Thursday, March 30, 2006
Spiritual Addicts
I'm going to place the further anaylsis of the Iraqi War on hold for a posting. Not to imply that I don't feel that war is a burning tragedy that be roasting our national soul alive every second that we impotently sit by and do nothing to resolve it - since the will of the people to prevent that obvious foreign relations fuck up was unsuccessful, now we must all work to resolve it - yet my mind is drifting in another direction. What can I say, I'm a twentieth century, digital boy. Distraction is a playground in my soul.
Yesterday I had an interesting experience at the workplace. We were listening to NPR (I know, I know, I never cease ripping on those ball-less 'journalists', but sometimes it can serve as a fair 'middle ground' for the workplace.) Anyhoo, I was amazed to hear a banal 'debate' between an atheist professor and a 'christian' one. To my further amazement, within minutes of turning the radio on that boring moderator made reference to Bart Ehrman's latest book, Misquoting Jesus. "Holy Shit," I exclaimed, "I just read that book yesterday." Then a few minutes later, Phillips and his book on American Theocracy was referenced. "Well, fuck me running," I again ejaculated, "I just finished that book this morning."
There is another point to that paragrab besides my effortless existence at the cutting edge of our modern cultural dialog. There is a secular push back being seen in the society against the radicalization of religion. I've now heard five atheists on any sort of mass media in my entire fucking life - and I'm an atheist, so I tend to pay pretty close attention to my own kind. I'd say Phillip's book represents a major glove being thrown down by the established powers against the evags, and NPR's willingness to touch the topic (cuz they won't touch any topic that ain't green-lighted from on high after the castrations they've suffered in the last four years) show us something of that trend.
I'm all for it. I'm totally willing to be a partisan hack, a loyal soilder, the man who takes point on this expedition into enemy territory.
Let me launch our first excursion with another insight gleamed from said workplace situation. As the atheist professor filled his few minutes of airtime with meaningless, haughty statements, my co-worker began to elucidate to me the difference between having a certain level of understanding of the bible - and something to do with Jesus saying something about scriptures and then more scriptures- and having a 'relationship with Jesus.'
Now I have a pretty negative view of the economy, so I once again proved that I can act in my own short-term interest; I shut the fuck up.
Here is what I wanted to say: What if what you and so many of your fellow christians describe as a 'personal relationship with Jesus' is a perfectly normal emotional experience? What if what you feel to be the touch of the divine is actually nothing more than an output of chemicals within the brain which can be triggered by countless combinations of stimuli? I mean, it is powerful, nobody will deny that the experience of 'Jesus in your heart of hearts' is one of the most powerful emotional experiences one's likely to have, right up their with quality sex or the birth of a child; yet in the end it is a natural experience.
Think about it. There are thousands of other religions out there in the world, and you believe that every single one of them is full of shit. Yet every one of them, the fundementalist in particular, will describe transcendental spiritual experiences. They all believe that what they are feeling is the proximity of the breath of God - but you know that they are full of shit. So what they are feeling must just be a release of brain chemicals that they misunderstand to be the work of the spiritual.
There is no doubt that when heathen voodoo worshippers are shaking on the ground as the spirits of good and evil possess their bodies that they are totally wasting their time in a false faith. Yet the experience that grips them, the one that has them thrashing about to the beat of pagan drums, that powerful dumping of adrenaline and other groovy brain chemicals is real.
Perhaps you could ponder it from this direction. When we see movies, sometimes when the movie is good, we feel some pretty powerful emotions. The movies do not physically touch us in any way, and we don't take any chemicals into our bodies (well, most people don't), yet when Leonardo di Caprio's lifeless body slides down into the watery abbyss; I'm man enough to say I choked up. Even if Titanic didn't get to you, some movies have.
Ah, you say, but that's just a movie, not a spiritual experience! Wait! Just hold out with me for one more notion.
