You don’t have to be in a relationship to study up on romance; perhaps that’s the best time. Let objectivity help you choose before you’re blinded by love. Her approach to compatibility is a real eye opener.
Dr. Barbara DeAngelis is my favorite romance counselor. I recommend finding and listening to all of her work. Her approach is realistic and compassionate; honest and down to earth. Can’t go wrong.
Ricardo Semler is a Brazilian businessman who’s approach to running a company astonishes me. He focuses on the maximum freedom of his people, even letting them set their own salaries. Get ready for shock, and as you read, remember that everything he’s doing works. Spectacularly.
Ricardo Semler expands on his business approach which does away with “top-down” management. You can get more done with little stress if you trust your people to think for themselves. Everyone will enjoy their time at work more as well.
There are people out there you just can’t get through to. It isn’t a matter of defeat; you deal with them and move on as quickly as possible, dropping the negativity in the garbage as you depart. This will help.
Most people are far too decent for the morality they have been subjected to. When we contemplate how we live and how we affect others in the process, we want to be viewed positively. This is why many cling to the cultural standard, even if they see it being misused.
Have you ever explored a topic and though having many elements defined, still could not put a finger on a thing’s essence? You make an assumption upon which all of your calculations are based, but something’s off. Eventually you identify the source of your inquest, and calculating from there, everything works out. It is the same with moral judgment. When you replace the many claimed sources with the nature of existence, everything falls into place.
As a people, we suffer the bipartisan animosity reared by this moral confusion: the unthinking side rigidly following popular morality in haughty righteousness, while independent people dismiss its many ludicrous hassles, and with good reason. What rationality prevents, religion permits. Religion has shown what a free reign of its supremacy would mean in the medieval savagery of the Dark Ages, and the paranoid horror of the Salem witch trials. No one wants to get bogged down in another period of mystic ooze. Without an alternative path leading to moral stability, we have stayed in low gear, spiritually. What has been missing is context, and what makes the riddle of morality clear is the earned versus the unearned; the deserved versus the confiscated; the life-furthering versus the life-destroying.
In childhood, I was told that heaven was whatever I wanted it to be. But I wanted to deserve the world around me. Ownership through earnership. Why did they think I wanted it for free?
The immoral image of heaven or any utopia, is getting everything for nothing; never having to lift a finger. We see the practical result of that in slums, welfare offices, and in those who do pursue it, by pulling insurance jobs, staging accidents, and filing nuisance suits. We see it in Islamic Fundamentalism and Third-world slave states, yet an effortless existence is consistently glorified by religion—something no truly moral man would ever want. Pursuing their land flowing with milk and honey, as these are products of human effort, all they bring about is a land flowing with blood. Such people spend their lives chasing illusions, fatally loyal in treason to Earth and all those they encounter. This is not Divine Circumstance, but simple neurosis.
We hear, “If this footstool is your heaven, you are not aiming very high.” They put down their flesh, their wants, their work, their relationships, and their lives. But in life they are a mind looping in panic. They consider reality to be beside the point, and the point is, their wish. They declare life to be senseless, and given the way they live, they are right. If life here doesn’t matter, then why bother opposing those who live here and love it?
It has always been implied that we risk losing our souls if we question Fear-driven clergy, claiming that to defy them is to defy God. Often, such intimidating leaders can’t convey anything without deserving to get maced. We are condemned for our daily greed in that hour-long commute, eight hours of disciplined focus, and that second hour-long commute. They leave us no chance, making us evil by birth (Original Sin). Look at a newborn; isn’t it evil? It is Man: notice its fangs, its claws, and its violent intentions. Notice its black heart (sarcasm intended). Imagine the parents of a newborn froggy bearing down on him to say “See those legs? If you were a decent frog, you wouldn’t have to hop.” Or plant parents saying “If you were a decent plant, you wouldn’t have to strive for water, light, and air. You wouldn’t stretch out to greet its warmth, but be humbled under the sun.” Pointing to an uprooted, dried and shriveled weed, they’d say “That is virtue before the Lord.” Ridiculous and unnatural for other species, that is exactly what the Spirit Murderers have done to Man. The only black hearts are to be found in those who perpetrate such nonsense, grown men whom out of moral carelessness, tell children they are evil. We listen to their chaste of sacrifice, self-denial, humbleness, and repression, then get up the next morning and proceed to make all the right moves with no moral credit.
