Peter M. Burfeind > Quotes

“To get to this point, the magician must know his subject, understand his yearnings and his loves. "Like a spy wanting to procure material for future erotic blackmail, the magician must collect all the indices that permit him to file his subject under some classification or other."17 Mass manipulation, easier than individual manipulation because more generalized, requires the manipulator to know the demographics of his subjects.”
― Peter M. Burfeind, Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture & Religion according to Christianity's Oldest Heresy

“In religion, the popularity of New Age spiritualities, but more interestingly the trajectory Neo-evangelicalism has taken, falls under this banner. In politics, the progressive movement has clear kinship with Gnostic impulses, especially given the evidence of its medieval roots.”
― Peter M. Burfeind, Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture & Religion according to Christianity's Oldest Heresy

“Allan Bloom suggests a difference between European and American nihilism.3 European nihilism is pessimistic. Nietzsche's philosophy proposes dreadful things. It takes one to the abyss of his being. It's a tremendously confounding, depressing, scary, and confusing time. All the more was nihilism scary for the Europeans because they saw what it resulted in, fascism. In a complete breakdown of cosmic order, humanity seeks an Orderer, and any Orderer will do so long as they give some structure. Europe saw where this led. For the optimistic American, on the other hand, the nihilistic point is exciting and thrilling, a time for wonderful Self-development and growth. The Self can be the Orderer, right? It's an optimistic nihilism.”
― Peter M. Burfeind, Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture & Religion according to Christianity's Oldest Heresy

“What will happen to that vast body of Christians who were told Christianity is a matter of personal wellness, a competitor in the market for Self-therapy, when these shaky foundations no longer hold? Joel Olsteen says heaven has a warehouse full of blessings with my name on them. The only reason I don't have them is because I don't believe hard enough. What will happen when I finally determine I'm not cut out for this Christianity thing because my faith just doesn't pass muster? If Ken Ham is to be believed, it's already too late. The next generation is "already gone" (see supra, page 114). These are the Millennials who have actuated in their twenties what was in their hearts when they were twelve, that is, Christianity was something best grown out of and left behind. They've made their choice, answered the questions. And of those who remain, one wonders what it portends that 44% of younger evangelicals support gay marriage. It shouldn't be too much of a stretch to observe this position has more to do with cultural trends than with serious Scriptural contemplation, or contemplation on any serious theological thought, but try telling them that. Not only would that require transcending the latest slogans, but it would require considering an authority above the dictates of one's Self, and that is heresy in the religion of Gnosticism. But nature has a way of being what it is despite people's attempts to deny or reject it, to say nothing of nature's God. Nature, for example, will have the final vote on the gay marriage issue. No matter how hard two men try, they will never ever make a baby. Nature won't allow that. And eventually people will begin asking what the point of marriage was in the first place. Oh yeah, because two certain types of people – biology calls them male and female – make babies. Or again, human nature will have the final vote on the progressive experiment in collectivist action, say, in health care, and if history is a guide, that vote won't end well for progressives. We truly are individuals, not the Borg. Finally, the law of economic gravity will soon kick in on our national debt as well, reminding us that what can't go on forever won't. Then the fun begins. History teaches that days of leisurely indulgence, the sort which has always begotten Gnosticism, are numbered. It's one thing to shake your fist at the world when living a comfortable existence. Boutique rebellion against Yaltabaoth's systems of control is always fun. It's another thing to be hungry and need a damn bite to eat, or to be cold, because "the system" was finally broken beyond repair. Right around then we hear a galloping sound in the distance. That's the four horsemen coming to do what they are appointed to do. Marantha. S. D. G.”
― Peter M. Burfeind, Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture & Religion according to Christianity's Oldest Heresy

“Today's atheists, so confident in their scientific certainty, bask in the assurance that the world is evolving to a point of brotherhood, coexistence, and love. It's inevitable, they tell themselves. It's science, they uncuriously insist. They're actually making a monumentally important wager about human nature and the future itself. They're betting that, once the West becomes unanchored from its Christian ethical foundations, the evolutionary currents will carry us to safe harbor at paradisiacal islands. They're betting we can retain the dignity of the individual, human rights, the love of neighbor, the rule of law, and respect for free will without the forms of Christian teaching and dogma.”
― Peter M. Burfeind, Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture & Religion according to Christianity's Oldest Heresy

“The bet is that there's no such thing as original sin, a natural inclination in human nature leading to monstrous, barbarous, and uncivil behavior. Given the evidence of barbarity across the globe, one has to consider such a bet against remarkable odds, to say the least. Adrift from the Judeo-Christian ethical anchor, we seem more to be headed toward the Bermuda Triangle, ignoring the flotsam of other cultures who've ventured there before us: fascist German, communist Russia and China, the Middle East, pre-Christian India and Africa. When modern progressives are incapable of making the argument that the practice of sati in India, or the treatment of women in the Middle East, or the cannibalism of ancient Americans is evil – as seems to be increasingly the case (because given their philosophical foundations it must be the case) – the monsters have arrived. If”
― Peter M. Burfeind, Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture & Religion according to Christianity's Oldest Heresy

“Nietzsche helped midwife the Self as the focus of the postmodern creed, the true modern God. The Self is modernity's answer to the soul.”
― Peter M. Burfeind, Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture & Religion according to Christianity's Oldest Heresy