Tag Archives: skepticism

What is Scienter?

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The term ‘scienter’ is used to describe the calculus, awareness, and intent of a person who undertakes manipulation of another person (or targeted group) into a fraudulent loss.

Hell does not depend upon demons in order to function. Rather, it only requires a population of otherwise virtuous and detached human agency, a critical mass of whom merely seek their just and regular pound of flesh.

This last week, my son ventured into an Apple Store to have his older iPhone outfitted with a new battery. The Apple Genius glanced disdainfully (bearing zero interest in actually addressing the customer’s need) at the old model phone and said “Your service (Verizon) is offering a special deal right now, where you can trade in your old phone and upgrade to the new iPhone 15 for just $120, with no increase to your parent’s monthly phone plan charges.”

My son responded in the affirmative, at which point the Apple Genius put him on the phone with a Verizon representative who confirmed the offer. “That’s right Gray Jr., I can ship you a new iPhone 15 for just $120 and there will be no increase to your parent’s monthly phone plan charges.” My son elected to take the option of gaining a new iPhone 15 for $120, over a $90 battery replacement in his old iPhone.

Please note that flim flam artists do not actually look like the person shown to the upper right. Instead, they tend to look the part of upstanding citizen, adorned in current fad clothing, and even having attended the finest universities. Stripped of their humanity by academic mentors, now owing their very souls to job-offshoring, pluralistic ignorance, world economic citizens, earnings-extraction, and the virtue signaling of their paper-trading Party masters.

Later that day, I received an email from Verizon, thanking me for my iPhone 15 order and welcoming me to the ‘Exciting new 5G Start 1.0 Verizon Plan’. The fact that they addressed a no-change-in-service evolution as ‘exciting’, meant I was absolutely sure I could surmise just to whom this new plan would prove to be exciting. So I logged in to my billing account with Verizon, only to find that sure enough, my monthly charges had been increased by $63 per month – not temporarily, as if terms of a new hardware charge mind you, but through billing every single person on the plan $12.62 more per month, in perpetuity. No change in actual service was entailed.

Accordingly, I called Verizon to get this ‘fantastic deal’ reversed. My petition fell upon deaf ears however, because as the agent informed me, my old plan ‘no longer exists’ and I could not be placed back onto it. The $63 more-per-month plan was the right plan for me now. Of course she would be glad to see if she could ‘reduce our services’ in order to obtain a lower monthly cost. Things like placing all household members on a data limit (what amounted to maybe five or six YouTube videos, and billing obscene amounts per gigabyte once over that limit – nothing but an even larger and more surprising price increase in reality).

WEFlation

As minor as this type of expense-in-perpetuity might seem, the ten-year opportunity cost Net Future Value of this flim flam, inside my financial and retirement modeling, turned out to constitute a (NFV10 =) $14,860 loss. That’s one hell of an expensive iPhone. No wonder it was ‘exciting’. Now multiply this number by millions of low-income and poor retiring citizens impacted by this same dollar figure, and you gain a sense of the level of misery imparted by such schemes. A few World Economic Forum Cronies with Greek islands villas, golden parachutes,1 new yachts, and a few subservient vice presidents with new cars – versus tens of millions struggling and broke in their convalescent years. All of course in the name of ‘inclusion’ (aka ‘power reach’).

If I take this Plan Settlement Value ($14,900 above), wrap 10,000 of these plan executions inside a bond, and insure that bond-value with a Lloyd’s of London policy – I can then leverage this settlement value 30 to 1 in a German or Swiss bank trading account. That is a $4.5 billion leverage-flow to my crony sponsors. This is my duty as CEO – my fealty being part of the reason they appointed me to begin with.

As one can see, inflation is not a serendipitous ‘rise in prices’, but rather the rising cost of tyranny and burden of centralized economic domination. A principle I now cite as WEFlation.

The irony resides in this: the cost increase we undertook above will not even be recorded as economic inflation, since I ‘opted for a new product and better plan’ (not a trick I would let my clients get away with – identifying it as ‘horizontal inflation’). This too, is scienter.

Nonetheless, this is how suffering is formed at its inception – through a process called ‘crony extraction’. The company did not need this revenue boost in order to be fiscally healthy, rather it needed to pay its syndicate handlers their exorbitant cut. This is the tithe they believe that we owe them, as our protectors and Gods (gods who failed us miserably when we needed them most).

Hell does not depend upon demons in order to function. Rather, it only requires a population of otherwise virtuous and detached human agency, a critical mass of whom merely seek their just and regular pound of flesh.

