Author Archives: MeridaGOround

BOOK : : BEYOND BELIEF

by

Perhaps you’ve had the experience of tuning into a show or movie already underway, trying to figure out what has already happened?  Church history can be like that.  Why do we accept what we’ve been told to believe?  

Professor Pagels tells of her early acceptance of evangelical belief, until a young friend died in a car crash; and her church friends decided he was in hell, because he was Jewish, and hadn’t been saved. This set her on a quest to figure out what to believe. She studied Greek in college which has helped her examine and grapple with secret gospels which had been preserved by heretic monk(s) who sealed them in a six-foot jar, after the books had been condemned by a bishop — and hid them in a cave hundreds of years ago.  (We should back up a bit to notice that the word heretic comes from Greek meaning to chose. That choice preserved early writings of close encounters with Jesus.) 

<<REWIND<< to the beginning, and we will be reminded of early stories about belief, in the book of Genesis.  And after the crucifixion we will encounter an accuser named Irenaeus, who claimed to be the only  “correct” teacher while condemning those who deviated from his instruction.  A few centuries later, a young whippersnapper/careerist bishop named Athanasius demands that teachings about the nature of the person known as Jesus of Nazareth, other than that he was fully God and fully human, caused the written gospel-records of other Christian believers to be jarred and buried until modern times.

Solid research and accessible storytelling throughout. And yet today we still believe much of these dogmatic teachings about what happened and how to worship. It’s a lazy way to avoid doing our own thinking.  But here’s a steady guide to help us chose for ourselves, based on considering something about how it got started. BEYOND BELIEF: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.

(The book is in the collection at Merida English Library.)

BOOK : : THE MATTERING INSTINCT

by

Do you matter? Do I?  “It’s all futility” according to the biblical author of Ecclesiastes.  Yet we press ahead attempting to find mattering and meaning in our lives.  So this author, Rebecca Goldstein,  (a professor of philosophy at Princeton) has taken a deep dive into the question, and shared some compelling stories of people famous, infamous, and virtually unknown, to illustrate her map of personality-types, which is something of a cross-border venture for a philosophy professor, into the territory of the psychologists.  She’s compiled a treasure map, across four “continents” of her own charting. You might find yourself amused, edified, stimulated, redirected, informed.  Her voice on the page is inviting.  I suggest taking the free Kindle sample for a spin.  You might even encounter yourself!  NB:  “The map is not the territory!”  (Does it matter that I wrote this mini review? Dunno. But I’m glad I read her book!)

BOOK : The Girl Who Baptized Herself

by

photo by MeridaGOround

Reading too much church history might harm your faith — but once in a while somebody with a fresh and courageous voice sidesteps doctrinal conventions and pokes holes in ceilings to let the light back in. If you’re afraid to ask hard questions about the Bible — you needn’t be a pewsitter to question  — and you should consider rejecting glib or authoritarian responses from anyone saying “it’s a mystery” — maybe spending time in thought with both books? 

The author of this book, The Girl Who Baptized Herself, describes her own self as an “outsider” admitting she’s been called  a “whore” a “witch” or worse.  She’s got credentials as a scholar and she’s a good storyteller, unafraid to get naked and personal about difficult stuff. [See Heb 4:13 NRSVu]: “And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.”  ¿Ready to get naked? (Don’t be ashamed!)
.
Meggan Watterson has a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School; and an M.Div from Columbia U, but has avoided ordination.  She writes powerfully instead of preaching. She also speaks at various symposia, as detailed at her blogsite: MegganWatterson.com . 
.
I studied in the same graduate program as she, at Harvard, dropping out 20 years before she arrived; I still study the Bible most days, self-identifying as a Judeo-Christian heretic – as did Jesus – but his worship community executed him. He took punishment which could also have been mine. I guess humanity has progressed somewhat from crucifying or burning such at the stake, for announcing that “the leadership is naked”. 
..
Well, Meggan’s dynamic look at an ancient extra-biblical fragment, evidenced as early as first and second centuries, traces a story about a young woman listening to “St Paul” – earlier known as Saul of Tarsus, a strident religious hardliner – a Pharisee of the Temple cult of Jerusalem. (“Hit’em over the head with that scroll, Saul” – arrest those heretical “little christs”!)  
.
The main character of the fragment is Thecla, a girl listening to Paul preach, in a life-changing event which has her refuse her family’s marriage arrangements. Big trouble! (No spoilers from me.) But get my hint that myth can be truer than history; and canonical gospels can be sacred myths, while extra-biblical gospels should not be utterly dismissed.  Radical rejection is recounted and interwoven throughout Meggan’s own story and scholarship. Hey, Jesus said that we must receive the kingdom of God as a little child (see Mark 10:15).
. 
Both accounts, Thecla and Meggan, remind me of a book by another Harvard author, Joseph Henrich, The WEIRDest People in the World, arguing that the reason the west has been economically successful is that westerners have rejected family dictators. But Meggan digs deeper into the past of this topic. 
.
There’s so much to be digested in the stories of these two women, one ancient and one modern.  I’ve made so many marginal notes in my copy that I don’t know where to begin. But new beginnings offer us all a fresh start, if we’ve got courage. They start with dying to self, which Paul advocates, saying “I die daily” (ICor15:31-b) — and presumably he is reborn daily, too. “Practice makes perfect.”  ¿Are ya dead yet >>> “dead” to self; alive to the anointed One? — your true Self, your Soul. 
.
In the famous new-birth account between Jesus and Nicodemus, N asks if he must return to his mother’s womb to be reborn. J says no, you must be re-begotten. (There’s a phrase there about “water and spirit” which is crude street-language rarely translated for publication or heard in churches: “spiritual sperm”. (We all detect nuance.) Example: we overhear rough guys saying, one to another” “did ya catch the melons on that babe?” — and immediately we know they are not discussing fruit or babies. Jesus was not subtle! He knew his audience. 
.
Well, it takes two to tangle, (double helix), and we might deduce that this is a joint project of our Father-Mother God which requires after rebirth that we return to our current life — new-born, metaphorically-naked, without a vestige of our former egoic-selves, letting all of our acquaintances see us as complete, upright, whole, free, holy, healed — as ONE in-and -with God’s holy family — humanity’s community, “church” –ekklesia.
 .
NOTE: For about 15 years  I volunteered nearly every Saturday doing a nondenominational (Judeo-Christian) Bible study, a “stealth ethics course” really, at a men’s prison near Buffalo NY. I would often tell inmates to do the trade-in of a lifetime —by pushing your former junker-life onto the Dealer’s lot, coming away with a brand new ride. (But you can’t park your old life in an alley, or behind the barn, for weekend partying!) A few guys actually called me to say thanks after they got out.  That classroom, and those inmates, taught me so much. We all need to come out of our cages! (We have a Patient Teacher!)
 

