I admit it. I look at my iPhone frequently.
It's a good friend. Keeps me in touch with what's going on. Does what I want it to most of the time. Allows me to communicate with people I care about.
But I saw some of myself in a viral video, "I Forgot my Phone."
Shows what occurs when life is lived through the screen of a smart phone: a direct connection with what is happening right in front of us becomes diluted through a technological filter.
Question is: how different is this from living life through the screen of religious belief, causing a direct connection with what is happening right in front of us to become diluted through a dogma filter?
l've been there and done that, the whole looking at life through the lens of a religious belief thing. It is as addictive as endlessly interacting with life through the screen of a smart phone.
No, more so.
Fervent religious true believers add something extra to countless everyday experiences. When something pleasant happens, it isn't just something pleasant.
It's an opportunity to praise God, thank Jesus, revere the guru's grace, pay homage to Allah, feel Buddhistic compassion for those others who suffer, or whatever.
I remember standing in a line to buy tickets at a movie theatre. Suddenly I was overcome with a sense of "I am on the True Path back to God, and these people aren't; how fortunate I am."
It felt wonderful to be viewing life through the prism of my specialness. I felt like I was floating above the unenlightened souls who surrounded me. I had been chosen, and they had not. Poor them, lucky me.
So people who stare at their phones instead of paying attention directly to what is occurring around them aren't as divorced from reality as religious believers. A smart phone is a device you hold in your hand. Fundamentalist theological dogma is embedded in your brain, impossible to lay aside.
Until it is discarded, it's impossible to experience life in a normal human way.
Jobs bless you for writing this blog!
Posted by: Skeptic | September 15, 2013 at 06:57 PM