Nice. The irony resides in this: the executives who crafted this complex and cross-company hustle, along with the sales people who executed it, probably regard them selves to be model citizens. If the customer is confused and makes the wrong choice, that’s not my fault. I was not aware that this program was actually harming most of the customer base. I did not bother to look at the program or its impact, but hey I was just following the instructions. After all, I have to make a living.

My family had been misled by both Apple and Verizon through an incentivized (I am sure a sourcing-fee commission was involved) appeal to ignorance hornswoggle. Both companies had lied to my son in order to enrich their cronies. No, this money in no way returned to the common citizen in the form of ‘jobs’ or tax revenues. This was a wealth-scam executed inside the fog of a theater called ‘scienter’.

What is Scienter?

While the relatively minor scenario above does not constitute scienter in a legal sense, let’s start by examining that definition as our reference point. The legal definition and precedent regarding ‘scienter’ is as follows:2

  1. The mental state of one who intends to deceive or defraud another person.
  2. The term ‘scienter’ is used to describe the calculus, awareness, and intent of a person who undertakes manipulation of another person (or targeted group) into a fraudulent loss. An act is performed ‘knowingly’ if it is done voluntarily and deliberately. The accused cannot be proven to have ‘guilty knowledge’ of the results of his actions if those results were from a mistake or accident (unless Nelsonian/Constructive in origin). The accused must have been in such a mindset as to have set out with the intention to defraud or deceive the other party.

While I have been a successful legal plaintiff, seeking restitution from a party which stole money from my family ‘with scienter’, and am aware of many of the key litmus in establishing such complaint; in general, I identify three species of scienter as the term applies to social conduct and ethics:

Actual Scienter – knowingly and intentionally engaging in an action with full awareness of its wrongfulness.

  1. Reckless Indifference – the thief who knows they are stealing, but does so out of perceived basic need.
  2. Malice Aforethought – the abuser, who enacts harm because of hatred and/or the exhilaration they experience through harming others (to include spiritual loosh as reward) – I have known billionaire clients who reacted with abject glee, when they crafted a scheme to harm those of lesser means. We identify this personality type in The Ex Post Fact Mindset of The Predator and How to Detect a Griefer.

Constructive Scienter – by function or expertise, should have known the wrongful nature of their actions, even under a condition of Nelsonian knowledge or intent.

Imputed Actual Scienter – when the party who establishes or exploits a condition of ignorance, thereafter appeals to that ignorance (to include syndicated consensus, confusion, or reliance upon a partial truth) as justification for a wrongful action founded upon that appeal.

Scienter of Chaos and The Crowd

Most embezzlers, academics, fake skeptics, degree-holding, executive, and other high-intelligence persons, will exploit this third type of scienter when plying their fraud or harm. It is this condition of scienter which interests the ethical skeptic the most. For instance, climate and vaccine science both fall under this form of legal scienter. Large scale banking fraud does as well. This species of scienter is not simply indicative of one who intends harm, but moreover of one who regards them self as not in need of future redemption – a person who has made a kind of a priori god-declaration on their part. They have ‘burned their ships’ in the Hernán Cortés sense, being 100% committed to their plan – for good or for evil. An apocryphal mythology expounds on this style of scienter in what is called the First Book of Enoch.

Thus it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply upon the Earth, that in those days daughters were born unto them who were both beautiful and sexually alluring. Eventually the Archons, those who had been expelled from the heavens, watched and lusted after them, plotting one to another: “Let us choose consorts from among the children of men, who will beget us children in their stead.”

But Semjaza, the one who was their leader, said unto them: “I fear many of you will be disinclined to agree in advance to do this wrongful deed, and I alone shall bear the burden of having to pay the penalty for this grievous sin.”

So they all reassured Semjaza of their allegiance and proclaimed: “Let us all swear an oath aforethought, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan, but to do this thing.”

Therefore, swore they all together, bound by mutual imprecations upon the deed to be undertaken. In all there were two hundred of those who descended upon the summit of Mount Hermon in the days of Jared. They called it Mount Hermon because they had sworn and bound themselves upon it, by these very mutual imprecations.

~ Enoch I, Chapter 3 – (The Scienter of) The Fallen Ones

Inside this myth, a type of syndicated scienter is framed, a species of scienter for which the entailed potential suffering is enormous – the ‘guilty’ typically being many in number and collective in nature (an aspect of its exculpatory allure). There exists a key signature note of the soul inside this particular style of scienter. One much darker than that of the mere thief.

