Modern Culture

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How sad for me!
For I am like one who—
when the summer fruit has been gathered
after the gleaning of the grape harvest—
finds no grape cluster to eat,
no early fig, which I crave.
Godly people have vanished from the land;
there is no one upright among the people.
All of them wait in ambush to shed blood;
they hunt each other with a net.
Both hands are good at accomplishing evil:
the official and the judge demand a bribe;
when the powerful man communicates his evil desire,
they plot it together.
The best of them is like a brier;
the most upright is worse than a hedge of thorns.
The day of your watchmen,
the day of your punishment, is coming;
at this time their panic is here.
Do not rely on a friend;
don’t trust in a close companion.
Seal your mouth
from the woman who lies in your arms.
Surely a son considers his father a fool,
a daughter opposes her mother,
and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
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Micah 7:1-6

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“I will make youths their leaders,
and the unstable will govern them.”
The people will oppress one another,
man against man, neighbor against neighbor;
the youth will act arrogantly toward the elder,
and the worthless toward the honorable.
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Isaiah 3:4-5

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The Lord also says:

Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
walking with heads held high
and seductive eyes,
going along with prancing steps,
jingling their ankle bracelets,
the Lord will put scabs on the heads
of the daughters of Zion,
and the Lord will shave their foreheads bare.
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Isaiah 3:16-17

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Woe to those enacting crooked statutes
and writing oppressive laws
to keep the poor from getting a fair trial
and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice,
so that widows can be their spoil
and they can plunder the fatherless.
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Isaiah 10:1-2

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Everyone has to be on guard against his friend.
Don’t trust any brother,
for every brother will certainly deceive,
and every friend spread slander.
Each one betrays his friend;
no one tells the truth.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they wear themselves out doing wrong.
You live in a world of deception.
In their deception they refuse to know Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
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Jeremiah 9:4-6

I have seen the decline of morality in America with my own eyes.  Americans today are a horrible people; shallow, immoral, untrustworthy, backstabbing, arrogant, and to top it off, self-righteous.  Of my American friends, those who were moral were destroyed, one went insane and the other killed himself.  The rest fit in with America and stabbed me in the back.  Of these, the one I knew best chased after my wife.  I hate modern Americans and I would never have one as a friend now.

I reject all sides of modern culture.  The Left and the Right are just two sides of the same evil beast.  The hippie and the banker are the same, both selfish and inconsiderate of others.  The banker selfishly pursues wealth without concern for how his actions affect others.  The hippie selfishly pursues his pleasures and personal freedoms without concern for how his actions affect others.  Modern culture produces big government, broken families, broken communities, bad art, bad architecture, bad urban design, and bad people.

The main point of the prophets of the Old Testament was that Israel had become corrupted by Baal worship.  Baal worship was the modern culture of that time.  Our modern culture is basically another form of Baal worship.  Modern culture is evil and must be completely rejected by moral people.

Hello Franklin,

I'm very sorry to learn of your experiences with modern Americans, of which I am.  I fully intend to continue our discussion under the "What is Biblic Judaism?" thread, but for now am curious about which particular Christian dogmas you find difficult to accept.  

Thanks!

Andrew Matthews

Andrew, you seem too reasonable to be a modern American, but I suppose there are always exceptions.  I have been banned from virtually every Modern forum that I posted to on the internet, so this also confirms my personal experience.

Christianity is largely based on miracles.  Virgin birth is a miracle, resurrection is miracle, Jesus being son of God or part of God is a miracle, and Jesus demonstrated his authority with miracles.  As a skeptic, I have a hard time believing in miracles.  The more miraculous something is, the more overwhelming evidence to support it I would need to believe it.  I have nothing against Christianity or others having faith, but my brain isn't wired that way.  I was an atheist for most of my life.  I explained my current view of God in my post on Skepticism.

Not to get completely off topic, but I am curious about your opinion of this post by a Christian:

http://religionnewsblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/christ-versus-catholic-church.html

Well, Justin isn't exactly a Christian is he?

From the post:

Jesus Condemns Trinitarianism (Luke 18:18-19)"

A fellow rolled up to Jesus asking him a question, addressing him as Good Teacher.  Jesus shot that down right quick, stating plainly: "Why do you call me good, no one is good by God alone."  This is definitely the number one bullet in the anti-Trinitarian gun.  Jesus specifically identifies himself as separate from God.

To be Christian one must confess the deity & humanity of Jesus.

