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A Treatise on Religion

An examination of the mind and the manner religion perflates reality so the mind may cope with existence’s nature. A table of the levels of religion to avoid confusion. 

A treatise on religion

Structure of religion

1. The supernatural exists.
2. An afterlife exists [all religions, except Karaite Jews, possibly Deism].
3. God exists [All religions]
4. A creator exists [not Buddhism]
5. The creator has a religion.
6. Only a particular religion is the correct one [not Hinduism]
7. A particular sect within a religion is the correct one
8. A particular liberal, centrist or conservative wing within a particular sect is the correct one.
9. One’s interpretation within that wing is the correct one.

 
Odds of having chosen the right branch each time is slim.

Religion’s reliance on death

1. Fear of death is the root of religion and human existence.
1.1. The mind is capable of using logic to react positively to negative things.

1.2 The mind decides to conquer death within all means capable.

2 Biologically the mind and body are designed to spread genes. This is the closest and only tangible way we come to ‘living on’.

2.0 Biological method is inherently unsatisfactory yet largely necessary.

2.1 The mind devises more ways to survive death. Concept of soul that survives death is created.

2.1.1 Rebirth and resurrection are the means by which soul will survive. The means is not as important as the object.
2.2. Rules on the form of after-death survival are made.

2.2.1 Rules affect the person’s outlook on life.
2.2.1.1 Rules influence a person’s behaviour and thoughts.

2.3 Faith is essential for the living-on to work. Without faith, we do not live and accept death.

2.3.1 Death is the only reality and the ultimate evil. By accepting it wholehartedly in its purest form, we destroy ourselves already.

2.4 Wisdom is accepting distruction and being happy regardless (Camus on Sisyphus).

How religion operates on a fresh mind

(i) Initial emotion

• One looks around and feels a burst of emotions, sometimes sublime and sometimes intense. The emotions include awe, fear, love, intrigue.
• A be-all-end-all entity is devised to encapsulate all emotions that perfunct the mind. This entity is called god.
• Not all would do this. Buddhism did not fall for this trick.
• The god people worship encapsulates all their emotions when they view the world fresh. It is not hard to see why different gods were devised to address different attributes. Quarelling gods have a different balance of human emotions and relate to each other like yin and yang- at times smoothly and at times not so.
• All these can be moulded into a single god.

(ii) Death

Essay Opus 1- on thought and illusion

 I am a bit drunk and my thoughts, mannerisms etc. are different. Skewed. More authentic, or more polluted. Either way, they’re different. Different in what they are, how they come out, what they address. The thoughts from alcohol are more heavily influenced by emotion. This means emotion plays a role- even a dominating role- in our thoughts.

A drunk man, or woman, does what they normally would not. Their brain still functions- they can see, they can think, they can talk. The woman is more likely to give in to amorous instincts. The man is morely to give in to violent and otherwise annoying mannerisms too. Both are more likely to dance more freely and better. Yet their *thought* is a valid thought. A thought seems intangible; it comes from somewhere, somewhere in our brain. The colour and nature of the thought, as said earlier, is influenced by emotion but we most realise this under the influence of intoxicants.

What, then, are we to make of the ‘truth’ of our thoughts? They are real in that they exist; they are reliable in that in the real world thoughts can make or break a person, in the most tangible sense in terms of keeping us alive or making us dead. But if are to go a little less simplistic, more grey, we find a blurring between the lines of normal or sober thought and drunken or intoxicated thought. If one is to copy Nietzsche, who borrows from the ancient Greeks, it is a conflict between the Apollonian and Dionysian, who are both true to themselves and within us.
There are profound truths and wisdom, and complete nonsense, within the buddhist-like sayings that ‘thoughts are an illusion’. The blockhead appropriately says ‘if I were to strike you with a block of wood how much of an illusion would that be!’ But if the mind were anaesthetised, the act would be an illusion as far as the mind were concerned. If the body were dead and struck, again it would be an illusion- a tree falling in the woods but nobody there to hear it. We must be careful of our thoughts, meditating upon what a thought might actually. There is no precise order in finding the truth of the matter; the mind can figure this out on its own. To my own understanding at this present moment, it would be to realise the illusory nature of the thought; experience and realise the difference of thought under intoxicants; realise the effect emotion has on the thought; realise what an emotion is and where it comes from; view the different realms of isms based on different lines of thought happening within the same mind of the individual. The point to this whole exercise would be to realise the illusory nature of our senses, our ideas, the non-realness of what ‘is’. I could have stated “the non-realness of our understanding of what “is”", but thinkers already understand relativism and the subjective nature of existence. I thus took it one step further to show that what you are thinking right now may not even be real.

21 April 2009.

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HELPLESSNES is the Second Problem of humanity. From helplessness derives our desire for a creator, or the supernatural. From helplessness comes our despair and suicide. Man needs a hero complex and it is entirely to overcome his helpless. The helplessness complex differs from the death complex, though they are related.

Marcel wondered what the use of it all was, as though there weren’t enough to think about already. Food poisoning had become a constant reminder of his choices, though he was more apt to curse the people than to take on much responsibility for his own decisions. Many such a type cross paths in the himalayas, each taking his own path but ensuring they had the latest Lonely Planet to show them the way as they double-check and triple-check that the signs pointing right were indeed the signs they were after.

But people are really after a sign that they don’t know they are after. It has no look or sense or sign, but the reminder of its existene is enough to give hope that a sign will point us in a better direction. The himalayan mountains turn cold fast, especially at this time of the year, and before Marcel had started to think whether he should push on to the next guesthouse or return to the previous one the thought of looking at room prices and bargaining slightly dimmed his heart. Life couldn’t be carefree but for a scrooge money is more a necessary daily injection than the warm rays the grasshopper basques before its own winter comes.

Sure enough the safe decision was to turn to what was known. We delve to see new things but complete unknowing made Marcel uneasy at times. In future he’d look back and smile but for now his stomache was in his control, as other body parts would be at different times in different days. The creature that he was, he turned to his room to sleep but with the necessary pangs to keep the absurdity moving.

“How many ants and creatures have I stepped on this day alone? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? The tens of thousands?” The thought of how many were sacrificed for this one single creature’s existence within a single lifetime struck him. Marcel wished it was later in the night so that he could retire to his comfort of isolation, but the guests sharing his dorm wouldn’t agree and sleeping with the light on was a hardship he couldn’t trick his mind into. “Only a few more hours to go and I’ll be asleep.”

Each morning brings with it new hope. Saara told herself this once but was too long ago to remember. The immediate need to get out of the flat to a pointless job was far too strong to be thinking. I mean, to be thinking. She worked as a bartender for several months before she got fired for her daydreaming, ironically feeling drained mentally by having too little to think about. She grabbed the keys and speedwalked to the bus stop.

Lunch was here. Momo and tsampa. Not special, not bad. Society has wonderful culture surrounding food- advertisements, photos, phrases, ways to organise our working lives aroudn the pursuit of food. So little attention is paid to how the food eventually turns out. It’s something not to think about. Marcel didn’t know what to make of it; does society, this abstract collection of individual ideas, deliberately ignore the true reality of food? Is it just focusing on the positive because the negative brings too much detail in a world with so many details we dont even have time to learn just the postive ones? Being alone in the himalayas is one of the lonelinest feelings imaginable. Marcel has forgotten his meal. His best meals were ones waiting for the food to arrive and coming to some realisation about something.

An afternoon with nothing to do. Suffering’s nature hits the mind like a boxer’s punch when this thought arises in Marcel’s mind. In his office days the thought seemed like jannah, as something he’d have nearly given anything for. Now there was nothing. The Buddha’s teachings were helpful but never as helpful as they could be, as viccikicca consciousness (doubt) could never escape Marcel’s mind.