The thief acts alone and in the shadows, but the sycophant boldly defends his swindle by crowd’s decree.

Just as in the instance of the mobile phone hardware and services executives in my mild case-example above (pale in comparison to medical and pharmaceutical industry fraud), the intelligent person holds that, if they can establish enough of a cloud of confusion, ignorance, virtuous cause, or large enough numbers of persons involved, then they cannot be held liable or accountable by any party for the harm done in the name of that appeal to ignorance/confusion/partial truth. Surely they can’t come after all of us in this confusing fray, can they? Surely I cannot blame myself for simply following what everyone else was doing?

Much of harm and oppression executed in the name of science is conducted under just such a cloud of plausible deniability and exculpability. The ‘courage’ of the sycophant and the ‘wisdom’ of the crowd inevitably ferment into a toxic elixir of human suffering. The Covid pandemic merely served to expose such charlatans for who they really were.

The Ethical Skeptic, “What is Scienter?”; The Ethical Skeptic, WordPress, 16 Sep 2023; Web, https://theethicalskeptic.com/?p=75655

Of Authenticity

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A person who acts with integrity will also necessarily be authentic.

The authentic person’s lack of conformance to social norms may be abused by persons of lower integrity, as an ad hominem appeal inside an insincere argument or narrative.

I have a friend who painstakingly rebuilt a vintage 1950s Porsche from scratch. He is a meticulous engineer and a Duke University alumnus, dedicating over twelve years to reconstructing the vehicle in his home garage. During a visit I made years ago, he described to me the careful sourcing of each part, fabric, snap, rivet, and bolt from reputable and authorized vintage Porsche parts suppliers. In some cases, he even had to obtain specially manufactured and certified components from Porsche in Germany. His intention was not merely to acquire a rare and expensive vehicle, as that can be achieved through wealth and pretense. Instead, he desired to create a masterpiece through his own labor, ensuring the highest level of craftsmanship throughout.

There is a Zen-like quality to the unfolding of such mysteries. As he labored on the vehicle over the span of a decade, the car shaped his character in return. Both he and the vehicle exude authenticity.

The term integrity is derived from the same Latin root as the term integer, meaning ‘a whole number’. The term is actually a portmanteau of two Latin terms: in, meaning ‘not’, and tangere, meaning ‘touch/handle’. Placed into a more modern vernacular, this root meaning bears the context of an entity which is untouched, unmanipulated, or whole.1 The fundamental state of being unaltered or untouched is central to one’s inner strength and uniqueness at a spiritual level. It involves being “at one with or truly representing one’s self” in most all of life’s endeavors.2

As opposed to the human foibles of carrying water for an agency or succumbing to a known bias or social norm, integrity involves a series of behavioral habits which serve to compose authenticity. Put simply,

A person who acts with integrity will also necessarily be authentic.

The authentic person’s lack of conformance to social norms may be abused by persons of lower integrity, as an ad hominem appeal inside an insincere argument or narrative.

Plato, in his work “The Republic,” employs an allegorical dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon to present philosophical ideas regarding authenticity. One of the main topics discussed is the role of poetry and the ethical implications of imitation. Socrates raises a crucial question about the value and purpose of imitative poets who aim for popularity, suggesting that their intention is not to engage the rational aspect of the soul, but rather to appeal to the emotions and behaviors which are both most easily imitated, as well as being imitation themselves. An anachronistic form of pop music if you will.3

Then the imitative poet who aims at being popular is not by nature made, nor is his art intended, to please or to affect [stir] the rational principle in the soul; but he will prefer [instead] the passionate and fitful temper which is easily imitated.

~ Plato’s Republic : Socrates and Glaucon Dialogue

Through this allegory, Plato aims to define the characteristics of individuals who choose imitation as their form of life expression, as opposed to genuine life-artists who prioritize stimulating a key essence of the soul. Plato argues that the tendencies of those who seek public approval by adopting passionate and erratic behavior [pop fashion] are merely superficial and imitative. These tendencies can be seen as a form of virtue signaling or social pretense of Plato’s day, wherein individuals adorn themselves with familiar and stylistic conformance to appearances in anticipation of receiving public praise and recognition.

Such individuals can be identified by their strong inclination to impose academic clique-like imitative virtues on others, as they desperately strive for conformity within their social circle and all of humanity.

Moreover and in contrast, Plato continues his dialogue with Glaucon through alluding to several distinct qualities that stand out as manifestations of an authentic individual. Those qualities, as well as several I have learned throughout life, are outlined below.