photo by MeridaGOround

POEM : : JUSTICE is DIVINE

by

JUSTICE is DIVINE

[Heard in silent gratitude, after reading an opinion piece by M.Gessen, NYTimes, 17 April 2026]

Gravity tugs alike on everyone.
The sun shines on the just and the unjust.
Rain falls on the wealthy and the weak.

Money inundates mindlessly, like water, seeking a path of least resistance.
Bloodless corporations – “citizens” – cut deals into flesh,
     causing blood to flood and foul the globe.

“Sin crouches at the door.”
Cain offers God a zucchini; then, in a fit of envy, he daily murders his brothers and sisters.
And the bloodied ground cries out. [see Genesis 4 KJV]

Today, Divine Justice has prevailed in France, as chief executives, financial officers, and hacks are being sent to jail.
And – as in heaven – so on earth – the promise of the rainbow* sparkles as truth – written in Light upon a dark cloud.

…LET JUSTICE ROLL DOWN…let justice flow like a river,
and let righteousness flow like a never-ending stream. [Amos 5:24, NRSVu]
==============================================

*see Genesis chapters 6 thru 9 – especially 9:13 

~eric.  Eric Chaffee, MeridaGOround.com — statutory copyright claimed by author, 2026

BOOK mention : “What is Intelligence?”

by

 

What is Intelligence? by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, MIT Press, Nov 15, 2025

Historians dislike the idea of prediction, but if we bring up the topic of tomorrow’s weather they will likely not object to consulting a forecast.
.
This author’s central thesis argues – see pages 23-25 of the hardcopy edition – that machines can now “predict”  and fool humans, passing  the “Turing Test” which was designed to detect the differences between human and machine replies to questions or instructions (think “Captcha” images).  He asserts in this book that intelligence IS prediction,  while  asking elsewhere: “Is Life a Form of Computation?” (see MIT Press Reader, Sept 2025).
.
I’ve mostly avoided a study of A.I. during this developmental period, but I do think this book could be a landmark title, coming from a contrarian expert.
.
NEWS FLASH … Secretary of Defense, Pete Repeat, recently announced that DoD would break its contract with Anthropic, a leading A.I. developer, no longer allowing that firm’s Claude software to be used by US military, as Anthropic’s contract prohibits the use of its software to conduct mass surveillance of Americans. (The president agrees with Pete, and extends the ban to other portions of the federal government!) >>> Big Brother in jack boots!  “Wandering police* ” — brutal, anonymous secret police behind masks!
.
* “Wandering police” defined:   in 2024 the city of Hanceville Alabama fired its entire police force for being incompetent or corrupt, according to CNN.
.
.
THE BOOK can be sampled at Amazon, for readers or listeners.
.
Readers shopping for a favorite A.I. who also respect our Constitution (and contract law) would do well to choose Claude software, by Anthropic.  (“None of us is as smart as all of us!”)  If you’d like to read a real review of What is Intelligence? here’s one from an Australian scholar.

!! OUR RIGHT TO FILM !!

by

Alex Pretti, hero, being shot in the back!

