It's crazy to think about the fact that most of the world grew up with the Christian/Zoroastrian idea of the dualistic devil. To think about the consequences of that dualistic belief is difficult, but here's what I see: When you believe in two opposing cosmic forces battling it out, you externalize evil. "The devil convinced me to do it". Evil becomes something out there attacking you, not something you're responsible for navigating. And when hardship comes, there's no meaning to find. It's just bad. The enemy won this round. No lesson, no growth. Just senseless suffering. This makes everything more extreme, more hopeless. You're not being shaped, you're being attacked. Add cheap grace on top. Sin, confess to Jesus, repeat tomorrow. Where's the pressure to actually become better? But in a monotheistic beleife, hardship becomes something else entirely. A loving father educating his son. An act of love. Painful, yes. But it propels you forward. It refines you. It means something. Dualism robs people of that. It leaves them swimming in darkness instead of growing through it. What do you guys think, did I get it right? (A photo of the persian devil below)

What a moron:

For the first time in 100 years, Ottawa is planning for prospect of an attack from southern border. Canada's armed forces have created a model to prepare for the possibility of US invasion after Donald Trump said he wanted to annex its territory. The idiot wants to take over Canada whose land mass is bigger than the US and make it just another state. In addition he chides Russia and China for grabbing other countries to grow, but it is OK for him to do worse.

It honestly makes me lose a tiny bit of my will to go on when I see content creators do an excellent job of dismantling Islam but then turn around and say that homosexuality is a sin deserving of eternal punishment. This belief is quintessential homophobia and we need to stop letting people get away with it. I’m glad that religious creators are taking Islam on in a robust way, but there is simply no excuse for the belief that homosexuality is an “abomination “. We need to call this out vehemently whenever we see it. I’m not seeing any real pushback on this and to say that this is disturbing is an understatement. Let’s do better.

I was remembering that they can't go to hospitals, out of fear - and with the chemical attacks, and other injuries - I downloaded about 80 offline PDFs they could use to learn first aid, triage, CPR and other things that might help them. I even found a couple books that talk about native Persian medicine using herbs. I also found some books about chemical warfare/response and responding to bomb threats, etc Some are combat military manuals, some are just survival...found some manuals for helping with pregnancy and infants, pediatrics, etc. A book that helps with dealing with trauma/ptsd type issues after events like Iran is going through. If we could send it to someone, maybe they could share it with the right people so there's more knowledge on how to do triage, first aid and help people with it. I included the herbologies because people in these situations could be taken down by the stupid flu. And a simple tea to help with fever or learning how to keep someone hydrated or not puking could help immensely. In Chicago, when I lived there, a lot of people who do get shot are in areas not close to any trauma center and they end up dying. So a rogue group of people starting teaching others how to do triage on the street to save lives - and I was thinking it might be nice for Iranians to have access to these manuals in cases of emergencies. I even found some other survival books that were cool, some older, some newer. I included English and Persian Art of War books. Steal this Book. Guerrilla Warfare books. A book on how to make hiding places in your home. Solar techniques for certain foods, like jerky...self defense, etc. Maybe it's not even possible to share them or maybe they don't need them at this point, let me know what you think. I tried emailing Armina and Goldie, but I know they are busy and might not get to my messages.🙂 @Armin Navabi