Comments on 92% of Americans believe in God. Are they normal?TypePad2011-06-13T03:59:28ZBrian Hineshttps://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/tag:typepad.com,2003:https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2011/06/92-of-americans-believe-in-god-are-they-normal/comments/atom.xml/Marina commented on '92% of Americans believe in God. Are they normal?'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d83451c0aa69e201538f308c01970b2011-06-14T19:40:33Z2011-06-14T19:49:51ZMarinaRock on David!! lol lol Marina :)<p>Rock on David!! lol lol</p>
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Marina :)</p>David commented on '92% of Americans believe in God. Are they normal?'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d83451c0aa69e201543303676f970c2011-06-14T18:41:42Z2011-06-14T19:49:51ZDavidOf course there is an "I". What is your name? I is ego, personality, the component of your mind that...<p>Of course there is an "I". What is your name? I is ego, personality, the component of your mind that is conscious. There are other components of mind or consciousness too.</p>
<p>When people don't have an "I" they are either mentally ill or supposedly enlightened. And so-called enlightened people claim to be normal joe's like everyone else. They are deluded.</p>Nietzsche commented on '92% of Americans believe in God. Are they normal?'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d83451c0aa69e2014e89212187970d2011-06-14T09:19:22Z2011-06-14T16:52:47ZNietzscheYour honor I want to call the following witness David Eagleman he is a neuroscientist so I think we should...<p>Your honor I want to call the following witness David Eagleman he is a neuroscientist so I think we should take his opinion as leading because we are no neuroscientist and the question I am going to ask him is if my client could have not killed the victim in this case. David Eagleman could my client not have killed the victim, a short answer please. 'No he had to because the impulses in his brain where the direct consequence of the big bang'. Ok, that is clear. Your honor I plea not guilty! The honorable judge leans backward and takes some time to think. Dear David, who caused the big bang? The advocate interrupts 'David is no expert on cosmology your honor and there is no evidence that my client caused the big bang and so he is not accountable for the events that followed from there. Okay the judge replied I guess we should look for the guy that caused the big bang next time. See you :)</p>cc commented on '92% of Americans believe in God. Are they normal?'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d83451c0aa69e2014e891cba71970d2011-06-13T16:34:19Z2011-06-13T17:23:22Zcchttp://codgertations.blogspot.com"So to me it is simpler than trying to figure out how the brain works – if I have one!...<p>"So to me it is simpler than trying to figure out how the brain works – if I have one! Never personally have seen mine. :)"</p>
<p>There is no "I" to "have" a brain. There's only a brain that, among other things, imagines itself as "I", a person with a brain...a rather brainless thing to do, but it's normal.</p>Marina commented on '92% of Americans believe in God. Are they normal?'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d83451c0aa69e2015432fb426a970c2011-06-13T11:04:03Z2011-06-13T17:23:22ZMarinaNormality seems to be termed to anything that has the biggest percentage of belief given to the subject. For instance,...<p>Normality seems to be termed to anything that has the biggest percentage of belief given to the subject. For instance, society has a general set of rules and guidelines on how we should all behave and act - a set of beliefs. The norm tends to stick to these while you have another aspect of people who rebel against them, all beliefs – one side versus the other. Then you have a small percentage who understands ‘beliefs’ and don’t need to go with them or against them, because for them it comes from beyond a place of belief. You could call it a knowing or even a not knowing but who seemingly flow along with life not holding onto what is right or wrong or going against reality but flowing along with reality, not looking to change anything or ‘get’ anything, thereby not believing or rejecting anything; everything seen as perfect.</p>
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I don’t see it as there being a large difference between criminality and religiosity as both seem to have a lot in common. Beliefs! ‘Criminals’ may belief that the world owes them something or that they are ‘right’, or they want something they haven’t got, so they act from that place; the same with ‘religious people’, who may believe that they need something from someone else, feel that they are right and hence act accordingly. Both acting from their own conditioned, programmed set of beliefs.</p>
