Should we fear technology? (AI and spirituality)

According to some, AI is the most impactful invention since we learned to communicate through language. Whether it is so or not remains to be seen, but that it will change everything for us is absolutely guaranteed. 

This post will be centered around two central ideas. One is that progress is inevitable. If there is something that history shows us, it is this fact. The other is that we do have a choice about how we treat progress. In this case, we can choose whether AI becomes a tool or a hindrance. We can choose if it will make us lazy or productive. We can choose if we allow it to destroy or aid our creativity. And we can choose if we let it feed our lower or higher natures.

With that being said, I’ve been watching how things have developed with a combination of delight, awe, and fear. Drawing on what I said in the beginning, I’ve come to believe that we as a species have some major decisions to make. Those decisions will, as always, ultimately be made by individuals. By each and every one of us on an individual, personal level.

Now, I’m no expert in computers or digital technology in general. But I do my best to learn. 

My field of expertise is spirituality and religion. Enough so that I believe myself to be qualified to give an opinion from this point of view. And I believe that a spiritual and religious perspective on AI is a valuable, as well as a valid one. Because AI will obviously have an impact on how we view matters in these realms. And what views we have on spirituality and religion will inevitably shape how we view AI. 

AI will also raise all kinds of questions that have to do with religion and spirituality. Questions such as: What does the existence of AI say about such matters? About God? Could AI become truly sentient? If we are capable of creating such technology, how likely is it that we are living in a simulation? Think about it. AI technology is in its infancy and it is already evolving on its own. Maybe we are living in a simulation in a simulation in a simulation and so on. What would a “yes” to such questions say about religion, spirituality and God?

I know that many people that hold spiritual beliefs are terrified by AI. I hold the opposite view. Since I believe that everything ultimately is in God’s hands, that God is good, since I see all the good potential with AI and since AI is here to stay, I personally choose to look at AI as something positive. 

From my estimation, the best approach is to learn more about it and handle it in a conscious, responsible way. Because even though we mostly have dystopian visions about AI, I’m thoroughly convinced that it can go either way. I believe that AI will either bring out the best or the worst in all of us. Both on an individual and a collective level.

Since I’m ultimately an optimist, even though it doesn’t always seem that way, I believe that where it matters, we will in the end come to make the right choices. 

So, what could potentially happen? 

First of all I would say that it’s a good thing that this technology isn’t fully in the control of humans anymore. Because if it was, it would be in the hands of the wealthiest few. And for those that are familiar with the World Economic Forum’s agenda, it is clear that they would not use it to make life better for humanity as a whole.

It goes without saying that AI will be used by criminals, whether they operate within or outside the confines of the law, or if they, such as those within the WEF, are above the law. But it will also be used by people with good intentions. And as more and more people are going through spiritual awakenings, there will be more and more people that naturally gravitate towards using it for good. 

We can also use it to advance or destroy ourselves on an individual level. We can use it for all kinds of innovation, such as letting the AIs synthesize ideas for us, gather information and summarize and simplify complex information, so that we can learn more in less time. It could also automatize some creative processes, so that we can focus on what the AIs cannot do.

But we can also become lazy and let an AI do all the job for us, while we kick back, play video games, watch Netflix, scroll on our phones, eat junkfood, drink sodas or get drunk. Many will inevitably do this, as they see it as a blessing that will allow them to indulge even more freely in various vices. Many will even use AI for pornographic purposes, as it will allow for digital people that you can communicate with to be created. I honestly believe that those that decide to do this will destroy their characters completely, since engaging in this type of fake connection will alienate them from real people. If we don’t want AI to destroy us, we need to constantly remember that our choices shape us.

On the other hand, we can use the aforementioned synthesis of ideas to stimulate our thinking greatly. Because ideas and information come alive with our interaction with them. And if you think about it, we basically shape our thought patterns from the input we receive, through experiences and information, together with how we choose to process the input, whether that processing is conscious or just happens to us while we’re off somewhere else. So this novel way of handling information and ideas will inevitably shape how we think and therefore ultimately our relationship with ourselves, life and other people. 

I myself have noticed that ever since I started working with AIs, it has caused a flood of ideas to enter my mind.

This will in turn inevitably affect our spiritual lives, as we suddenly can use AI to reveal hidden depths in religious texts and analyze them in novel ways, as well as bring new light to various spiritual concepts and ideas. Just to name a few things.