>>> FAIR USE <<<  —   SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN AMERICA, we have a First Amendment right to film in public. IN AMERICA, we are at war with a deep state sending armored MASKED goons, “secret police // aka “wandering cops” >>>  into our cities to execute “observers”. IN AMERICA, “the land of the free, and the home of the brave” we will not let “them” execute us for being Americans! ~MeridaGOround // “Citizen-journalist”.

>>>EXCERPT, NYTimes: The nation’s founders worried that if the state had a monopoly on weapons, its citizens could be oppressed. Their answer was the Second Amendment. Now that our phones are the primary weapons of today’s information war, we should be as zealous about our right to bear phones as we are about our right to bear arms. To adopt the language of Second Amendment enthusiasts, perhaps the only thing that can eventually stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a camera. More than 25 years ago, the science fiction writer David Brin foretold this exact crossroads. In his 1998 book “The Transparent Society,” he painted two alternate snapshots of a futuristic city festooned with tiny, ubiquitous cameras. In one scenario, the government uses the devices to monitor residents in an Orwellian police state. In the other, citizens can look at the live footage from any camera to watch out for one another and to keep tabs on the police, resulting in a just and fair society. The difference between oppression and liberation, he wrote, is, “Who will ultimately control the cameras?” Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/opinion/minnesota-minneapolis-phone-ice-shooting.html .  MUCH LATER, from CNN:  The Veterans Administration investigates nurses and union members who attended vigils for nurse Alex Pretti.  https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/05/politics/va-investigation-vigil-alex-pretti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

!! MERRY HANUKKAH !! a book mention — Saving Jesus from the Church

by

FAIR USE, (1939 original recording) 
LET’s THINK.  Jesus was Jew-ish, sorta.  He was from Galilee (in what then had been Israel, to the north of Judea), which was a long way on foot to where the Temple of Jerusalem was situated.  There had been twelve tribes (“the children Israel” born of the patriarch, father Israel, meaning “God is in charge/God wins/God prevails”, who’s name had been changed from Jacob, meaning “he who overtakes” (his original name, for grabbing the ankle of his firstborn fraternal twin, Esau, trying to exit the womb, first, ahead of Esau)..
.
So, >>>fast forward>>>  this large clan of twelve tribes fled slavery in Egypt where they had gone many years earlier, due to famine. But after many centuries the only tribe remaining was known as the tribe of Judah (thus the name: “Jew”-da), after one of Jacob/Israel’s sons, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. History happens over time, rather than all at once. <wink>. .
.
Analogy: If my ancestors from Florida were born into the Seminole tribe, am I Seminole-ish, or am I Amerian-ish, or Euro-ish, after melding with the new neighbors?  Yeah, there is some tension between ancestry, identity, citizenship, origin-story. (Hey, we all came out of Africa and of course, Egypt is in Africa, so Jesus and you and I are Africans!)  So, was Jesus a Jew, or was he Jewish, or was he Galilean-ish, of the northern “state” of Israel, in the region also known as larger Palestine, where the various tribes of Jacob’s sons (and daughters)  settled?  The question “Who is a Jew?” shakes the earth yet today.  Perhaps a weightier question “Am I a Christian?” is in order..
.
And maybe (or not) you bought a Christian “insurance policy” offering “salvation” — just in case — “sold by” Blaise Pascal, the father of probability math?  “Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it!”
.
OR, Do I even need a brand, or coverage? —  “Am I a Christian?” – (a follower of “The Way”) because I admire and deeply desire to emulate the ethical teachings of Rabbi Jesus, of Nazareth — who said “the tree is known by its fruit”?  What identifies me? Am I merely tribal, or am I endeavoring to practice the teachings of this Patient Teacher?  Do I even have any fruit? .
.
This, my annual “Christmas greeting” was prompted by reading a book by a UCC pastor from Oklahoma, Dr.Rev. Robin Meyers, titled Saving Jesus from the Church. (You could take the free Kindle sample for a spin simply by clicking the Amazon link beneath their cover graphics.) .
.
Note: your Bible needs no energy beyond your own basic desire to think between the lines.  Reading this way, skeptically, and listening, it becomes a fountain of wisdom! “Turn your radio on!” It’s got power, if you’ve got appetite.
Photo by S.Abbas Raza, of 3QuarksDaily
Photo by S.Abbas Raza, editor/owner of 3QuarksDaily.com   Fair use.

¿¿ ARE WE THERE YET ?? (screenshot from the past : Epictetus, a stoic

by

 

Hwy. sign photo by Steve B Kennedy, FAIR USE.

A famous Stoic philosopher named Epictetus was a slave as a child but grew up to become tutor to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. One of his students wrote down E’s teachings, (available for free, here) many of which dwelt on the observation that desire and aversion are two sides of the same coin. (Not his words, but conceptually still with us today: “No matter how thin we slice the baloney, it still has two sides.”)  The so-called owner of the WhiteHouse Deli has his thumb on the scale, and is selling thin slices at top prices, which will cost America “bigly”. DOGE has demolished two centuries of carefully developed efficiency, saving nothing, but wasting huge amounts of global investment.