I was looking at a crucifix, as my mind wandered. I wondered, if we encountered an alien race in another solar system one day, might they bear a similar symbol of their religion? They would clearly be K-selected if they had mastered space travel. Could it look exactly the same? Then something hit me.
The r/K paradigm is a hedonism-ease/pain-harshness model of human development. It relates to amygdala-development. Expose to ease, atrophy the amygdala, and become hedonistic, or expose to harshness, develop the amygdala, and adapt to the pain. They key element of K is that harsh pain and agony.
As I looked at the crucifix I realized the symbol of Christianity is basically a symbol representative of the extraordinary pain Christ willingly endured. The symbol is an actual crucifix Christ was forced to carry, and which he was nailed to and hung from, in order to torture him and kill him.
It isn’t a symbol of force-superiority, like a weapon, or a particularly capable warrior. There is no sword, or spear, or arrows, and no representation of Saint Michael or Charles Martel. The symbol is just unimaginable-pain, borne for others, that killed the very person who sacrificed all for us. And if you find a house of worship, it is displayed all around, and usually on top of it as well. It almost seems macabre in any other light. A building with the tool of torture and murder proudly displayed all around it, and even rendered holy. And yet, I can imagine no better symbol of the K-strategy. Mortal salience and sacrifice indeed.
Liberalism as an ideology has no real symbol, but if you look at symbols associated with it in marches, they are rainbow-colored flags, vagina hats, vagina costumes, and so on. Even Hillary’s symbol was not about bearing hardship for the good of the nation, but rather just representative of cruising to progress and liberal utopia. In that light it almost seems obvious they would never display a picture that would trigger contemplation of pain, death, or sacrifice. Rainbows and pussies are what they display as representative of their movement.
I’m sure if there was a symbol for sex, or being fully satiated with a feast, or even for being sky-high on cocaine, that would be there as well. The rabbits are pleasure-oriented, even as the pleasure-adapted neurotics among them freak out about some unimportant issue or other which to them seems the end of the world, since they have no adaptiveness to adversity.
So file away that if one day you are cruising in a starship, and happen across a race that has displayed some ancient torturous device all over, you might find them infinitely easier to get along with than you would had they displayed some symbol representative of a horn of plenty and unlimited pleasure.
I suspect such symbology might be an inherent aspect of intelligent life wherever it may form in the universe – provided the civilization survives the degradation and decay of r-selection.
[…] Symbols Of Christianity And K-Selection […]
I’ve been recently attending a church with a relative of mine. It’s striking how once you’ve read about r/K it becomes easier to hear the subtext, the implied meaning, and the outright symbolism in Christian teaching. It’s enough to make me question my own views on the divine. For example, yesterday the pastor made some reference to men wearing dresses and how being called soft would be a complement to a woman and an insult to a man. He brings up roman infantrymen a lot. I’m not sure but I think he prayed for the troops at one point as well.
Of course I’ve always thought it curious that families gather up in churches and not in, say, leftist starbucks, but this K-ianity meme probably explains it. What makes it even more strange is how a lot of it is tacked onto the teachings of Jesus. As far as I know Jesus never specifically addresses group-based competition or early sexual maturation. Yet the religion has grown in that direction in the centuries after its founding, which is why there’s a lot of discussion in the alt-right now about how to obtain the benefits of religion for those who don’t believe in a deity, e.g. with Vox Day and Stefan Molyneux. They’ve realized that if it’s a choice between the harshness of Islam and the harshness of Christianity the choice is obvious.
Halfway through I realized that it isn’t an accident that the symbol of our Army is virtually the same as the symbol for our two highest awards, both for valor (and the Medal of Honor generally being awarded posthumously.)
I wonder if r/K caught on, the similarity to Christianity could draw agnostic and atheist alt-right adherents to it.
You might consider reading Stan Gooch. Despite *lots* of flaws & caveats. For instance “The Neanderthal Legacy: Reawakening Our Genetic and Cultural Origins”, is well-written, though I did not finish it.
There may even be a ghost of r/K theory in his claims.
