My Insightful Ignorance

I have no way of knowing much. I can only assume things are true more often than not. I make the effort to be honest in what I see and hear, however. I try not to spin things to my favor or to my shame.

God is real. Jesus is God. Jesus rose from the dead. He holds the keys to hell and death, as in no one can die or be damned without his authorization. The Shroud of Turin is real. The Prince of Peace by Akiane Kramarik is a portrait of what Jesus actually looks like.

It is irrelevant whether anyone agrees with me or not. They are not me. They do not hold their thoughts to the same standard, not even close. They learn rather than think, more often than not, and are indoctrinated accordingly. When they demand “evidence” they mean an “authorized” opinion. Your argument is supposed to be echoes of “credentialed” strangers.

Judging myself is the hardest thing to do. I must be willing to dislike or appreciate what I see, and honestly. I have judged myself. I shall not be judged.

I am sincere. I am compassionate. I am diligent. I am friendly. I generally distrust people but the world has proven me right. You shall never hear me say “I hate people” because I do not. I bother to notice when someone does something good, and I appreciate the goodness. I praise it. I do not admire strength or intellect. I am not contemptuous of weakness or ignorance. The best to me is the best one can do, not what is expected of them.

There is nothing I dislike about myself. I am naïve. I am confounded by some of the simplest things, especially regulations and technology. I am passionate about freedom and justice and may go to extremes to assure them. I am capable of cruelty. I can kill… and for reasons most people would consider unreasonable.

I am imaginative and creative. These are two things not of my spirit. They are of my nature. My humanity is sanctified by the Spirit, however. My imagination and creativity are sacred accordingly. They are expressions of my sincerity, compassion, diligence, friendliness and distrust. They are parables as art and fiction.

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The Divine Novel

Our reality is a fiction. It is real but as something imagined and created. The characters are alive and make their own decisions but within the plot of a story. The fiction is already written. It is currently being proof-read. Our moment in time is the page the reader is on.

I write fiction. I imagine and create. I have a basis of comparison for understanding what God is doing and why. He wants us to understand. He gave us the ability to figure it out.

People ask, “Why does God allow evil in the world?” and “Why does God allow the innocent to suffer?” and as a storyteller, I can answer the question.

The heroes are heroic because of the villains. The villainy is an evil that must be stopped or avenged. The innocent suffer or there is no point to the story. If there is no wrong to right then the action is meaningless. The bad is good in context.

Our favorite stories are scary or adventurous… or both. We enjoy comedy and romance but even these are especially interesting if in a context that is scary or adventurous… or both.

God allows evil in the world because it makes the story interesting. He allows suffering because it makes the villains especially villainous. Our reality ends with the triumph of good against evil. The victory is earned, not granted.

Sickly Souls

Evil is spiritual disease. Physical diseases came of it. The world was contaminated by sin and has been sickly since.

Original sin is congenital evil. It is your natural tendency to be lazy and cruel. If you live by your nature, the dust settles and the water grows stagnate. You die.

Jesus was born without original sin, as was Adam, our ancestor. Jesus was tempted, as was Adam. Jesus chose goodness, however, so developed an immunity. Adam chose sin, so became sick and died.

The blood is the life of the body. Jesus and Adam are of the same blood, quite literally. There is only one difference... and it makes all the difference. Adam contaminated his by sinning. Jesus did not. By shedding his blood, Jesus offered a cure.

Sin is not always contagious… but it is always unhealthy. It weakens the sinner.

A contagious evil is a plague that spreads across the world. It starts with individuals and ruins their personal relationships. It becomes societal. Entire cultures die out because of it. The world is dying because of it. The End is Nigh, indeed.

Choose Your Destiny

Everyone has a sense of good and evil. Even those who disbelieve in such distinctions act as if they actually do. They simply favor evil and refuse to admit it, even to themselves. They fear goodness, hoping there is a way to escape the consequences of acting against it.

People think to control what is good or evil by making the rules. Morality is replaced with honor, ethics and laws. Good and evil are supposed to be order and chaos or right and wrong instead.

Our sense of good and evil is not because of the rules, no matter the form the rules take. Our notions vary but not the reality. The certainty is when we are alone.

Darkness and silence is the moment of truth. Are you at peace… or restless?

I am blamed by the guilty and hated by the unfriendly. I am cursed for my blessings and condemned for my innocence.