Independent judgment is held as spiritual treason, to be countered with the most horrific retributions in their afterlife. We are taught to trust in their guidance alone: the cornerstone of abject dependence and politically, of dictatorship.
There is no punishing a trait of all men and there is no preexisting human evil. Such an idea violates the very definition of morality—the choice to do good or evil, which also requires the freedom to choose. There should be no questioning of human capacities—only using them. Guilt should be attached to its proper cause: the unwillingness to carry our own burdens in life. Those who have interpreted Man as evil have given us their own self-estimate. There is no Hell, beyond what the Spirit Murderers make of life.
Warrior Note: A guilt accused of all men leaves no benefactor to atone to.
Higher concepts in reason are a derivation of walking the chain of knowledge, but ill religious concepts lead from nowhere to universal harmony, without stopping to ask how. Their altruist fog permits ideals that bear no adherence to the 1-4 cognitive process below. Their true fantasy is where anything is possible morally, an anti-concept used to justify the slaughter of men and the seizure of our assets throughout history.
Objectivity cannot be subverted; there is no becoming a victim of reason. Rational concepts are intuitive of life. Instead, dictated action removes moral choice, and thus the pride it could generate. Unsound faith removes moral responsibility. Either approach taken by religion or the State creates drones—blind, deaf, and dangerous.
“Faith in the supernatural, begins as faith in the superiority of others.” —Atlas Shrugged
Faith is confidence in the continuation of a known pattern. When used improperly, faith is meant not to enhance reason, but to avoid it. Their “higher state of being” doesn’t bring what you first expect: a clearer understanding. No, it is a state where cognitive effort for understanding and physical effort for reward is unnecessary. A “higher mode of consciousness,” must result not in a negation of your senses, but in greater clarity, building on what you already know.
But instead of working to acquire their prophet’s heroic human traits, die-hard illusionists mimic their impossible marvels, reflecting the superhero worship of children which they show such contempt for. They want to raise their hands and part the sea, but refuse to define constructive means to overcome their barriers. They want to magically raise the dead or heal the sick, but won’t listen to evidence that stems sickness and the patterns that lead to it. They will call upon the heavens to guide their lives, but won’t hold their emotions in check to think clearly. They are willing to snap their fingers and turn one free meal into ten, but shrug at the moral constancy necessary to earn them, or anything else. They have a ruthlessly disciplined imagination, a one-way valve that closes at the first touch of reality. At any time, two key destinies lie before every man: the result of effort and that of sloth. Look down and see whose feet are moving. If they are yours, then so is the decision of where to place them.
A morality is an endeavor of Man like any other (such as medicine and computer technology), always in some stage of development, subject to constant scrutiny and continually being advanced, seeking to enhance the living power of individuals in the most spiritually profitable way. That requires an active mind to practice and to pass down.
The proper moral code is the same every morning you wake up. It never changes. Axioms are, and that’s it. Finding the origin of the universe or even proof of a god will not change our sleep cycles, the due dates on our Visa bills, or absolve us of responsibility for our day-to-day lives. This is our life’s context, whose effort is never to be escaped, jilted, or transferred to others.
So, can we become Christians and automatically gain superiority over those who are not? Accepting Jesus (or Allah for that matter) doesn’t give one the knowledge to practice anything. It is a pledge to be virtuous—nothing more. A proper moral pledge is to actively pursue the knowledge necessary to be virtuous—the commitment to fully adhere to the rational process of cognition. And your success in this endeavor is your actual adherence and its result; the civil preservation and furtherance of life. This is the bridge between us all.
