We Are Not Saved

The Burnout Society by: Byung-Chul Han Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by: Brad Wilcox The MANIAC by: Benjamín Labatut Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire by: Peter Wilson You Can't Screw This Up: Why Eating Takeout, Enjoying Dessert, and Taking the Stress out of Dieting Leads to Weight Loss That Lasts  by: Adam Bornstei...

Irish Impressions by: G. K. Chesterton How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide by: Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form by: Paul Lockhart A Little History of Science  by: William Bynum Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Tha...

Meganets: How Digital Forces Beyond Our Control Commandeer Our Daily Lives and Inner Realities by: David B. Auerbach The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin by: Keith E. Stanovich Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by: John Vaillant Persian Fire The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by: Tom Holland Submission  by: Michel Houellebecq The Benedict Option:...

The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (Volume 2) by: Iain McGilchrist The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science by: Erik Hoel Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America  by: Beth Macy American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer  by: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin ...

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by: Rick Rubin The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by: Leonard Mlodinow Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year compiled by: Allie Esiri The Monster of Florence  by: Douglas Preston Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age  by: Dale C. Allison Jr. As a Driven Leaf by: Milton Steinberg

My report from Natal Con 2023. Including reflections on Tommy Boy, seatbelts, and the proliferation of polycrises.

Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny  by: Robert Wright Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City  by: Matthew Desmond Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough  by: Michael Easter Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values  by: Robert Pirsig Finite and Infinite Games  by: James Carse Fever Pitch  by: Nick Hornby Sun and Stee...

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/egregores-group-minds-and-white-magic   Is there such a thing as a group mind? If so how does it affect the thriving and surviving of groups? What do such group minds look like from a historical perspective? What about a modern perspective?

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/11/the-overemphasis-on-love-and-tolerance/   Love is very important for Christians, but has there been too much emphasis placed on it? And has this emphasis warped it into something else? To put it more simply is perfect Christian love the same as unlimited tolerance? This post argues that it's not, and that in fact if you're look...

The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics   by: Richard Hanania How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement   by: Fredrik deBoer The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (Volume 1)  by: Iain McGilchrist The Alter Ego Effect: Defeat the Enemy, Unlock Your Heroic Self, and Start Kicking Ass   by: Todd Herman...

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/the-worst-book-ive-ever-read/   John Seel Jr.'s book, The New Copernicans, is the worst book I have ever read. He puts forth a dubious premise. In support of which he provides no data to back it up, nor any anecdotes which illustrate it actually occurring. To the extent there is anything backing it up, it's provided by extensiv...

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/worthy-of-our-sufferings/   Dostoevsky wrote, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." What does that mean? I think he meant that whatever suffering we're experiencing it's suffering God felt we were capable of handling. We need to prove worthy of that trust. This has always been hard to do, an...

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/can-we-eliminate-struggle-2023   Humanity has struggled and suffered for so long that we might be unable to survive without them. We dream of such elimination through technology, but will that dream turn into a nightmare?

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/tragedies-truths-and-technologies/   Historically we didn't worry about wars in far away places because we weren't aware of them. Now we're aware of them, but with the rise of AI we're going to have a similar difficulty acquiring accurate information. This is going to complicate our ability to intervene righteously. 

Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by: Natasha Dow Schüll The Evolutionary Limits of Liberalism: Democratic Problems, Market Solutions and the Ethics of Preference Satisfaction by: Filipe Nobre Faria A Language Older Than Words by: Derrick Jensen WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird by: Peter T. Leeson Blowback (Second Edition): The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by: Cha...

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/would-you-wager-on-pascals-mugging/   Imagine that someone walks up to you and demands all your money. If you fail to comply they threaten to kill all the inhabitants of some far off planet. How would you react? And is this similar to Pascal's Wager? 

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/betting-on-the-future/   There are three obvious paths forward: religion, atheism and transhumanism. But each of these paths must be chosen. There's also a fourth path, that of apathy. Which should we choose?

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/ai-risk-might-be-more-subtle-than   Depressed people are more prone to addiction. If social media engagement looks a lot like addiction, does that mean algorithms for increasing engagement also increase depression?

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/09/the-greatest-three-nephites-story-ever-told/   It is believed that, during his mortal ministry, Jesus granted immortality to three of His American apostles. Known as the Three Nephites they now wander the Earth until His return, doing good. This has lead to many stories of miraculous assistance. This is the greatest of all thos...

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/09/faith-ufos-the-supernatural-and-transistor-radios/   Why are many people so willing to believe evidence of UFOs and Aliens, and so unwilling to believe evidence for God?

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/speculative-attempts-to-complicate   When things aren't going well, those in power will sometimes introduce some speculative chaos in the hopes that what emerges on the other side will be better. It mostly doesn't work.

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/09/the-thickness-of-the-world/   In the book Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis there is a scene where the King is arguing with a priest about what seems to be an unreasonable demand from one of the gods. The priest says something profound, something I'm still trying to wrap my head around. This episode is an effort to do just that.

  The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction by: Matthew B. Crawford  Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by: Oliver Burkeman Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future by: Jean M. Twenge When Violence Is the Answer: Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life...

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-apocalypse-will-not-be-as-cool   There are many potential apocalypses, and when people imagine them they imagine that everyone will die. On the contrary most people will live, and it will be messy and miserable.

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/does-technology-encourage-virtue/   Last week we looked at how technology appears to multiple our temptations, but what does it do to our better impulses. If we move from considering the Deadly Sins to the Capital Virtues does technology undermine our efforts or assist us?