Among many other things, Gooch says the cross was a symbol for the moon in all pre-Christian cultures. He guesses an earlier reason: that the Cro-Magnon considered the Sun the parent, while the Neanderthal were sure the Moon was. Hence a *huge* cultural conflict when they met .. fast forwards thousands of years, Gooch still explains the [now] Christian Cross this way. Yes, that speculative.
And controversial, at the least.
My general point is there is tiny possibility [some?] humans can choose to be both k-selected and r-selected because Neanderthal were r-selected (promiscuous, female-centric) while Cro-Magnon were k-selected. .. something along those lines
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Given that the thals were stronger, smarter, faster, and hardier than saps, and were simply outbred by saps when the temps rose, I think you probably have your r/k reversed there.
It seems to me a case of the ice age pulling back, and they were just maladapted to what came, compared to what migrated up from the warmer south. It is like being a conservative during the bubbles we just saw. little is as frustrating as being adapted to one environment, and then being forced to watch as every urge you have, and all your finely honed abilities, results in nothing but failure.
It is basically what the liberals are experiencing right now.
Neandertals didn’t go extinct. They just mixed with the other humans.
Neandertals are not a species. Just a race.
There’s a cave in Israel were skeletons of both races have been found, 60k years old, sharing the cave (no trace of fight).
One of the places where such mixing happened.
This blew my mind, it is the deepest thing I have read in months.
It struck me when I saw it. Good is the ability to bear burden.
There’s a Family guy episode in which Meg realizes that for the good of the family… she’s the whipping girl….
Re: #WomensMarch
“SHUT UP MEGSSSS!”
Agreed. A Christian for more than two decades, I now see the Gospel in a new light, and I’m impressed!
Note: is it not telling that we use the word RIGHTeous? Also, consider who sits at the RIGHT hand of God. Compare the Latin word for “left”, sinistra. It’s not rocket science.
As a lawyer, if I were arguing the case for Christianity, I would appeal to these things, and AC’s above post, to persuade the jury. Finding an expert witness to lay down the facts, however (lawyers aren’t allowed to bring up their own facts and evidence at trial), would be nigh on impossible.
May that soon change. And may AC soon receive the accolades, and perhaps even office, due him.
Just a point I want to make. Christ carried his own cross. The crucifix is the image of Christ attached to that same cross.
Catholics make a lot of the suffering, but the bible doesn’t, as Christ’s sacrifice was in his death, a sacrifice made by the sinless Son of Jehovah for our sakes.
Then again, Catholics make a lot of Mary, but she gets barely a mention in the bible.
Hence, Catholicism is not true Christianity, never has been, the Romans co-opted it to try to maintain an Empire.
K-selection fits with Christ and what he did in life and death simply because it was *right* (as in correct). K behaviour is also correct, whereas r is an aberration, albeit one that can seem to be correct for a while. K always wins in the long run, as does Jehovah, despite Satan’s little victories along the way. Jehovah = natural law and justice, rightness = K.
Everything I have read indicates Neanderthals were K, and cro-magnon were R. Then again, if you read mainstream science, they won’t reveal that Neanderthals were genocided by cr0-magnons. So, careful what you read and believe. History is altered to suit the current narrative.
“Catholics make a lot of the suffering, but the bible doesn’t,”
I disagree. See alleged prediction of crucifixion by David, Psalm 22; and Christ quoting that psalm 1000 yrs later by reciting its beginning, “My god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me”.
The method of refering to scripture at the time was not to say chapter and verse numbers but to recite the beginning of the first verse.
The psalm describes the suffering in advance.
Whether or not this is true prophecy, or one of the texts forged to make it fit is anyone’s guess. I make no statement about that ; but about the relevance of the suffering to the authors of the text.
The concept of gender equality or reverse sexual dimorphism in space as envisioned by our sci-fi writers now looks unrealistic.
K-selection ensures the endurance and further strengthening of Patriarchy and traditional sex roles in space.
Only one fictional portrayal I remember got K-selected spacefaring aliens right. That is the Protoss in Starcraft 1 prior to the expansions