Francis Berger

Imagining No Heaven Only Easy If You Can Imagine This-Worldy Utopia

6/7/2025

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
- John Lennon, Imagine

Imagining there's no heaven has become remarkably easy for modern people, many self-identified Christians included.

Why it is easy for self-proclaimed materialists and atheists to reject the reality of heaven is simple enough to understand. Why the same is also easy for Christians becomes a bit trickier and the subject of another post.

John Lennon got one thing right in his insipid communist utopia anthem— the unreality of heaven is easy to imagine, but only if one can imagine the reality of creating a brotherhood of man utopia where hunger, greed, and killing are all eradicated by the world living as one.

In this sense, imagining no heaven offers some potential solutions to this-worldly problems; however, it does not and cannot address death.

And what happens if one can imagine neither heaven nor this-worldly utopia? What then?

I suppose you could downgrade the utopia from a worldly scale to a more individual scale and strive to carve out your personal heaven-on-earth amidst the backdrop of the much more encompassing not-heaven-on-earth.

However, what happens if the grand this-worldly utopia makers actively destroy and deny your chance at your individual heaven on earth in favor of their more global plan?

What are you left with then? Well, the three D's—destruction, despair, and death—and not much else, I'm afraid.

If Zdzisław Beksiński's oeuvre of mostly untitled nightmare visions attests to anything, it attests to the despondency of imagining no other-worldly heaven and the peril of imagining only a this-worldly one.

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Virtually All Self-Promotion Is False-Self Promotion

6/6/2025

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About a year ago, I explored the dangers of magnifying and amplifying false selves, in reference to William Arkle’s insights, succinctly summarized by Dr. Charlton below:

One of William Arkle's core insights is that - in normal, everyday life - people act from a multitude of false selves. The true self, which is of divine origin and potentially able to become a god, is what makes us what we are - but it may be completely buried beneath false selves; the true self may be utterly ineffectual.

These false selves are of many types. Some are the collections of traits - hereditary and socialised - that constitute our 'personality' as described and measured by psychology. Others are that mass of automatic, robotic skills and responses that we learn to deal with the problems of living; including skills like typing or driving, small-talk and routine social interaction.

You can see that false selves are the totality of what a person presents to the world; and usually also everything that a person is aware of in himself, insofar as he is aware of anything. So, our consciousness is not the same thing as our true self, because it may be unaware of the true self, may even deny the reality of any such thing as a true self.

False selves are therefore necessary but a problem, because whenever we make an effort to change ourselves in any way, the probability is that this will be a matter of one or more of the false selves trying to change us in a superficial and false direction.

As I noted in that earlier post, the last paragraph above is crucial. People sometimes feel that they need to change themselves in some way; however, more often than not, the changes they attempt or implement emanate from false selves rather than the true self, which is primal and eternal. Changes motivated entirely by false selves usually lead to false or specious orientations that end up maintaining or increasing the distance from the true self.

Dr. Charlton adds:

So, a basic problem is that most people, most of the time, do not know their true selves, and are not living from their true selves; but are instead (more or less unconsciously) simply doing and thinking whatever the process of these superficial selves are churning-out.

It is this which makes it counter-productive always to ‘do what comes naturally’ – since what seems ‘natural’ to us in this modern world is very often artificial, inculcated by propaganda or malicious intent, evil, terrorising, despair-inducing…

The insights above started my thinking about self-promotion, which I regard as the overriding motivation fueling most modern people.

We live in an era of unrelenting and ubiquitous advertising, marketing, peddling, branding, and hyping. Pervasive pinwheels of publicity, plugging, puffery, propaganda, and promotion pummel us at every turn.

None of this is new. It has existed and intensified since the Industrial Revolution. Mass production requires mass marketing for the masses. Simple enough; however, the conventional mass marketing of products now shares the stage with self-promotion; that is, the promoting, marketing, platforming, and branding of the self, amplified and expanded by the ever-increasing accessibility, expansion, and utilization of social media and portable IT technology.

Oscar Wilde once quipped that the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about. Modern people have made that witticism their guiding star and engage in levels of self-promotion earlier generations could have barely envisioned.

Yet the obsessive focus on self-promotion immediately begs the question of which selves one is promoting when engaging in self-promotion. Therein lies a great challenge of our time and place.

Our current stage of consciousness development must involve true-self-promotion—the discovery and bolstering of the true self through consciousness and intuition, yet this is predominantly a matter of looking inward and self-observing.

