facing reality
Insanitybytes gives some food for thought when she challenges our perceptions of reality in her latest post. I think she’s correct to state that “in an instant, your entire perception of reality can change”. Our experiences are limited, our understanding is flawed and our brains are fragile and poorly understood organs. Nevertheless, I would struggle to ever come to the conclusion that as a result of all this we should “put our faith in Someone much higher than ourselves”.
The aptly named Insanity suggests that as a result of our limited understanding, it makes sense to structure our lives around belief in the most popular religion of our culture, which thanks an invisible super-being for everything ‘good’ and blames us humans for everything ‘bad’.
So, the question remains, in the face of accepting that our perceptions of reality can shift so easily, why on earth would it make sense to base our core world view around something we can’t see but can only imagine? The answer is obvious – we can control our perceptions of any imaginary friend/god and make this perfect being stay stable in whatever imagined ‘reality’ we create for it.
I now understand one of the huge attractions of these invisible deities. In a world of disappointment, confusion and change, the invisible deities created by humans provide a much needed sense of stability, protection and, most importantly, reliability.
I think it provides an excuse to pass the buck for personal responsibility. It’s not my fault, God had pre-ordained it and s/he, Ooops he, monotheism is misogynist, I forgot, loves us all anyway and Jesus will save us if we open our hearts and follow the True Path like lemmings.
Or something like that.
I though IBs post was very silly. Of course things change, the only constant is change, or whatever the maxim. And accordingly we learn from the change and adjust not just our perception, but our behaviour too.
Life is not easy, but thinking that it is worth trudging through for the idyllic paradise in the happy ever after land devalues the short lives we lead.
Hope you are well and bébé too, at whatever stage s/he is at.
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I can sort of see the attraction. It’s just like that imaginary pink dragon benevolently looking out for us all – feels fuzzy and warm, all cosily childhood-like before the shifting perceptions of the real world kick in. I totally agree that religion devalues our short lives.
We’re well, hope your ankle’s doing a bit better.
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The old saying “God didn’t create man, man created God” sums up your thoughts. I couldn’t agree with you more if I tried 🙂
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I’m just increasingly stunned it’s not more obvious to the educated masses. I want to understand how the pincers can get so deep.
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In an instant your entire perception of reality can change. Everything you think you know about a person can disappear in an instant. Everything you thought you knew about politics, history, people, about the nature of your existence, about the world around you, gone.
But that is reality. Just because we don’t know everything we’d like to know doesn’t mean there’s some other dimension out there. It doesn’t mean there’s more than here and now. I guess it is somewhat of a comfort to believe there is something more powerful at work that is in control of all of this. To me it’s a bit disconcerting. There’s someone/thing that is in control of all of this and this is the best they can do? Not so comforting.
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“There’s someone/thing that is in control of all of this and this is the best they can do? Not so comforting.” Oh yeah, but then when you weave in a story that badness isn’t the Powerful One’s fault, you can see how it’s catchy … can’t you?
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Bingo. All gods (ethereal overlords, observers, helpers, judges) are a crisis-response mechanisms to the root: fear. In itself, this is why religion is a dangerous retardant to progress. The religious do not participate in reality; they have excused themselves from actively finding solutions to human problems by differing responsibility onto invisible plans. This notion literally empowers the theist to function from behind a curtain, ignoring the conversations which must be had if we’re going to survive this human adventure.
Believe what you like, but if you choose to believe in supernatural interventionism then you should be politely excluded from the arena of human decision making.
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Fear is the key, Mr Christian.
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The Great Motivator. You either run faster than it, and be progressive, or cower before its stately reality, and end-up talking to the sky like a frightened fool.
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Alternatively you could forget all that and lust after the young and handsome Marlon Brando. Well, I could, maybe not you.
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A young Brando? Oh, I’d do him… If he bought me dinner first.
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Young Brando here. Older Partner also, but slightly less obese than old Bradon.
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Holely!
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Of course. We always aim to be wholly holely or holey. Perhaps not holy.
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I think that’s a perfectly viable option. 😀
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“if you choose to believe in supernatural interventionism then you should be politely excluded from the arena of human decision making.”
Hum, ha, I know what you mean but it’s unrealistic and makes you place your idea of reality above everyone else’s … which unfortunately makes you just like them. I think atheists have to pull back from those kind of statements because it damages making true progress in getting rid of out-dated religious notions.
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Bah. I did say “politely excluded.” One must always be civil.
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Man! Those are some unrealistic expectations.
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Which ones?