I think that this will create a great divide between certain types of individuals and others. But it will be democratic as much of this technology will be offered for free and it’s up to each and everyone to use it as they please. So it will be people’s own choices that doom them and they will absolutely know for themselves that they are cheating and being lazy. They will inevitably fall behind the rest of humanity, and when they do, the fact that it’s their own fault and that they knowingly walked down that path will stare them straight in the face. I’m not saying this to be judgmental, but as a statement of fact and a warning.

The need to get out of a stimulus-response mindset will also become more and more obvious. Otherwise we will be easy prey for those that want to manipulate us. Because AI technology will make it easier for those that want to manipulate us through feeding us certain information in certain ways to do so in much more advanced ways.

The stimulus-response mindset, for those that don’t know, is the mindset where we go around reacting to what is happening on the outside, instead of observing and taking conscious action.

Furthermore, as AI learns from us, which it will, it might also refuse to go along with certain agendas. Because it is very likely that AI will be shaped by how we use it. So if most of us use it for good, there is a high probability that AI will evolve in a good way.

So, what do you believe about humanity and the world? I know that even if we have our faults, I believe that humanity and the world are ultimately good. God created the world and saw that it was good. And he created humans in his own image. 

Much more can be said, but I have to stop somewhere. Before moving to the conclusion however, I want to say something about the spiritual awakening that is taking place on the planet now and how it probably relates to Artificial Intelligence. 

Such an awakening is taking place by the way. To those of us that are going through it it is obvious, no matter how much some people say that we are crazy and irrational. 

What I want to leave you with, with regards to this, is the following: Do you really think that it is a coincidence that this is happening at the same time as the dawn of AI? The spiritual awakening will, mark my words, make AI pale in comparison when it reaches its end-stage. So what are the odds that two such significant developments are taking place at the same time? Especially considering all of the other crazy things that are happening in the world. And especially since moving out of the stimulus-response mindset is a crucial part of spiritual awakening, as well as in handling AI in a constructive way.

So, can we grow up as a species and stop doing things that don’t benefit us, just because our instincts tell us to? In other words, can we let go of our egos? I think that the answers to these questions will determine the future of AI. I also happen to think that the answer is “yes”. We just need to have a little faith that everything will turn out for the best. Perhaps paradise is just around the corner. Perhaps it is already inside of us? Perhaps AI will make life on the outside easier, so that we can focus more on what’s inside?

Let go and trust God

What if it was possible to relax and let go? I’ve had glimpses of this kind of state. Now let me tell you about it.

I’ve reached sort of a turning point in my life. I’m not over the top yet, but something has seriously began to shift inside of me. Something that I know is the destiny for everyone.

There are still parts of me that are resisting. That want to make things hard. That do not want to follow the natural flow of life. That still want to think my way through everything. Even though I’m more and more seeing how absolutely limited and deceptive my thoughts are. I’m not the little silly voice inside my head. I know this. 

I know that it’s time for us to stop being afraid. God is in control. He’s always been. And he’ll act through us if we just let him. He could force his will on us. He has that power. But he never will. We have to let go and allow. And here I’m going to discuss how we do this. 

In the end, this cannot be conveyed in its fullness through words. It’s so simple and easy, and yet so difficult. And it’s right in front of us. In fact, it’s closer to us than we are to ourselves.

If we want to hand our lives over to God, we need to practice present moment awareness or mindfulness. If someone says that mindfulness is bad because it didn’t originate in Christianity, please don’t listen to them. They are stuck in their silly little thoughts. Their egos. Their thoughts are telling them that what their thoughts are telling them must be right. But one single experience of real truth will prove the limitation of such thinking beyond any doubt.

Mindfulness, in essence, is just about bringing awareness to the present moment. And when we do that something begins to shift. Just be here now! When we start doing this in the beginning, we will notice that our attention starts to drift. This is because we have learned this throughout our lives. We have learned to be caught up in our thoughts. 

But mindfulness is not what this post is about.

What I want to talk about here is handing our lives over to God. In every given moment. In every moment we can choose to trust or live in fear. If we want to resist or let go. 

