SCRUTINY-We are all on an ever-consuming conquest to confirm our beliefs. I have personally come to know the endless barrage of partiality launched upon my search for truth by "confirmation bias," but I’ve learned to recognize this natural enemy of intellectual growth, and I try to do my very best to defend against it. Confirmation bias is my mind's progress-nemesis, and I would love to completely destroy it, but human nature is difficult to contend with. Confirmation bias plays two central roles in our mind: 1)it falsely attributes small coincidences to larger notions of "design"(no, meeting up with an old friend on Facebook that you lost contact with years ago is a likely probability, not a miracle), and 2)it guides our information search to repeatedly "confirm" our pre-existing beliefs. This is why it's so important to take the necessary steps to recognize the way the human mind works. For instance, I believe in taking the time to actually read, research, understand, and ultimately give every opponent's claims a fighting chance to win over my support in a discussion no matter how hesitant I might be toward inspection. Somehow, I don’t feel that the favor is usually returned in many of my own experiences from debate, and I will attempt to explain why that is the case with the points ahead regarding human motivation.
I’ve written about reward-incentive before, and it deserves to be mentioned again because it explains human behavior quite well. If we look into the phenomenon of “faith,” it presents us with something important, and it is the following rather blunt statement: no matter what religion or God one may subscribe to, deeply imbedded behind all of the bull shit, lies something very revealing, REWARD-INCENTIVE. If I may borrow from Gordan Gekko's Wall Street speech, a human being's innate and insatiable drive of and for greed "captures the essence of evolutionary spirit," thus propelling people to believe because they simply expect to be rewarded in return for their praise. Believers expect to spiritually "evolve," and receive a divine "return on investment."
Would Islam and Christianity have over 3.5 billion followers if there wasn't the promise for a reward? I certainly don't think so, and quite possibly, religion wouldn't even exist if it weren't for the "heavenly compensation" that man so wishfully invented many years ago. This, in fact, tells us a great deal about the basis of belief in God. That it is fundamentally GREEDY. At the same time that religion fills our hopes with eternal promises, it also penetrates other areas of life as well. It masquerades as spiritual freedom, however it ultimately delivers its impeding control over its followers. No religion professes to give you something for nothing. Personal sacrifice is involved in some form or another. Whether it’s the surrender of your time, your money, your submission of will, your praise, or the control of your behavior, God requires an enormous sacrifice. Religion also plays another contemptible role in many lives, and this is possibly the saddest of them all: humans controlling other humans, and what better way to persuade the masses to your side than by delivering to them the harsh caveat of an eternal, fiery afterlife filled with anguish if they don’t “agree." (Such an obvious man-made angle used for manipulation and exploitation that is almost too embarrassing to admit that I once believed in.)
A few years ago, a question loomed in my thoughts that subsequently led to the expulsion of belief in God from my personal “theory of life,” and it was this: “Why do I believe in Jesus Christ?” Ask yourself this question, write down the answers (if you have any), and think about it. If you arrive at the place where I was, then you will realize that your belief in God stems primarily from four things: 1) You believe what your parents believe, or 2) believing in God provides you with what you think is an opportunity to live forever, or 3) belief in God in some way gives you "purpose," or 4) you think it's better to invoke Pascal's Wager and bet on God with "nothing to lose and everything to gain." (Looking back, I think #4 was my situation. In the deepest sense, I kind of thought a talking snake was silly, but I was too scared to question the Bible.) I suffered from an incredible suppression of imagination (which is definitely in line with what religion does to a child's mind because questioning the fundamentals of the Bible isn't exactly encouraged in Sunday school), and I held my belief in Jesus based upon three possible conclusions: the famous "liar, lunatic, or Son of God" proposition which is nothing more than a logical fallacy. A three-part false dilemma that fails to even list one very important possibility.....that Jesus Christ never even existed. (I would like to note that even if he DID exist, that doesn't prove he was God.) I was completely ignorant, like most are, to the fact that the most important books of the Bible, the Gospels, are not even first-hand witnessed accounts of Jesus.