However, given the conditions of mortal life, such introspection and self-observation do not and cannot happen in the vacuum of space or somewhere out there in the ether but within a dynamic and changing world populated by a myriad of beings and the amplification of billions of false selves.

At the same time, it would be erroneous to assume that true-self-promotion could ever effectively occur via false-self-promotion thinking or activities, save perhaps negatively.

Some level of false-self-promotion in mortal life appears unavoidable—I am not blind to the fact that I engage in it myself.

With this in mind, a key challenge of our time and place is recognizing and acknowledging such self-promotion as false-self-promotion rather than regarding or justifying it as true-self-promotion.

Also, we should strive to acknowledge that any false-self-promotion that is artificial, hedonistic, expedient, inculcated by propaganda or malicious intent, evil, terrorising, or despair-inducing reduces the possibility of true self discovery and promotion.

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More Roof Progress

6/1/2025

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The weather has slowed us down a bit here and there, but we are making good progress on the roof overall. About 60% of the tiles are up. If all goes well, we should finish the project this week.

The new tiles are anthracite in color. My wife insisted on something dark, and I think her instincts were right. The darker tiles lend the house a whole new character. (See photo below for comparison.)

I plan to return to more consistent blogging once this roof project is done.

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both sides to an argument are wrong because they are arguing

5/30/2025

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both sides to an argument are wrong because they are arguing

The title of this post comes from the latest collection of Laeth’s aphorisms over at his Trees and Triads blog.

Laeth’s observation resonates with me, particularly as it pertains to religion and metaphysics.

I have no qualms about people openly sharing their religious beliefs and metaphysical assumptions. I dedicate a fair amount of space on this blog to precisely that because I find it vital to challenge, explore, and define my core assumptions. In a sense, I suppose you could say I am advancing arguments about my metaphysical assumptions.

Advancing such arguments invites counterarguments. Such counterarguments can be beneficial, provided that they stem from the right sort of motivations, but they rarely do.

On the contrary, arguments of all sorts tend to be rooted in the assumption that argument—with its basis in logic and reason—is a virtuous and unadulterated mode of knowledge transfer and acquisition. Yet the communication of reason and logic is nearly always laced and tainted with virulent strands of rhetoric and language trickery deployed to derail, disorient, and discombobulate.

The argument-counterargument approach is oppositional. Exchanges of this sort rarely, if ever, rise above the oppositional aspects embedded within the framework. What they tend to do instead is trap and entrench both sides into a pointless war of attrition.

None of the above qualifies as new or revelatory.

At the same time, Laeth’s point about both sides being wrong because they are arguing warrants reflection and acknowledgement, especially concerning matters of metaphysical assumptions/religion in this time and place.

Historical/traditional Christianity, as a religion, is founded on a bedrock of argument, yet this bedrock no longer appears to serve.

Two sides pitted against each other with the expressed aim of arguing a way to Jesus is indeed wrong in this time and place. Our task should involve forgoing argument altogether when it comes to metaphysical assumptions.

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Roof Work Progressing

5/26/2025

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I purchased and live in something called a Kádár Cube, the most prevelant type of house in Hungary, particularly in the countryside. My feelings about this communist architectural form are mixed. On the one hand, I find it garishingly simplistic, dare I say, almost brutalist in nature. On the other hand, the basic design does convey a certain charm. Kádár Cubes bear a striking resemblance to children's drawings of houses.

Anyway, I decided to get the roof redone this year. The old roof was still functional, but it was inching ever closer to its expiration date, and I thought it prudent to have it replaced before the inevitable leaks appeared in a few years' time. Here's what the house looked like with the old roof.

Street view. The old roof tiles are terracotta. The new ones will be the same but different in color.

View from the side of the yard. The photo doesn't do justice to just how "beat up" the old tiles are.

And here's the progress we have made thus far. If all goes well, the new terracotta tiles should be up next week.

Street view. The old tiles removed. New framing on the roof.

View from the back. Note the condition of the old beams. After the roof is done, I will focus on the walls that have yet to be polished up.

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No Garden This Year

5/24/2025

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I have planted and maintained a vegetable garden every spring since settling down in northwestern Hungary, but I have decided to forgo the endeavor this year.

I enjoy growing vegetables; however, I fear that all the other tasks I have set for myself this summer might render gardening a drudging chore, which is the last thing a backyard vegetable patch should be.