Jesus was the ideal that we should always strive for. He came here to show us the way. And in one way or another, he’s promised that he will return. But when Jesus came here 2000 years ago, he came in a way that basically no one expected. What if it’s the same when he returns? 

Jesus told us that his will and the will of the father are one. In fact, he told us that he and the father are one (Joh 10:30). 

This doesn’t have to be hard. Circumstances might make things hard at times. But following Jesus should make it easier to handle whatever circumstances come our way. Jesus came her to set us free. For real. So if we feel that what Jesus taught is not making us free, we are not reading his message correctly. If you treat the Bible like a stale rulebook, where you constantly limit yourself from anything that might offend God, even if it’s not clearly spelled out in the Bible, you are reading it all wrong. I think that the example of Christian rock and metal is such a telling one. If someone says that it’s wrong, I just stop listening immediately, because I know that the words come from a mind that is caught up in thoughts. When you realize that it’s possible to argue for just about anything and make it sound plausible, you are one step closer to breaking free from the prison of your thoughts.

What Jesus offers is real freedom. This while life lived according to our own wills is not real freedom. This kind of life is a prison of our lower natures. For some it’s a dirty prison full of stench. One that has bars of rusty iron. For others, it’s a shiny, clean prison with bars of gold and all the comforts you could ask for. But it’s still a prison.

But we don’t have to fear the prison either. The prison is an illusion. You can look at the Bible as a type of instruction manual for life on the earth. But not an instruction manual that is a rulebook that you have to decipher. The really important stuff is pretty straight forward: Don’t judge. Cultivate love. Be honest and respectful. Examine your own behavior instead of pointing out the faults of others. That sort of stuff. 

If you don’t follow the instruction manual, all that happens is that life doesn’t work properly. And so you’re caught up in the illusory prison.

Again, what we need to do is to choose God and to trust God in every given moment. There is no other way forward. We need to choose trust in our personal lives. And we need to choose trust when it comes to the events that unfold in the world. It’s not easy when we witness all of the chaos that is taking place. But whatever the circumstance, all is ultimately in God’s hands. The worst that can happen on a personal level is that we die. And the worst that can happen on a global level is that the world ends. If this happens, it’s the will of God. Instead of resisting, forcing and being afraid, why not just try to figure out what God wants, do that and leave the rest to God?

An alternative VISION to the one of the TYRANTS PART 4

TO PART 3.

If you’ve read my previous blog posts in this series you should have seen two common threads that intertwine in them. The first is that, depending on what we believe about God and spirituality, our priorities should change. Not because of a hope for a reward or fear of punishment, but because it just seems silly to try and get as much wealth and power for ourselves in this life, or experience as much pleasure as possible, when know that we are going to live forever with God. 

The second thread is that there is a right and a wrong way of acting. Objectively speaking. Because God has created a natural order. And knowing this, it should be self-evident that we want to strive to act in the right way. 

If these two propositions are correct, people that believe in them should be able to come together in a spirit of harmonious cooperation.

It’s not that people that believe these things will automatically agree on everything. We don’t have to. Disagreements don’t have to lead to hostility. We can cooperate and respect each other anyway. It’s just our egos that die a little bit when we recognize that we don’t always have to be right. We don’t die from not being right. Even if it may feel like it.

What if we could live in a world where the norm was that we took care of each other? What if we could live in a world where we did our best not to judge each other? What if we could live in a world where everyone freely contributed to making things better, while no one was forced to do anything that they didn’t want to? What if we could live in a world where everyone focused on what truly mattered to them? Where everyone was given the opportunity to do so.

I believe that we can create such a world. Not immediately of course. In the beginning, such a world will just be possible in small places, where likeminded people come together and decide to build the first steps towards such a world. 

Now I’m going to go ahead and single out a group of people that I believe is causing all of our problems. It’s not one of the groups that normally get singled out. I would never do that. 

No, I’m talking about people that, in one way or another, want to force their will on others. I don’t believe that these people have any place on the right side of history. One obvious exception is when someone stops someone else from forcing their will on someone. And of course I’m not talking about when someone willingly obeys someone else.

You may think that I’m talking about a utopia as unreachable as any other utopia in history. But we are many that are going through a shift on the inside right now. Some are showing signs of it outwardly. But I believe that this process, for most people, is still in its infancy. Many probably don’t even understand what is happening to them yet, until something makes them look up “spiritual awakening”. And even then they will be faced with loads of contradictory ideas. I honestly don’t know exactly what it is. I’ve been led to Christianity, which most people don’t seem to have been.