Warrior Note: As language is a means of comprehension, it precedes and therefore negates religion as a substitute for comprehension.
I can’t imagine surrendering my faculties for an unobservable alternate universe when this one is as complex as it is. Its scope and implications are difficult to grasp with every weapon you have set to stun! And attaining rational conviction is a road nature defined for us each to travel alone.
Looking forward, the lost will persist in unquestioning obedience to maintain an image of moral adherence, never questioning the standard to which they adhere. Yet here is the real world to feel and hear and see, which encompasses the whole of their lives, is the subject of their every conscious moment and makes possible their contemplation of the nonexistent. The true field of their awareness has a consistent, non-contradictory structure identified by Man and demonstrable, step-by-step. It purely respects their means of cognition and gauges their advance with a clear link to the steps that come before and those to follow. All they need is the courage to see.
Conversations are an example of walking the epistemological chain. That is why in trying to apply it to life, religious conversations often end in violence or silence, even between believers. This is due to delusional fantasies borne of differing cognitive breaks. What one wants to believe differs from what the other wants to believe, but neither is held to the rules of thought, so no middle ground is possible.
Religion has made hypocrites out of people with sincere motives—those who sought no contradictions—a tragic result for an honest effort. There are two ways to see everything, and the anti-organic, anti-rational, anti-human choice is the evil choice. There is less and less need for martyrdom as a society grows more civil. As martyrdom is their symbol, to keep religion alive, they have to make sure society doesn’t grow more civil. As Jesus indicated, we can choose the nature of Biblical interpretation ourselves. Those who negate the path to life are the true hypocrites.
Between Spirit Murderer and Self-made man, both seek to claim virtue, but use religion in very different ways. The loafers quote scripture that justifies stagnation and damns their betters, such as “The meek shall inherit the Earth”, “Pride for wealth is the ultimate evil,” and, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” In Biblical times, men got rich only by over-taxation and plunder, so pride for wealth would have been one step above pride for murder. But shame doesn’t apply to wealth earned in a free country where exchange is voluntary—pride does. In response, the productive quote scripture that justifies their effort and absolves their guilt. For example: “Lord, thou deliveredst to me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents besides them. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” —Matthew 25:23. Another servant buried his. He is told to give his money to the industrious servant and is condemned, “cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” —Matthew 25:30. The lethargic strike back with more scripture, “…he that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” —Matthew 23:12. Still, this could mean damnation of a Spirit Murderer’s social facade and approval of Self-made man’s non-esteem seeking, wholesome encounters with others. A sanction of rational self-interest and capitalist freedom can be found in “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own?” —Matthew 20:15. Did Jesus tell us to violate our minds? “Blessed are those who believe without seeing” could be interpreted as blind faith, or as a sanction of abstraction. Moral validation of our senses can be found in “…blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.” —Matthew 13:16. The talent story sanctions the proper value hierarchy of Man, as does the following: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” —1st Corinthians 14:40.
There is a whole different way to interpret The Bible if you love being alive. Both sides seek moral cover that reflects their ends, but one needs cover and one doesn’t. One is a fear-ridden, parasitical slacker whose guilt is valid, while the other’s guilt is contrived. The full context of most Bible stories promotes mutual respect, civility, and hard work, dissolving the intention of a Spirit Murderer’s malicious snippets. With the process of cognition known, it is clear what they are doing. Your own conscience must decide which pattern to follow.
Regardless of a person’s argument, you can feel who intends to leave you with less. When interpretation must be pitted against objectivity, one side intends to preserve predatory slaughter as an alternative to civility. If any natural part of your body or mind is negated, run. It is all there for a reason, and that reason exposes their moral corruption. You can also feel who is interested in your well-being. He brings you new knowledge to contemplate; he doesn’t try to commandeer your will or shut you down. Self-made men don’t teach “Believe me or else,” they teach “See for yourself.” Philosophically, I can see the grid system of my work charted out into the future. I can see it superimposed over the past, and how and where the Bible lessons fit. There is a sanction of life and rationality to be found at different cognitive levels of its contexts. I can see its long-term intention to integrate moral knowledge, where most present interpretation lends itself to disintegration. Learn the grid and the narrow path is no longer so.