No matter what you take from this (possibly with a grain of salt), I just ask this much: ask questions to yourself about your beliefs. Put them to an intellectually-honest test. Seek evidence. Learn about yourself, and most of all, EXPAND YOUR NOITANIGAMI/IMAGINATION. There are many paths to a wonderful, happy life here on this earth, and if you need a book to tell you that it's wrong to kill, then there's nothing anyone can do to help you. The philosophy I'm selling is freedom, not riches in Heaven, and I'm definitely not threatening you with punishment if you don't agree. If you think that you're simply "doubling down" on your wager then maybe you'll reconsider the odds that if there is a God, the probability that you're serving the right one is not very good at all. :0
"No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true." -Oscar Wilde
15 comments:
Wonderful!
Thanks Jason, good to see you on here, and I'm glad you liked it!!!
I still don't know where you expect this line of thought to lead. Why is it so hard to believe in something bigger? Are you saying that all the people that have existed before you, and have no doubt, pondered most of the questions you ask yourself, have been wrong? For thousands of years? Do you think that wisdom is a "New Product of Evolution"? Have good and wise men not lead us to this point in history? How is it that billions of souls throughout man's existence, have been so wrong?
Freedom? You are free to do the same thing you did yesterday/last week/last year. Do these thoughts really free you? From what? You're simply trading one set of beliefs for another. How is that setting you free? Now you're stuck thinking that your way is right, and everyone who believes that we have a soul is wrong. I don't see how that frees you from anything. You talk about being "Open Minded". To me that would involve always considering the other side. You have totally closed your mind to the possibility that we are part of something bigger. how does this free your mind? So what if the Bible isn't 100% accurate? It's the closest thing we've ever had to revealing the "Spiritual" side of things. If there is no spirituality, then how does that word, which is a symbol that represents something that people see or feel, even exist? How do "coincidences" just have such a random order. I'm sure there has to be some scientific explanation for that as well, right? Why do you have to have proof? Must everything be in black and white?
You say that others don't "research" their claims, in order to back them up. Have you ever read and studied the bible with anyone who may have more knowledge and understanding of it than you? Or is everything you base your new belief system on, simply based on what you were taught, at a little, small town, uneducated church? My life is a lab for study. Everyday I wake up and face the day, I put things to test. Abstract theories that I experiment with. With people around me, and various things that occur. I don't look to "Science" for the answers I seek many times. Sometimes it is necessary to use scientific method, but other times, science can't explain things. If the Bible doesn't make sense to you, which I believe is the case, maybe you should seek answers from people who have dedicated their lives to understanding it. Not some little rinky-dink, backwoods, church, that time forgot. It makes sense to me. But then again, so does science. Imagine that! I can believe in both! Does that make my mind more free than yours? Something to ponder, huh?
My entire blog is about freeing your mind! I don't see how you think I'm not open-minded? Just because I don't agree with someone that says they have a purple dinosaur in their closet doesn't mean I'm closed-minded. If I was truly closed-minded, I would have never converted from my families' handed-down Christian beliefs.
Anyway, why does there have to be some "grand plan?" The truth is, you WANT there to be a grand plan to give your life some greater "purpose" so you manipulate every fact you can get your hands on to conform to that plan while ignoring all evidence that opposes your theory of grand design. (That's my opinion.)
My line of thought hopefully leads people to quit worrying about making some invisible God happy and start focusing on the REAL living organisms in this world that actually feel pain. For people to quit telling other people they're going to Hell if they don't "choose God." Religion creates guilt where there should not be any. Of course a person should feel guilty if they murder someone, but feeling guilty about things like homosexuality or working on Sunday or saying "fuck" is absolutely ridiculous. You have the right to believe what you want, but when people tell my daughter she'll be cast into the Lake of Fire, we have a problem. My philosophy is based upon doing good for humanity without incentive. That's the greatest good there is. I don't need God to tell me I'll be rewarded by doing good. I believe humans should do good things regardless of whether they believe they are under "divine surveillance" or not. If you think there can't be morality without God, then you are telling me all atheists are bad people, and you'd probably be surprised by the prison statistics regarding the inmate's religious affiliations.