The post consists of 5 stock objections to Christianity/ Catholicism.  Answers to these questions can be found at any Christian apologetics website.  It's easy to Google the questions & find perfectly reasonable answers.

For Justin's objection to Jesus's divinity, see:  http://www.gotquestions.org/good-God-alone.html

There's a pretty comprehensive list of Catholic apologetics sites found here:  http://www.catholicity.com/links/119/

People like Justin do not move the discussion forward.  What I like about your writing is that you never just offer standard objections, but constructively engage the issues.

You should join the mormons. They are Pro marriage,Patriarchal,pro family, pro morality. They also encourage education and intellectualism .

I looked at the Mormons some time ago and there are few problems.  The biggest problem is just that my wife didn't feel comfortable with them, I am not sure why.  Another problem is my general problem with Christianity's requirement of faith that I discussed in this thread.  And also I have concerns about Mormon history, particularly about Joseph Smith.  But I agree that the Mormons are worth looking at for Christians.

A related thread:

http://defendingthetruth.com/religion/48589-changing-tastes.html

and a reminder that members of modern culture, especially Americans, are horrible.

And one other lesson, posting to forums is a waste of time.

My theory of this relates to the idea of the social contract.

Under its original conception (Hobbes) the social contract had families forming a pyramid that went up to the King, who was a liaison to God along with (or sometimes in competition with) the high priest.

The later form of it was Locke's articulation, in which families form a community to pursue their agreed upon interests.

In modern times the social contract can "no longer be written" is how I put it.  People casually wave each other towards things like drug use and homosexuality.  The community does not attempt to protect other members of the community.  Families sometimes no longer exist at all.  It's every person for themselves.

Demographic trends suggest that this kind of society will eventually be replaced by religious fundamentalists but it'll be a long time.  In my conversations with liberal people, they don't deny the demographic trends but presume that some kind of artificial intelligence will emerge to manage everything for them before the demographic trends can wipe out liberalism.  I've pointed out that limitations in silicon and quantum computing suggest that "true AI" might be impossible, for example Moore's law is set to fail within a decade, but this doesn't dissuade them.  They live for the here and now.

These issues are discussed in detail here:

http://www.amazon.com/Family-Civilization-Background-Essential-Conservative/dp/1933859377/

As for artificial intelligence, if it is developed, I assume it would recognize humans as basically worthless and exterminate us or maybe put a few of us in zoos.  Luckily, I have faith that humanity has already become too stupid to develop artificial intelligence anytime soon.

Well, according to Al Bender the time traveler of the Montauk project that in 700 years humans will live in floating cities controlled by a general intelligent AI, where most services are automated. However, without the stress for survival the city dwellers are weak, lazy and useless.

according to the SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, feminist will push for a completely automated society so that men will no longer be necessary thus good for extermination

I've wondered about an "algorithm age" which is to say that we don't actually need AI in order for most jobs to disappear.  To a certain degree this has already happened with so many jobs now being in the service sector.

I found a version of Zimmerman's book as an ebook on Amazon.  It's abridged but still very interesting.

Ever notice how gangs in the west are basically emergent trustee families? The gangs hold each other's members communally responsible for actions and often hold property in trust for the gang as an entity.  If allowed to exist for long enough they probably would just start calling themselves families, some of them already do.

Ex Mormon here.

The LDS faith supports marriage with one hand while fully supporting divorce with its other hand.  IMHO they are a fallen church who cannot bring themselves to hold women accountable for their own actions. If a woman says she is unhappy and so was a divorce that church will create reasons for her, out of thin air, to relieve her of her burden of guilt. Typically these will be that her husband is 'secretly abusive'.  They will then pile on the poor husband telling him that he is in denial of his abuse.

The reality of this, of course, is that these women are adulterous and simply do not want to uphold their marriage covenants. Especially in the modern degenerate culture of America, where divorce is sold to women as empowering and told that using the government (and the church) to have your husband cast from his home and his children will lead to a fun filled party life.

You do not want to join the Mormons. They have been corrupted by the feminine imperative as surely as the Catholic church I joined after leaving the LDS faith.

Snowden wrote

You do not want to join the Mormons. They have been corrupted by the feminine imperative as surely as the Catholic church I joined after leaving the LDS faith.

Are you still Catholic?

What are the major differences between being a Morman vs being a Catholic?

On Sunday, November 8, 2015, fschmidt [via Mikraite] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Snowden wrote

You do not want to join the Mormons. They have been corrupted by the feminine imperative as surely as the Catholic church I joined after leaving the LDS faith.

Are you still Catholic?

Luan - my programming language

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