Jesus was a man devoid of pretense. He had the mark of genius so rare in any time—someone who had reached full volitional consciousness—yet he had to depend on average minds to record and carry his message. Had he lived longer, I’m sure he would have taken his work to the next level. He would have resolved its existential contradictions, clarified the true essence of evil, and made what he preached more palatable for all. Instead, given the unexplained implications in his word, interpretation was left to those also lacking a proper standard of value from which to extract sound meaning. They relied on that period’s cultural standard, with the Submission/Domination Axis as their only reference and key moral conflict. Their solution was to turn the tables and become the dominant, and sacrifice was therefore perpetuated.
Jesus was at odds with the law and at odds with the church. He didn’t think the law was helping the people. He didn’t think the church was guarding their faith. They were envious. They wanted the love of those he drew voluntarily, and they still want it. Like Judas attempting to exploit his following, they were eager to silence him in order to put words in his mouth. Diminishing the power of the church by fostering independent spirituality was a massive threat to them. The message in his death was “Don’t give up your morality. Die for it if necessary, knowing it is a question of life or death.” By standing mute and adding nothing of his own, he showed what the rulers were all about. Challenging the trust of one divine leader for interpretation versus God being in every man—this was Jesus’ revelation, and one step closer to the truth of moral empowerment. For a power seeker, there is no greater threat. If morality was to be an attribute of the individual, next to follow would be self-government and they would be dethroned. They were.
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“My karma ran over your dogma.” —bumper sticker
Religions have been used through time as a license to torture. There isn’t a moral action they don’t have a penalty for; there isn’t a moral violation they are not guilty of. Whether purported now or 2000 years ago, a Spirit Murderer is behind every choice against the flow of natural life. Their job is to stop, condemn, sentence, and drag people to their deaths—their historic constant. Give them control even now, and their intentions would have the same medieval end.
I suffered their doctrines as a child, and the unbelievable violence. We had to memorize what we were expected to believe. Like learning to smoke, we had to ignore the convulsions and pretend we loved it. Only those who used lies to pursue plunder were good at it. To them, evasions came natural; from generation to generation it was the continual rebirth of the Socratic Method; of Apartheid; of the Spanish Inquisition. “Kill your body to free your soul. Accept your own worthlessness. Obey us because only we are privileged to interpret the unknowable. Trust no outsider. Damn enjoyment, damn progress, damn ability. Our perfect world of peace is a cemetery. We will never run out of victims, because someone will always want to live.”
I submit to you, that it was not a god who told you to violate your own nature—who said you can’t think, that you can’t protect yourself, that you must allow your life and happiness to be sacrificed and that you are guilty when you have done nothing wrong. It was not a god that told you to spit in your own face, but fear-based men.
Warrior Note: The good determined by any standard other than life will achieve its opposite.
The infamy is that if your guardians could start a new world from scratch, this is what they would teach that world with the cross as their symbol; as if to say, “Blood sacrifice: that is all you need to know.” Trust no dogma whose symbol is death! Only when their actions reflect their savior, not his killers, can we take them seriously. It is not so important how Jesus died. What is important is how he lived. When they return such a great man to the proper setting of life and worship that, we will know they are on the right path.
At this point in our history, I can’t help but feel that the morally-devoted of all faiths are starting down the path to life and freedom for all. I sense this is the result of good people pursuing healthy guidance, who have approached the building of their highest self with the most innocent of motives, yet have been betrayed by immense and all-pervading financial and political corruption worldwide. They know something has to change. They are learning that the faith they grant to their god cannot be transposed to our leaders, whose actions must pass the deepest and clearest scrutiny. Paraphrasing Bram Stoker, “We must not let our eyes see nor our ears hear, that which we cannot account for.”
