The Godhead Equation That Made Money Real

The official Christian explanation is clean: Jesus descends from heaven, sacrifices himself, resurrects, sends apostles into the world, and the movement grows because martyrs prove their faith. Source trail 0:001:202:31 Okay, so good morning. We are doing monotheism today, and I will show you that the first monotheistic religion is Christianity. And monotheism actually marks an intellectual revolution in human history, and it really cr...and then he went before his apostles and told them to spread the good news, the gospel. So they told him that he has come, and he will return, and then he will bring paradise with him. Okay, so there were 12 apostles pl... That story has bishops, persecution, miracles, and eventually Constantine.

The counter-story begins with politics. Source trail 3:315:05 And this would create a Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is called so because Catholic means universal, or the one and only. And the Catholic Church, with the creation of the Catholic Church, you had a new idea call...The imperial cult basically just means to think of the Emperor as God, and so think of a cult of personality. His picture, his statues, were everywhere, including coins. And the Jews hated that because for them, that we... Jesus is a religious genius whose movement collides with Pontius Pilate and the imperial cult. Pilate wants Jewish submission to emperor worship; killing Jesus is meant as humiliation. Instead it makes Jesus a national hero, a martyr. Repression accidentally manufactures sacred authority.

After Jesus, the main movement is not Paul's. Source trail 6:107:208:30 They established a church in Jerusalem, and they were supported by the Jewish leaders, and they were called the poor of Jerusalem. of Jerusalem. They were led by Jesus' brother James the Just. These people will eventual...The Jews believed the Romans were evil. Eventually a Messiah will emerge from the ranks from the house of David who will lead them in a final victory against the Romans. So Paul saw Jesus as an opportunity to basically... It is James the Just and the poor of Jerusalem, a Jewish Jesus community that keeps the law of Moses and sees itself as a branch of Judaism. Paul enters as the Roman-facing alternative. He gives diaspora Jews a way to keep Jesus while loosening the war-Messiah from anti-Roman revolt.

Paul's group is initially small. Source trail 9:3610:4911:51 They're trying to be egalitarian. They're trying to be anti -hierarchical. Okay and what made them interesting was they used psychedelics a lot. Okay they were in fact apparently something like that. Of course I know mu...And during this war, three things happened, okay? The first thing that happened was the temple was burned down. Remember, the temple is important because it is the site of religious worship for the Jewish people. It's t... It wins because catastrophe changes the field. The Jewish-Roman war of 66 to 73 CE burns the temple, weakens the Jerusalem community around James, and frightens diaspora Jews. Paul can offer a new definition of Jewish identity: believe in Jesus as Messiah rather than organize life around temple sacrifice or anti-Roman expectation.

The church also fits Roman social form. Source trail 13:0014:0715:21 of three major wars between the Romans and the Jews okay it would be two more major wars and both both wars a lot of Jews would get killed a lot would get enslaved and this would drive more participation into Paul's chu...also have the freed man okay so these are slaves who are freed to work in household and then you have the slaves okay so they were in charge of their own household but they also had clients okay the client the patron -c... The pater familias makes the household a small empire. Paul's church mirrors that hierarchy: bishop at the top, dogma under his control, interpretation centralized. The old egalitarian Jesus movements allow many interpretations; this one scales because only the bishop has the right reading.

Once the church is large enough, the local aristocrat can become bishop and convert his whole network. Source trail 15:2116:55 is important because the problem with most early Christians is they were egalitarian, which meant that you could have your own interpretation of Jesus. But in this church, which is hierarchical, only the bishop or the p...Eventually, Christianity would reach a point where it actually challenged the authority of the emperor himself. Because, remember, throughout history, the nobility was always in conflict with the king, the emperor. And... The church becomes a machine for expanding social and political power. That success eventually threatens the emperor, which is why Constantine's conversion appears here as a kingly consolidation move: a ruler introduces a religion to unify the empire and secure authority.

The Catholic Church introduces orthodoxy, and orthodoxy has a problem: Christian history is being made on the spot. Source trail 18:2419:39 That's why he converted to become Christian. And so he began to sponsor the beginning of something called the Catholic Church. And guess what? He was the first pope, or the head of the Catholic Church, the first head of...So what is the relationship between, okay, Jesus came from heaven to sacrifice himself, right? So what is the relationship between God and Jesus? Like, who is Jesus, real, okay? And this is a fundamental problem in Chri... Divergent Christianities must be eliminated, but the central doctrine is full of contradictions. If Jesus comes from heaven to sacrifice himself, then who is Jesus in relation to God? Where does the Holy Spirit fit?

