Bolshevik

Is it because actual events interpret themselves?

Thanks that's a good point. We act out our beliefs. Acts speak louder than words. Maybe Christians were influenced by an idea that acts come from within or some other relationship. I think there's some power in those acts of worship you mention. At their root these acts express a psychological reality. Such as sacrifice. Life is full of sacrifice, one decision means another is sacrificed. The ritual aspect is acting out some understanding of that. (Forcing Thought Words and Actions going in the same way was certain a way for grooming). The flood, water is symbolic of emotional turmoil, that happens every day. Adam and Eve are loaded with symbolism. The scripture interprets itself . . . You can look at it as a boring list of actual events, or symbolic representations of everyday psychological realities, or just random ink blots on paper.

LINK Your metaphor reminds me of the "Ship of Theseus" . . . We are back to Disney LINK

(Sorry I'm breaking up your post into bite size chunks) VPW needed to put limits on people to control them. So "you can't do anything right with VPW" is laced throughout PFAL (nobody goes beyond what they are taught etc.) I'm sure we go beyond what we are taught without realizing it. Belief sounds like a decision. The sky is blue because I decided it is blue. Blue is a color, I decided. Does the language I speak condition me to believe in blue? (There are videos about that) Has anyone unlearned their first language? You can modify your language, but can you erase it and start over? VPW's believing was a force that controlled all, god and the universe. His false ego, like child in the mine phase, enveloped everything. I can move things by picking them up with my hand. But not really, my hand didn't do it my mind did - my mind told my hand what to do. Isn't that magical thinking? So VPW and I seem to simply disagree on how much our mind is in control of. We put boundaries in different places. We made different decisions.

To be clear I don't believe we are born blank slates. Not all behavior is learned. I cannot remember making that decision of being seperate - and it is interesting that that decision is made before our brains are fully developed. I do not know of anyone who was born and never interacted with another human and lived a full lifetime. But it seems part of defining ourselves is in relation to others. What bothers me about observable facts is - nobody has that kind of time - we cannot rely on mostly observable facts or the scientific method. (The atom is mostly empty empty space - 99% maybe more of what we see and touch - is not there)

On a more serious note, I believe belief is believable. Haven't we conditioned ourselves not to walk into walls? We believe things to be solid until physics tells us it's mostly not there, and neither are you. I don't think we are free from conditioning ever. At some point in time early in life each of us decides we are separate, unique, entities from the rest of the universe. Can we falsify our consciousness? Maybe we can. So what's a belief?

Sorry . . . I just don't like to miss a chance to bring up spurious correlations https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations The Data Interprets Itself

Certainly want to dissect that last sentence later

I'm reminded of confirmation bias. Don't think I'd quite related to validation . . . in a certain way before. https://psychcentral.com/blog/emotionally-sensitive/2012/02/levels-of-validation#1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_validation

Our brains detect patterns. This article explains how Ray Kroc stole Victor Paul Wierwille's idea using pattern recognition. (sarcasm) This video explained how words come from patterns in nature our brains detect. This link discusses the bottom-up or top-down origin of religion. (also a link in there about religion being literally false but metaphorically true). VPW was an NPD (imo) and was motivated by what NPDs are motivated by. He came up with nonsensical statements to fulfil his need for narcissistic supply. His followers were victims of pattern recognition . . . reading is pattern recognition from nature repurposed. The Written Word in WayWorld, Scripture Interpreting Itself, is a distortion of seeking real phenomena.

Possibly. It was audible, not written. Was that a deliberate comma or a stutter? Still the Word wasn't it?

Leviathan. Spirit of Leviathan. https://images.app.goo.gl/JXputei5D3rBX7Fq8

Maybe "teaching The Verd like it hasn't been known since the first century" was simply due to a rise in literacy rates. VPW simply misunderstood.

Just some on why VPW demeaned people. From the self proclaimed guru himself.

I'm going to get into jot and tittle mathematical precision nonsense. What interprets what?

Yep! https://www.talkspace.com/blog/narcissistic-gas-lighting/ "When narcissistic abusers or a gaslighter feels threatened, they feel a strong need for acceptance and support. They want others to believe their retelling of events to restore their sense of control. Gaslighting can also be the result of someone believing that their account is more accurate than yours. By convincing you to question your memory of events, they can regain that sense of superior intellect."

Yep. When we say scripture we mean a written communication. In this thread we're refering to a book. Remember when everyone wore masks? You couldn't see smiles or scowls. It was harder to read people. Some folks are better than others at reading eyes for emotional cues. Those face to face interactions were missed, I felt. When stories are written, that's not a face to face interaction. But ongoing experience might change how you interpret a written story. I have changed my views on some stories over long periods of time, because I had changed. VPW's idea that scripture interprets itself highlights the static nature of his being. Scripture was supposed to be understood immediately and never change. That's ridiculous. I doubt he as a person changed much at all over his entire life.

I was wondering if this could go wrong

So what you're saying is, to claim VPW was blinded by light isn't necessarily a lie . . .

Just refering to the lack of selective pressure for larger brains in an evolutionary time frame. Written communication is one of three reasons cited for this phenomenon, which had been occurring over the past few millenia. It does not necessarily mean less intelligent or less creative . . . But different.

Nope.

The Word takes the place of an Absent Christ. An inanimate object takes the place of a human being.

I think this is a few different subjects. I want to be clear I don't want to conflate anything VPW did with how the major world religions or items like their texts came to be. I do feel PFAL and The Bible operate (personification) differently. PFAL is very specific to one individual, VPW. And PFAL had to use The Bible to mask itself.

"Scripture Interprets Itself" Scripture = The Written Word . . . right? According to VPW, The Written Word takes the place of The Word Made Flesh (= Jesus Christ) I believe Jung described Jesus as a symbol of the Self. VPW's "scripture" is actually PFAL, an extension of VPW. The Word, The Word, Nothing But The Word. You are to replace yourself, your SELF, with VPW. He will Waysplain it for you. You don't interpret yourself, VPW does. Because you are an extension of HIM.

One of the reasons believed to have caused the shrinking of the human brain over the past 3000 years is written communication. These matters used to be memorized. As information is written down, less brains are needed. You can imagine how the internet will accelerate this process.