for physical beauty
by Gaedhal
As Richard Carrier now demonstrates, there really was no such thing as “Gnosticism”. All of the early Christian sects were Gnostics to one degree or another. “The Gnostics” were made up, essentially by orthodox apologists/theologians. Thus, the term “musterio”’, is never really translated in our bibles… it is transliterated into “mystery”. However, “musterion”, if translated, means: “secret”. Thus, the New Testament writers believed in secret knowledge, or musteria, and it goes without saying that the belief in secret knowledge is a hallmark of Gnosticisim.
“mustēria”, in Greek—thanks to how the neuter plurals of neuter nouns work, i.e. they sometimes act as a singular mass noun—could then be translated: “a body of secret teachings”. However, “mustēria” is never translated that way, as it would give the game away that early Christianity was a secret society, with a secret body of teaching only for adepts. This is why Jesus taught in parables. To the profane, they only got the surface meaning of the parables, however to the in-group, Jesus’s disciples, the true, often shocking import of what he is saying is only revealed to them. Thus, the non-adepts remain in their sins, for failing to understand the secret meaning of the parable. This is all most clearly spelled out in the gospel of Mark.
The term “gnōsis” appears frequently in the knew testament. Also, the term “pleroma”, which is Greek for “fullness” appears in the New Testament. The Pleroma is a Gnostic belief, as well.
Another hallmark of Gnosticism is the hatred of the physical world. Indeed, the physical world was created by the demiurge, or Satan, in the Christian version of Gnosticism. Thus, Jesus calls Satan “the god of this world” which is perfectly in line with Gnostic belief. Hatred of “the flesh” and “carnal wisdom” is more Gnosticism. “The natural man” is railed against: only the spiritual man can discern spiritual things.
Whereas in Greco-Roman paganism, the flesh profited much, such that the Gymnasia had as much to do with athletics as with the perfection of the mind—which is why secondary schools in Germany are called “Gymnasia” even unto our own day, in Christianity, the Flesh profited little. During the Christian era, the Olympic Games stopped. It was only in the 1800s, when Christianity began to lose ground to secular modernity that the Olympic Games were brought back.
And so, a contempt for physical beauty and physical perfection is the perfect element to spawn such a movement as fat acceptance. Christians are always on the lookout for lower and lower forms of lepers to uplift. Hence, all this talk about “marginalised communities” as if their marginalisation somehow conferred value upon them. Ayn Rand said that need is not a virtue; need is not valuable. In our day, she might have said that marginalisation isn’t valuable. It is only the Christian axiology that makes need or marginalisation valuable. And, of course, I am not a Randian libertarian. Rand, as a stopped clock, is sometimes right. I think that sentient beings should be treated ethically. Indeed, I concur with César that we ought to eliminate, as far as is possible, unnecessary suffering. As someone who has skimmed through Benatar, then if someone is brought to this hell-planet, against his will, then he/she/it ought to be treated ethically, and not tormented with unnecessary horrendous suffering. However, my instinct is towards pagan eudaimonia, or “well mindedness” or, as modern psychologists might put it: “positive mental states”.
I speak of myself. Whilst a traditionalist Catholic, I let myself go, physically, as my profile picture demonstrates. However, that profile pic is about 2 or 3 years old, if not more so, and I have actually lost a considerable amount of weight since then. I am still overweight, but perhaps not obese, any more. My BMI is now, probably, on the cusp or boundary between my being obese and overweight, however, more than ten years ago, when I was still a traditionalist Catholic, I was well well within the obese threshold. Partly, it didn’t matter. I was soon to enjoy the traditionalist Catholic version of the rapture: the “3 days of darkness” and the “tribulation” predicted by Fatima and La Sallette. When one deconverts, his scale of values shifts dramatically. One removes one’s eye from a mythical post-mortem eternity, and the here and now then becomes all important.
However, what I mean most to talk about in this email is that there are a quarter of a billion Nigerians in this world? Thanks, Christians!
This is what happens when you believe that Africans have infinite dignity. This is what happens when every featherless biped is imago Dei, made in the image and likeness of God. As César points out: were it not for Christianity, blacks would probably be extinct by now, as predicted by Darwin. Instead of this, we have a quarter of a billion of them in a single African country! As I said before: the human virus is now consuming more than what the planet can sustain. Calling humans infinitely valuable, as Frankenpope did, is like saying that locusts or mosquitoes are infinitely valuable. Locusts, like humanity, are a consumptive plague too, aren’t they? And of course the go-to sight for all things overpopulation related—and Christianity’s extreme culpability in this regard—is church and state dot org dot uk.
Imagine James and the Giant Peach (written by the Nordic atheist antisemite, Roald Dahl). For a time, they had to eat parts of the peach to survive. Now, let us suppose that this peach was a magically self-healing peach. And now let us imagine that James and his crew began to eat more of the peach, per day, than what the peach could self-restore unto itself. This is where we are today. Humanity is a consumptive plague that is destroying the planet—and itself, ironically enough, into the bargain—and Christianity blinds us to this reality. It is spiritual toxoplasmosis. It causes us to worship what is destroying us.
And for those who say that “oh well that isn’t real Christianity”. You seem to forget that Archbishop Lefebvre was the papal delegate for all of French-speaking Africa. The overpopulation crisis in Africa is partly the fault of a man largely credited with founding traditionalist Catholicism. Bob Pope and Frankenpope are not saying anything new when they call the human plague “infinitely valuable”, not just as regards the mass of humanity in total, but each specimen is, in particular, “infinitely valuable” according to Dignitas Infinita.
Most of our social problems are caused by the fallout of Christianity. As I said before: “woke” is the residue that remains once the supernaturalism of Christianity evaporates. Revilo P. Oliver called woke “the Marxian Reformation”. (although the term “woke” did not exist in his day, he was describing precisely what the term “woke” encaptures).
