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BearPascal

@bearpascal.bsky.social
129 followers 133 following 702 posts

Knicks, Islanders, Mets, Napoli, the light of Islam, and world communism

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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 22h
I love Ilya Sorokin
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 23h
HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICTOR EKLUND
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Miracles of Ahlulbayt Vol. 2 by Sayyid Hashim Bahrani
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Hutton says in his introduction to the Xunzi that this position on ritual not having supernatural efficacy would “sound strange to a modern ear” but I think religious modernists of various stripes would completely agree with this understanding of religious ritual.
“It is noteworthy that in focusing on these social and psychological effects of ritual on both the ritual practitioner and those around him, Xunzi rejects the idea that rituals have any supernatural powers. For instance, Heaven was regarded by many in early China as a deity with awareness, intentions, and a tendency to intervene in the world to reward the virtuous and punish the vicious. In keeping with such a view, some rituals sought to enlist Heaven’s aid or avoid its wrath. Xunzi, however, espouses an understanding of Heaven as much more like what we might call ‘Nature,’ namely an impersonal force in the world that is responsible for various phenomena and does not react to human virtue or vice, or supplication. Hence, human performance of rituals can have no power to affect Heaven, and Xunzi takes a similar view of other rituals that purport to influence other beings such as ghosts and spirits, about whose existence he seems skeptical. While not believing in the supposed supernatural efficacy of such rituals, neither does Xunzi advocate abandoning them. Rather, in his view they are to remain part of the practice of even cultivated people, whom he expects to understand that the rituals lack supernatural efficacy but are still valuable for their psychological and social effects. Thus, though it may sound strange to a modern ear, Xunzi presents ritual practice as involving ‘a sophistical form of pretending’ (as one scholar nicely puts it) that is undertaken neither for the sake of deceiving the self or others nor for the sake of manipulating supernatural forces, but rather for the ways in which it can structure, beautify, and even elevate human life.”
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Love the hometown remix design
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
🧹🧹🧹🧹
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Sacred Unity: On the Inseparability of the Qur’an, Mysticism, and Logic by Allamah Hassanzadeh Amoli
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Reading a book on mysticism and logic and came across this interesting hadith:
“It is reported in some supplementary sources that ‘Amr ibn al-‘Āş came to the Messenger of G-d (s.a.w.) from Alexandria and he asked him about what he saw in Alexandria. He said: ‘O Messenger of G-d! I saw people wearing cloaks and gathering in circles, mentioning a man called Aristotle - may G-d curse him!’ He (s.a.w.) said: ‘Stop, O ‘Amr! Aristotle was a prophet whom his people did not recognize.’”
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
The Gospel of Thomas seems to contain something that looks a lot like the esoteric Shi’i view of the Imams. Interesting to see that idea was somewhat active in some early Christian communities.
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
The Masnavi, Book One by Jalal al-Din Rumi
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Read a very interesting article on how the Quranic account of the end of Jesus’s ministry may be responding to the anti-Passion narrative in the Toledot Yeshu and found this funny bit. al-Tabari citing the opinion that Jesus was not actually crucified, but instead it was some guy named Yeshua…
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
pbs.twimg.com/profile_imag...
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
The prophecy
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
LGI!!!
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
WE’RE SO BACK
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
SoroKING with his 27th career shutout
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
The Conference of the Birds by Farid Attar
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
LET’S GO ISLANDERS! SOROKIN AND HOLMSTROM STOLE THAT WIN!
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
I’m an Israeli psychiatrist and this is my patient
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The Egyptian Amduat
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
OFTEN IMITATED, NEVER DUPLICATED!!! THANK YOU SOROKIN!
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Layla and Majnun by Nezami Ganjavi
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
I’ve only had Matthew Schaefer for half a season, but if anything happened to him I’d really do it. Thank you for the win king
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
New book thread for 2026. First book of the year: Phèdre by Jean Racine
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Misery
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
BIG SAVE DAVE
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
OFTEN IMITATED, NEVER DUPLICATED. LGI! FTR!
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
We deserved to lose that game. GG Red Wings
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
BRITISH UNION OF FASCISTS SWEPT! THANK YOU HABS!
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
OFTEN IMITATED, NEVER DUPLICATED! NEW YORK ISLANDERS BABY! WE’RE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE AND WE’RE COMING FOR EVERYBODY! AND WHATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THE NEW YORK ISLANDERS RUN WILD ON YOU BABY!
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
THANK YOU HABS
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
BRITISH UNION OF FASCISTS DOWN
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Isles just beat the best team in the league 6-3 baby LGI
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
That’s right
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Thankfully they didn’t play horribly tonight. GG Isles
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
He tried to destroy the text, but was stopped by people who thought he had gone mad. This was the vision:
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Fucked up
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
120 Days of Sodom but it’s just about this guy
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke
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BearPascal @bearpascal.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
The Zhuangzi
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