Those who study film or most other arts are familiar with the term - suspension of disbelief. This is the part of the human experience where we know that the droids and the lightsabres are not real, but we choose not to focus on that point for the next hour and a half. By shutting down a bit of the skeptical defenses in our brain we allow the movie to get in and have a more powerful effect. I'm sure you've seen movies that you sat through with the premeditated determination to hate (like with me and Tom Cruise movies), since you refused to let down your skeptical defenses, refused to suspend your disbelief, the film was powerless to engage your emotions.
I've heard that a hypnotist cannot hypnotise anyone who is determined not to be.
How many of our other social exchanges work in a similar manner? One must lower ones defenses and expose oneself somewhat in order to reap the social rewards of that interaction.
We are social creatures. Our species has survived, thrived, and now threatens to end life on earth because we have very powerfully evolved neurological mechanisms for rewarding social behavior. In order to achieve a longer, harder penis, one must lower one's natural skepticism and respond to some poorly typed spam. In order to grow into a full adult, one must lower one's defenses and enter into a mature relationship with a partner - fuck if that partner couldn't betray the very jewel of your soul and throw you in the gutter like trash, but sometimes they don't and the bonding pleasures your brain will release over time still staggers me on a daily basis. You have to take a chance and lower your skeptical defenses in order to engage the triggers in the brain that reinforce social behavior. When you buy a new vehical, you have to overcome your skeptical defenses and hope that even though this guy is both a used car salesman and Irish, he might be that one honest member of each group and that truck might actually be a fair deal. I'd say this social risk/reward paradigm be pretty universal.
So now we get around to your experience, my evag associate. Can we think back to our first born-again experience - cuz I still remember mine quite vividly. There is a strong social element. Suddenly I went from singing in a group with my eyes closed to being drawn up in front of a room of about fifty by a good-looking older man. Everyone's attention was focused on me in a way that I don't know if I had ever experienced before. Being in front of a crowd always invokes a lot of primitive reactions in our species, and I didn't have any Idea that this was coming. I'd only gone to this youth group to humor a friend (more than just humor, I needed every friend I could get at age 15) now all of a sudden I was in front of a whole group of people who professed to already have Jesus living in their hearts (I was raised catholic, so I thought the safe move was not to raise my hand when the preacher asked that question while we all had our eyes closed) , my heart was pounding like a jackhammer and I began to overheat as I struggled to control the shaking and not make myself look like more of an ass. I don't even remember the next few minutes, but all of a sudden all of these cool kids were patting me on the back and congratulating me - all of that uncontrollable stress response turned into a wash of victory endorphins.
We know that social situations can trigger powerful responses in our brains. Just like the movie, in order to experience the powerful emotions in an evag 'born again' session one has to lower one's defenses. How many phrases about being 'obedient to His voice' and 'opening your heart to Him' unpack with new meanings when you think about it like that. You can't experience Jesus in your Heart of Hearts until you believe; i.e. suspend your disbelief. You are encouraged to shut off every part of your developed consciousness that might have a problem with a super-powerful invisible being who only wants to see you happy and successful. A being that once destroyed the earth with a magical flood (that left zero record) and drowned millions, a being that dislikes gays and hates foreskins. Only when you shut off those portions of your brain can you get the wonderous payback in a groovy neurological cocktail of adrenaline, endorphins and serentonin. It's an awesome trip, and those preachers have been refining the quality of their shit for six thousand years.
I still think the rattlesnake christians, who would engage in a similar routine, but who also handled live rattlers since their true belief would protect them from venom got a better high - It's like weed vs. meth, one will turn you into a fucking retard, the other will lower your GPA by about .25.
The difference between movies and religion is similar, and equally harsh. Once the flick's over I stop believing in the Force and lightsabres, 'born agains' spend the rest of their life commited to their suspension of disbelief.
Yesterday I had an interesting experience at the workplace. We were listening to NPR (I know, I know, I never cease ripping on those ball-less 'journalists', but sometimes it can serve as a fair 'middle ground' for the workplace.) Anyhoo, I was amazed to hear a banal 'debate' between an atheist professor and a 'christian' one. To my further amazement, within minutes of turning the radio on that boring moderator made reference to Bart Ehrman's latest book, Misquoting Jesus. "Holy Shit," I exclaimed, "I just read that book yesterday." Then a few minutes later, Phillips and his book on American Theocracy was referenced. "Well, fuck me running," I again ejaculated, "I just finished that book this morning."