Marcel has an image that comes to mind that he can’t quite understand the meaning of. Its meaning may be like life itself, illusory and plastic. He sees the an empty Tibetan landscape. A bright blue sky, which is dark blue rather than light. The mountain is more like a tall hill, plateaued like Cape Town’s Table Mountain. The contrast between the rocks is strong but it is all a pale beige form. An eagle at times swirls around the air. Marcel looks and “katsu!”, feels a sense of enlightenment. No thought, no ideas, no nothing, just the feeling. The zen-like quality of the image applies to this heartland of the vajrayana and Marcel feels at ease when the thought enters. At times he thought it may be a past-life experience, not that he believes in an afterdeath, but if there were this may be his own personal proof. Marcel feels warmth at the idea of such things, but viccikicca locks him in and if it doesn’t let go he might never progress. These mountains don’t match what he expected; there’s not enough desolation. Less isolation. No nothingness. Nevertheless it surpasses being at a McDonald’s drive through.

“Tashi Dele!” with hands together but a clumsiness in their togetherness. Two men walk past and uncharacteristically do not return a smile. A person travels halfway across the world to put up with unhappy locals in an undeveloped nation- how tough things are for the western traveller who doesn’t work and seeks experience. Not merely as odd as the traveller who seeks a cafe selling bannana pancakes in this area, or the travel guide who even suggests such a thing. Snobbery is part of all of us, because we’re all right about things where others are wrong; if we were wrong then we wouldn’t be thinking what we think.

Saara boards the bus but no seats are available. She stands. Looks. Thinks. Closes her eyes. Thinks.

Nothingness, but with coldness. The perspiration within Maurice’s undergarments does not met the harsh winds of the plateaus. No, not yet. Not a calm nothingness in the meditation hall of week ago. The stupidity of halls! But a cold nothingness of the type Maurice feels at the thought of suicide. But not now; there are steps to climb and a landmark to see. The view does not really matter, just as the office we walk to does not really matter provided it distracts us enough throughout the day. We are the company we fear; the television is more of a friend than ourselves. Cold reason destroys all for Maurice with crispness rather than consuming him with the heat as the truly foolish do; it has thrown him to the boundaries of intellectualism rather than the jail cell.

Miguel is here. Or was it Michel? I never paid much attention to names. Be it my poor memory or general lack of interest in people, it’s always held me back. It’s fortunate how far you can go without people realising your basic weaknesses, given they’re so basic. “Hey” generally gets me by fine, except with Ameera whose name whilst I forgot I would not stop thinking about for the next few days. Anyway, Miguel, or whatever his name is, is quite a bore. He doesn’t know who Voltaire is, nor Camus nor even Aristotle. Though perhaps it doesn’t matter as Maurice is essentially the same if not worse- he has less Facebook friends than that guy after all, so that should speak for itself.

At times, perhaps too often, it’s forgotten what happened during the day. The day doesn’t pass by too fast nor too slow: each day is the same, 24 hours (know-it-allism says this isn’t entirely correct; what a waste of mental energy). Time remains the same, our perception of it does not. This makes time elastic, subjective, something ‘ours’ although it’s outside our control. The time for Maurice now is what he senses it to be, and it is late.

Sunrise. Missed it. Again.

Sunrise.

By today warmth has returned to Maurice’s mind. He doesn’t know whether to pity or admire the common man’s description of “heart” as for their emotions. Without men gods could not exist or the gods would not have said heart throughout their scriptures. When one sees that there is no heart, that it is all mind, delusion ebbs. A realization like the non-existence of the soul. All is mind and mind is all.

The simple truth cannot be accepted by the masses; the masses instead need to simplify complex fantasies: of god, of a soul, of immortality, of eternity, of justice. Looking at a blank wall will not do for them; a colourful canvas of complications that do not make sense is more endearing to the common man, partly for its colours but truly because of it’s lack of non-colour. The strong accept the blank, truly if it kills them. Far from the ludicrously dying for standing up for one’s beliefs. The wise know that the common man needs to die for a reason, any old reason, no matter how nonsensical, so long as it gives him his purpose. But the strong dies because of his realization of the lack of reason. Schopenhauer chose to bet on red rather than black, but there really is no reason to say red is better than black. The common person will naturally give a reason why regardless. How they hate blankness.

The anti-Christ might be a great guy. He’ll be the opposite of God, which when reversing Richard Dawkins’ astute observation of God’s character will make the anti-Christ benevolent, a life-saver,….  Will the anti-Christ teach what God didn’t teach? Seeing god by when holding this part of the elephant, one may hope so. Nevertheless I am not holding the elephant by the anus; nor her tusks as most religious ‘thinkers’ may try when acknowledging some truth of character. I do not know which part of her I am holding; I already see the mixed tusks, the horrible anus and the benevolent vegetarian mouth and trunk. Some may of course have perverted views on any of the parts- the mouth really isn’t so great as an ant may be caught in the leaves; the anus is a pleasure factory that produces more pleasure than any other body part will produce. Fixations, perversions, fetishes, honesties, they do exist but how and when to be analysed may be a question of taste. Knowledgable people at least recognise them with curiosity and reserved judgment.

Sunrise. Missed it. Again. Tsampa and momo for dinner. Not great, not bad. Sunrise, missed it. Again.

Sunrise. Tsampa. Momo. Water. Not great, not bad. Sunset.

Tsampa. Momo. Not great, not bad. Sunrise. Sunset. Missed it. Sunrise. Sunset. Sunrise sunset sunrise sunset.

Marsel nearly collapsed two weeks from leaving his office. It would be eight months ago. He was near the finishing line: his caseload was almost entirely empty, he was given a task he knew how to do, noone would give him challenging work knowing he’d leave before finishing. Yet he felt like imploding just the same. For months he had been in this race. A pointless race, but with paper fuel to keep him in the run. Being an automotron sitting in a windowless room could not be entirely unlike Sisyphus, and being a staunch anti-Marxist from university days when he studied chemical engineering (another long, passionless pursuit, but enough for the race), Karl Marx interested him. Maybe capital wasn’t the whole way; Marsel has no problem with capital, provided someone else works for it and he does not. Marsel writes prolifically when in neurosis as it consumes his entire day- precisely when he is paid to work- until several hours past midnight. Marsel forgets to write when not in melancholy, apathy or depression. Breasts seem just as relevant. Swirling to metamorphosise as a rare unannounced tsunami. Nothing is satisfactory.

Saara is thinking of Karbala. It’s just a city to her. With reluctance, she presses the red ’stop’ button. The bus slows down. Saara pulls herself up to the opening. It’s too early in the morning. There’s too much noise outside. But she must. She will step out alone. No warm welcoming arms or midwives to greet her. No deities’ raincheck either.

Saara knows when her stop is imminent, even with her eyes closed. Today differs. There is a dead pigeon in the gutter. She does not step on it. This is not Algeria, and who really needs such excitement, and this is not Camus’ world.

Marcel once felt a bit cool scanning a document. He could press the buttons without needing to think, and he did it so fast. So special he was. He and the photocopier were one: he’d push in the pages, the copier received succesfully, the copier reproduced. He was so well integrated. After a brief talk about paper and photocopiers by the more learned one, Marcel integrated well with the machine. Marcel is the unwitting postmodernist. It pales in comparison to the eras to that will follow. Police were baffled with which law to charge a Japanese man with: is a latex doll prostitution? The proprietor must pay tax, but by which category exactly? Marsel heard of public restrooms labelled male, female and X.

