The "miracle of faith" is that it is completely immune to every fact there is, and it is intended to be that way. That's why you have to go to church once a week and pray as often as possible, in order to keep the idea from being overwhelmed by the reality of the world itself.
Religion, in other words, is a "test" to see if a person can withstand the universe of evidence they find themselves in, that only ever tries to convince them there is no God at all. "Facts," therefore, are simply attempts to convince a person they should let go of their "faith," which is the kiss of eternal death.
In fact, the martyr is someone who would rather die than ever consider their own ideas could be as fallible as they are. In this respect, "religious beliefs" turn everyone who "believes" into an infallible pope.
It should be noted, however, that this immunity to facts is NOT limited to religious believers alone, although their hope for heaven and fear of hell gives them a much greater emotional addiction to their beliefs. In fact, EVERYONE is immune to facts.
By this I mean that, as ample amount of research shows only too clearly, NO ONE EVER CHANGES THEIR MIND about something, especially something they identify with on a personal and often deeply emotional level, because of "facts." This includes me, of course.
Our confirmation biases and our emotional dependence on our beliefs, of every sort, prevent us from almost ever abandoning our "beliefs" for a more modified position that reflects the latest scientific facts and understandings.
First of all, it would be impossible to keep up with such explosions of new discoveries, let alone to keep up with the larger contexts and meanings that such discoveries would need to be understood and interpreted within. We would all need to be Aristotle, in other words, to be able to understand the broad implications of our ideas, across a wide variety of fields of study. Ain't nobody got time for dat!
Instead, we each only see the world through our exceedingly limited reality-tunnel, and what we see is infinitely inferior to what there is to see. As such, we only ever see the world as a simulacrum of what is actually is. This is why the most hubristic thing anyone could ever do is believe in a God or a religion, since to do either is to decide that they have enough of an understanding of reality as a whole to come to such a conclusion.
But it is not really the decision to believe in God that is hubristic, since everyone basically chooses what they believe about everything, but the decision that having reached such a belief then requires that people must dictate to others what is morally right and wrong with regard to how they live their lives. I can think of nothing more evil than those who usurp such bogus authority under the ruse that it is their responsibility to do so, and all so that they may obtain an eternal reward in heaven for acting like such an insufferable ass here on earth.
So, the problem then boils down to this - If life is about avoiding hell and reaching heaven by "believing" the right thing, but no two people agree about what that "right thing" is exactly, and if we are made in such a way that our emotional dependencies and insecurities are wrapped up inseparably from our confirmation biases (which operate without our conscious awareness, like a propaganda ministry in our own head for our beliefs), AND we are saturated in a world where propaganda is even more prevalent than discernible "truths" (which are always subjective to our limited fallible interpretation anyway) ...
Then how in the HELL can life boil down to being about nothing but what we "believe"????
Religion, in other words, is a "test" to see if a person can withstand the universe of evidence they find themselves in, that only ever tries to convince them there is no God at all. "Facts," therefore, are simply attempts to convince a person they should let go of their "faith," which is the kiss of eternal death.
In fact, the martyr is someone who would rather die than ever consider their own ideas could be as fallible as they are. In this respect, "religious beliefs" turn everyone who "believes" into an infallible pope.
It should be noted, however, that this immunity to facts is NOT limited to religious believers alone, although their hope for heaven and fear of hell gives them a much greater emotional addiction to their beliefs. In fact, EVERYONE is immune to facts.
By this I mean that, as ample amount of research shows only too clearly, NO ONE EVER CHANGES THEIR MIND about something, especially something they identify with on a personal and often deeply emotional level, because of "facts." This includes me, of course.
Our confirmation biases and our emotional dependence on our beliefs, of every sort, prevent us from almost ever abandoning our "beliefs" for a more modified position that reflects the latest scientific facts and understandings.
First of all, it would be impossible to keep up with such explosions of new discoveries, let alone to keep up with the larger contexts and meanings that such discoveries would need to be understood and interpreted within. We would all need to be Aristotle, in other words, to be able to understand the broad implications of our ideas, across a wide variety of fields of study. Ain't nobody got time for dat!
Instead, we each only see the world through our exceedingly limited reality-tunnel, and what we see is infinitely inferior to what there is to see. As such, we only ever see the world as a simulacrum of what is actually is. This is why the most hubristic thing anyone could ever do is believe in a God or a religion, since to do either is to decide that they have enough of an understanding of reality as a whole to come to such a conclusion.
But it is not really the decision to believe in God that is hubristic, since everyone basically chooses what they believe about everything, but the decision that having reached such a belief then requires that people must dictate to others what is morally right and wrong with regard to how they live their lives. I can think of nothing more evil than those who usurp such bogus authority under the ruse that it is their responsibility to do so, and all so that they may obtain an eternal reward in heaven for acting like such an insufferable ass here on earth.
So, the problem then boils down to this - If life is about avoiding hell and reaching heaven by "believing" the right thing, but no two people agree about what that "right thing" is exactly, and if we are made in such a way that our emotional dependencies and insecurities are wrapped up inseparably from our confirmation biases (which operate without our conscious awareness, like a propaganda ministry in our own head for our beliefs), AND we are saturated in a world where propaganda is even more prevalent than discernible "truths" (which are always subjective to our limited fallible interpretation anyway) ...
Then how in the HELL can life boil down to being about nothing but what we "believe"????
Comments
Post a Comment