Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
I retrieved this from a writing site I put my essays and poetry. This is long. It isnt meant for debate but whomever read this book may have some points they want to add. Its written in story like format. Enjoy.
I thought youd find this interesting to read
J.Anderson Thomas, Jr., MD and Clare Aukofer published an interesting book called "Why do We Believe in God(s)." Written from a scientific--mainly psychology and Darwin point of view--it answers why most of us believe in a supreme being(s); what purpose does it serve; and what does it do to help with human survival among other questions answered. MD.Thomas shocks his readers in more ways than one as he successfully simplifies God within the realm of mere science.
--
"There's got to be some purpose in life," my friend, Cynthia, said. "We couldn't have just appear out of nothing!"
"I don't know, probably yes, probably no." I sat upright and cross-legged in bed.
Cynthia, as if preaching a sermon, paced the hospital room and explained the role of our needing to believe in a supreme being, in her case, the Christian God. It wasn't a scientific point of view, no. We need God because He is love. He loved us so we should love Him. The list of why we should believe stretched. I don't think I've ever saw her religious side of her.
Our conversation started when she visited me on June 29th while I had been admitted at Tide Water University Hospital*. I have epilepsy and thought my frequent vision loss and extreme imbalance had something to do with my seizures. My friend was not new to seeing me with EEG dreadlocks and EKG wires snapped to my chest. She's working on her Ph.D in Psychiatry. To her, well, to a lot of people I should say, a higher power had placed me in this hospital bed with these symptoms for a reason; but, for what?
Dr. Thomas explains that among many what he calls adaptions or techniques that our human brains and bodies use to problem solve29 or survive, he says that all my friend needs is someone to lean on. He calls it the attachment system. We all depend on others. It's a survival mechanism that helps our minds and bodies grow.
"When we are young and helpless," Dr. Thomas states, "attachment solves the problem of finding and latching onto our principle source of protection and survival. When we are older, the attachment system is used in romantic love...we see this often in practical psychiatry. A young woman patient who had been...abused by her father sought in her Christian religion his opposite: a considerate father who would love her and accept her love. She would ask for guidance from god for her life decisions, talk to him as a young adult would to a supportive and knowledgeable parent, and worry about his reaction as a young woman would fret about a father's reaction...The fact is that we never lose the longing for a caretaker."45 This bond takes place not only with love but in authority too. Throughout world history we have slaves and their masters, presidents and their citizens, kings and their townsmen, and minister and the congregants. Even Jesus Christ, not only as God but as a human, is seen as a supreme authority over man. There is always a servitude mentality in the human mind, and the gratitude and service not only works for humans on earth but we use it when we interact with our deities as well.
As Cynthia preached, a woman about forty years old waltzed in the room thankfully interrupting our discussion. "Have you found what's wrong with me?" I had two episodes already, and the nurses must have seen in the cameras above my frustrated feet hanging from the bed and taping the floor. My symptoms? My eyes would blur, my equilibrium would falter, and I'd wobble as if I drunk too much alcohol. I looked up to this doctor for medical advice. Whatever medication she said I should take, I'd consider her suggestion. Whatever she told me to do, I'd do. If I didn't, I'd suffer the consequences: a longer hospital stay, chastising from the nurses, or a hospital bill in my mail box. I'm just the patient, and she is, well, a doctor. Why shouldn't I obey her?
"No," she answered, "it seems like you're still having seizures even though we haven't taken you off your meds. Your body is getting enough rest; no EEG abnormalities in that area." Both disappointed and shocked that I still had seizures, I didn't speak. I guessed I was afraid that she might give me more medication or take me off to see what was happening. "We can't give you another surgery," she said, "since your seizures are occurring in different areas in the brain." She jotted some notes on her pad, asked if I needed anything, and after I said no, she left.
"Hun," Cynthia pealed her keys from the chair, "I have to get going and get my kids from the daycare. How long will you be in the hospital?"
"I don't know. Probably not that long, since they aren't finding anything special."
"Give me a call. I'll come by tomorrow." We hugged, smiled, and she kissed me on the cheek.
My head dropped when the door closed. I wish I had not broke up with her. "Why did you?" I guess there's a lot of reasons why we broke up. She wanted children, I did not. "So. I thought it was the love that counts." It is, though it was my first relationship. I don't think I'd fall in love again. "Maybe you will maybe you won't."
I noticed conversations like this happens in my head a lot. Sometimes it's so hectic that all of the sudden I've created a whole new personality and later, a whole new person. Dr. Thomas affectionately calls this the Decoupled Cognition affect. "We humans have the remarkable ability to create and implement a complex interaction with an unseen other--boss, spouse, friend--in our minds, regardless of time or place, in the past or in the future. Decoupled Cognition is the key to religious belief."54 For example, if an atheist (someone who, not by his choice, disbelieves in any supernatural deity and related ideas all together), tries to convert to religion, he, according to Dr. Thomas, create the illusion of an unseen other. He learns about his faith, practice it, and pray.