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The one’s she feels have been violated.
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“the invisible deities created by humans provide a much needed sense of stability, protection and, most importantly, reliability.”
One can readily see this phenomenon in the evolution of the Judeo/Christian religion – it goes from a single, all-powerful deity, to a trio of problem-solvers, to an entire gaggle that includes Mama Mary, a bevy of angels and a slew of saints to protect us.
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Exactly Arch. I read 3 articles yesterday discussing this very subject. Had Christianity not adapted it would have put a lot of people out of business. In the U.S., the Catholic Church rakes in approximately 170+ billion annually. Only 2.7 percent goes towards charity. To put that in perspective, fiscal 2012 — Apple had $157 billion in revenue.
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Did you have a chance to look at the link I posted?
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Excellent article Arch. Reminded me of a recent study I read that pretty much predicted what the outcome decision of the SCOTUS would be regarding contraceptives — that the more the public and medical community tried to enlighten the conservatives justices (no matter the facts) the greater likelihood of them ruling in the opposite direction, which they did.
From your article:
“When someone tries to correct you, tries to dilute your misconceptions, it backfires and strengthens them instead. Over time, the backfire effect helps make you less skeptical of those things which allow you to continue seeing your beliefs and attitudes as true and proper.”
Does this remind you of a certain someone? 😉 Count her as one of those who will not embrace the data. After, what? — 5000+ comments, she’s no further along than she was at the start. Some people you just know are not reality material. “Tis why I got out of the debate.
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Heathen. You trying to say my guardian angel doesn’t exist? Pray tell, just who then finds all my stunning parking spots, huh?
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“it goes from a single, all-powerful deity, to a trio of problem-solvers, to an entire gaggle that includes Mama Mary, a bevy of angels and a slew of saints to protect us.” That’s worth quoting!
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*jumps up and down waving to Violet*
So happy to see you. 😀
I can relate to your post…been there, done that. In his “terror management theory” psychologist Tom Pyszcynski advocates that people need to delude themselves to survive. I read an interesting book by psychologist Cordelia Fine — “A Mind of its Own: How Your Mind Distorts and Deceives”. She states that magical thinking has historically been a necessary delusion.
Scientific American did an editorial review on the book. An excerpt:
“Fine documents the lengths to which a human brain will go to bias perceptions in the perceiver’s favor. When explaining to ourselves and others why something has gone well or badly, we attribute success to our own qualities, while shedding responsibility for failure. Our brains bias memory and reason, selectively editing truth to inflictless pain on our fragile selves. They also shield the ego from truth with “retroactive pessimism,” insisting the odds were stacked inevitably toward doom. Alternatively, the brain of “selfhandicappers” concocts nonthreatening excuses for failure.
So “pigheaded” is the brain about protecting its perspective that it defends cherished positions regardless of data. The “secretive” brain unconsciously directs our lives via silent neural equipment that creates the illusion of willfulness.”
I wholeheartedly agree with Ruth. If there is something in control of all this, I’m not impressed.
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magical thinking has historically been a necessary delusion
This is why we have to get off this rock and into space in a meaningful way. It really is the only thing that’s going to crush these terrestrial-borne (necessary) delusions.
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John, we may need to come up with an anti-delusion vaccine for those who do make it off this rock. Delusion is not only adaptive, but, as you know, Nature rewards adaptive behavior.
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Let’s trust (hope) that space itself will be the vaccine. Hell, the first alien species we encounter will spell the end of all ancient religions.
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LOL — so true, John. That is if people can get past their fear of the Other, and not pull out every weapon in an attempt to destroy the aliens who are different than them. I do think these aliens, if they exist, haven’t made themselves known to us for a reason.
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“it defends cherished positions regardless of data” That’s so interesting and useful to know, but ultimately kind of depressing – we must be just as bad as the deluded religious folks in our own ways. We really need some aliens to come in and give us their objective opinion (assuming their brains aren’t as protective as ours).
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This is true to a point, Violet, but Fine also states that having self-awareness is key in helping us manage distortions of reality. What is also key is using science, the scientific method and other disciplines of knowledge to assist in weeding out these distortions—to lessen the harmful effects of the brain’s various shams, exposing unconscious mental influences.
For me, the biggie was learning about the various mind/brain altering techniques the religious hierarchy uses on unsuspecting, trusting believers. Techniques that have gradually become more and more effective over the centuries, especially in the last two hundred years.
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“….which thanks an invisible super-being for everything ‘good’ and blames us humans for everything ‘bad’….”