In the darkness I am at peace. I bask in the silence. All are friendly for there is only me. All is good because it is only me. I am satisfied.

Heaven and earth languish. The inhabitants yearn and struggle. All of Creation groans. For all its cheap thrills and instant gratifications, there is never satisfaction. All is consumed and nothing comes of it. What little fruit is born is poisonous. What good deeds are done are like filthy rags.

You can burn hospitals and orphanages to the ground, with everyone in them. You can rape and murder children, even skin them alive. There is only one sin never to be forgiven, just one. According to the Truth himself, it is the worst of all others.

Why?

To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to curse goodness itself. A man speaks from the abundance of his heart. If he speaks against goodness, he is not merely making a mistake. His sin is not because of confusion or desperation or a moment of passion. He is evil at heart.

True Fiction

Our knowledge of the world before our time is based on hearsay and speculation. We are told what suits agendas. We learn misconceptions believing they are true.

Our knowledge of the world today is limited to our own experiences and what is claimed by other people. Our memories are faulty and biased. We hear from people trying to convince us what suits their agenda.

I am a writer of fiction mindful that perception is not reality. None of the characters truly know themselves or others. Their notions of their world are biased no matter their honesty. The same universe is very different from the perspectives of the various inhabitants.

My genre is usually action-adventure. When horror it is usually survival horror, a subgenre of action-adventure. The stories are usually struggles of good against evil.

The villains may not be as villainous as the heroes believe them to be. The heroes may not be as heroic as we would assume. This could be a matter of moral ambiguity. The point of a story may be to show that the world is not “black or white” but rather “shades of gray.”

There is no moral ambiguity. People are confused by their notions. They assume good and evil are matters of right and wrong as codified by law, scripture or unwritten rules. Their moral compass is honor or ethics rather than actual conscience.

I never vilify or glorify my characters. They speak their own minds. Their motives are personal. Readers typically confuse this with moral ambiguity. They assume I am cynical or nihilistic. On the contrary: I wholeheartedly believe in freedom and justice.

In my fiction, like in reality, people live according to their perspectives… but the truth is what it is regardless.

In the Mouth of Madness

Sutter Cane is a fictional character based on H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. He writes horror novels. His final book is about the end of the world.

In the movie In the Mouth of Madness reality is effected by the writing of Sutter Cane. His following has become a cult and is changing the world. The protagonist is an investigator who begins to wonder if the fiction is influencing reality directly.

I have read H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. I am familiar with the work of Sutter Cane accordingly. The idea that such an author is the high priest of a cult makes wonderful sense. Of course he is the writer of its unholy scripture.

The novels of Sutter Cane are weird and scary. They are about monsters and people turning into monsters. The protagonists are victims rather than heroes. The stories are about perception and reality. The supernatural is either madness or real… and is presumably real, driving people mad.

I write fiction. It is always weird and usually scary. It is about monsters who turn people into mindless thralls. The protagonists are heroes and normal people are their usual victims. The stories are about perception and reality but as the distinction between what is taught and what is actually witnessed. The supernatural is real.

I was inspired by the movie In the Mouth of Madness. I watched it just before midnight on May 15, 2025 and finished after midnight, May 16, 2025. I shall write my own fiction, turning what I liked into a survival horror adventure.

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Underlings of the People

Are the foot soldiers of villainy the people of their boss… or not? The underlings are expendable either way but there are distinct connotations to consider.

Humans are social creatures. We are more apt to get along with the people most like us. We understand each other if we are alike. There are inevitable misunderstandings if we are unlike. Our goals are different if our values are different.

The villains are nasty if they expend people of different races and ethnicities… but they are especially villainous if they expend their own. Our feelings for strangers are impersonal, no matter our compassion. Diversity is people as strangers. If the lives of our own are cheap, the lives of others are worthless.

A boss may be viewed with suspicion if he is of a different race or ethnicity than his underlings: A Jew hiring Catholics for a heist or a German commanding Ukrainians in the SS, as examples. He may be revered instead, however: A dark elf commanding orcs or a demon commanding human cultists, as examples.

It does matter whether a villain is of the people of his underlings or not, for better or worse. It does color their relationship. It should factor in the story.

I write fiction. My thematic specialty is the foot soldiers of villainy. The characters are sometimes the people of their boss… and sometimes not. My choice is a matter of storytelling. It is a layer of depth for an aspect of fiction that is usually flat. I am glad I bother. My work is better for it.