In light of this, I am going to let the soil lie fallow for a season and look ahead to next year's garden, which I will aim to make the most beautiful and productive I have ever cultivated.

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Truth Has Two Meanings

5/17/2025

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Truth has two meanings: there is truth as knowledge of reality and truth as reality itself.
-Nikolai Berdyaev, The Beginning and the End

I return to this observation by Berdyaev over and over again, and it often reminds me of the interaction between Pilate and Jesus as recorded in the Fourth Gospel, specifically the part where Jesus declares that everyone on the side of truth listens to him, which then prompts Pilate to respond by asking, “What is truth?”

Pilate’s response is an expression of truth as knowledge of reality. On the other hand, Jesus’s proclamation that he was born and came into the world to testify to the truth falls in line with Berdyaev’s notion of truth as reality itself.
Knowledge of reality is the realm of epistemology—theories of knowledge concerning how, what, and why we know what we know.

Truth as reality itself transcends most defined epistemic contacts with reality. It is not merely knowledge of truth as reality but the direct knowledge of truth as reality itself.

Knowledge of reality as truth relies on secondary thinking and knowledge. Truth as reality exists entirely in primary thinking and direct knowing.

Before encountering Jesus, Pilate existed exclusively in truth as knowledge of reality, as evidenced by his “What is truth?” quip.

Yet during his encounter with Jesus, Pilate most surely experienced truth as reality itself—a penetrating albeit fleeting moment of direct knowledge that provided a silent, wordless, yet infinitely deafening response to his quid est veritas.

Dostoevsky noted the following in a letter to Mme. N. D. Fonvisin, written in 1854:

I want to say to you, about myself, that I am a child of this age, a child of unfaith and skepticism, and probably (indeed I know it) shall remain so to the end of my life.

How dreadfully has it tormented me (and torments me even now) this longing for faith, which is all the stronger for the proofs I have against it. And yet God gives me sometimes moments of perfect peace; in such moments I love and believe that I am loved; in such moments I have formulated my creed, wherein all is clear and holy to me.

This creed is extremely simple; here it is: I believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly, and more perfect than the savior; I say to myself with jealous love that not only is there no one else like him, but that there could be no one. I would even say more:

If anyone could prove to me that Christ is outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth.

Truth as knowledge of reality resides in skepticism and unfaith, in the constant need to question the reality of the divine, and in the yearning to have the divine proved or disproved via some secondary medium or other.

Yet as Dostoevsky notes, even if truth as knowledge of reality could exclude Jesus, it would do little to dent truth as reality itself.

Direct knowledge of truth as reality itself is not guaranteed in this world. We could live our whole mortal lives without experiencing it once. Yet, this does not matter. What matters is our faith in truth as reality itself.

We remain on the side of truth as long as we are open to listening to Jesus and the possibility of experiencing moments in which we love and believe that we are loved.

Moments during which all is clear and holy.

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A New Roof

5/16/2025

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I will have a new roof installed on the house next week, starting on Tuesday. I had aimed to have the roof redone about four or five years ago, but the events of 2020-2021 significantly delayed that goal. In light of this, I feel immensely pleased and relieved that the roof’s time has finally arrived.

In many ways, the roof renovation represents a literal and metaphorical capstone in my life—a crowning achievement—particularly within the context of the ten years since my family’s move to Hungary. We had no house a decade ago. We barely had anything a decade ago. My wife and I roamed like vagabonds—Toronto, Budapest, Florida, New York, Toronto (again), and England—resided in rented flats and kept our store of personal belongings at spartan, portable levels.

That all changed after we moved to northwestern Hungary in 2015. Our first year was like all the previous years—a rented flat, this time in the city of Sopron, but within a year, we purchased a respectable house in a small village about forty kilometers from the city. We had enough money saved to buy the house without needing to take out a mortgage, which I welcomed and also viewed as a sort of redemption for all the money we had spent paying rent over the years.

More significantly, we had finally found a place to settle and call home. We immediately set about turning the place into our home. Years of renovations followed. The old house began to take shape and slowly came back to life. The final project starts next week. Once finished, the new roof will mark the completion of our house adventure.

Yet all of that is, at best, secondary.

Yes, new wiring, plumbing, flooring, roof, and all the rest of it were all required, yet none of it would have meant much had we not succeeded in filling the home with our love for each other right from day one.