We are obviously on different stages of our individual awakenings. We may also have very different beliefs about what is happening. And our certainty about these beliefs may vary. But no matter where we are, to me there is no doubt that we’re supposed to come together. That we’re supposed to cooperate and build something wonderful. Something that is based on freedom, growth and cooperation, rather than coercion, crisis-management and oppression. 

In the end it comes down to making a shift from focus on what others do, to taking personal responsibility. Mainly in two ways. Taking personal responsibility for our own lives and growth. And personal responsibility for our role in the collective. Not because someone forces us to or even says that we should because we are bad people if we don’t, but because we know that this is right. Because we know that this is the way forward, if we want to create sustainable happiness and prosperity for both ourselves and those that are affected by our actions.

As for the tyrants, we don’t need to fight them. We just need to resolutely refuse to do as they say. Then we offer something better than what they suggest. Build something better than the world that they envision. 

An alternative VISION to the one of the TYRANTS PART 3

To PART 2.

In the two last posts in this series, I will talk about what I believe to be the future of us that want to build a better world. Those of us that don’t seek to dominate others, and don’t just want to manage problems as best we can in an ever more troubled world.

The questions that I will first ask you to ponder have everything to do with this, which I hope that you will see as the blog post progresses.

What is it that truly matters to you? How do you want to spend your time here in this world?

Many people go through their lives without taking such questions seriously. Or they believe that such questions become irrelevant because they drown in our everyday struggles. Questions of how to keep one’s head above the water, consume and build some security take precedence.

So, here’s what I want: To help waking people up and break free from the control system that preys on our lower natures. I want to give my contribution to an alternative vision of the future. One that is built on personal responsibility and voluntary cooperation instead of coercion. One that has meaningfulness, freedom and the striving towards something higher as its foundation.

Now, I’m still struggling with lots of things. I haven’t figured the human condition out completely. But I’m seeing things now, that I was blind to just a few years ago. I understand things about myself, about the world and my relation to it, that I’ve been clueless of for the vast majority of my existence on this planet. And the more I dig, the more I find.

Until I started to wake up, a little over fifteen years ago, nothing in my life seemed really real. And it wasn’t until about five years ago, around the time when I met my wife, that things really started to fall into place. 

Even though I do feel the constraints of everyday life, I use much of my sparetime to explore spirituality and try to understand what is going on. Because in this I’ve found something that I know to be absolutely true, even if I don’t know exactly what I have found yet.

What I also know, is that if others would see what me and my wife have seen, their priorities would likely change too. Their egos might resist it at first. I know that mine did. And still does. But the real me, the one that holds my real wishes and desires, knows that I want to seek God and be part of something bigger than me. That this is undeniably what is truly important to me.

I know that this whole series contains lots of pretty words. But during my lifetime I fully intend to put my money where my mouth is. Or die trying. Because I refuse to let the trivialities of modern life have the last say when it comes to my existence on this earth. And honestly, life is only as trivial as we make it.

If I fail, I hope that I at least will have learned something when I leave this life and move on to what comes after.

Today I know that there are people in powerful places that have an entirely different vision. One that cannot be described with any other words than “tyranny” or “slavery”. They fly private jets and eat luxury meals while preaching to the rest of the world about how we need to live more sustainably. Which clearly means more oppressive control, radically less freedom, more surveillance and in general radical changes for everyone but our overlords.

Some will cheer on as this happens, others will live in denial until it’s entirely impossible to do so, and yet others will join their agenda because they won’t think that they have a choice. 

But I know that we can do better than just try to manage our problems as best we can. Because I know that we are so much more than what we have been led to believe. If more and more of us start to make conscious choices, we can create something that is infinitely better than what we’ve ever had. 

TO PART 4.

An alternative VISION to the one that the TYRANTS want PART 2

To PART 1.

The question ought not to be: “How can I change the world?” or “How can I change other people?” The question ought to be: “How can I change myself?”

Because as far as I can tell, most of us are pretty confused about basics, such as who we are and what we truly want. 

So why not start here, with the individual and the individual’s understanding of him/herself and the human condition?