 

***

Brilliant minds- like Nietzsche- don’t die. Or so we would like to tell ourselves out of our admiration for them. A natural happy thought. But one based on delusion  nevertheless. Such thoughts, initially poetic in their love and beauty, lead to delusions we cling to with the grandness of mythologies and  a power like gravity. This is the danger of delusion, and something we should not shy away from in pointing out its fictitious nature. But this world is not for the truly logical person. As Camus said, who would follow their logical reasoning that life is absurd to a logical conclusion of suicide? No, the word needs delusions, and the masses- philosophers and the intelligentsia included!- should not be kept from the fantasies they hold dear.

Marcel flips through pages on the bus. He flips more, and more.

 A new day. Like any other day.  Nothing. Maybe tomorrow. Alas, by afternoon some thought, unexpected. Remains a day much like any other day. Now a new day, much like the day before.

Grasping! Meaning is there. Like a fly you can hear it now and then, see it now and then. To be blind and deaf is a pleasure at times, as with no fly to think about it ceases to be  a problem.

Mein thoughts

“Whoever commits to paper what he suffers becomes

a melancholy author; but he becomes a serious

 author when he tells us what he suffered and why

he now reposes in joy”- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Earnest Satow said “I’m going to write it all down Saburo. Nobody will read it, but what does that matter”. Not that I’d compare myself with initially ignored works like Thus Spake Zarathustra or [Schopenhauer's work], nor pathetically act humbleness as an attempt to exhibit virtue. At 26 years old I’ve started writing my ideas down after reading the Albert Camus’ The Fall (I never finished it).

 1. Without researching I nonetheless suspect few anti-abortion protestors adopt unwanted children or that refugee-advocates live in the refugee neighbourhoods.

2. I’m neither right, nor left, nor centrist. Man loves creating concepts; can I call myself a northist? No, that’s been snatched too. What word should I create and how long until it becomes mainstream, like ‘introvert’ and ‘extrovert’? It’s not to do with intelligence as I’ve read the bible.

3. Grass sways by the wind. A moment passing. Like my presence.

4. When the answer is ‘no answer’, why do people pay to go on 10 day vipassana meditation retreats to figure this out? Are they just aiming to provide a word-less, intangible answer to replace their current ‘false answers’ they had in their minds, or is the vipassana experience really a ‘no answer’ without being an answer at all?

5. I feared the truth of my mother’s statement, that “you’ve never seen a dead person so you can’t realise how different the person looks. Something’s missing, it must be the soul”. Fear of the unknown is indeed fearful. Two deaths later threw me to atheism; I saw just a body with no energy or life. How does a lifeless person evidence loss of soul any more than a lifeless bird or dog? It doesn’t.

6. The fragility of human life is realised by thinking what would be of the next person you meet if you randomly shot them. What meaning is there to that? It happens. Life doesn’t necessarily have a meaning, and lack of meaning doesn’t mean there’s no point. The theist statement that if the wicked aren’t punished then there’s no justice. Justice need not exist, and lack of justice doesn’t indicate a failure of reality; if anything it strengthens reality.

7. If Pascal’s logic works, can’t I just be a muslim-christian as a full indemnity?

8. If listening deep within your heart and soul you knew the truth, how reliable was it when it told you to marry your now ex-wife?

9. ‘You want to be happy, right?’ I don’t know anymore. How can a person not know? You don’t look like a massochist. A massochist does what she does out of pleasure. I think I always sought happiness. But now it seems like just a high. How is happiness different from heroin? The bus bell rings. It’s not raning tonight, so fewer people are standing, eyeing the next space someone’s arse has been warming seemingly just for them. How is happiness different from other pointless addictions? See, they’re happy. You on the other hand, are not. And you cannot be, for obvious reasons.

Engline was talking about picking up the kids today. Her gold bangle hides her wealth. True. But what if bam! Her child died in an accident, or committed suicide at this moment. Would she be smiling then, or would she break down? She’s only human. Would she give all her everything just to have Lu back? Of course. Then she’s ‘truly’ happy? Yes she is. Her smile shows it. So does mine, just before I stand so that I don’t misfire and hit the floor instead. Is there a point to a smile? Ustasi smiled in photos were orthodox priests had their heads sawn off.

10. Man is in a natural state of confusion. Thus, differences arise in man’s opions, both within himself and among fellow men.

11. ‘Trhuth’ is possible to be known, but about as likely as the ultimate 747 situation. If we’re digging for the truth, who’s to say we won’t keep digging once we’ve found it? Miners do it all the time.

12. Nonsense. A philosopher hides his answers as a question.

13. My nature started as a dedication and devotion to knowing, especially through god. The more I came to know, the more I dedicated to thought itself. Eventually, the only rational answers were questions.

14. Philosphers love learning other philosophers’ ideas. They acquire, compare and develop their thoeires an dthis makes life more meaningful. Theism is the antithesis os philosophichy, for theism is like learning one single philosophy  and sticking to it at all costs, even when you know it makes no sense.

15. Ideas are endless. So long as man has ideas, he will never be unanimous, for each certainty brings the possibility of a conflicting view. No? America exists. Oh? In a millenia will America exist, or a trillion years? No. What is impermaent is real?

16. Renoir made black clothing in the rain beautiful and uplifting.

17. If there truly is a devil, he probably wrote the bible. What did the children and animals do wrong to deserve drowning in Noah’s flood? I won’t mention the quran; to put it mildly, the ‘religion of peace’ has a habitual tendency of being non-peaceful.

18. Many of us fear what would happen if our soul did exist, and if it does exist then you have some fear of what might happen to it. This really is quite natural biologically but has nothing to do with god or the soul. An ordinary man harnessed will still fear climbing down the outside fo a tall building. Logically there’s no reason to fear beause you’re harnessed and know you’ll be lowered down to the bottom, yet the fear is there. Is this fear real, and does it reflect accurately? It’s simply biological need for self-presevation misfiring when it confuses reality for what it perceives it to be.

18. It’s said that if cats were to write about history, history would revolve around the existence of cats. Beyond history, it’s clear that god’s temperament reflects the society and culture of time he was revealed. No sane human being will condone slavery today, though god does in all the major religions. How funny that god should state that heaven will be full of gold when in some societies jade is more valuable than gold. Coincindentally, their god is called the jade ruler.

19. Love has no inherent meaning or purpose. I life based on illusion is lovely. How great it is to think one has their soul-mate, some pre-ordained match approved by the heavens themselves! What could be lovelier than loveliness; could happiness be letting go of happiness itself?

20. Whether I’m bitter or not is hard to say. Stupidity and ignorance are deserving of what? Rehabilitation or punishment was been debated by philosophers for centuries and ther eis no right answer. Religious rituals are indeed strange; I haven’t seen tacky trees with dollar bills pasted on them. While the Buddha said his monks couldn’t touch money, it is odd that it’s paraded in circumambulation this Kattina. Allah never said how to do salat; it is indeed odd, though less odd than a statue of a european woman named the Virgin Mary with dollar bills taped to her torso.

21. When the only two beliefs condeming me to eternal torment for unbelief have clear errors and inconsistencies, what fear am I to replace it with? This world must have some kidn of sadism, otherwise how do we feed our masochistic desires against those we don’t like, or have a goal of what to avoid after death?

22. I’m not a fan of religious rituals. I like the music though, it makes me feel good. Keeps me occupied too. Ding boom DING! Ding boom DING! Da da da da DING! Ding boom DING! I’m closer already.

23. I didn’t get The Fall. Should it be got? Noone just has sex and reads the papers. They watch TV, even TV’s becoming passe.