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Cultivating Primary Thinking is the Positive Response to AI

5/9/2025

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Secondary thinking—thinking via language, symbols, and images—is an unavoidable and, until recently, seemingly irreplaceable form of thinking in mortal life. I say seemingly irreplaceable because current and projected AI applications have encroached and will likely continue to encroach upon this level of human thought.

As I noted in an earlier post on secondary thinking:

The use of symbols and language allowed man to participate in reality differently. Secondary thinking separated man from reality and granted the “space” needed for world discovery, self-discovery, and self-formation.

The alienation of modern man represents near-total submersion in the representational world, made all the more acute by the ever-increasing disconnect between reality and representations of reality.

This disconnection marks the virtual obliteration of primary thinking in favor of secondary thinking. Put another way, for modern man, secondary thinking via externally received symbolic information is reality because he is virtually incapable of connecting with reality in any other way.

Modern man now regards the symbols, language, and other representations used to shape, fashion, give form to, or describe as reality itself, both de facto (as in matter of fact) and de jure (as in legally and officially recognized).

Simply put, information used solely at the level of secondary thinking is now synonymous with reality. Whoever controls information at the secondary level of thinking also controls reality.

AI will further degrade the disconnect between human consciousness and its connection with reality, i.e., the spiritual. Conventional secondary thinking in the form of language, symbols, and images was at least a product of human thought.

The best and highest examples of such thinking could serve as bridges or connectors. Though such examples are not reality, they can inspire or motivate individuals to seek or experience that level of reality for themselves.

In other words, the best and highest “products” of secondary thinking could, when approached sincerely with the right motivations, lead other individuals to experience primary thinking for themselves. Not the same primary thinking that may have gone into the creation of the secondary-thinking “product,” but through the unique primary thinking experiences individuals “consuming” the product experienced for themselves.

AI utilizes the products of secondary thinking to manufacture its version of secondary thinking, which represents no thinking at all. Yes, it uses original sources, genuine products of human consciousness; however, its productions are fundamentally the product of no consciousness or, worse, the product of demonic consciousness.

Determining whether a product of secondary thinking is authentic (created by human consciousness) or AI-generated may be useful in our current situation. Yet, such determinations fail to address the deeper issue—the need to pursue primary thinking. Focusing exclusively on discerning the authenticity of whatever apparent secondary-thinking product we encounter is only meaningful if primary thinking is our overarching goal.

Primary thinking (direct knowledge) is the connection to reality that happens beyond the representational, in the realm of non-representational direct knowing originating from and connecting to the primal self.

AI-generated representational, secondary non-thinking may lead people away from authentic “products” of human-created secondary thinking, from the sorts of creations that can and sometimes do inspire, motivate, and guide individuals toward primary thinking; however, even the best examples of secondary thinking cannot substitute for primary thinking.

In a nutshell, being able to discern original, authentic, genuine secondary-thinking products from non-consciousness, photocopy-of-a-photocopy products generated by AI is only a fraction of the actual battle.

The actual challenge lies in cultivating primary thinking and direct knowledge -- knowledge for which not even the best exemplars of genuine, human-created secondary thinking can serve as a substitute.

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The Apparently Unsolvable Mystery of Assumptions that Align with Rationality, Logic, and Common Sense Yet Engender “Face Palm” Discernment

5/7/2025

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Many Christians insist that conventional/traditional metaphysical assumptions—and only conventional/traditional metaphysical assumptions—are founded upon the bedrock of rationality, logic, and common sense.

Such Christians assert that the assumptions they hold, assumptions consecrated and guarded by the majority of what constitutes mainstream/orthodox Christian institutions, are the only live wire to reality. These assertions are then supported by the further assertion that metaphysical assumptions that question or challenge tradition/orthodoxy are mired in grievous error.

On a personal note, I would likely be far more open to traditional/orthodox assumptions if they were not consistently undermined by a mortifying lack of discernment by those who continuously proclaim such assumptions as irrefutably based on reason, logic, and common sense.

Put another way, I sincerely wonder why those who profess steadfast alignment with reason, logic, and common sense routinely falter and fail in basic and rudimentary discernment, particularly when it comes to personal freedom, evil, love, honesty, and repentance.

Yes, yes, we are all fallen and limited. No one bats an average of a hundred when it comes to discernment. Yet there must be a point at which such excuses become threadbare and embarrassing. A point at which one must at least begin to question why one cannot live up to the reason, logic, and common sense of one’s professed assumptions.

The individual is certainly part of the problem; however, the problem also likely spills over into the assumptions one holds as rational and logical, as the veritable epitome of common sense.

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