I don't manipulate anything. I simply call it as I see it. What if someone showed you the purple dinosaur in their closet? The truth of it is, there are many millions of people who don't have an ounce of morality. Come see me, I'll introduce you to a couple. God simply states that we are supposed to have morality. Where does the idea of morality come from? All the things you are throwing God out for, are the things that God says we should do. God says not to judge, so I don't care if someone says "FUCK", or "CUNT", or "COCK SUCKING BALL LICKING PIECE OF SHIT", or works on Sunday, which may or may not be the true sabbath. Or if a man wants to shove another man's member up his ass! It's irrelevant to me. People can do whatever they want.
I wish I COULD write the fact that there may be some sort of Grand Design totally off! It would be SOO much easier. When you look back at history, and the documented rise and fall of numerous civilizations, you have to ask: "What made them fall"? Could it have been the greed and politics of being immoral? possibly.
People that are solid in their FAITH don't worry about such things. I don't choose God because I think I'll go to hell if I don't. I choose him because he teaches us morality. Doing good for others is DIRECTLY form the teachings of the Bible. People choose not to do it, but that doesn't mean it's not in there. The alternative is the teachings of Lucifer. Who is just as beautiful now as the day he was cast out of heaven. Why wouldn't people believe him? He is a God to humans too. Like you said. "Just the wrong one". free your mind, and always consider the alternative, even though there may not be "Tangible Evidence". Science has yet to prove everything as well. Wait till it does before you put all your faith in science!
God says not to judge, yet he judges. I try to avoid hyprocrites.
He alone has the right to. He's bigger than us! If you think your way of thinking is so right, why is it so hard to convince some people otherwise?
Because people want to live forever, and they will go to great lengths to keep this belief intact. It's not the most convenient thing to discover that there probably is no God, but my philosophy is no matter how much you don't like the truth, it's still the truth.
Like I've asked before, what's my motivation? I guess atheists are just bad people that wanna run rampant and kill everybody and not be accountable! You know as well as I do that that is simply NOT TRUE! If it were, atheists would fill the world's prisons.
Concerning morals: Science has a lot to say about morality. The goal is to minimize pain and suffering for ALL LIFE on Earth. First and foremost human beings, then every other living organism. Science is "one-upping" God here in my views because I feel that life's worst disease is SUFFERING. You should check out Sam Harris' "The Moral Landscape." 285 reviews on Amazon and averaging a 4.5. (No, the ratings don't prove anything, but I just wanted to show that it's a very legitimate book to be taken into discussion.)
The Bible says "No living thing can avoid death" not your father, or your father's father, or his father, or your mother, or your mother's mother, or her mother." This is a TRUE statement. From the Bible! There are many others. "All the stars in the sky can never be counted." TRUE! How can the Bible also be full of truths? You're right. The truth is the truth. Most people who go to prison, just happen to find God AFTER they get to prison, and want to repent for what they have done. I was in jail for 2 1/2 days with MURDERERS a couple of years ago. Those people read the Bible everyday! I was thinking. "Isn't it a little late for that?"
I know that atheists are not all "bad people". But their absence of God's morality, opens them up to disregard any notion of what it is. The notion that all suffering can be avoided is absolutely ludicrous to me. If science could do that, it would still be at least YEARS before that would be possible. I don't think we have that much time. Why would you want to live forever? That would be so boring to me. I'm bored as hell now. I'm ready to see what awaits in the undiscovered country. That realm from which no man has ever returned. Pain and suffering are but temporary.
If your motivation is simply to be "Good to others", Why is it so hard to give God credit for that feeling? If you were truly atheist, why would you give a shit?
You said it yourself, "why would you want to live forever? That would be so boring to me."
So apply that idea to eternity and you'll understand me a lot better.
You said, "most people who go to prison, just happen to find God AFTER they get to prison, and want to repent for what they have done."
Oh, so most people are immoral, practical atheists when they commit their crime? I didn't know that.
You also said, "if your motivation is simply to be "good to others", why is it so hard to give God credit for that feeling?"
Because I believe that humans don't need God to be moral. (Like I've said many times.) Evidently, by your account, the only reason any type of "good" happens in the world is because God provided us with the "feelings" to do that "good." So without God, no one would do "good?" I guess a dolphin's altruistic behavior to save another animal from drowning is God's "morality" too? But wait, if a dolphin can do God's "good" than can't it also "sin?" Anyway, I believe altruism is accounted for quite nicely in evolutionary biology. It has it's "perks" to survival in some form or another.