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<p>I may agree with Eagleman’s basic thesis, that assigning blame shouldn’t be the focus of our courts and criminal justice system. The question seems to be ‘are people aware of their beliefs and where they are acting from?’ Some maybe yes and some maybe not. But it would be a good place to start instead of punishment and condemnation which only feeds the very hatred, anger and revenge that got them in the position in the first place, to something more reforming and not based on punishment. But then again, our society seems to be set up in such a way that not a lot of people are taking responsibility for their own beliefs so I don’t see it happening that way too soon.</p>
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Again our law systems seem to work on the premise of facts and proof, right and wrong, judgements etc and doesn’t take much into consideration ‘other aspects’ of life.</p>
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Brian wrote that Eagleman concludes that abnormal criminal behaviour is always caused by an abnormality in the criminals brain. Yeah I say; abnormal thoughts and beliefs, in all our brains!(minds)</p>
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Brian wrote:</p>
<p>”The crux of the question is whether all of your actions are fundamentally on autopilot or whether there is some little bit that is "free" to choose, independent of the rules of biology.</p>
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I think a lot of our actions are fundamentally on autopilot. We are so habitualy used to ‘acting’ in certain ways from certain beliefs, that we seem to have formed circuitry grooves in the process and we automatically let’s say act by ‘flying off the handle groove’ or some other reaction from such grooves.</p>
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<p>On the free will issue (autopilot/not autopilot), it has been the subject of much debate. Some say yes there is free will, while others say no and some are somewhere in the middle. When any one of us have strong beliefs let us just say about ourselves, and feel at the core we are not good enough, we will act that out because we believe it, that becomes our personal reality and also we will filter anything coming in from outside ourselves from that belief, even if it is something ‘good’ and twist it to suit our belief. </p>
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The good news I feel is, we may be unconsciously aware of these beliefs, therefore having somewhat limited free will or acting on autopilot, and the workings of these beliefs somewhere in the background of our mind, but eventually through enough suffering, REALITY which seems to keep forcing our nose back to the truth, (because it is the only real thing) and when we suffer enough we will become aware of these unconscious beliefs and how they are running our life – hence free will to notice these beliefs will bring about the change if it is wished.</p>
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Now where we all picked up these beliefs is a complex matter. We have been programmed accordingly, from parents, culture, religion of that culture, friends, ourselves in how we perceive things..........But everyone is in the same boat, until they are not. We can have a tendency but to ‘blame’ others for the way we are and again ‘giving’ our own power and responsibility to someone else. But we shouldn’t blame ourselves either; just see it for what it is, our conditioning.</p>
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What is karma? For me it is a natural law of cause and effect; the boomerang effect. What you put out comes back or becomes your reality. So in essence, no one does anything to you.<br />
Or from the religious point of view – oh the devil has a grip on them! Blame the devil, when we don’t want to take responsibility. It is our own minds what we create – thoughts beliefs, assumptions, concepts that cause all the separation between each other and life and that taken out of hand leads to violence and criminal behaviour or less minor suffering and exclusivity. All metaphors for suffering we can cause ourselves by being out of line with reality – when we label reality and stick our beliefs on it.</p>
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Whether we believe in religion or not, we cannot escape the natural laws of reality; the cause and effect motion. We may believe that having a religion will ‘save’ us and protect us, it doesn’t matter, we all are accountable for our actions, conscious or not. </p>
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<p>Imagine driving your car. You are stopped at a traffic light. It is red. You have not got your foot on the accelerator. When the light goes green, you press the accelerator (cause) and the car moves (effect). Simple example but to me it applies to everything.</p>
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<p>We may not be”.... the ones driving the boat of our behaviour, at least not nearly as much as we believe. Again all down to beliefs. If we are happy in our beliefs we can continue to let them drive the boat. If not....let’s start noticing.......</p>
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<p>So to me it is simpler than trying to figure out how the brain works – if I have one! Never personally have seen mine. :)</p>
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<p>Marina <br />
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