The Feature Characteristics of An Authentic Person

  • May sometimes fail to regard social conformance norms as highest priority
  • If asked, will courteously let you know what they think (even if they perceive you are not going to like the answer)
  • While enjoyable as an aspect of human interaction, they do not necessarily seek or need your approval
  • Annoying or charming, their public, club, and private selves are all essentially one in the same
  • May appear relatively unskilled at de rigueur humility and cultural pretense
  • They generally choose to innovate, not imitate – however may choose to imitate when leveraging a familiar concept inside a new domain of context
  • They are not only able to self-govern well, but they find fulfillment in it
  • When left to their own devices and without guidance, will innately express their true calling
  • They rarely explain or complain, choosing instead to describe
  • They describe harmful conduct inside a schema of spiritual ethics, in preference over cultural norms
  • Unless they ask, they don’t need anything from you
  • Their ‘yes’ means yes, their ‘no’ means no, and their ‘maybe’ means maybe
  • Is not afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I am not qualified to answer that”
  • Often will maintain a perceptive knowledge of self, risk, and value
  • Innately grasps that the creator is much more valuable than the critic
  • They are cautious when sensing agency or cynicism in others – are ‘cult-proof’
  • They are not afraid to fail or be perceived (even widely) as ‘wrong’
  • They are innately curious – not afraid to consider or investigate the possibilities
  • Will often be tolerant of uncertainty, asymmetry, complexity, and novelty
  • Maintain awareness of their own bias, and will offer it up, often without prompting
  • Unless value, risk, or love demands it, will innately eschew the desire to control others
  • Is the same person whether or not money is on the table
  • Often will love reflexively (love others as an outflow of loving themself)
  • They may often perceive the critical nature of seemingly small things
  • Will innately eschew time-wasting or insincere academics, activities, thoughts, or discussions
  • Will apologize and stand accountable for harms conducted
  • They do not hold enemies, seek revenge, or deliver justice – but are often despised by the inauthentic who value these very things
  • Will typically not possess the instinctual habit of seeking to please everyone
  • Wealth does not serve to change them, nor change how they choose to treat others
  • They are often innately compassionate and merciful

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, partly through the work of University of Alabama philosopher Linda A. Bell, outlines authenticity in the following existential manner.4

What is suggested here is that a correlate of authenticity can be found in the idea of being true to the inescapable tension at the core of the human self. This would be attained if one clear-sightedly acknowledged the fundamental ambiguity of the human condition. Authenticity would then be what Sartre calls a “self-recovery of being which was previously corrupted [lost]”.

Authenticity would be “the awareness and acceptance of this basic ambiguity of situation, in assuming the responsibilities and risks it involves, [and] in accepting it … sometimes in horror and hate.”

Perhaps, one of my favorite music artists, Kansas, put this astutely in their masterpiece work, The Wall.5

I’m woven in a fantasy, I can’t believe the things I see
The path that I have chosen now has led me to a wall
And with each passing day I feel a little more like something dear was lost
It rises now before me, a dark and silent barrier between
All I am and all that I would ever want to be
It’s just a travesty, towering, marking off the boundaries
My spirit would erase

To pass beyond is what I seek, I fear that I may be too weak
For those are few who’ve seen it through to glimpse the other side
The promised land is waiting like a maiden that is soon to be a bride
The moment is a masterpiece, the weight of indecision’s in the air
Standing there, the symbol and the sum of all that’s me
It’s just a travesty, towering, blocking out the light and blinding me
I want to see

Gold and diamonds cast a spell, it’s not for me, I know it well
The riches that I seek are waiting on the other side
There’s more that I can measure in the treasure of the love that I can find
And though it’s always been with me
I must tear down the wall and let it be
All I am, and all that I was ever meant to be, in harmony
Shining true and smiling back at all who wait to cross
There is no loss

Indeed, it is this principle of the recapture of something dear which was lost, which resides at the heart of integrity. Just as in the case of my friend who rebuilt a fine car from scratch, the process is one of a reassembly into the original or untouched integral whole. An achievement of authenticity does not rely in any way upon correctness, membership, nor cultural imitation or normative, as such irony would not go unnoticed by even those fuming in the darkest corners of irrationality.

Salvation as it turns out, is not metered by one’s compliance nor fanaticism.

Those who possess the wisdom and fortitude required to rediscover this, also demonstrate the genuine humility to recognize that every person they encounter carries a similar burden. As a result, they show compassion and mercy as an innate aspect of their person.