There is another point to that paragrab besides my effortless existence at the cutting edge of our modern cultural dialog. There is a secular push back being seen in the society against the radicalization of religion. I've now heard five atheists on any sort of mass media in my entire fucking life - and I'm an atheist, so I tend to pay pretty close attention to my own kind. I'd say Phillip's book represents a major glove being thrown down by the established powers against the evags, and NPR's willingness to touch the topic (cuz they won't touch any topic that ain't green-lighted from on high after the castrations they've suffered in the last four years) show us something of that trend.
I'm all for it. I'm totally willing to be a partisan hack, a loyal soilder, the man who takes point on this expedition into enemy territory.
Let me launch our first excursion with another insight gleamed from said workplace situation. As the atheist professor filled his few minutes of airtime with meaningless, haughty statements, my co-worker began to elucidate to me the difference between having a certain level of understanding of the bible - and something to do with Jesus saying something about scriptures and then more scriptures- and having a 'relationship with Jesus.'
Now I have a pretty negative view of the economy, so I once again proved that I can act in my own short-term interest; I shut the fuck up.
Here is what I wanted to say: What if what you and so many of your fellow christians describe as a 'personal relationship with Jesus' is a perfectly normal emotional experience? What if what you feel to be the touch of the divine is actually nothing more than an output of chemicals within the brain which can be triggered by countless combinations of stimuli? I mean, it is powerful, nobody will deny that the experience of 'Jesus in your heart of hearts' is one of the most powerful emotional experiences one's likely to have, right up their with quality sex or the birth of a child; yet in the end it is a natural experience.
Think about it. There are thousands of other religions out there in the world, and you believe that every single one of them is full of shit. Yet every one of them, the fundementalist in particular, will describe transcendental spiritual experiences. They all believe that what they are feeling is the proximity of the breath of God - but you know that they are full of shit. So what they are feeling must just be a release of brain chemicals that they misunderstand to be the work of the spiritual.
There is no doubt that when heathen voodoo worshippers are shaking on the ground as the spirits of good and evil possess their bodies that they are totally wasting their time in a false faith. Yet the experience that grips them, the one that has them thrashing about to the beat of pagan drums, that powerful dumping of adrenaline and other groovy brain chemicals is real.
Perhaps you could ponder it from this direction. When we see movies, sometimes when the movie is good, we feel some pretty powerful emotions. The movies do not physically touch us in any way, and we don't take any chemicals into our bodies (well, most people don't), yet when Leonardo di Caprio's lifeless body slides down into the watery abbyss; I'm man enough to say I choked up. Even if Titanic didn't get to you, some movies have.
Ah, you say, but that's just a movie, not a spiritual experience! Wait! Just hold out with me for one more notion.
Those who study film or most other arts are familiar with the term - suspension of disbelief. This is the part of the human experience where we know that the droids and the lightsabres are not real, but we choose not to focus on that point for the next hour and a half. By shutting down a bit of the skeptical defenses in our brain we allow the movie to get in and have a more powerful effect. I'm sure you've seen movies that you sat through with the premeditated determination to hate (like with me and Tom Cruise movies), since you refused to let down your skeptical defenses, refused to suspend your disbelief, the film was powerless to engage your emotions.
I've heard that a hypnotist cannot hypnotise anyone who is determined not to be.
How many of our other social exchanges work in a similar manner? One must lower ones defenses and expose oneself somewhat in order to reap the social rewards of that interaction.