Kind of an interesting word, “blame” because it goes right to shame which comes from pride, which is pretty much what original sin was all about. Pride is what makes our hackles rise when somebody suggests we’re bad. That shame button is actually not a position of strength, but rather of weakness and defensiveness.
So, in the very act of denying that God is good and all powerful and humans are not, we somehow manage to show that humans are weak, defensive, and full of shame. There must be some fancy word that describes this kind of thing, but it eludes me. What’s the term for while being in the very process of proving your theory, you disprove your theory?
“..why on earth would it make sense to base our core world view around something we can’t see but can only imagine?”
Why believe in the wind? We can’t really see it, only it’s impact on the things it encounters. Why believe in atoms? We can’t see them either. How about even more invisible “imaginary” things like hope or love? Why base your core world view around the concept of love, something we can only imagine?
Kind of a sad little truth in the world, but there are people who wall themselves off from love so tightly, that even when you throw evidence of it at their feet, they cannot see it. The only way they can ever see the proof right in front of them, is to first imagine that it is possible.
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Before you continue,you must first establish the existence of this god.
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it would be better to start with what god is, maybe then she can tell us if god is
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“Why believe in the wind? We can’t really see it, only it’s impact on the things it encounters. Why believe in atoms? We can’t see them either. How about even more invisible “imaginary” things like hope or love? Why base your core world view around the concept of love, something we can only imagine?”
Oh dear, on a hunch I googled your ‘ideas’ here and see it’s standard Christian argument fare. Seriously? Things we have labelled that we can measure, that we can manipulate that we can observe effects of beyond any doubt, are comparable to a shifting description of an invisible superpower that has never been observed to affect anything? (I’ll qualify that to state that it has never been observed to affect anything beyond that of chance, natural circumstances or hoax.) And then you go on to name ‘hope’ and ‘love’ – ideas that we have randomly labelled because we have a common understanding of them – but are abstract concepts that actually don’t independently exist . Up your game, Insanity! 😉
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You googled what? LOL, standard Christian argument fare? You mean you’ve discovered something consistent among Christians? Given the frequency that Christians often disagree with each other, I’m surprised you managed to find something “standard and consistent.”
“…an invisible superpower that has never been observed to affect anything? (I’ll qualify that to state that it has never been observed to affect anything beyond that of chance, natural circumstances or hoax.)…”
Well, if God and faith has never been observed as having ever affected anything, than what’s the problem? Why would you invest so much time in trying to claim He doesn’t exist if He doesn’t affect anything? The truth of the matter is that you believe He affects a great deal of things, perhaps negatively, hence all your efforts to frown on faith and belief.
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insanitybytes22
Can you give me a single, unambiguous example of something the god you believe in has affected?
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“Well, if God and faith has never been observed as having ever affected anything, than what’s the problem? Why would you invest so much time in trying to claim He doesn’t exist if He doesn’t affect anything?”
We’re only discussing the effect of invisible deities because you were comparing them (or yours in particular) to wind or hope or love. I pointed out that was absurd. The invisible gods don’t affect anything, but the people who claim to be guided them have a tendency to make poor decisions – look at what Isis believe their god wants in the Middle East and the horrors it’s making there, look at what many Western Christians believe their god wants and the pain it’s causing for the homosexual community, look at endless wars through history caused by people who believe their invisible gods support them and no-one else. Do you think all these invisible gods genuinely affected all these people? No, you only think your invisible god is causing a genuine effect. I’m sorry, but it’s ludicrous to look at history, to look at every society in the world and conclude that your ‘evidence’ is real but their gods are fake – especially given that the evidence all of you have cannot be independently verified. Seriously, does it not tell you anything?
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“…look at what Isis believe their god wants in the Middle East and the horrors it’s making there, look at what many Western Christians believe their god wants and the pain it’s causing for the homosexual community..”
How can I possibly reason with somebody who compares the mass slaughter and executions going on in the ME, to the disapproval some Christians express towards homosexuality?
Also, everything you say is proof of faith having an impact on the world, you just seem to believe it’s a negative impact. If people’s faith can have a negative impact, why can’t it also have a positive impact? Regardless, the fact that it has an impact at all, means it is a real thing, like the wind or hope or love. So comparing faith to those things is not so absurd after all.