It is however, this very present nature of innateness which qualifies individuals as being trustworthy – an authentic component to be assembled into the fine machinery of even grander realms of import and Light.

The Ethical Skeptic, “Of Authenticity”; The Ethical Skeptic, WordPress, 9 Jul 2023; Web, https://theethicalskeptic.com/?p=74647

The Failing Blame-Based Model of Spirituality

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When you impart a conception of God to children, a false set of expectations that starkly contradict their later observation of life’s realities, this poison-pills spirituality and cultivates in them an inherent existential strain – an unfortunate loosh craved by those agencies who exploit such distress. Whether one doubles-down on fanatic theism or reacts to the opposite by means of nihilist atheism, no haven is offered in either extremity.

As men grow in their spiritual thirst and understanding, religious institutions which exploit fear of the unknown continue to crumble, along with the dark empire they serve to occult.

They say that history is written by the victors. Religion, as an interpretive form of history, is written by the most manipulative among the victors as well. We’ve all had the spiritual fairy tale forced upon us, likely over a thousand times, with its relater operating under the delusion that you’ve never heard its pamphleteering drone before. The universe, currently in its nascent state, exists as a local and awe-inspiring essence. This enchanting realm, akin to a celestial garden, is believed to have been meticulously crafted solely for humanity by the divine hand of God. His love for us transcends the boundaries of our comprehension. Yet, it is ‘we’ who have marred this perfection, becoming the architects of our own suffering. Both collectively and individually, mankind has realized the wages of such rebellion – myriad consequences past, present, and impending yet again – a direct result of our (unforeseeable) innate corruption and transgression(s). Although God possesses the power to intercede in our relief, He upholds our autonomy and respects our free will.

The all-too-common notions comprised by this state of spiritual gridlock merely serve to perpetuate mankind’s ‘justified’ state of physical suffering, psychological terror, and most importantly, spiritual ignorance. Indeed, suffering, terror, and ignorance form the foundational ingredients of a dark spiritual ambrosia, empowering those entities which choose to partake in its intoxicating and addictive allure. An essence drawn typically from the lifeblood of an unblemished, vulnerable, and innocent youngling. This all spun as constituting aspects of God’s ‘mysterious ways’.

Perhaps these ways are not so mysterious after all, but rather constitute a ploy which exhibits a very familiar diabolical shtick instead. Ways which make complete sense, once one comprehends the inversion spell at play inside the mind of man. The monotheist sky-fairy taught by our major religions is very good at assigning and recompensing blame (especially over trivial and inconsistent doctrines), but is not nearly so skilled at alleviating, nay even comprehending, the human plight. Perhaps this should stand as a hint.

Ignorance in contrast, he has formed into an art. As an objective, ignorance is the most critical element inside this religious play-act. That is why the Library at Alexandria (and all works from its forebears) had to be destroyed by Christianity and Islam, while several caches of critical documents therein were smuggled out and preserved inside clay jars in the deserts of Egypt and the Levant. Aside from the 1940’s discoveries of the Qumran Caves Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Codices, I suspect that many more troves of such wisdom have yet to be upturned. The ancient institutions which housed such documents (texts such as I Enoch, The Atrahasis Epic, On the Origins of the World, The Hypostasis of the Archons, Matthew 4:1-11, The Book of Giants, Sumerian documentation of the selfish and diabolical works of the Elohim gods, or even ancient Magi teachings) offered up far too much of the backstory behind this spiritual farce to be allowed to remain in existence. After all, it is difficult to maintain an informed victim in a state of perpetuated slavery.

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.

~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

How does one determine who is telling the truth? The ones seeking to silence other people and ideas are the ones who are lying.

~ Modern proverb

There are two tells of evil. Evil will employ a Nelsonian Strategy, one in which it sets up the critical circumstances which will serve to produce a disaster or offense, however in such a manner as will exonerate the agency of evil from taking any blame in the process. Nor can evil be detected through its purported virtue or lack thereof, but rather in whom it seeks as victim. Does it seek to penalize the powerful, or the powerless?

