The Observer: Where's the party?

https://theobservermagazine.substack.com/p/wheres-the-party

To my pals here ...

 

RR

A short Google UFO Alert [12/30]

https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wnij-news/2022-12-30/perspective-of-ufos-and-human-vanity

My readings -- and what's yours?

The week's usual magazines for reading:

My current books for review or pleasure:

I find myself in a quagmire of sorts.

My 'The god Who Wasn't" needs an update, but I'm overwhelmed with the reality that Western religions -- Judaism. Christianity, Islam -- are so inundated with the mythology of Yahweh (Jehovah) as god that to create a sliver of reality about that being is, while readily available, almost insurmountable.

Scholars (academics), theologians, philosophers, atheists, theists, and virtually all of human society accept the idea that God would appear on Earth, in form, acting as a madman or psychopath. Such a belief is quite delusional, in a primary way.

The information from written texts -- The Hebrew Bible particularly -- including extant historical records from the Bronze Age through to the Jesus era, indicates ferociously that the god of Western religions was not (and is not) the ineffable divinity -- if there is one -- that could be deemed the creator of human reality and all that that implies.

The Gnostics and a few atheistic thinkers -- Russell, Dawkins, d'Holbach, Camus, Dennett, et al. -- accept or accepted the Hebrew god as a demiurge, respecting some kind of divine overlay, when it is blatantly obvious from all the literature that the Hebrew god, the Islamic god, and the Christian god was a bizarre human creature, whom the Israelites came to adore and worship, to their everlasting despair.

Sorry for the ramble, but the matter has purloined my other questioning, diluting my readings in the items above.

The Skeptical Inquirer is a disappointment, but still necessary to offset some loony belief systems.

The New Yorker, TLS, and NYRB keep me tethered to cultural reality, and the books open doors to other realities besides the ones we merge with or accept as our real reality.

So, what are your readings? (I get the idea that many here are not into reading nor are well-read.)

Let me know. I have a magazine article pending about critical thinking, the loss of logic, and madness (of course).

Input from a few sensible souls visiting here would be helpful.

RR