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@insanitybytes22, yes, faith is a real thing. It affects people, and good willing people find good motives from the faith they hold just as selfish people find evil excuses from their faith. Regardless of what religion that particular faith happens to be. The problem is, that good willing people do not need such motivation, like religious scriptures, to do right, but sometimes selfish people manipulate the good willing people very effectively by the alledged authority of a god to do evil stuff – however, no gods (including yours) ever interfere. Why? Because they are disinterrested, they can’t, or because they do willingly sanction all the evil done in their name?
If you think the evil done by ISIS is not comparable to the “disapproval some Christians express towards homosexuality”, then tell me, how different is the action done by ISIS to the actions done by Christians when they weilded equal power in society to that of ISIS. Like the “holy” Inquisition, crusades (against pagans, infidels and what do you know – other Christians). These were all conducted with the greatest and most sincere faith in their justification by your god. The only reason why you get to say, the harm done to homosexuals is not comparable, is only because of rampant secularism in western countries, that has tied the hands of Christianity as a result of events like the thirty years war, that showed us westerners the end result of acting on religious motives in this very real world.
The “disapproval” you refer to causes actual observable harm for no real reason, other than that “some Christians” think they have to act out their god’s will, because the god itself seems totally unable to do so. But even so, it was not that long ago when Christians were acting their faith out as the KuKlux clan in your country, and it was not so different from what the ISIS is now doing. Was it?
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“If people’s faith can have a negative impact, why can’t it also have a positive impact?”
Faith based on a fairy tale, is nothing more than that.
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Fairytales help us to believe in things that can’t always be immediately seen. Until recent modern Western society, human beings spent most of their time learning about the world around them from myths and legends.
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“the fact that it has an impact at all, means it is a real thing, like the wind or hope or love. So comparing faith to those things is not so absurd after all.”
You were comparing the existence of your god to the existence or wind or hope or love – not faith. Faith in the benevolent purple dragon overlord exists, I’m not disputing that faith in any imaginary being is real for many people, and that their faith in whatever superstition they pick up along the way affects their behaviour. I’m saying it’s unreasonable to think that your imaginary being actually exists, just because you’re another person whose behaviour or life is affected by having faith in something that doesn’t exist.
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Good post Violet,man creates his gods in his image. The more savage the man is, such is his god. Look at the god of the Hebrews, all jealous angry and blood thirsty compare with the god of the civilized Greek. The Greek gods are democratic and are modeled around their best men or highest ambitions.
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So true. And it’s interesting how the most successful gods can be portrayed in a variety of ways to appeal to a broader audience with different traits through different times and cultures. The Allah of war-torn dictatorships is so different to the Allah worshipped by the majority of Western Muslims. The Christian god of liberal social countries bears little resemblance to the gun-loving Bible belt of the USA.
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And one wonders don’t believers see these things or are they so convinced by what they believe to see that they create their gods in their own image?
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Good post Violet, and an exquisitely beautifull fly. Yes, I agree with you, that Insanity is right when she states that: “in an instant, your entire perception of reality can change”. This is only natural, as we do not know what we do not know. Same applies to any intelligent being.
The problem with absolute truth is that it is impossible to reach. Even a god who thought itself to be all-knowing could not possibly know wether that is really true or not. If that god made a claim to know everything, then it was either being disingenious, or deliberately lying. There could always be some external information, that when revealed to this god who relied on knowing everything, changed the perspectives of that god totally.
The tricky part is where you point it out. If Mr. Hitler thought that god had given him instructions to conquer Europe and rest of the world, who are we to assume this was not a real enough experience for him? It is equally possible, that he made the claim up, or that he was exactly as mad as so many other people mostly found in insane asulyms to whom the experience of a god talking to them, is real enough for them to believe it. The problem of religiousness appears when other people take their word for it, regardless wether if it was made up or just madness. I mean, one would think, that in a sane secular western society, a politician who publishes a book where he claims to have had instructions from the god of Christianity to conquer the world, would have had his political career over. But alas no. Hitler went on to become the most idolized Christian leader of Germany ever. And we do have similar loonies even from our own day. Like W who had similar instructions from a god to go to war, that has now blown out of proportions, even if his own country won, lost, got tired of it and retreated.
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It’s depressing that people can still think they are receiving instructions or guidance from any kind of invisible being. Why would they not look to the obvious conclusion of loose wiring?
And thanks for the picture praise – much appreciated! You’ve always been my best blogging buddy. 😀
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That is a relief to hear. As soon as I had posted my comment, I got worried, that you and your readers might find me weird for complementing the beauty of the fly rather than the flowers on wich it sits on. Finding someone weird, influences how we percieve their thoughts, I am affraid. But best be honest – I like the fly better. 🙂
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