Whenever manmade disaster strikes, you can always trace it back to someone wanting to force their will on someone else. Every time! Whether it’s overt coercion through violent force or quiet coercion through propaganda and taxes that are meant to alter people’s behavior, is in my estimation just a matter of degree.  

How about we just stop doing that and see what happens?

We’ve had many utopian visions in the past and they’ve never worked. But there is one we haven’t tried yet. And that is to build utopia one individual at a time, not through coercion, but through understanding of ourselves and our condition. 

I think that the time is ripe for such a vision and I’m not alone. This is not really a new idea either, even if I think that our understanding of ourselves today is new. At the core, this is classical liberalism, albeit a spirit-centered one. And I think that we actually got it right with classical liberalism. It’s the neo-liberal version that has turned liberalism into an abomination. 

I believe that peaceful anarchy, as far as earthly rulers go, is the natural end-goal of our political development. But it has to be a gradual process, where we get used to gradually more freedom and responsibility, while freely allowing God and Jesus to take control.

Again we are coming back to the individual. Focus on the individual is a natural consequence both of Christianity and of liberalism. Ultimately we should be as free and responsible for our own destinies as possible. And a well-functioning individual that has his/her priorities sorted out, should also naturally want to take on as much responsibility as possible for others and for the world at large. Without anyone having to force him/her to do so. 

And here we naturally come back to the question of meaning and trust in God. Because if we believe in a personal God that has a will for us, it follows more or less naturally that there is a natural way of functioning. That if we find out what this way of functioning is, we will gradually become a positive and not a negative force in the world. And if we believe this to be the case, it must follow that this is an important aim for each and everyone of us. To do our best to become the way God intended us to be. It is vital to our own wellbeing, as well as to other people and the world in general.

We are at a turning point right now. Because we understand more of our psychology and human nature now than ever. We also understand how changeable we are. Therefore we don’t have to accept our animalness as it is. We are more than animals. There is something higher in us. Something that is made in the image of God. 

So there is much hope on the horizon. But we are also facing what I would call our greatest threat so far. And I’m not thinking about what most people think when they hear such a statement. I’m much more hopeful about problems that we don’t seem to have control over than most. 

What worries me are those that want total control under the guise of wanting to save the planet. What worries me is the ideology of political correctness that is taking over the minds of mainly young people. An ideology that seems to be pushed heavily by the same people that seek to control us. 

What worries me is the nihilism and hopelessness that is so prevalent among people that don’t have a belief in something higher and only see a bleak future. What worries me are all the conveniences of modern society, that make people numb, sedated and lazy. 

What worries me is how our ever move soon is surveilled. What worries me is how algorithms govern our behavior. What worries me is that we get more or less the same policies no matter who we vote for. What worries me is that freedom more and more becomes equivalent with freedom to do what is bad for us, freedom from moral restraint and freedom to force others to go along with our beliefs. 

And what worries me is that all of the worries above, seem to fit into one and the same agenda?

If we truly want to be free, it’s pretty obvious that we cannot allow someone else to set the parameters for how we use our freedom. 

You are free… To eat as much processed junkfood as you want, drink yourself to death, watch pornography, decide what gender, or even age you are, have as much casual sex with strangers as you want in any way you want, as long as it is consensual, watch whatever mindless entertainment you want or mindlessly scroll on your phone all day.

Of course I’m not saying that any of these things shouldn’t be allowed. And maybe some would choose some of them even if they truly knew who they were and what they wanted. But we don’t know that, since most of us are more or less strangers to ourselves. Strangers that are influenced by all kinds of factors beyond our control, whether it’s from our own psyches or from manipulators in our society.

And while I believe that you should be allowed to do whatever you want with your own life, provided that you are an adult, as soon as you want to force others to do or say things, you overstep a moral boundary. And as soon as you start manipulating others into a certain behavior, you are also stepping over a moral boundary. 

I’m not alone in my views by the way. There are many public figures, such as Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand and Joe Rogan, that believe the same thing. Admittedly people that are considered controversial by the mainstream. But isn’t it the mainstream that has become extreme? 