24. Some say the past cannot be changed and tomorrow is yet to arrive, so only now is real and only now is what matters. However, what we did this morning or last night remains real in this present moment. It is real by our having personally experienced it. We do not feel the happiness or pain of an animal we see in the present moment, yet the experience is real. For if things are real based on our perceptions, which we do not feel, and do not personally experience, how much more so what we do perceive, we do feel, and do personally experience. Otherwise, what we experience in this very moment is not real and therefore does not ultimately exist.

25. Being in love makes no sense. I look forward to throwing sense away.

26. We admire philosophers who themselves were failures in their personal lives. They are the apex of the ‘love of wisdom’.

27. Life is a moral challenge only if you choose to think so. Life is a challenge only so much as you perceive and experience such a challenge. Moral challenges are for infants; higher challenges await us, which we find in philosophy.

28. The stupid need belief. Some belief.

29. It’s such an insh’allah situation.

30. Humanity finds itself in the unlikeliest of places. Theists cry when their babies die, despite the gaurantee the baby will be in heaven. Suggesting they celebrate with a party would be considered poor taste. If there’s only a 1% chance of a hell existing for disbelief it’s apparently worth not taking the chance, yet when the tables are turned the suddenly become all human.

31. The more the assume god to have done, the more can assume god to have failed.

If god’s greatness is limited to how we are to behave and nature operates, I see no reason to afford greater awe for god than humans or the natural order.

Whilst tales of god’s greatness and the self-evident awe of the universe may be used in praise, it is the taintedness of his creation that fails to give god an honour of true greatness. Introduce hell into the matter and we have a monster, below even the lowest of humans.

32. As an atheist I have no dislike of god. I have no particular like either. Things are as they are. But is it appropriate to take a bare minimalist approach to god’s reponsibility the way Al Sharpton did in his debate with Christopher Hitchens? For a minimialist view that god does nothing good could also be valid, which would make god a deist. It is rational to assume only good comes from god, but it is illogical because as a creator of all he creates all that is bad. I view god with minimalism; he may have created the universe, with no life and therefore no need for much praise. He then creates the animal kingdom which is ruthlessly cruel and amazing, then humans who are also  a failure if you are ot use a high standard. A lifeless universe, a cruel animal kingdom and a flawed humanity is not something entirely awe-inspiring; a hell is abominable. Heaven is the only matter that seems worthy of unadulated praise, but it may not exist.

33. Our failure to understand past conditions distorts our view of the past. Revelation is folly if it is to be read in the past context, and there is plenty of evidence in the great religions to prove this is just the case. Quran relates to specific battles war verses which are to this day read ‘out of context’; the forbidden fabrics of Judaism do not make sense in this day and age, as does the mysogyny of the new testament that states women aren’t to speak in church and keep their heads covered.

34. Little point do I see in hating or being angry with god. In all likelihood it doesn’t exist, and to conjure up the negative consciousnesss over myths is foolish. Whilst bad things happen to good people, so do good, and all people suffer. We’re left to ourselves to handle it, this is a reality. God is uknowable; to argue with it is to shout at a wall with no reaction other than what your own mind conjures up from the futile exercise.

35. I was alighting at the 17^th floor and a couple got of at the 12^th. I stepped forward to press the ‘door close’ button though I was in no hurry to be somewhere. Earlier I wouldn’t and couldn’t understand how saving one-and-a-half seconds was worth it. But I do it now anyway.

36. If man’s laws are inferior to god’s, it is percular Allah never made a punishment or mention of rape, or the use of jails or sentencing guidelines. The substance is quite limited and narrow with room to manoevere, an ironic fact of an excessive belief countering the West’s paucity of beliefs.

37. I have lost my mind. Could spend the whole day looking at this desk thinking what’s happened to me, as no answer comes up.

38. I’ve looked deep into my soul. So deep that I found, there is no soul. A soulless existence, and I’m to make sense of existence itself.

39. There are no meanings to ethics or morals in terms of the meaning of life. Better that we pretend as if there were firmly grounded.

40. To life with faith- any old faith, perhaps- is to infuse one’s life with significance… the meaning of life is a question of the style in which you live it, not of its actual content (Tery Eagelton, ‘The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction’.

41. The meaning of life is to live it rather than think of it.

42. There are no meanings to the concepts, values and ideals as a foundation to the purpose of life. Better that we pretend as if they were firmly grounded to keep things going. To life with faith- any old faith, perhaps- is to infuse one’s life with significance. What we believe isn’t as important as the sheer fact of our faith, whereby the fact of being commited can be the key to an authentic existence. The meaning of life is a question of the style in which you live it, not of its actual content. A person who died valiantly for the Habspburg Empire against the Venetians is as nonsensical as an American who dies valiantly against the Spaniards- for their time it was relevant and it gave them meaning, even though there was inherently none. I haven’t achieved the subjective meaning I’ve created for myself, not that it matters. I will later this year- Burma here I come!

43. It is only because I imagined that the world was meaningful that I’m so devastated to now realise that it is not.

44. Anxiety over a lack of meaning to life is like anxiety over not having been born wearing a hat. There is no need to find meaning in having been born bald.

45. I’m tempted to be religious, again. It’s tempting to fool one’s self, but how?

46. We’re all against a blank wall. We argue over who’s looking at the wall properly- some stand! Some sit! Some prostrate! Some do as they wish! How the wall should feel by how you face it!

47. Continue talking to the white wall. It’s not going to respond to you.

48. The exhilerated feeling of the wall speaking back. The blank wall beats the void any day. The void. That deep nothingness; how terrifying it is when the white wall is slide aside.

49. I thought so much that I walked down the stairs to the ticket machines only to realise I got off at the wrong place. I take the same day after day.

50. If the true nature of reality were known to a thinking person, their mind would feel like collapsing.

51. I have no doubt religion in specific areas offers purpose and reduces anxiety to its devotee. I disagree with the believers wh osay that this peace should be an indicator of truth of the religion. If anything it reveals religion’s untruth, since contradictory religions offer the same peace and comfort.

52. Anxiety is also inherent to religion. Faith is promoted because it serves as a blanket and a shield against forces that would shuffle or mess the certainty that repetition provides. When a person begins shuffling themselves, it’s not unlikely they will re-arrange the table to finally say that the table as was laid out was not perfect and this personal re-arrangement works better. The clergy may feel threatened.

53. The body is a prison. The mind is a life sentence from which one can never escape. An anxious mind is a prison within the prison. People fear incarceration when their own mind is incarcerated in a body, and the mind does not take a holiday from itself. Ironically if it does it ceases to exist. We must therefore wait patiently in our cells, never to exit even if we desire it. Religion does an effective job of convincing us if we talk out the wide-open window we will regret it in a painful retribution, and our instinct sufficiently prevents us from looking out this cave. We must and we shall continue to watch the shadows of the cell. 

54. I know the soul doesn’t exist, yet I hesitated at the thought of selling my soul over the internet. Deep down maybe I believe there is a soul, or I hope there is a soul. I wish there was a soul if I believed it’ll go somewhere nice after death. But this isn’t reality. There probably isn’t a soul and there is no afterlife; this is terrifying. Reality crushes us in its reality. I’m torn.

The frequent image of a sword swiping off all problems of life in a split-second action haunts me. I do not see the sword, I only touch my neck and realise all problems may have been gone by that moment.

