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 Bornstein  Norwegian Wood by: Haruki Murakami He Who Fights with Monsters 2: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon He Who Fights with Monsters 3: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

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 Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling by: Michael Port The Goblin Emperor by: Katherine Addison Red Hook: (The Weird of Hali #6) by: John Michael Greer He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir by: Beth Moore

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: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by: Rod Dreher Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why by: Phyllis Tickle Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses by: Richard Lloyd Anderson

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  Younger Next Year, 2nd Edition: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart - Until You're 80 and Beyond by: Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge M.D. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by: Mason Currey Meditations on First Philosophy by: Rene Descartes Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans by: Plutarch Neuromancer by: William Gibson Aftermath: Expeditionary Force, Book 16 by: Craig Alanson

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 Steel by: Yukio Mishima Coraline by: Neil Gaiman  The Gods Never Left Us by: Erich von Däniken Mere Christianity by: C. S. Lewis

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 looking for the ultimate Christian principle it might be "repentance".

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 The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by: Jonathan Rosen To Hell and Back by: Audie Murphy The Ministry for the Future by: Kim Stanley Robinson The Mysteries by: Bill Watterson A Desert of Vast Eternities (Pilgrim's Path Book 2) by: Vic Davis The New Copernicans: Millennials and the Survival of the Church by: David John Seel Jr. 

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 extensive misrepresentation of other books.

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, and now that we have numerous ways of mitigating suffering, it's not only hard, but confusing.

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: Chalmers Johnson The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds by: Caroline Van Hemert So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by: Cal Newport Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by: Jostein Gaarder The Sandman 4 by: Neil Gaiman American Gods by: Neil Gaiman The Eye of the Bedlam Bride: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 6 by: Matt Dinniman Letters to a Young Mormon by: Adam S. Miller

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 those stories.

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?