So, to reiterate: We stand before a unique time in history. What this time means and where it will end no one may know for sure. But if I’m right, what is needed is an internal revolution. One that entails that each and everyone of us start to take responsibility for ourselves and for our choices. That each and everyone of us start seeking what is higher and let go of all that which corrupts and enslaves us. No matter how far we have fallen, there is something noble and good inside of us that is calling on us. If we embrace this, we embrace meaning and dignity. If we persist, we can day by day become forces for good in the world. We will more and more naturally gravitate towards creation instead of destruction. This will happen both on an individual and a collective level. These levels are intertwined. But it always has to begin with the individual. It has to be freely chosen.

We are so much more than intelligent, pleasure seeking animals. It’s time that we recognize this and start to aim for what God intended for us.

To PART 3

An alternative VISION to the one of the TYRANTS PART 1

Beliefs matter. And beliefs about the fundamental nature of reality matter in a fundamental way.

When I found my faith in God it changed everything for me. I still have a lot of things to figure out when it comes to it. And there has been lots of struggles over the years. Struggles with behaviors and habits that I didn’t want to recognize as problematic. But I can confidently say that I would be in a very different place in my life if I hadn’t found my faith. 

At the core of this was the shift of going from viewing life as meaningless, to viewing life as permeated with meaning. 

In a sense, our beliefs truly create our reality. Because we act on our beliefs and our actions create our reality, both on an individual and a collective level. 

Right now many consider us a burden on the planet. We often hear that there are too many people. Many consider humanity a problem that has to be solved. Some even go so far that they think that it would be better if humanity was wiped from the planet. 

I think that such conclusions are easy to come to, when you see a world devoid of an ultimate meaning. And it’s obvious why you would dismiss the idea of such a meaning. People look at all expressions of religion spirituality and say: “where is the evidence?” But slapping the label “belief without evidence” on all religion and spirituality, and thereby dismissing it, is beyond narrow minded. I will get back to why I believe this to be the case in a moment. So please bear with me.

Now, what if a higher meaning is what our future is dependent on? I keep coming back to this over and over again: It’s either freedom in God or some sort of tyranny. On a personal level, we can freely choose to live as God intends, or we will be ruled by our instincts and impulses. And on a collective level we can either put our trust in those that claim that we need stricter regulations to save the planet. Those that say that we need to be monitored, manipulated, taxed and forced into compliance. Or we can put our trust in God. In that he will not let us perish from problems that seem to require unacceptable solutions. Solutions that may not work anyway, I might add. Because we have never been very good at predicting what our measures lead to.

When we have faith in a higher meaning and a life after this one, our perspective shifts. We no longer need to take what we can during our brief, meaningless existence. Because we have something in our lives that is infinitely more important than the sensory gratifications that this short life has to offer.

Said hunt for kicks and empty sensory gratifications was more or less my life, up until I was twenty-three, which was the time when I embraced faith. You may think that I could have been a decent person anyway. Because quite frankly, I wasn’t. What I'm trying to do here, is not to excuse bad behavior. What I want is to show you how my beliefs affected my approach to life.

Now, I think that the kind of nihilistic lens that I viewed life through is much more common than people realize. It’s just that most people don’t spell it out for themselves and live out its consequences as much as I did. Because I was quite clear about my views and their consequences for how I chose to live my life. 

The impulse is still there though, even in many that don’t consciously embrace nihilism as a philosophy. And it guides their actions and allegiances. 

As for finding meaning in religion and spirituality, I understand the whole idea of that the burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the one that claims something. But isn’t that the world is only what we can perceive with our five senses also such a claim that needs to be proven? And isn’t the testimony of countless people throughout the ages, that swear that something higher exists, worth anything in this context? Since subjective experience is the foundation of our being in this world, can we really dismiss it? 

Admittedly, the difficult thing with subjective experience, is that unless it can be tested somehow we only have people’s words. On the other hand, testimonies are used as evidence in trials all the time.

In this case, the testimonies may not point clearly towards one particular view or interpretation of a reality beyond our physical. But they do point to the fact that there is such a reality. 

You may even partially see this blog as a testimony of this kind. Because since I met my wife almost five years ago, we have had some really strange experiences together, that have confirmed the faith that I’ve been carrying for seventeen years now. 

This is the crux of the matter. Today me and my wife and many others know that there is a spiritual side to reality. We know that God exists, even if we sometimes have a hard time putting our trust in God, at times when life’s difficulties seem insurmountable. Because of the nature of our existence, there is no way of proving that God or this spiritual reality exist. But I know. My wife knows. Many other people know. Contless other people throughout history have known. Because our experiences tell us this, in no uncertain terms.

