question outside of the threatened outcome if you answer it wrong. Just like any indeterminate query, people choose Yes, No or Not Sure.

That choice depends on the context within which each of us is evaluating that choice.

For the most part, that context is accidentally formed. More importantly, it is something over which we exercise little control or agency.

GMT is point 0 for time zones and the world map is regularly drawn with Europe, the “Middle” East and Africa at the center implying that the Americas and the “Far” East are nether regions. Neither of these conventions or practices is necessary. Nevertheless, they will persist so long as the prevalent patterns that have emerged from these conventions remain. Consider what would need to be revised if we were to make Jerusalem time the reference.

GMT is successful for many of the reasons that Christianity is. Is there anything necessary about GMT or Christianity? Not that I have seen.

Wait but Why is a site conceived by 3 descendants of Japeth. The following graphics are theirs. The red stars in the one below are mine.

Each of the stars represents one of God’s 3 Messengers. As you can see from the chart, they delivered their Messages at points in time that appear to be in a reverse Fibonacci sequence. The agreed upon years are not Fibonacci numbers but since no one has come up with birth certificates our guess is as good as theirs. If the sequence were to continue, then we could have expected Messengers to appear throughout the Middle Ages until 1596 AD, the year René Descartes was born. Cogito Ergo Sum.

If we consider that René Descartes, who ushered in the Age of Enlightenment, God’s last Messenger, then it all makes sense.

God began conveying his Message at a time when Humans could comprehend it and then stopped when Humans grew up. Meaning – when they understood that they were possessed of a mind that could use deduction (logic, reason) or induction (the scientific method) to exercise good judgment.

That’s as good a tale as any that’s been told on this Subject.

Nobody showed up when we were grunting and swinging from trees. It’s not even an acknowledged state of existence in the scriptures.

Even after we became upright, God didn’t send us anyone for 100s of 1000s of years until the bright pink and blue sliver below.

As the Wait but Why people tell us – we were talking to one another for over 60k years before we figured out writing. Once we did, 2000 years would have to pass before God sent us his first message.

It seems that in the period preceding the first message, we weren’t using the gift too well and so according to the scripture, God wiped out humanity and started fresh with Noah and his three children and their wives.

God’s first message was conveyed to the descendants of one of Noah’s sons, Shem, who, among the 3, confined themselves to the smallest area in what is now known as the Middle East. Versions 2 and 3 followed, again in the Middle East, to Shem’s line in Semitic languages. The rest were left to rape, pillage and plunder.

Versions 2 and 3 received more traction and eventually spread to the descendants of Ham and Japheth in translation.

Some of us can look at this and all the other oddities in the cannon and apocrypha and the incongruity between them and the carbon dated evidence and think – Mysterious Ways.

Those of us who cannot aren’t just being pricks about it. We just can’t believe it.

The patterns aren’t clean. There’s a lot of incongruity. We cannot square it.

And our gut feeling is that it’s aliens.

“Over the past couple months I have dug deep into the science of consciousness and experienced not only peace and serenity like I’ve never known but I also have witnessed the most incredibly profound sightings both in the sky as well as feet away from me. This planet is on a very negative path towards destruction but WE can change that together. If we were to get 1% of the population to meditate and make contact, we would force our governments to acknowledge the truth about extraterrestrial life among us and change our destructive habits destroying our planet.”

– Demi Lovato

Yesterday I read in Newsweek that faced with a new COVID-19 outbreak Beijing is now using anal swabs to test for COVID-19. Because it’s more accurate….also the reason rectal thermometers are not a curious relic of the past.

Today I am writing to implore my fellow humans to consider lowering the bar. Satisfy yourselves with sufficiently accurate. Don’t get too caught up in accuracy for accuracy’s sake…as an end in itself.

Sure there are certain areas in which we need greater accuracy than is today possible. By all means, keep innovating until we are sufficiently accurate. And I acknowledge that “sufficiently accurate” is a standard that will change over time requiring further innovation.

And while I’m setting a standard, I may as well create a rule – “when it comes to the anus, please consider other options and use as a last resort”.

Which leads me to another misplaced obsession with exceeding limits – the modification of body parts to use them as tools.

One of the more nauseating examples being the nail manicured as tool. To be sure, it’s a sliding scale. One end features guitarists with moderate nail growth triangulated for picking strings and possibly this Japanese nail weaving business. Come on Japan, you’re better than this.

At the other, there’s the stomach churning extended pinky nail with which we are all** familiar, cultivated for use as a coke spoon, pick, screw driver, eye-gouger….I’m sure buckets of creative juices have been secreted developing obscure uses for this grotesque overgrowth of keratin.

** By the way, if you have never seen this please write me. I am interested to learn how you’ve managed to remain blissfully unaware.

In a bizarre twist, this utilitarian phenomenon has evolved in some cultures to signify the complete opposite: non-use. Yes. When spotted, a clean inch (or more) of keratin extending from your pinky finger tells the world that you are of a class that need not get their hands dirty. Clearly this is a case of relativity.

Disregarding the set who aim to elevate themselves in your eyes by maintaining a long nail, I imagine the justification for this phenomenon among the rest is that it is handy. Always there whenever you need it. In other words, efficient.

No need to go looking for a bastoncillo (lovely Spanish word for q-tip) or screw-driver or other thing that does not grow out from your body to execute tasks, no, you can hold in your other three fingers and get to work. Immediately.

So in the interest of keeping us on an evolutionary trajectory, I would like to introduce a new standard in this domain – sufficiently efficient. And to this standard I would like to add some rules:

1. If a tool exists, then the task that it was created for should under no circumstances be performed with a body part.
2. If the task you need to perform does not have a tool created for it, and you’ve really searched, then find the tool that most closely fits your purpose and use it.
3. If you’ve followed Rule 2 and the tool just isn’t cutting it, then make one or have one made.
4. If you’re sufficiently concerned about being caught without your tool, and are thinking of growing out your nails then introduce yourself to EDC and find something that works for your requirement.
5. If Rule 4 does not solve your problem then the task you are performing does not need to be done with “reasonably” sufficient urgency and you can go back to Rule 1.

And remember, when you prioritize the right things, your life will become more meaningful.

Knowing a person’s children puts you a few deductions away from knowing that person. The childless can never be known with the same degree of certainty.