cool academic lecture on angels live right now (12/12/2023, 7 EST). i am really enjoying it, currently talking about nephilim and the "sons of God" in the book of Genesis.
i think it gets into the realities of corporations. i had thought of the anthropomorphic nature of corporations and how that affects human consumption and i was nice to read another person's thoughts on it.
though i don't quite understand the ai-angel connection. is it that they were both created to serve and are not human?
@superheroine@religion@religiousstudies
The AI:angel connection. I'm seeing it materially as complex information systems (albeit different substrates). I would say that in both cases, as you say, there is also a 'created to serve' dimension, and also 'subverted for ill' -fallen angels /aingels .
Probably not made sufficiently explicit in that post (I'm taking note for future) is the idea that sometimes 'angel' seems to refer to corporised entities made of humans (see chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, for example).
Charlie Stross's 'slow ai' remark was really helpful to me in affirming that it wasn't 'just me' seeing it.
I've been thinking that maybe the next post should be to unpack the Revelation 2 & 3 thing a bit...
"#WesternValues" is #rightwing code for #ChristianNationalism. Whenever you hear them complain about people not believing in western values, they mean their bastardized version of #Christianity isn't the center of attention. And that makes them sad.
@slcw That's news to me. I interpret Western Values to encompass Individualism, Democracy, Rule of Law, Human Rights, Equality, Secularism, Capitalism, and Innovation.
@specked It depends on who's saying it. When right-wing figures say it, they're talking about Christian Nationalism. It's a convenient code word to conceal their agenda.
As Alan Bean notes, in his new book Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies, David Gushee draws attention to the way in which the reactionary authoritarian Christianity of white Christian nationalism in the US is also manifest in other nations now, including Hungary, Russia, and Brazil.
Binding these disparate national movements together is the following:
"[David Gushee] identifies 'authoritarian reactionary Christianity' as the primary cause of global democratic backsliding.
That’s because we are witnessing yet another wave of a secular revolution that has been a feature of Western civilization since the dawn of the enlightenment in the 17th century."
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#Christianity: The depraved idea that you will be forgiven for something you didn’t do because we killed someone else who didn’t do it either.
—Paul Brewer
What's changed in Wisconsin in the last 2 years? Janet was elected and what else?
There is no direct citizen ballot action. Maps are trash. Republicans are so stuck and stupid they won't even pass legal weed. State school vouchers support segregation.
@QueenValhalla The maps are about to change. The basis for Republican control in the state is the horffic gerrymandering they put in place after seizing the supermajority. Step one was getting a Democratic governor, step two was gaining the majority in the courts, and step three is fixing the maps. With those elements in place, the people have a true opportunity to elect responsible leaders who are accountable to the constituents. We're almost there.
IMO, it's the distillation of their perverted view of Christianity and Jesus. So much so that the bimper sticker I saw was probably from the brand of the same name.
Prosperity Gospel and Nationalism are two Christian heresies that have been rising continuously through my life, and really started rising in the 1960's. They both amount to the same theological fallacy: God wants his people to have social authority over others.
That message is about as far from Jesus as you can get.
@br00t4c I am more interested in how Jesus, a Jew, came to be considered by many to resemble anything but what a whole lot of Jews--and a whole lot of Levantines in general--look like.
They look a lot like Italians, which the Jesus in paintings often looks like, though Jesus likely would have been deeply tanned and wrinkled, his hair a curly mess, and his beard a Jewish one rather than Christian neatness.
@dustcircle 'evangelical' is really a political label to most of us. And now, it’s even more specific: it's maga.
How they get from Jesus to trump is beyond me.
I know that a lot of people aren't fans of Christianity, and especially the writings of Paul. That's very understandable.
This passage in any context is pretty dope, right?
If you were trying to reel someone back in from #ChristianNationalism you might reference that in addition to some good 'ol Red Lettered Sermon on the Mount.
(For the unitiated, it's usually pronounced First Corinthians, not One Corinthians.) 😅
@SrRochardBunson
In my part of the world it's rarely 'first Corinthians', nearly always "one Corinthians".
"first..." comes over a bit old-fashioned.Just fyi, no judgement.
That said, We do need to keep pushing out these sorts of texts hard to help undermine the subChristian narratives of so-called "Christian" nationalism.
@SrRochardBunson I do understand the 'why' of "first ..." Or "second, there's a strong logic for it. However in the evangelical and charismatic circles I've been part of in England, mostly it's been "one" and "two". As I say "first" etc tends to sound old fashioned. Or pedantic, maybe. No judgement from me: as a sociolinguistics fan, it's interesting ...
@1dalm THANK YOU. This is coincidentally something that's really been weighing on me. Both the cultural expectation that we're expected to revere evangelicals as the One True Kind of Christianity (and act as though It's Always Been That Way), and also that other denominations somehow have the responsibility to rein in the doctrine of evangelicals. As if we can control them, they won't listen to us anyway, that's how denominations work. Idk. It's something I've been struggling with
Apparently, #Christofascist women are "trained" to speak in a high-pitched, childlike #voice to perpetuate the belief that their minds are childlike, sweet, always joyful, and that they never disobey their husbands. I didn't think I could be anymore repulsed and horrified by #Christianity. I was wrong.