We are social creatures. Our species has survived, thrived, and now threatens to end life on earth because we have very powerfully evolved neurological mechanisms for rewarding social behavior. In order to achieve a longer, harder penis, one must lower one's natural skepticism and respond to some poorly typed spam. In order to grow into a full adult, one must lower one's defenses and enter into a mature relationship with a partner - fuck if that partner couldn't betray the very jewel of your soul and throw you in the gutter like trash, but sometimes they don't and the bonding pleasures your brain will release over time still staggers me on a daily basis. You have to take a chance and lower your skeptical defenses in order to engage the triggers in the brain that reinforce social behavior. When you buy a new vehical, you have to overcome your skeptical defenses and hope that even though this guy is both a used car salesman and Irish, he might be that one honest member of each group and that truck might actually be a fair deal. I'd say this social risk/reward paradigm be pretty universal.
So now we get around to your experience, my evag associate. Can we think back to our first born-again experience - cuz I still remember mine quite vividly. There is a strong social element. Suddenly I went from singing in a group with my eyes closed to being drawn up in front of a room of about fifty by a good-looking older man. Everyone's attention was focused on me in a way that I don't know if I had ever experienced before. Being in front of a crowd always invokes a lot of primitive reactions in our species, and I didn't have any Idea that this was coming. I'd only gone to this youth group to humor a friend (more than just humor, I needed every friend I could get at age 15) now all of a sudden I was in front of a whole group of people who professed to already have Jesus living in their hearts (I was raised catholic, so I thought the safe move was not to raise my hand when the preacher asked that question while we all had our eyes closed) , my heart was pounding like a jackhammer and I began to overheat as I struggled to control the shaking and not make myself look like more of an ass. I don't even remember the next few minutes, but all of a sudden all of these cool kids were patting me on the back and congratulating me - all of that uncontrollable stress response turned into a wash of victory endorphins.
We know that social situations can trigger powerful responses in our brains. Just like the movie, in order to experience the powerful emotions in an evag 'born again' session one has to lower one's defenses. How many phrases about being 'obedient to His voice' and 'opening your heart to Him' unpack with new meanings when you think about it like that. You can't experience Jesus in your Heart of Hearts until you believe; i.e. suspend your disbelief. You are encouraged to shut off every part of your developed consciousness that might have a problem with a super-powerful invisible being who only wants to see you happy and successful. A being that once destroyed the earth with a magical flood (that left zero record) and drowned millions, a being that dislikes gays and hates foreskins. Only when you shut off those portions of your brain can you get the wonderous payback in a groovy neurological cocktail of adrenaline, endorphins and serentonin. It's an awesome trip, and those preachers have been refining the quality of their shit for six thousand years.
I still think the rattlesnake christians, who would engage in a similar routine, but who also handled live rattlers since their true belief would protect them from venom got a better high - It's like weed vs. meth, one will turn you into a fucking retard, the other will lower your GPA by about .25.
The difference between movies and religion is similar, and equally harsh. Once the flick's over I stop believing in the Force and lightsabres, 'born agains' spend the rest of their life commited to their suspension of disbelief.
Comments:
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This is my first time with you, Mr.Atheist, and I like what I've read so far. Personally, I detest labels but your fluent writing and the way your mind seem to be working, makes me to belive, that my time could be spent a lot worse than reading your postings.
# posted by 
: Friday, March 31, 2006 4:49:00 AM
: Friday, March 31, 2006 4:49:00 AM
You might be interested to know about a decade long $2,4m study of heart surgery patients in England. Those who received prayers from people unknown to them didn't do better than than those who didn't. 59% of those patients who were told they were definitely being parayed for developed complications, compared with 52% of those who had been told it was just a possibility. How do you like them apples?
# posted by : Saturday, April 01, 2006 8:53:00 AM
: Saturday, April 01, 2006 8:53:00 AM
I like granny smith. Sweet apples just ain't my thing. But I still try to eat 2-3 a day, good for your teeth.
You have an outstanding good and well structured site. I enjoyed browsing through it » »
# posted by : Tuesday, January 30, 2007 8:32:00 PM
: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 8:32:00 PM
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# posted by : Wednesday, February 21, 2007 7:39:00 AM
: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 7:39:00 AM<< Home