Modalism, partialism, and Arianism all make some narrative sense. Source trail 20:3421:5723:04 Okay, so there have been different theories proposed to explain the relationship between God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. Okay? Okay, so let's look at them. The first theory is called modalism. Modalism, and it's the id...Another theory that's popular is called partialism. Partialism, and the idea is that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are parts of a higher being. So think of the ocean, right? There's one ocean that covers the entire pl... God can appear in modes; God, Jesus, and Spirit can be parts of a higher whole; God can be superior because God came first. They are stories. Stories can be entered, personalized, argued with, and combined.

Nicaea produces something else. Source trail 23:0424:1625:59 So God is a higher being than Jesus. Jesus is still great, but God is the superior being, okay? And again, not great, okay, but it makes sense, all right? So there's this huge controversy as to the nature of God and the...But this is the solution. There are three beings, God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus. They are not the same thing. They're separate, they're not equal, okay? Which are three different entities, but they're all God. Okay? This... The Godhead says God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit are separate, not equal, and yet all God. That is not a story; it is an equation. You cannot put yourself into it. You cannot debate it. You either accept it or you do not.

That is the decisive psychological change. Source trail 25:5927:2128:28 And therefore, you can argue about the story with others. Right? That's what stories do. But you can't do that in an equation. Like, how do you put yourself into this equation? You don't belong anywhere, right? The syst...Okay? Do you understand? Faith is something that you have to, before the Godhead, faith is something that you have to experience for yourself. Now faith is just blind obedience. You have to accept this as it is. You hav... Faith used to be an experience: you talk to God, feel God, interpret the story. Now faith is blind obedience. You memorize the formula like mathematics. Its power is exclusionary because it cannot absorb rival theories and rival theories cannot absorb it. Put non-debatability, obedience, and exclusion together, and a new thing enters history: monotheism.

Monotheism is radical because it does not mean one powerful god among other divine powers. Source trail 28:5530:13 Monotheism. And this is a new radical idea in human history. Never before could we imagine something called monotheism. Before there were some religions with one God, right? But this one God would also interact with oth...God is nothing and everything, okay? Does that make sense? There's only one way that reality is structured that makes this statement true. God is Holy Spirit and Jesus, but God is not Holy Spirit and Jesus. And the unde... It means only one God, and that's it. Once the Godhead formula is accepted, reality has to be structured so that God is nothing and everything: everywhere and nowhere, all of reality and no visible object inside it.

That structure changes what a symbol is. A symbol no longer merely represents reality; it becomes reality. Lens point power-alchemy Power makes symbols real when a non-debatable formula or representation stops functioning as a pointer and becomes the world people trust, work inside, and obey. Source trail 30:13 God is nothing and everything, okay? Does that make sense? There's only one way that reality is structured that makes this statement true. God is Holy Spirit and Jesus, but God is not Holy Spirit and Jesus. And the unde... This is why capitalism, science, and the nation state can become the deep architecture of modern life. Their shared root is the new belief that representations are not pointers to the world. They are the world.

Money is the easiest way to see it. Gold can be explained by beauty, rarity, and labor. Paper money cannot. The government can print more; trust has no obvious foundation; and still everyone treats money as wealth. Money is God because money is nothing and everything. Lens point power-alchemy Power makes symbols real when a non-debatable formula or representation stops functioning as a pointer and becomes the world people trust, work inside, and obey. Source trail 33:00 some people from a thousand years ago, they transport to our classroom, and they ask us the same questions. What's the basis of wealth in your society? And we say, money. And then they ask, what is money? And then we sa... The symbol commands reality.

The system protects itself by crowding out other realities. If spiritual realities are not thinkable, money cannot be challenged by another order of value. If the symbol needs expansion to become true, then criticism must be destroyed or made unimaginable. Lens point power-alchemy Power makes symbols real when a non-debatable formula or representation stops functioning as a pointer and becomes the world people trust, work inside, and obey. Source trail 34:1835:57 You understand? Okay, now the question then is, why do we believe this crap? Why do we believe money is God? Why do we believe money is valuable? Because the... the power of monotheism is that it destroys other realitie...You are not allowed to ask the question, wait, what if money has no value because the government can print as much money as it wants? You are not allowed to ask this question. You are not allowed to think of this questi... That is why aggressive expansion belongs to the model rather than being an accident.

Science inherits the material-only world. It measures biological parts, but it refuses the questions that matter most: what is thought, what is consciousness, how do we imagine? Lens point dead-world-cave The dead world begins when school materialism treats the measurable body as the whole person and makes consciousness, soul, love, imagination, and meaning unavailable as serious questions. Source trail 37:0738:26 Expansionism. Expansionism is a very important thing because only by expanding can it be true. And that's why the two major monotheistic religions of our time, Christianity and Islam, are so violent, okay? They are the...And science response is, a human being are just a sum of biological parts, right? You are just your brain, and your head, and your eyes, and your arms put together, because that's what we can measure. But the question o... If consciousness is what makes us human, then a science that cannot face consciousness cannot tell us what it means to be human.

