Unemployedidealist

Organizations can be very effective. But what happens when the organization outlives its purpose. I think it takes on a life of its own…and part of yours.

Get the pitchforks and torches. I think this podcast will make everyone mad. That’s not my intent. I just realized I have to have a better answer to a question few people dare ask.

Join my wife and I as we discuss the concept of the Corpus of Church music.

I consider myself politically right leaning, based mostly on my acceptance of the inevitability of the Pareto distribution. In an effort to recognize “the beam in my own eye,” I grapple with what it looks like when my personal position spirals into a pathology.

For podcast 200 I do something new. I didn’t plan to but something emerged. My son wanted to go for a hike. I wanted to record a podcast. So I invited him to be my guest. Keith is twelve so this might be a fun podcast to share with children.

I address specifically a core Idea that I often mention peripherally. I suggest the counter intuitive idea that compromise fuels extremism.

I deviate from my norm and make a podcast while driving. Listen to my specific best guess at what makes my perspective unique even compared to others like Jordan Peterson whose perspectives I greatly appreciate.

Why does it seem like Christians universally identify the second sin as the original sin. Could it be because they don’t want to face their guilt?

I used to try to universalize all my thoughts. If I thought them, probably everyone should. I think I am changing. I try to guard against saying, or even thinking, that I know what’s best for others. But I believe that speaking more clearly and truthfully is always the best choice. Join me as I try to figure out if there is someplace where unexamined half-truths might be optimal.

Because there are an infinite amount of things to perceive and an infinite number of levels at which to perceive them, your perception of reality is dependent on values. If you want to optimize your existence you have to be able to intentionally adopt an alternate value structure. Can you do that?

It seems every improvement in the quality of life has inadvertently decreased the value of human effort. The only way that marginalized humanity will find meaningful life’s is if they become their own inventors and designers of a meaningful existence. No one can do it for them. But maybe we could reward inventiveness instead of hopeless victimhood.

Your understanding of how the two covenants which divide the Christian core texts differ cannot help but mold your view of God and life. Maybe considering my view of that distinction will help you approach the divide less haphazardly.

Your understanding of how the two covenants which divide the Christian core texts differ cannot help but mold your view of God and life. Maybe considering my view of that distinction will help you approach the divide less haphazardly.

Your understanding of how the two covenants which divide the Christian core texts differ cannot help but mold your view of God and life. Maybe considering my view of that distinction will help you approach the divide less haphazardly.

Your understanding of how the two covenants which divide the Christian core texts differ cannot help but mold your view of God and life. Maybe considering my view of that distinction will help you approach the divide less haphazardly.

We are all making various mistakes as a community service, so those most closely observing us can avoid them. How nice of us! But very often those avoiding our perceived mistakes will over correct. When I overreact to the overcorrection I can easily disincentivize people from continuing to optimize their behavior. Or maybe I could adopt a more humble and useful approach.

Logical people (like me) are often tempted to tell emotional people (like my wife) “stop feeling that way!” Which isn’t helpful. In this podcast I suggest a hypothesis which might help me understand the benefits of my wife’s perspective and help her overcome emotions which she has identified as “not useful.”

This advice on how to prioritize participation in worship, comes from 25 years of singing with inmates in jail

I believe there is a specific point where adopting conspiracy theories becomes a problem. I also believe there are some simple guards against crossing that line.

What would repentance look like if you believed in a God who wanted you to succeed, not a god who wanted to prove you are a hopeless failure.

An experience I once had as a guitar teacher gave me a perspective which could transform Activism into something less polarizing and more beneficial to those struggling with confusion about some very basic dimensions of identity. Pardon all the mixed metaphors.

Growing up possessed by Christian Ideology, I found it easy to believe that people who disagreed with my position did so because they liked being wrong. I am trying to change my approach. I try to begin my analysis by seeking to understand how someone like me might be convinced of the imperative of activism, and find the smallest error that might lead someone like me astray. I’m not sure that gender and sexual orientation activists will appreciate my civil approach, but I am sure I want to extend to them the courtesies I would appreciate from others.