1. My eyes start to hurt a little. I use the computer in the darkness to limit my time on it so that I sleep earlier. I stay up longer each night regardless, but do not switch on the light.
2. If I came up with just one original thought that cut through what others haven’t cut through, perhaps my life was worth living. Actually is just another fall into the hero complex, needing to make something out of nothing.
3. Ie. one disproves someone else’s statement by way of a counter-question that invalidates their statement. I’ve noticed that when some questions seem damaging to some ideas they attract fewer answers.
4. Whilst rejecting society I must nevertheless find a way to live in it. Complete isolation is a prison. Society provides benefits so one cannot divorce from it. A middle-way must be sought.
5. I may make my own noble truths. They are thus far: the root of all existence is death, which is the only certainty in existence. We exist based on a hero complex; we must be heroes in some shape or form; when we fail at this we fall into depression. Suffering is caused by the sense/the feeling of helplessness. These three factors are what lead people to god or religion, who is the invisible antedote.
6. To a theist you have attacked his god and what he believes in. In truth you have attacked his security blanket, his antedote to anxiety. For if you were right, all his foundations would crumble, leading him to be in a state of senselessness unless he sees a viable replacement.
7. Hero complex- Fulfilling the meaning of life is more important than life itself. This is what makes it so difficult to combat sociopathic ideologies. Even if an atheist not believing in an afterlife gives it up to save another, he does so to fulfil his hero complex.
8. The neurotic is more sensitive to the cultural lie. The neurotic has trouble witht he balance of cultural illusion and natural reality; the possible horrible truth about himself and the world is seeping into his consciousness. The average man is at least secure that the cultural game is the truth, the unshakable, durable truth. He can earn his immortality in and under the dominant immortality ideology, period. It is all so simple and clear-cut. But for the neurotic the mechanisms of illusion are known and destroyed by self consciousness. He can no longer deceive himself about himself and delusions even hi sown ideal of personality. He perceives himself in mankind’s true nature, as Oedipus discovered in the crash of his herioc fate (Becker), p188). The caricature aspect of life appears whenever the drunkenness of illusion wears off (Anais).
9. When Darwin strips theism of its special wonderousness, theists are as good as dead (Becker, p191).
10. To see others like oneself is to believe in oneself.
11. In order for something to seem real to man, it must be visibly supported in some way. Men need an external object of obsession- calendars with special days of the year, pilgrimage places, festivals, people- something to give form and body to internal fantasy. Otherwise the neurotic is brought to his point of departure of lonely specialness.
12. The custom and myth of traditional society provide a whole interpretation of the meaning of life- all we have to do is live it accepting it as true. The neurotic must find an illusion to live up to.
13. I think clearer and bravery in periods of anxiousness and mental darkness. Being in a state free of these I feel like nothing is happening. No wonder religions based on anxiety keep their followers in deeper consciousness about the belief.
14. When I try to write and nothing comes to mind, it seems that I’m somewhat happy or without problems. What a cursed existence if I were deprived the chance to write for a long period. Let me not confuse it with happiness, for not thinking or writing clearly when in love or similar happiness is no missed problem.
15. A leap of faith to spirituality is an effort to transcend the body and physical limitation. What makes the muslim god so powerful is its absolute transcendentalism by not being seen, heard, felt or observed. When your truth is based on complete nothingness you’ve reached a higher reality, but what’s misguided is that nothingness really is nothingness but anxiety causes nothingness to be some form of power. OR The power of the abrahamic god is in its complete nothingness. Some view nothingness as complete transcendence to something higher, which is akin to seeing imagination as complete truth because it is beyond physical reality. The more transcendental the more powerful.
16. Excessive religiosness is a defence mechanism for handling the anxiety of death.
17. Deliberate ignorance of religiousness is a defence mechanism for handling the anxiety of death.
18. Belief in god or non-belief in god. Both require a level of madness.
19. Death fears are not conscious to most individuals but must be inferred by disguised manifestions: for example, excessive religiosity, an all consuming accumulation of wealth, and blind grasping for power and honours, all of which offer a counterfit version of immortality (p78, Yalom).
20. Epicurus taught three interesting views: the morality of the soul, the nothingness of death, and the argument of symetry.
21. The rippling effect is the most beautiful teaching of Yalom. It adds another practical dimension to a tangible mortality effect.
22. The problem with immortality is that we’ve been approaching it the wrong way! It’s not about living forever; the ripple effect is suffient and lasts forever anyway. Whilst it may apply in the negative too, at least it gives us an impetus to be good. Eg. Kurosawa’s Ikuru.
23. Your suffering will continue to exist after you have found the meaning of life.
24. “Your satisfaction is our aim”. Yeah right, money is your aim, followed by a need for a sense of achievement. You most likely wouldn’t be working this job if you had money. Superficiality is overbearing when you develop a distaste for it and its aftertaste remains, until you wash it away with a new thought.
25. The further I go on the less resistance I feel towards taking my own life. It doesn’t seem that it’ll be a struggle as it felt before. More like a passive throwing in the towel. Each day I near my destination on the train to work I wonder ”what if I stayed and just kept on going?” Life is a bit like that: you stay still while simultaneously pushed forward (16 March 2009).
26. Like fantasising about what one would do if they won the lottery, I escape by imagning what if someone were to shoot me in the head or swipe me with their samurai sword in one swift blow. To have it done while sleeping is ideal as I wouldn’t realise it. I think about it throughout the day, every day but most accutely on work days (16 March 2009).
27. It’s become a habit of mine to brush my index finger across my throat as though it were a knife. It’s a reminder that if it were something sharper, and I somhow felt no pain, there would be no more stress or helplessness. I do these strokes in my chair and sometimes in public too.
28. Death is what we fear most but it’s also the greatest liberation. If people contemplated that consciousness can be a prison, then imagine that prison to be eternal, it is devastating enough to feel physically sick just thinking about it. The beauty of death is that it ends an eternal prison sentence, because consciousness is a prison.
29. Like being caught in a wave I tumble and turn, twist and sunder. Thoughts are shaped by events outside my control, pulling me to extremes of melancholy or at best insight.
30. One of the best ways to ruin a quote is to quote it as a quote.
31. If one conquers the mountain of celebacy, will one be any happier? It’s a matter of the journey itself rather than the goal. Seeing celebacy as a goal in itself is to reach the top of a mountain and look at the ground upon which one’s feet are standing. To have done so with wisdom, by observing the surroundings on the way, knowing what it would feel like remaining at the base having indulged in a river but ultimately feeling no better, and taking in the full landscape at the summit; this is how celebacy may be viewed rewardingly.
32. Venerable Khimminda stated there are various levels of love, with love between spouses and family members one of the base, unrefined forms. When you have genuine love for your enemies, and those dear to you, then you see the value of the wisdom of loving-kindness theory and meditation.
33. God is not an anthropologist. Anthropology is far too advanced.
34. How much thinking is required to decide if it’s better to be happy ignorant farmer or an unhappy professor?
35. Prettiness is petty. Beauty is supreme. Prettiness has no room for error, for contradictions or for what doesn’t match a travel agent’s brochure. Beauty knocks barriers down to embrace what is in its entirety with warm intensity.
36. To some extent Buddhism is working. I recognise what I could, possibly should, be feeling but do not. I recognise what I can, and should, be feeling and I do. I control the reins.
37. The intention is to record any insightful thought that appears. The temptation to indulge into a personal diary takes over at times.
38. Even the asshole is pretty if it’s that of a woman and the right woman. Such is the power of the female and the nature of man.
39. Mind should not struggle to exclude the body. Body should not struggle to exclude the mind. Struggles of duality are against the natural flow; we may bend it but it will not break. Acceptance, as by the tao or buddha, seems to be an appropriate approach.
40. I am attracted to short women or tall women. Somehow the ordinary doesn’t appeal to me. The pity of ignorance is not knowing why we think what we think.
41. There is much stupidity in this world. I am fortunate to have worked with bright, brilliant minds so as to not let my ego think I am of much greatness, as I am less intelligent than they are. But there is so much stupidity in the world, it feels odd to pretend it’s not there or not be affected by it.
42. Emptiness is bliss or horrible. It itself is empty. You took the effort to get out of bed, to eat a meal; you cannot escape the necessity to decide what the emptiness will be to you.
43. Perhaps alcholism can be compared to a vagina. Being male the male view predominates in me, ‘my’ reality. The bottle is lifted, it essence is the hole. The smell hits the drinker shortly before the bottle brings to the mouth; of course, it is not always realisable, but to the unaccustomed alcoholic as to the infrequent pracitioner of cunninglingus the nose senses new sensations with sensitivity. The taste. It is not palattable in the normal sense, yet the drinker/pracitioner likes the difference and hopes for more. The drinker/practioner feels a high of sorts, a chemical imbalance in body and adjustment of mind that is pleasant and was desired the entire time. At a more sober moment perhaps the thought of the intensity of taste and effect may seem unfounded, even strange, but in this moment the one in experience is caught up in the ecstasy of escape they have so subconsciously longed for. Give me malibu, give me vagina, give me the escape I want, and I want it now.
44. One of the silliest ieas to cross my mind was of a MA (Buddhism). Firstly, there’s no ‘I’ to receive it. Secondly, it’s impermanent. Thirdly, it’s inherently empty.
45. From His writings, God is obviously not a sociologist, psychiatrist, anthropologist, scientist, historian, rational thinker or possessing qualities that a rational being would be expected to have. Most disappointing is his lack of love or mercy, despite His claims to the contrary which his herd blindly adhere to. Most positive is His non-existence, even though collective minds by way of fear, desire, hope and more seem to give it to Him.
46. God exists, but He is not real.
47. An hour of prayer to a non-existent God is better spent than an hour spend doing something more harmful.
48. Have love for your enemies; if not out of compassion, then for your own sanity.
49. When a Christian and Muslim batte it out theologically, I agree with both of them, only I agree with what they say about each other rather than themselves.
50. Don’t take financial avice from a poor man. Don’t take spiritual advice from a man who doesn’t smile.
51. You can smile, no matter how bad the situation may seem.
52. Your thoughts exist, but they’re not real. We’re quick to dismiss dreams as just dreams, but are ignorantly conditioned to think that thoughts are much different.
53. Money doesn’t lead to happiness, but either does poverty.
54. I feelsad to be travelling without a camera, yet I never heard this comment from any traveller before the 19th century.
55. Technology changes so fast, as do our standards for apparent happiness.
56. France has a reputation for ‘love’, but you’llsee it more in Italy, and none of it in Asia.
57. If all we are are body and mind, then if a perfect identical clnone with the identical memory of us were made, would that being be ‘me’.  How would we know which one we are, as both perceive the other to be the copy. If it were more than duplicated and and again, to result in millions, then which one would ‘I’ be? If they then took on new physical forms- as trees, animals etc.- would it still be ‘me’?
58. Ignoring widsom is foolish, says the prisoner.
59. Too often the ascetic tells himself he is happy when he is not, while the common man experiences hapiness without telling it to himself.
60. ‘The ignorant man seeks new lands, experiences, ideas to find happiness’ said the stage. His disciple asked ’so why did you leave your house today today, and why did you leave your homland the other day?’
61. The sage said ‘the ignorant think that comfort and conforming with society will is needed’. So the disciple ripped off the sage’s robe and threw his sandals off the cliff, saying ‘the ignorant think that comfort and conforming with society is needed’. The sage then went looking for something to cover his feet.
62. As an immature 22 year old I said “if it doesn’t fit in my backpack then I don’t need it.” At 26 I read that Al=-Ghazali said the same thing a milenia ago- “you possess only whatever will not be lost in a ship wreck”. I then thought I wasn’t so mature after all.
63. Al-Ghazali said ‘i should like to know what a man who has no knowledge has really got, and what a man who has knowledge not gained’, to which I say ‘I should like to know what a man who has knowledge has really got, and what a man who has knowledge has gained’.
64. Each night the smoon speaks to the stars, without realising those stars are long dead and their shin is but a shadow.
65. Don’t mourne the loss of one orange when tomorrow your box of oranges will have spoiled. By tomorrow evening you will wish you were back to where you are right now.
66. Happiness lies within  your own mind. Don’t blame outside circumstances, no matter how alluring it seems at the time. oison is poison regardless of why you drink it, and a flame is ignorant of who it burns as it only has a purpose to burn.
67. DFo we really love people, or do we love what they conjure within us- be they physical, emotional, mental and what not?
68. To the ascetic, the diamond remains a stone. To the householder it is worth so much more. Both are right in their own way.
69. Man rushes to a finishing line clled ‘happiness’ without seeing where the line is. Little does he realise the line is non-existent.
70. Justice and fairness, not religion or atheism, are needful for the protection of the state (Hakim Jamij)
71. Life’s meaning doesn’t sustain its nature by itself, instead it acquires it nature by its… wth other things.
72. The meaning is found in nature, something all humanistic endeavours tend to do.