~ The Ethical Skeptic

As an example from mythology, The Hypostasis of the Archons, part of the Nag Hammadi set of codices, cites a science fiction or Star Wars like tale recounting that a sister world of ours, called Sabaoth, both comprehended the play in which they were captive inside an evil empire, and was able to attain emancipation from their captor as well. This successful escape enraged their former abductor, Yaldabaoth (Samyaza or Ha-Satan), who was defeated along with 200 of his ‘watcher angels’ (the Elohim) and fled to Earth during the ensuing conflict – taking out their resulting wrath upon his remaining and much-despised slave race, mankind.1

An essential spiritual principle revolves around the notion that an entity’s true character should not be defined solely by its expressed words, posed virtues, or visible actions, but rather by those ideas and actions it chooses to prohibit, destroy, or embargo. It is not your virtue nor ‘light upon a hill’ which will win converts to your cause, but rather your objectivity in quest, tolerance of and skill in adjudicating novel ideas, and ability to draw significance in others’ lives inside realms where few have ventured before. This is what stirs an authentic person to be inspired, and not necessarily one’s good works.

Call ye nothing good. For in the moment you do, evil will crucify it and wear its skin as a costume.

After all, a religion in contrast is not actually defined by its doctrines, but rather those things it forbids to be known or said. Particularly if the religious perpetrator can establish guilt and fear of punishment (even that which is solely self-inflicted) inside the gestalt of their victim. This is why the debunker can be seen as nothing more than a religious acolyte, falsely coercing an embargo of specific ideas all in the name of skepticism and science – relegating you to their hell of ‘conspiracy theory’, at the first mere hint of dissent. Victims learn to distrust such exploitation by agency, and whether by debunker or cleric, cynic or true believer – it is all the same dishonest shtick.

Through application of such strategy, the deceptive entity is able to keep the victim reeling on their heels, perpetually in a reactive mode and underdeveloped state. Afraid, ashamed, and guilty, the kidnapped and abused child in such circumstance will be defenseless against their abductor. A principal weapon of which the exorcist is keenly aware. And whether conscious or not of its cast dark shadow, hylic mankind is collectively possessed by this very spell.

The Signature Gimmicks of Spiritual Abuse (Guilt, Blame, and Shame)

The Mayo Clinic cites several key indicators as being essential signals of child abuse. These lies and abuses on the part of the captor apply to spirituality as well, and are adapted as follows.2 The astute reader might even be able to discern the demonic gimmicks outlined herein:

  • Isolation of child from potential friends or usual social activities (By means of creation or abiogenesis, it does not matter what you choose – as long as you understand that you are all alone)
  • Instilling guilt, a loss of self-confidence, or low self-esteem in the child (You are worthless and sinful)
  • Exploiting the child’s resulting desperate need for affection (I am the Lord thy God, you shall have no other Gods before me)
  • Maintenance and exploitation of the child’s ignorance (understanding in lieu of comprehension) or poor development (Man’s spiritual devolution inside a state of technological peril)
  • Excessive health and weight fluctuations, medical complications, and self-abuses that are not being adequately addressed (Self loathing, anomie, lack of ability to alleviate global suffering)
  • A parent who is massively self-absorbed, addicted, and/or shows little actual concern for the child (Abandoned to its own resources, lack of actual power to help is spun as allowing ‘free will’)
  • Expects the child to provide attention and worship to the parent and seems jealous of others getting attention from the child (I am a jealous God; bring the sacrifice before me)
  • Shaming the child under the burden of inappropriate demands or unattainable levels of performance (Be holy, for I am holy)
  • Reinforces the shaming notion that no one exists who cares for the child, save for the abuser themself (Debunking, cults, nihilism/monotheism, hyperbole regarding the reach and conclusions of science)
  • The demand of blood sacrifice and/or power of sexual rape/incest/corruption (The sons of god saw that the daughters of men were comely…)
  • Offers conflicting, fantastical, or unconvincing explanations for a child’s injuries or suffering (Mysterious ways, His actions transcend the boundaries of our comprehension, our state originated from ‘nothing’ by means of creation/abiogenesis)
  • Child exhibits withdrawal, depression, and behavioral disorders – which are then ironically then spun ex post facto as the justification or rationale for the child abuse itself (‘begs the question’ of original and ongoing sin used as blame)
  • Employs harsh physical discipline as a first and/or sole means of control; continually exploiting the fear of such punishment (Genesis Curses/Bowls of wrath/Judgment)

and finally, the pièce de résistance,

  • Blaming the victim (child) themself for their state of being and suffering (sin and original sin – you have ‘free will’, but if you do even the slightest thing I don’t like, I am going to cast you out, kill you, curse you and a lot of innocents as well, punish you over 30 times again, and then kill you again, and then make you suffer forever – but you have free will, and I am merciful)