Imagine going to confession and knowing you have no sins to confess. That state of guiltless purity is quite a sensation and quite a worthy goal, but the price is full volitional awareness—the lifelong commitment to stand naked before the truth of cognitive evidence. I won’t tell you that you can practice the opposite just by claiming it is right for you, and prosper with an approach that is contrary to life. Follow the rational process of cognition and you will not be confused. You will not be taken advantage of, and you will not be immoral. Instead, you will generate the most profound and lasting pride, never to be surrendered again. Face the world alone. Look to existence for the answers you seek, and as He said, “Turn over a stone, and you will find me.”
Most Americans consider themselves Christians, but they do many things Christ would not have done. He wasn’t excluding people right and left or shunning his enemies; he was drawing people together. But there are 34,000 different Christian sects, all based on disagreements: 34,000 groups thinking what they want to think and shutting themselves off from everyone else. If you are a Christian, you shouldn’t see yourself as a group opposed to other groups. You should try to be more like Jesus was! He was peaceful, independent, and confident enough to be open. But in reaching out to the Church, wishing to share these cognitive structures and the moral certainty they offer, I have found it mostly to be a closed door. In less civil times, when Jesus began to speak, the townspeople tried to push him off a cliff. If we keep holding up these barriers, nothing will change.
The Christian audience is the most important audience on Earth, because the fate of the free world is in their hands. Christianity must lead the charge, and transform into a purely nature-respecting philosophy. Invite me in, and I will help you. America and all free nations must show a united front to the world, and I submit that the moral code we can all agree on can only come from nature itself.
This is not a radical expectation. Back in the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas discovered the works of Aristotle. Aquinas wrote extensively on the subject, and was so persuasive that the Catholic Church absorbed the full works of Aristotle into the Christian faith. The work of Aristotle lies at the base of ALL major religions, serving as the rational, acceptable part. His work can even be found in Muslim teachings since the seventh century. Only a morality’s practical value can make it stick. Historically, the resounding undercurrent of truth upsets all contrary designs.
By describing the natural patterns we all practice, Moral Armor has advanced the work of Aristotle, drawing a deeper moral parallel between men than has ever existed. St. Thomas Aquinas would be first to champion the seamless integration of nature and moral devotion. So you see, it has happened once already. It is time for Christianity to show its leadership and take another brave step.
Now, understand that no one has to give up their religion. There are no demands made here; Moral Armor is just an acute observation of natural law, and its simple yet profound moral structure. The beauty is, we live by this philosophy already, and it is critical to be able to confirm true moral premises through nature. Knowing is much more powerful than leaving things to faith. On the world stage, you have to stick to what you can prove. Allegiance to life must come before religious or political ideas. If your ideas do not honor the peaceful, biological furtherance of an individual, if they disrupt or deny life to mankind, then they are wrong.
If you are truly interested in being the best person you can be, you should constantly be learning from every available source. With the structures I have outlined, you will end up with a practically clairvoyant understanding of your own religion, and that goes for any religion or philosophy in history. You can lay the grid over it and see precisely where they are right or wrong and where their lessons fit.
Most of us, Christian and otherwise, are already practicing nature’s morality—it is the silent undercurrent in life that binds us all—we just need explicit awareness of it. Once you are openly aware and your motives are all flowing in one common, life-furthering direction, you will gain an overwhelming confidence and a spiritual fulfillment beyond anything you could imagine. People will notice life blooming around you, and it will spread by example alone. Your kids will be on track to living confident, productive, happy lives and most of your worries will be gone. So take a deep breath and be brave. Give nature’s morality a chance because we can’t win without you. If your religious premises are sound, then they will flow with life, and never against it. By honoring our common ground, free civilizations will be unbeatable. By morally empowering every individual, we will achieve what Jesus intended anyway, and then world peace is just a matter of time.