You Too Can Conquer Death With Only Two Easy Steps. Eternal Life Is Just A Sentence Away!

“I accept Jesus’ blood sacrifice with all my heart. I love you Jesus”.

Or

“No god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger”

Now, pick wisely, friends. My only true friends can be ones that choose the right sentence, of course. Common sense says that you should state both for full-coverage and full-guarantee of your eternal existence. But it sure beats saying neither, perhaps. Or you should choose just one, and life with the hope that you’re right, as the vast majority of the believers do. Either way, a magic sentence does guarantee you eternal pleasures, so do it now and save yourself.

A problem with religion is that at times it’s hard to realise sarcasm when you see it. For if a serpant had a conversation with the world’s first woman, Siddharta Gautama travelled between the heaven and earth realms in only 4 human minutes, and Muhammad split the moon two only to reconnect it together, why shouldn’t we consider the ludicrous as being serious in the mind of the religious? I am reluctant to ever say “could anything be stupider than this” when discussing a religious concept, because there most likely is, only I haven’t read it yet or it’s been lost in the vast ocean of non-sense I seem to find myself wrecked in at times.

 

 

In a previous post I mentioned that the root of all religions is the fear of death. This is true. But I didn’t approach it from an other angle, which is how do we overcome the fear of death? One is religion, and last night as I stayed awake in deep thought I realised that having offspring is the second way we handle death.

Procreation is the way all species cope with death. Our death is inevitable, so we then turn to what is the closest way we can keep living on. So we have offspring.

Parents have an uncanny bond with their children. The parent can well feel that the child is ‘a part of me’. By having a child, the parent’s genes will live on after death. This may be a reason why we have an instinct to reproduce.

When this didn’t make enough sense, then of course religion started to appear. While biology can only partly keep you living on, theology will give you the full conquering of death as you currently are. Perhaps this is rooted in the ego. It certainly preys on the inert fear we have of death, causing us to misfire our natural desire to stay alive by appealing to our instinct to have more children.

Essay on children

“Theist cry when babies die”- Exposing the hypocrisy of Christo-Islamic religion by reason, logic & scripture.