This last bullet point in the series is all important. Because, in order to enforce such a play in captive-abuse, the ever-present and awesome insistence of blame and impending just desserts is vital (see The Riddle of Sin). It does not matter how many times the child has been punished for the same offense, rather that the punishment be awesome, ultimate, repetitive, forever impending, and eternal if the child does not straighten up their act and join the club.3

The ‘Big Five’ Religions – One Ring to Rule Them All

Before assembling this article, out of curiosity I asked ChatGPT 3.5 to provide a listing of the top five world religions. I then asked ChatGPT to refine that listing to exclude both secular and spiritism philosophies, since those can constitute merely methods/intellectual pursuits and not necessarily religious beliefs. ChatGPT produced the following result. I found it indeed curious that the final tally comprised a list of blame and/or punishment-based (even if the punishment is a mere false ‘perception of self’) spiritual quests along a spectrum of severity or agency in the forms of entailed blame, or even worse, eternal punishments.4 The reader should bear in mind that together, these five religious sects compose 93% of the world’s population.5

See why both atheism and traditional religious beliefs are in decline. The public is rejecting dark nihilist and blame-based ontologies. Whether one worships a bearded grandfather icon, an empty set, or the spectrum of irrationality in between, an abusive captor could care less. Just as long as you are not aware of your actual circumstance.

  1. Christianity/Mithraism – (the complicated) belief that one must accept that Christ (Mithras) is the Heir (Son) of Earth’s wrathful and schizophrenic head (Enlil/Yahweh/Jehovah/Sol) of the Triune God (Sol/Luna/Mithras) itself, and that Christ (Mithras) died to redeem man from his corruption, sin, and impending eternal damnation – or be condemned by that very same Ruler (Archon) of Eden-Earth to damnation themself (under original sin – a second punishment for an event under which you have already been punished before).6
  2. Islam – belief that one must both become a believer and repent of sin before being committed to the eternal torment of hell by a wrathful Allah.
  3. Hinduism – belief in the continuing cycle of negative entanglement in passive self-punishments (the resulting birth, life, death, and rebirth in this form of hell), Karma (action, intent, and consequences), moksha (liberation from attachment/suffering).
  4. Buddhism – belief in the path (mārga) to liberation from negative entanglement in passive self-punishments (the resulting birth, life, death, and rebirth in this form of hell), Karma (action, intent, and consequences). “The nature of life is suffering.” Once that is realized, there is a path to reduce the suffering… one of compassion and non-judgement. Non-judgement does not imply a lack of observation or discernment, nor a lack of necessary action, but more an abstention from hate and loathing.7
  5. Chinese traditional Confucianism/Taoism – belief that the order coming from Heaven preserves the world from suffering, and has to be followed by humanity finding a ‘middle way’ between yin and yang forces.

Personal Shortfall Employed as Both Red Herring and Weapon

It is noteworthy that all five of these religious beliefs incorporate a philosophical aspect focused on guiding individuals or humanity as a whole towards a better state, away from a state of suffering, punishment, or disenfranchisement with God. Importantly, these religions attribute the responsibility for this undesirable state primarily to the human or humanity itself. In general, as we move from Western and into Eastern philosophies, visceral or violent condemnation gives way to various forms of ‘blame-shame lite’. Fewer calories, same great taste.

Wicker Man – a religion, doctrine, or philosophy of which, no matter what description is offered, such description will be specially plead as constituting a straw man. Wicker Man refers to a belief system, ideology, or philosophy that consistently evades accountability for its negative consequences by distorting or dismissing any critique against it as a straw man argument. It operates as a form of abuse by avoiding responsibility for the harm it causes.

One ramification of this principle I call the ‘wicker man’, is that a religion can be best defined by what it forbids to be known or discussed – and not by what it ostensibly promotes. The idea that man is captive, and that the first order of business is the amelioration of that captor/captive state is a principle cited among mankind’s most ancient religious texts (listed in the third paragraph of this article), a principle which runs anathema to the teachings of today’s most populous religious philosophies (the Big Five cited above).

