ganjananda

There's a reason why Christian sects bicker a lot. It's because the very structure of Christianity demands it claim a monopoly on truth. Christianity is a religious innovation... it's fundamentally different from all the religions that came before it, to the extent that I think we probably shouldn't use the same word to describe both. Prechristian religions, like Judaism or Shinto, are mostly codifications of the spiritual practices of a particular culture. They're not fine-line separable from being Hebrew, or Japanese. Christianity's innovation is that it is de-ethnified. It is a modified Judaism that has been stripped of its Hebrew character. This is why there is no such thing as "Judeo-Christian" values. They cannot exist any more than "Islamo-Shintoism", or "Asgardo-Buddhism" can. Ethnic and post-ethnic religions have completely different cores. This was the brilliant innovation of the Hebrew carpenter-turned-street-preacher. (It is unimportant for this discussion whether he was a divine being or not, and I don't want to get distracted arguing about it). The innovation, in other words, was precisely this... Judaism had to be de-Hebrewed before you could convert Romans to it. The Romans could not, in any practical sense, convert to Judaism, because they weren't Hebrew, and couldn't become Hebrew. But if the cultural elements were removed, they could. But how to do this? In ethnic religion, cultural elements are a load-bearing structure. The whole practice of Judaism is the practice of being Hebrew, in the same way that to practice Shinto ritual is to experience and re-affirm one's Japanese-ness and any non-Japanese who tried to "convert to" Shinto would just be larping. Christ's brilliant insight was that ethnic ritual could be replaced with cosmological belief. Ethnic religions practice ritual. The emphasis is on what you do. Asking whether the Japanese "believe in" kami is kind of a nonsense question. You don't pay respect to the kami of the local river because you "believe in him". You do it because you are Japanese, that's what Japanese people do, and that is, in some sense, what it means to be Japanese. Post-ethnic religions can span cultural identities because they are not based on cultural rituals, which you do, but on visions of the truth which you believe. Zeus doesn't care if you "believe in" him. He cares if you make burnt offerings to him, and respect his law that you shall not desecrate the bodies of the dead. Christ, on the other hand, doesn't want any burnt offerings, and doesn't require or rule out any actions. Even prohibited actions can be effectively erased by repentance, which is not a ritual act, but the acceptance of certain beliefs. The great insight and innovation here is that Romans couldn't and wouldn't do Hebrew ritual stuff, but Romans and Hebrews could both believe a thing, while remaining Roman and Hebrew, respectively. This meant that now you can make religions that are larger than tribes. And being larger, they can conquer tribes and rule the world. Which is what Christianity did. But with every strength comes a vulnerability. Christianity, being based in belief, is dependent on unity of belief. If two Christians disagree on a matter of faith, it cannot simply be tolerated as a matter of differing priority or perspective. There must be only one truth, and therefore one of them must be wrong. And a heretic. Any coexistence between Christian sects weakens that central pillar of unitary, unambiguous, unchanging truth. Thus, for Christianity to remain strong, there could be no disputation. And for a very long time, Christianity made this happen by having a central authority that killed all the dissenters, or terrified them into silence. But no central authority can last forever. That's where we are today. Christianity may no longer be able to enforce doctrinal conformity with secular punishment, but it still depends on that conformity, so it each sect attempts to enforce it socially. This is why when Japanese people watch Christians online, they seem to be forever arguing. It's because they are. They must. There can be only one truth, which must be entirely contained within Christianity. And it must be discovered, and asserted, and anyone who disagrees must be, at the very least, mistaken. Japanese people don't argue about whether kami are "real", because they don't need to. It's not important. They show respect, because they are Japanese. It is the polite and proper thing to do. This is the divide between ethnic and post-ethnic religion.

My big conclusion from this week: Introspection causes emotional disorders.

Tucker: "Every other group in the world has a right to its own homeland except White people? What? Explain how that makes sense.” White people deserve a homeland.

Gender equality ends here