Also, take the "gay gene." It has advantages that most people never even know about. You might be surprised if you look up the "Gay uncle" theory or the "sneaky fucker" theory. But God says homosexuals are bad, bad people. I'm sorry, but I think that's fucking ridiculous. Just as ridiculous as an all-loving God murdering innocent children with "The Great Flood" or Him throwing some of His children in the Lake of Fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_gene#Sexual_orientation_and_evolution
Well, since Dolphins are often considered "The second most intelligent species on earth". Why not? Maybe they know God too.
People may not be "Immoral" when they commit an act, but that doesn't make the act "Immoral"
What do humans need to be immoral then? Where does the difference occur?
Are you saying that anything you do can be considered moral? Why not include murder, lying and adultery? YOU draw the line for me. Apparently, you know as much as God!
Being "Gay" doesn't mean that you can't love someone. It is the "Un-natural" act of male on male sexuality that is the issue. I say un=natural in a sense that you. as an evolutionist, can greatly appreciate. How can a species "evolve" properly, if the laws of nature aren't followed?
The great flood was a "lesson". God was saying. VERY EARLY ON! "The way you puny humans are living is ALL WRONG! IMMORAL! I told you, if you continue down this road, you're gonna fuck shit up!!!! Why won't you listen? OK. Let me show you what I'm capable of, to let you know that I'm right, and you're wrong!!" "CAN YOU DIG IT NOW?? INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE BAGS OF MOSTLY WATER!!! I love you, but you need to listen" That's what God was saying with the flood!!!We're the ones in error!!!!! Not God!!!!! What is so hard to comprehend about that!!!??????
Was there a great flood? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Is Revelations real??
FUCK YES IT IS!!!
And EVERYONE!!! Not just you, better start STUDYING IT!!
God has never lied. There is nothing in the Bible, whether you have "irrefutable fact"or not, you CANNOT disprove!! Go ahead! Try!
Give me ALL the answers!! You have it figured out No-one else does! Lay it all out in brilliant scientific terms, the meaning of life! I want it all RIGHT NOW!!!! You know it!! SAY IT LOUD SO GOD AND EVERYONE CAN HEAR!!! Don't be shy!! Do it!!
You must be the "New Messiah" everyone's been looking for!!
Damn! How dumb could we all be?????
No, I cannot comprehend murdering one's children. There's no way around it, if you believe that "The Great Flood" happened (see link below), then God murdered His children for not obeying Him. And I thought we had free will? Free will is having the ability to choose something without being "guilted" or "threatened" into doing it. Avery can choose to call someone else "Daddy." It would hurt me very much, but I would never kill her for it or much worse, threaten her with ETERNAL TORMENT(just to teach my future children a lesson.) How much more IMMORAL can you get than that? No perfect, "supreme" Creator would be this way, therefore, it's highly unlikely to me that there is a GOD.
And regarding Revelation: if the world ends with nuclear war and a one-world government, why does it have to be "supernatural?" Could it not be self-fulfilling prophecy? What's sad to me is the fact that people get "excited" about devastating events in the world thinking God is coming back soon. "Ooooh, the tsunami in Indonesia killed 227,898 people, IT MUST BE A SIGN FROM GOD!" Fantastic!!! I'm sure in 1556 the people around the world thought Jesus was coming back after the Shaanxi earthquake killed 800,000 people. Or how about the Holocaust? Surely that was to be the return of Jesus?
I never claimed to have all of the answers, but that doesn't mean I can't write about my feelings and present others with my views.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090206-smaller-noah-flood.html
Ok. Well. Do your absolute best to convince everyone. Maybe you're right. Sure sounds like you have all the answers to me. Or you THINK you do. Who am I or anyone else to argue? I'm definitely not God, nor would I ever claim to know what he's up to. I know I believe, and that's good enough for me. From here on out, I will respectfully decline to give any more of my input. I look around at the world, and it all seems too real to me.
The thing is, as I've said, I was in the same spot you were at your age. My eyes have been opened. I used to tell people that it wasn't God that saved my son, when he almost died, but science. Even though there was a half a million dollars spent on his diagnosis, the doctors really didn't know what was wrong with him. Half a million, and they still couldn't figure it out. They never came up with anything definitive on what was wrong with him. These were the highest paid "Scientists" or Doctors in the state. Yet, he miraculously clinged to life, and pulled through. He has actually taught me alot about faith, believe it or not.