 

1.      Introduction

2.      Illogical

3.      Unjust

4.      The problem of omniscience

5.      The schizophrenic redeemer

6.      The insult to reason

7.      An obvious coping mechanism

8.      Psychology & humanity of the theist

9.      Statistical profundity

 

 

i.                     Introduction

 

ii.                   Illogical

 

A common theme of christo-islamism is that life is ‘a test’. We are to be tempted, challenged, do as we are told and perhaps we will not be put to an eternal fiery existence upon death. However, when the reality of dead children going to heaven automatically is raised, there is no logic to the life is a test for everyone argument.

 

Suppose a man- one years old- dies. His automatic next destination is an eternal paradise. In this paradise he will be 33 years old according to hadith’ite Islam, with all the adult benefits that come with it. This is akin to any male’s fantasy in this life, at this moment- if you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? He imagines it, feels happy about it, and alas he has it. And what has this 1 year old done to deserve it? Nothing. His existence has only brought pain and suffering to his family and those who knew him. Yet he will get an eternal paradise.

 

Suppose then that a man- sixty years old- dies. He was not a believer, but unlike the dead child he knew his own name and brought benefit to society. He will be sent to hell for an eternity with no way out. He fits in comfortably with life being ‘a test’. But it was only a test for him because he lived to a certain age. It was not to the child.

 

Life is not a test if different rules apply to different people. It is either a test or it is not. This is further exemplified by the animal kingdom, where life is indeed a test but is a test of the survival of the un-weak. Humans are physiologically animals, and scientifically and logically speaking we remain animals. The one concession I can give to the theist is that life may be a test, but not your test: Darwinism’s test is logical, and unlike invisible deities, we know is true.

 

 

iii.                  Unjust

 

Only a theist can really refuse to see the unjustness of the situation. A baby gets an eternal paradise for doing nothing. Whatever the baby did, god could have done to the rest of humanity. He would have what he wanted since dead babies seem worthy of spending company with him. Yet the adult goes to hell- eternally. This means that over 99.99% of the adult’s existence will be being tormented. Again, completely unjust and it makes no sense.

 

iv.                 The problem of omniscience

 

 

 

 

Interesting Mind Dysfunctions

SPEECH

Aphasias Discorders of speech production and understanding. Severe aphasia is when the LH frontal lobe in the motor cortex region is damaged, because it’s a crucial area for control of motor actions. The flow of information goes from the primary visual area > Wernicke’s area > Broca’s area.

i. Broca’s Aphasia Speech lacks gramattical structure and functional words such as “and”, “in”, “here”. Almost entirely concrete nouns and verbs. Eg. ‘pot … stand… fall down… table… light … open’. Damage limited to Broca’s area is relatively mild unless it extends to the neo-cortex to include sub-cortical structures which coordinate speech. Verbs are harder to say because they’re stored in the same cortical area as the area of controlling actions.

ii. Wernicke’s Aphasia Damage centres on the Temporal Lob area and like Broca’s aphasia the damage is mild unless it enters neighbouring areas. Speak fluently in well-formed and properly intoned sentences with proper linguistic conventionsl ike body language and turn-taking in conversation, but what they say lacks meaning and contains wrong/nonsense words. Eg. ‘Well this is… mother is away here working her work out a here to get her better, but when she’s looking, the two boys looking in the other part. One their small tile into her time here. She’s working another time because she’s getting to. So two boys work together and one is sneaking around here, making his work”. Have lost comprehension, understanding neither what the say nor hear.

iii. Anomic Aphasia Follows damage to frontal regions involved in the control of action. Damage to temporal lobe often results in anomia of nouns, so naming objects seems next to the region that recognises them, and inability to name colours follow damage to the posterior left temporal lobe near the occipital lobe which specialises in perception of colorus.  Has reasonable grammatical sentences but has difficult in finding words, hesitating and using indefinite nouns such as ‘thing’ and lose names for categories like fruits, animals and colours. Eg. ‘This is a boy and that’sa boy and that’s a thing. And this is going ot pretty soon. This is… a place that is mostly in’. It’s worse when naming out of usual context. So they might not say ’pen’ on its own but when shown a pad they’ll say ‘I don’t know what that is but you write on it with a pen’, and they might not know ‘pad’ but shown a pen they might say ‘you write on a pad with that thing’.

Wernicke’s aphasia The person cannot translate between thought and language. They can talk because Broca’s area still works, but what they say is meaningless. On the other hand, damage to Broca’s area causes speech loss, but Wernicke’s area of understanding remains.

Movement

Movement can be fully-automated (eg. heart pumping), semi-automated (eg. breathing), or manual (eg. writing letters).

Basal Ganglia One theory is that the BG is responsible for the force, direction, extent and duration of movement. Dysfunction in calculating the force needed to make a movement can result in failure to initialise (Parkinsonism), excessive initiation or overcompensation (showing grotesque facial agitation).

Primary Motor Cortex The highest motor sensor. Damage results in loss of skilled and delicate movements, because the pyramidal fibres controlling the hands originate in the motor cortex. But learning and memory of motor sequences are essentially unaffected by motor cortex damage, though a bit more clumsy.

Spinal Chord Covers reflexes like knee jerks, maintains muscle tone and posture, upright walking.

Hypothalamus If this is damaged, a mouse’s heart rate will no longer shoot up when it hears a sound of impending electric shock. But it still won’t press the lever that induces the shock. The lesion abolishes one reaction of learnt fear but not the other. If the shock then occurs without the sound, it goes back to high blood pulse.

Limbic System The ‘emotional brain’. Creates the experience and expression of emotions. Originally evolved to evaluate smells. Major elements include the thalamus, cerebral cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, olfactory bulb and hippocampus.

 

*Emotions are involuntary

Sensory information travels first to the thalamus > cortext > amygdala. But there’s also a direct route from the thamalus > amygdala. The amygdala (which is part of the lymbic or ‘emotional resopnse’ system) responds emotionally to objects before the cortext has even experienced or recognised them, causing reactions like Figh or Flight Response (heart rate and blood pressure increase. Large muscled prepare for quick attention. Adrenaline). The thalamus

* Fact Of The Left-Hemisphere (LH) & Right-Hemisphere (RH)

Neo-cortext consciously thinks through a turn of events or conversation. The RH is specialised for facial processing. Your judgment is thus derived more from the left side of an image than its right.

LH is connected with more positive emotions. With RH is damaged, the person is prone to manic cheerfulness. RH is more prone to negative emotions. With LH damage, the person tends to develop depression. This is accentuating the true nature of either hemisphere.

LH is active for speech and comprehension.

RH damage results in repetitions of in speech, emotionless monotone speech, inability to understand less obvious features of language..

BEHAVIOURAL DYSYFUNCTION

LH/RH RH plays main role in perceiving others’ emotion. LH plays main role in interpreting logic. Damage to LH allows even greater perception of others’ emotions, even though they don’t understand what’s being said.

Ideomotor Apraxia Damage to the left parietal obe causes difficulty in making movements and gestures. It’s less severe when a tangible object’s present and the person’s required to use it, and most severe for symbolic gestures like greeting and saluting, and even more so when outside of the normal social context. So they’re not able to do voluntary movements that are unprompted by the environment.

MEMORY DYSFUNCTION

Amnesia From damage to the rhinal cortex in both hemispheres. Retrograde amnesia fogets everything after the accident. Amnesics view an abstract image and form a meaning of it. Later on, they’ll form the same way which means they remember “how to do it”, but deny having ever seen the picture before. Amnesics learn new how-to/procedural skills like typing as good as regular people. Seems the rhenal cortex processes memory for new episodes of experience but not memory for new know-how procedures.

Alzheimer’s Cell death primarily in rhinal cortex, but also temporal and parietal degeneration. Life exhibits symptoms of amnesic syndrome and other memory problems.

