⚡AIP 102 God, Poetic Video Narrative, And Poetry
This week I:
- ⚡Wrote an article on why I respectfully don't believe in God
- 🪶Started writing a poetic narrative video script
- ✍️Wrote more poetry
Why I Respectfully Don't Believe In God
Any reader of this newsletter knows I have a conflicting relationship with Christianity.
I grew up in a small rural town with three Christian churches under atheist parents. I’ve seen all sorts of Christians from those who take everything in the Bible literally, to those with hearts so full they have a gravitational force, to those who treat it more like a hobby they get back into every few months.
I have a deep deep respect for Christianity and many religions. I resonate with the values underlying lots of religions like not murdering people (except in video games). I have great religious friends. I've dated a Christian woman. I'll even admit I sometimes find atheists to be more stubborn and irrational in their arguments than Christians; Atheism and science itself can become their own religion.
Just as believers must learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for the faith behind their reasons.
That’s why I wrote this article. I wanted to help both religious and non-religious people appreciate the other side more. At the end of the process, even if you remain the skeptic or believer you have been, you will hold your own position with both greater clarity and greater humility.
You can read the article here.
Poetic Narrative Video Script
Ever since getting into poetry and watching more of Exurb1a's videos, I've wanted to make a video that is entirely a poetic narrative.
So I am.
I'm not going to spoil too much of what it's about, but here's the premise: what if humans outsourced relevance making to a infinitely more intelligence quantum AI in the hopes it would save us from our own biases?
Poem: I Want To Help People
By Aidan Helfant
I want to help people.
So I dive into the fungal forest of knowledge.
My understanding grows vast as souls in a temple.
Isolated, I devour texts hoping one day I'll be an example.
Days pass, I exit, spotting a passing stranger in a cottage.
I want to help people.
Walking up I greet them, hoping my wisdom will ripple.
By the first word they speak, I've mapped the entirety of their knowledge.
My understanding grows vast as souls in a temple.
Nothing to learn here I think, excusing myself to weeks more in my temple.
Exiting again I see an old friend from college.
I want to help people.
Walking up I meet them, hoping this time for my wisdom to be an example.
From their first word, their mind tastes thin as watered porridge.
My understanding grows vast as souls in a temple.
Excusing myself again, I leave months more the world of people.
Upon exiting, I see a starving child unacknowledged.
I want to help people.
Food in hand I greet them, thinking the right thing simple.
Only to find I can't empathize, my heart held by the weight of my knowledge.
My understanding grows vast as souls in a temple,
This time not in the boredom or drabness of others,
But in the sickness of seeing oneself as above ones brothers,
For while vast knowledge and skills may mark a gifted mind,
It grants no right to leave humanity behind.
If helping others requires I sludge through small talk,
And once in a while exit from the fungal forest I walk,
If I must trade profound thoughts for weather and sports,
learning to find wisdom in simple reports,
If connection means meeting each soul where they stand,
Not dragging them up to my heights by the hand,
Living the loneliness of a brain that won't turn off,
Than so be it.
Because after all,
I want to help people.
💡My Best Insights:
P.S. Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links.
📺Series - Arcane: The second season of this show just came out on Netflix and it's wild. Betrayal, grimdark humor, morally grey characters galore, and more. This is a piece of art when it comes to storytelling and you must watch it.
📺YouTube Video - Why Can't We Find Meaning Anymore? Explores how our propositional knowing bias, a difficulty replacing religious moral order, and more are creating a meaning crisis as well as what we can do to navigate it.