Of course, emphasis upon personal responsibility, self-accountability, forgiveness, agape love, ethics, etc. always bears applicability. Such virtues in development are universally important, regardless of one’s level of progression or status. These principles should always be followed and should not be employed as a form of institutional tu quoque argument – or worse be wielded as a weapon by power hungry religious institutions. Just as the church does not actually own the right to administer ‘marriage’ as a human institution, in the same way neither does it own nor commission these spiritual principles. Moreover, while personal responsibility is essential, its leverage should not be used as a means to belittle, divert attention from, or discourage the investigation of an ongoing crime.8

It does not benefit a kidnapped child in any way shape or form to compel or coerce them to ‘stop procrastinating and do their homework’. The kidnapping itself is the first and only critical path argument at play (salience). To focus on such issues of personal responsibility, blame, guilt, or even spiritual advancement inside the wrong context, is a form of virtue signaling (crucifying ‘good’ and wearing its skin as a costume) on the part of our Big Five religions – an insincere display of moral superiority rather than a genuine attempt to address effectively the situation at hand.

The Secret of the Magi

The reality of Mankind’s captivity (and freedom from it) is an idea which has the most ancient of roots, yet has been expunged from all libraries, religious texts, and theological deliberation. As we noted earlier, a religion is not distinguished by what it teaches, but rather by what it embargoes to be said or taught. In that regard, all of the world’s top religions (to include secularism) constitute indeed the same species of manipulation, red herring, and tu quoque cult thinking.

When our forefathers uttered the word ‘freedom’, it was not merely an ineffective political catchphrase or an elusive ideal glorified by William Wallace during the iconic Battle of Stirling in cinema. Perhaps it signifies a profound liberation from a genuine and existential tyranny – a knowledge, optimism, and belief that has been transmitted across generations of faithful men by means of hidden document troves and veiled whispers.

If we are to believe the world’s oldest religious texts, which have nearly been exterminated for this very reason, the captor of humanity shows no concern over a person’s intellectual beliefs or how they may choose to interpret disparate religious doctrines or pathways to self development. His acolyte does not even have to believe in God or gods at all. The captor only requires that one suffer the accompanying guilt, terror of mortality, blame, shame, and ultimately, ignorance. Sweet ambrosia, the intoxicating blood of the unblemished youngling. Inside this, it remains critical that few perceive or ponder the bifurcated notion that we reside in an abnormal, captive, and abusive circumstance.

When you impart a conception of God to children, a false set of expectations that starkly contradict their later observation of life’s realities, this poison-pills spirituality and cultivates in them an inherent existential strain – an unfortunate loosh craved by those agencies who exploit such distress. Whether one doubles-down on fanatic theism or reacts to the opposite by means of nihilist atheism, no haven is offered in either extremity.

In that realm where innocence resides,
We caution young hearts of life unknown,
A fable of God, upon faith abides,
Yet reality authors a contrasting tome.

Exploiters revel in the soul’s unrest,
Feeding on pain, their dark delight,
A harvest of innocence, suffering pressed,
As spirits shatter in the desperate night.

This is the answer to the riddle as to why a ‘God of truth’ would blithely tolerate so much suffering amidst so many disparate, confusing, and conflicting religious philosophies. In the end, what anyone positively believes does not matter. You are free to worship the flying spaghetti monster. In reality, there is actually only one protected global religion – one Ring to rule them all – and it is based upon the obfuscation and embargo of this single specific idea of man’s captivity.

I believe that this may well explain why the prayer commonly referred to as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ can be most readily interpreted as a prayer of sedition, as it seeks not personal salvation from sin – which is conspicuously absent from the quintessential prayer, given salvation’s supposed priority in the scheme of man’s relationship with God – but rather the dethroning of a costumed, desperate, and crumbling hierarchy, intoxicated through its unlawful rule over the existentially terrified, confused, and suffering affairs of Adamu Man.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

~ Matthew 4:8-9, NIV

This was the secret teaching of the Magi, the world’s oldest esoteric, which was passed generation to generation from those ancient Vohu Manah (ethical skeptic) astrologers to Antoichus I of Commagene, whose priestly title was ‘Theos Epiphanes’ – the ruling keeper of the ancient wisdom of the Magicians (Persian, Babylonian and Macedonian tradition ‘Magi’). A gift of birthright which infuriates the siblings of envious darkness – which does not depend upon such insignificant criteria as one’s intellect, heritage, race, allegiance, memorized writ, professed doctrine, prayer-spells cast, observances, practices, foods you eat when, meetings you may miss or attend, pride, fake humility, how you choose to have sex or spend money, nor even terrified insincere repentance of same. Mankind’s emancipation from this empire of the dead and dying, along with its demonic prison of blame, which are to be displaced by thy Kingdom of Heaven come of the Messiah, The Son of Man.

The Ethical Skeptic, “The Blame-Based Model of Spirituality”; The Ethical Skeptic, WordPress, 13 May 2023; Web, https://theethicalskeptic.com/?p=72552