VISUAL DYSFUNCTION

Achromatopsis V4 is damaged so vision becomes monochrome. All memory and imagining of colour is lost as well, as colour no longer exists as a category of experience. If only one hemisphere suffers damage (unilateral damage), half the world appears in colour and half in monochrome.

Motion Blindness Damage to V5 causes seeing moving objects as a series of sill photos with discreet jumps (Like being high on ganja).

Object Agnosia Several types, eg. form agnosia, where the person sees colour, depth and contour but perceives only parts (eg. only top quarter and lower quarter of a bottle), not whole objects.

Simultagnosia Objects are perceived and recognised only one at a time. 

The Weirdest, Unscientific & Immoral Teachings of Today’s Major Religions

Christianity & Judaism

Lot, Abraham and the gang-rape of ‘their’ women

Lot wanted to hand over his two virgin daughters to be raped by a mob in place of the two male angels the mob asked to rape instead. Lot and his family left the city, his wife turning into a pillar of salt for looking at the city on exit, even though god told her not to and knew in advance that this would happen anyway. On the mountain after leaving Sodom & Gemmorah, Lot got drunk by his daughters and his two daughters then took turns at having sex with him.  He impregnated both daughters (Gen 19:31-36).  This is echoed in Chapter 19 of the book of Judges: An unarmed Levite (priest) travels with his concubine Gibeah. They spent the night at a man’s house. Men come to the door, demanding the old man hand over the male guest ‘so that we may know him’. In almost identical words of Lot, ‘Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you; but unto this man do not so vile a thing’ (Judges 19:23-4).

‘Huble ye them’ is chilling. Enjoy yourselves humiliating and raping my daughter and the concubine. So they’re handed over to the mob, who gang rape the women all night. ‘They knew her and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came  the woman in dawning of the day, and fell at the door of the man’s house where the lord was, till it was light’ (Judges 19:25-6). ‘Up, and let us be going’. But she was dead. So he cut her into 12 pieces and sent her parts around Israel (19:29). Then everyone got mad and 60,000 men were killed in the tribe of Benjamin. Abraham was Lot’s uncle.

Abraham lends his wife to numerous men

Abraham went to Egypt in famine. Gave his wife to Pharoah, but didn’t mention they were married. Abraham becomes rich, god disapproves and sends plagues on Phaorh and his house. Pharoah wants to know why he wasn’t told she wasn’t Abraham’s wife rather than sister? He hands her back and they’re kicked out of Egypt (Gen 12:18). They pull the same stunt again, with Abimelech the King of Gerar. He’s induced to marry Sarah just as Pharoah did for thinking she was Abraham’s sister (Genesis 20:2-5). He too expressed indignation, in almost identical terms to Pharoah’s.

Jewish intolerance of their neighbours

Do Jews view Palestinians like Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites & Jebusites? “Ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. For though shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealosu, is a jealous God. Lest though make a covenant wit hthe inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and though eat of his sacrifice; and though take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. Though shalt make thee no molten gods (exodus 24:13-17)

A proper circumsion involves a rabbi using sucking off the foreskin with his mouth

Several babies in New York were infected with viruses and died as a result.

Islam

Do Christians & Jews go to heaven?

One verse says Christians and Jews who believe in god and do good works go to heaven. Another verse says Christians and Jews go to eternal hell for the worst crime of not believing. Muslims still haven’t figured this contradiction out, insisting it’s no contradiction and interpreting it in various contradictory ways.

What does the Quran say the trinity is made up of?

Father, Mother and Son.

The Quran says Jews worship Ezra as the Son of God?

Yes. It says the Christians worship Jesus as a god and the Jews worship Ezra as a god. Even more disastrous is that this is mentioned as a juxtaposition using identical grammar, so it can’t be said it’s out of conext. Some apologists say this refers only to a small heretical band of Jews, but the ayat says “the Jews” which refers to all. 

The moon split in two and came back together 1,400 years ago?

Yes. NASA’s aware of this fact and involved in a big conspiracy to cover it up.

Sperm forms into a fetus? With no ovary?

No mention of the ovary in embrylogy. The sperm turns into a fetus, even though it dies inside the ovum.

Divide the inheritence, but the maths don’t add up?

The maths don’t work.

Use the hadiths, but quran forgot to mention them?

No mention of hadiths as a source of learning in quran. No mention of sunnah. Ambiguously says to “follow the prophet”, which is ambiguous for a book that calls itself ‘clear’.

Pay zakat, but quran forgot how much to pay?

No reference at all on how much to pay. Mentions the maths of inheritence and the 20% khums from the war spoils, so no reason maths was forgotten here.

Widows should re-marry because it’s unnatural to remain single, except for Mohammed’s wives?

The wives of the prophet are mothers of the believers. Kind of strange that they’re forced to remain widows when other women are required to re-marry.

Mohammed will divorce you for better wives if you don’t apologise?

He’s perfect, so you can’t disagree with him. If you don’t apologise Allah will swap you for better wives.

 

Buddhism

Buddha said meditators are able to fly through the air and to walk through walls. Most Buddhist monks and laypeople actually believe this too.

Buddha said thoughts and emotions come from a cavity within the heart. This was a common belief throughout the world during this time.

Buddhism teaches you’ll get less bad karma by murdering a child than to punch a Buddha in the nose with a drop of blood coming out. Buddha doesn’t even experience pain, making it even more ridiculous if viewed from the consequentalist school of morality.

Archetypes of Religious Thinkers

Jung

Jung wrote the concept of archetypes. This was nothing new as these ‘types’ have always existed; he just formulated them in to a common language. Some of these archetypes are now used in common language, like ‘extrovert’ and ‘introvert’, which he divided into four types. Jung then divided people into four types: the thinking, feeling, sensation  and intuitive type. Combined together, we have a total of eight types. By understanding the types, we can betterunderstand theists’ minds.

1) Extroverted Thinking Type- Gathers facts, is immersed in facts, is obsessed with more facts. But rarely brings them together to one coherent whole, like a child at the beach who sees shells but doesn’t fit them with the rules of geology.

2) Intorverted Thinking Type- Herbert Spencer’s idea of a ‘tragedy’ was a theory killed by fact. This is very common among theists.

3) Extroverted Feeling Type- Always seeking new experiences, things to do, new friends, new relationships. Usually a good mixer socially, but sometimes has hardly any close friends or relationships as they don’t get far with anybody. The theist always seeking new religious experiences within their own religion may fall into this category, like a unitarian.

4) Introverted Feeling Type- Tends to be shy and withdrawn. Underneath there’s great intensity of feeling. On the surface so calm, but underneath there’s strong currents of feelings. Tends to hold strong feelings, but is often unable to give outward expression. It’s hard to know their true religious opinions and values.

5) Extroverted sensation type- Explorer, the globe-trotter, the one exploring new worlds. Eager for new sights, people, sensations. Not unlike the feeling type. Perhaps a crude aversion fo the same thing.

6) Introverted sensation type- Perceptive connoisure. The person who cares for quality in all sorts, not quantity. Eg. quality in food, wine, very detailed. But can easily degenerate to minute obsession. Examples include Christian Universalists who have an entire dogma on the grammatical words ‘aion’ and ‘aionias’, or the atheist who rejects an entire religion bacause of a single scientific error in the text.

7) Extroverted intuitive type- Always wants new possibilities in the otuside world, to get things done, new movements. Once well under way/moderately successful, he wants to leave them and start something new. Sometimes people find a new religion and then start a new movement.

8 ) Introverted intuitive type- Concerned mroe with the possibilities hidden in the depth of the psyche. Often gets lost. Possibly Jung himself. External world hardly exists at all.