Ancient gods were not simply stupid superstitions. Source trail 38:2639:51 And science response is, a human being are just a sum of biological parts, right? You are just your brain, and your head, and your eyes, and your arms put together, because that's what we can measure. But the question o...how they understood Apollo and Athena and other gods, you would understand that they didn't actually believe these gods existed, okay? But they believed these gods were metaphors and symbols for forces in nature that co... Apollo, Athena, strife, and Nemesis named forces that humans felt acting through the world. Hatred and vengeance were not private moods to be wished away. They were powers to understand, respect, and tame.

Modernity calls the gods symbols and then acts as if the forces symbolized are unreal too. Source trail 39:5141:15 how they understood Apollo and Athena and other gods, you would understand that they didn't actually believe these gods existed, okay? But they believed these gods were metaphors and symbols for forces in nature that co...Have you studied positive psychology? It's the dumbest idea in the world, okay? It's the idea that if you think you're happy, then you're happy, whereas the ancients thought that these were external forces. Okay? And we... That is why positive psychology appears here as a disaster: if you think you are happy, then you are happy. The older view is harsher and deeper. Hatred, vengeance, and evil are external forces that require work.

The Book of Enoch becomes the example of a world still able to ask where evil comes from. Source trail 41:1542:2943:41 Have you studied positive psychology? It's the dumbest idea in the world, okay? It's the idea that if you think you're happy, then you're happy, whereas the ancients thought that these were external forces. Okay? And we...So after God created the world, his angels, called the Watchers, saw humans, and they thought that humans were stupid and evil. So they came down to better manage us, okay? But then they started to lust after women, and... The Watchers descend, produce the Nephilim, and the flood destroys their bodies. Because they are born of angels, something immortal remains: evil spirits. They tempt power because powerful people are the most useful and the easiest to tempt.

Once those realities are banned, modern life becomes flatter and more alienating. Source trail 44:5446:1547:37 Because they love power, right? So today, we're not allowed to ask the question about evil, where does evil come from? Why are people evil? You're not allowed to think it, okay? So monotheism is crying out different rea...so and again gods are metaphors so this is pre -modern this is modern now what do we believe we believe that money is God we structure our lives around the idea of money why do we come to school to get good grades so th... Money is God. Spiritual reality is gone. Death becomes nothingness. School teaches facts rather than truth: facts are things that happen; truth is how the world works.

The last consequence is fear. Source trail 48:58 Now the last major consequence is this. Pre -modern, we believe that slavery was the worst evil. If you believe in spiritual realities, and you believe that when you die, you will just ascend to the heavens, to the spir... Premodern people thought slavery was the worst evil because spiritual reality made earthly life worth risking. Modern people think death is the worst evil because death means nothing. If dying is the worst thing, then risk disappears, questioning disappears, exploration disappears. Everyone becomes a slave to survival.

This did not happen instantly. Source trail 50:26 Alright? Now, what's important for us to understand is, this is a story. This is not an instant change, okay? This is something that will have to be fought over for about 1,000 years. Because monotheism, this godhead, i... Monotheism's triumph takes roughly a thousand years of struggle, because the Godhead is strange and many refuse it. It wins through expansion, crusade, inquisition, and religious war. The modern world is built by a formula that has to fight until it becomes reality.

When Jiang says we are less sophisticated than earlier people, he does not mean less informed. Source trail 51:46 Okay, so I argue that we are less sophisticated than before. Because before, everyone was very intuitive. And very imaginative. Meaning that they could imagine themselves living in different realities at the same time.... He means less intuitive and less imaginative. The Iliad can show a fight in physical reality and gods negotiating in a higher reality at the same time. That is not ignorance. It is a capacity to see structural forces moving through visible life.

Capitalism, science, and the nation state finish the narrowing. Source trail 53:1054:1555:3756:19 Okay. So, what made us lose the ability to imagine, right? Okay, well, it's these three things really. Capitalism, science, and the nation state. Right? Do you understand? Because with capitalism, what it teaches us is...won't do it this semester, but what we will learn next semester is the idea of objectivity. Okay? Objectivity. It doesn't exist. And this is suddenly proven. Okay? This is something that elite scientists know, but which... Capitalism says money is the highest good and makes unmeasurable love unreal. Science presents objectivity as truth, though Jiang previews a later argument that objectivity does not exist and reality is a collective hallucination. The nation state makes citizenship the sacred identity and turns communities into competitors.