I don't know what else to tell you, except, I hope for all our sakes, you're right, and all I have come to know in my 38 years is dead wrong. Maybe that's where I'll put my faith now. I'm glad you figured it out for everyone! Love ya!!
Let me start with a verse
Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, -Matthew 4:5
and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you' and 'with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" -Matthew 4:6
Jesus said to him, "Once again it is written: 'You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.'" -Matthew 4:7
Now my turn. I was like you Jason always asking questions but not gettn answers. The problem was I wasn't gettn the answers I was looking for. All and all they were the answers tho. I grew up in a home where church and beliefs wernt talked about but every1 but me already knew. I had went to all types of religions churches looking for my calling. Mistical creatures and god with all these powers didn't make sense to me. Where's their bones I asked. If we can find millions of year old dinosaur bones why can't we find them?? Ive always believed in ghost, thnk I'm crazy but I kno for a 100% fact I've seen em nobody can tell me otherwise. Hell where I work now wich use to be a old casino in my basement where 15+ people where murdered I hear shit all the time but I'm the only one there. explain that.... Anyway.. A few years ago I still had no care for the bible a god until one day driving home drunk and some other drunk guy decided to walk out infront of my truck. Well I hit him doin 50mph and of course it killed him. I drove on home to tell my mom I love her and I'm calling the police cause I jus killed some1. My mind made it's self up without me even knowing it and did the right thng by not running and hiding but to face the fiddle. While sitting in jail wondering what was gonna happen cause I was facing 25yrs to life. I knew it wasn't my fault, tho I shouldnt of been drinkin and driving. But on the 3rd night wich was after I joined the other inmates that hold a church like session..... He came to me in my dreams and told me not to worry that I was gonna be takin care of. I prayed for forgiveness and so did all my friends for me. Well a few more days passedand quess what... I was freed. And every since then he still talks to me but now it's even while I'm awake! Sometimes I wonder if I'm just crAzy but I kno I'm not. I wasn't punished for my crime (sin of taking a life). But yet my soul and mind came together and were set free. sometimes i and others feel like i was let off too easy. but thas based off of this world. god must have a different plan for me... I look at life in a whole new way now. I know for a fact there's a god. His angels were watching over me and still are today. Jus recently I started reading the bible. I never could understand it b4 wich is why I never read it. Couldn't understand it all. My life is way better now with the exceptance of god. I don't go to church because I don't need them to tell me about him. I want to know him on my own in secret like the bible says. I'm now takin care of in life and pray every night wit my family. I also do things for people I use to never do. I help way more than I did b4. I love those who don't love back and I listen to those who don't listen to others. I've learned to take the good with the bad and the bad wit the good. Back to the ghost thing after reading in bible I seen where it says nobody has made it to heaven yet because they are waiting on gods return, so that he may chose who gets in. could that explain ghost sightings??
Religion is not crammed down ppls throat and threaded wit hell and the firey lake unless u let it. God forgives us for our sins long as we forgive others. It's not hard to believe unless ur tryn to hard. Let it flow. Revelations in the bible predict the end. Tells us how it's gonna end what's gonna happen not that god is doin it all himself or the fact of who is gonna do it. We all will die no matter what. Would enough nucs not cause great fires?? Also gotta think about all the man made stuff too. Look into it more on what humans can control like earthquakes, rain, sunshine, fire. If we can make small models in labs to test products or to figure out why's... Then why couldn't it be done on a grand scale. If you Don't believe then why in the bible it speaks of the mark of the beast in the right hand and now we have these chips they wanna implant on us in our right hands. U ever thnk that maybe humans could be acting out some of the the bible?? It says lucifer was condemned for 1000yrs to earth so could we not be living in hell right now and thas why it's so hard to survive and believe, could that be lucifer makin u thnk that way??? To be a non believer u must believe in SOMETHNG... Maybe lucifer has u right where he wants ya.... Like they said he was gonna destroy the bible witout burning it.. The bible has alot to offer for one who seeks answers. I'd say dig deeper young grasshopper
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