I think it is possible to make a meaningful differentiation between the positive motivation when you pursue a goal you expect to reach and when you pursue a meaningful goal that you may never reach. I analyze these two motivations and connect them to the motivation of fear.

If the snake is the incarnation of a dragon which the walls of the garden cannot keep out, what’s a hero to do? A hero can feel helpless when his fair maiden is confronting a snake of addiction or worthlessness. Maybe this can help him find an effective strategy.

Could the organizing of Christianity been motivated as an attack on the central message of the Christ. I’m not sure I like my conclusions.

A young man stumbles on the difference between descriptive identity and the ambition to identity.

This set of podcasts follows on from “Evidence Needed”. Understanding how the spirit of the Christ might be under attack requires drawing some conclusions about whether Satan has a conscious existence. Which requires some clarification of my conclusions about the nature of God’s existence.

This set of podcasts follows on from “Evidence Needed”. Understanding how the spirit of the Christ might be under attack requires drawing some conclusions about whether Satan has a conscious existence. Which requires some clarification of my conclusions about the nature of God’s existence.

Doesn’t sound very inspiring but maybe it’s a useful strategy to avoid the pitfalls of isolation and resentment.

Join me as I try to figure out why all the attention given to bullying seems to have only made the problem worse.

Personality traits applied to political thought forced me to optimize my approach to people who weren’t as “infallible” as I used to think I was.

How do you separate the value of believing from the object of faith? Would there be a need to draw such a distinction if faith were personal? Is it possible to participate in an organized religion without defining the difference? The convoluted and wandering question takes further shape.

I discovered that when you are considering the miraculous nature of the Eucharist it might be helpful to differentiate two different perspectives of the Miraculous. It suggests the idea that we don’t get to demand miracles but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look for them.

Our household motto is “It’s a good weird!” I know I appear unique, but would I have to be? Just how scalable is my experiment?

I am convinced that most criticism of organized religion mistakenly attacks the philosophical foundations of the religion. If instead we challenged the assumption that religion ought to be applied to others, we may find the criticism much more helpful.

At least two significant things go on in the name of conservatism. One I am for, one I am against. The last thing we need is another divide, but maybe making the distinction will allow a connection along a different dimension.

I offer a hypothesis about the ideal form of governance which may alter your perspective on the law.

Young couples often wonder, “Am I too young to get married?”Older singles often wonder, “Am I being too picky?” Have you ever wondered if there was a unifying concept that could shed light on both questions?

Until recently humans were nested in concentric circles of people. As you progressed outward the your proximity, familiarity and availability decreased. Technological improvements have given us an unprecedented ability to jump to outer circles. The question is, what will such a jump do to us as humans?

Much or the modern political rhetoric classifies Progressive as the alternative to Conservative. Given what defines classical liberalism, the change may be warranted. Progressives feel the solutions to today’s problems are things we haven’t tried before. Conservatives are sure the solutions of the past would still work. I tend toward Conservatism in my public persona while privately embracing a return to an ancient proposal so radical it appears progressive. Which is why I’m so frustrated at the cowardice of a conservative longing for the unexamined good old days while offering no strategic plan to recapture what we abandoned.

I believe in the idea of a God shaped vacuum in the soul of man. It appears that when man is deprived of God he will invent one. Which forces me to face the question: if I would invent a god if I didn’t have one, how can I know that didn’t happen long ago? Did I inherit a useful psychological construct? Or have I encountered a divine being?

Easier can describe the pathway to a goal. Does it become something more dangerous when it becomes the goal? (If you are uninterested in the results of a personal health experiment which is improving the quality of my sleep feel free to jump to 10:50 and skip that rabbit trail. )

I have a habit (perhaps irritating to some) of laying such an intricate and exhaustive foundation for an idea that by the time I introduce the idea no one knows what I am talking about. So this is the introduction to the Abundance Dimensions (part 1) which I made while repairing my Dad’s car.

What if “Abundant Life” is more than just cheerful religious jargon? Could abundance be a specific dimension of life the can be realized once you discipline yourself to seek it?