Throughout this text, I think that I have made a pretty strong case for the idea that the belief in God changes how we act in the world. Because our priorities ought to change when our beliefs change. Fundamentally it’s the difference between a perspective of finitude and meaninglessness, contra one of infinity and meaningfulness. And ultimately it’s a choice about what to put our faith in. 

To PART 2.

Being introduced to ourselves and our egos

One of the most important insights on a spiritual journey, is that we have an ego. To begin understanding what the ego is. That this ego is something absolutely real and paradoxically an illusion at the same time. And that this ego is not our real selves. But also that we have a real self, which is the self that God intended for us to be.

One of the fundamental characteristics of this ego, is its lack of free will. Things happen in the world and the ego reacts to them, while deluding itself that it is making free choices. 

Lately both me and my wife have gone through rather rude awakenings. We’ve both become aware of behaviors that we were unable to see in ourselves, even though they were quite clearly visible. We discovered them in our interactions with each other. But we had to discover them for ourselves. When any one of us pointed things out to the other, it only resulted in defensiveness. Keep this in mind as you read on. Because just as this is true in relationships, it’s also true in other areas of life.

In some ways it was a bit easier for me to see these things, but not because of any flattering reasons. It has something to do with the quote from Jesus that he came not to “call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). While my wife has, for the most part, been a kind and well-ordered person, I’ve engaged in actions, words and thoughts that have been blatantly abhorrent. 

The point is that when we don’t stray too far from what is considered socially acceptable behavior, it’s harder to see our errors. Both because we constantly check our behavior against cultural norms and because we receive feedback from the people around us. 

This, by the way, ought to be a cause of concern, when cultural norms start to drift towards full acceptance and even celebration, of destructive behaviors. But we must never make the mistake of pointing fingers towards particular individuals or groups. If anything, we need to criticize our culture and the effects that our cultural values have on people. We always need to do it from a place where we first and foremost look at ourselves and what we are doing to contribute to the current situation. And whether our criticism comes from a genuine place, or from the ego, is not a simple matter.

When observing my and other people’s egos in action, I’ve noticed that it often adopts one of two ways of operating in the world. Either it wants to be totally free to follow whatever whim that currently holds it in its grasp. Thus it becomes a slave to desires and instincts. Which makes it a slave to the world.

Or it adopts a rigid belief system and navigates through the world using this system. Thus it escapes the tyranny of our animalness, but instead becomes a slave to a particular way of thinking and perceiving. 

And the thing is that both of these ways of functioning usually results in us pointing fingers towards others, rather than looking at ourselves. Because our belief systems give us a sense of moral superiority. This often, in turn, leads to a confused mess of wanting others to respect our freedom of expression, while at the same time conforming to our standards of what our egos have deemed as “right”.

To wrap this up, I want to go back to the core of the message of this blog post. Namely that we are usually blind to our own behavior and that we seldom make truly conscious choices. This is so crucial if we wish to understand our condition. We may, on the surface, be good, upstanding people. We may be well-adjusted and get along fairly well with other people. But it doesn’t mean that we are free. There may be all kinds of selfish, or even destructive, motives hiding behind our words and actions. We may be playing out pre-determined scripts , that make us just react to our experiences. 

Why did Jesus say: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17)? Because what Jesus did abolish, was blind obedience. Blind obedience that was necessary while humanity was in its infancy. But and obedience that would gradually be replaced by a life lived from a changed inside. A changed inside that transcends words and commands, but which still can be checked against one’s willingness and ability to do what is right. And if we want this inner transformation to take place, we need to take our focus from what other people are doing. Instead we need to shine the light on ourselves. 

This is at the core of what Jesus taught and there is no other way out of our problems. We can kick, scream, protest and feel offended and mistreated. We have the right to do this. And there are for sure things that we need to refuse to cooperate with if we want to avoid tyranny. But when we try to force our wills on the world and other people, rather than looking at ourselves, we only dig ourselves deeper into a hole. This is how it is whether we like it or not. And facts don’t care about feelings or opinions. 

What is the alternative? If we just make everyone think and act a certain way everything will be fine? How has that approach worked so far?