As we study, practice, and pray, we hope in our prayers that our disbelief would develop into fervent belief. Dr. Thomas says that first a person asks the unseen other for help; and, as their desperation thickens, it takes the form of prayer: "Why can't I believe in God...God help me." The unseen being we pray to materializes into a real being we call God. We find love in the being we converse with and we love Him. When our experiences are shaped from our practices and prayers that "change our lives" we, thus, believe. Decoupled Cognition lets us creates in our minds, actions, and experiences that an idea and concept once learned in a book is now real. Dr. Thomas's interpretation of religion makes religious individuals followers of a made-up deity.
A four foot one, long haired, and smiling lady came in the room with notepad in hand. "We have your discharge papers," she said with a lisp, "you should be ready to leave in about four hours."
Good, but it still didn't answer my questions about my new symptoms. "My symptoms?"
"The doctor said it was just stress." The neurologist came in after the nurse, "you know stress can cause a lot of symptoms that mimic serious illnesses and conditions."
"They can?" I knew this, but vision loss and imbalance? That's a little too much.
She said stress can cause people to have heart attacks or strokes. A lot of people die from the affects of stress. Just as my symptomatic experiences can mask a serious illness that is only brought on by stress so can religious experiences we think are coming from God are generally brought on by our needing to find love in our lives or finding solace in religion we put our trust in. Dr Thomas mentioned that our religious experiences are triggered by the temporal lobe in our brains. The temporal lobe is responsible for memory and some parts of speech. It could cause hearing and or seeing things that are distorted or in some cases not there. I've been diagnosed with right temporal lobe epilepsy; and, I knew all to well that a epileptic can "hear things or voices" that are caused by the brain not God. Dr. Thomas says that "one can misattribute our inner voice to an outsider's voice. It has been documented for years that many individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy have intense religious experiences, and that extreme religiousness is a common character trait among such patients."106
I called my friend and told her I'd been discharged and came home from the hospital, I found no comforting feeling that God protected me from new seizures or God helped me through this stress as so my friend told me. Dr. Thomas made great points in how our beliefs in God(s) are masked by the psychosis of the mind; and, that isn't bad. We all need a survival technique to understand the meaning of life and our purpose. It's whether we trick ourselves into thinking what we "believe" is not a belief anymore but a fact is where we step into muddy waters. The downfall and paradox about that is, we say we need to have faith--believing in something that can't be proven by the senses. Yet, we state our beliefs are fact--that which is proven by the five senses. If we knew what we believe to be fact, we would not need faith for what we'd know was true. In the Christian faith, there's a boomerang affect related to this: Jesus said blessed are those who have not seen but believe. So, religious belief and fact do not coexist comfortingly. Dr. Thomas concludes that such belief patterns are all in the mind. The more we need God, the more His actual existence will turn into ourreality.
--
"There's got to be some purpose in life," my friend, Cynthia, said. "We couldn't have just appear out of nothing!"
"I don't know, probably yes, probably no." I sat upright and cross-legged in bed.
Cynthia, as if preaching a sermon, paced the hospital room and explained the role of our needing to believe in a supreme being, in her case, the Christian God. It wasn't a scientific point of view, no. We need God because He is love. He loved us so we should love Him. The list of why we should believe stretched. I don't think I've ever saw her religious side of her.
Our conversation started when she visited me on June 29th while I had been admitted at Tide Water University Hospital*. I have epilepsy and thought my frequent vision loss and extreme imbalance had something to do with my seizures. My friend was not new to seeing me with EEG dreadlocks and EKG wires snapped to my chest. She's working on her Ph.D in Psychiatry. To her, well, to a lot of people I should say, a higher power had placed me in this hospital bed with these symptoms for a reason; but, for what?
Dr. Thomas explains that among many what he calls adaptions or techniques that our human brains and bodies use to problem solve29 or survive, he says that all my friend needs is someone to lean on. He calls it the attachment system. We all depend on others. It's a survival mechanism that helps our minds and bodies grow.
"When we are young and helpless," Dr. Thomas states, "attachment solves the problem of finding and latching onto our principle source of protection and survival. When we are older, the attachment system is used in romantic love...we see this often in practical psychiatry. A young woman patient who had been...abused by her father sought in her Christian religion his opposite: a considerate father who would love her and accept her love. She would ask for guidance from god for her life decisions, talk to him as a young adult would to a supportive and knowledgeable parent, and worry about his reaction as a young woman would fret about a father's reaction...The fact is that we never lose the longing for a caretaker."45 This bond takes place not only with love but in authority too. Throughout world history we have slaves and their masters, presidents and their citizens, kings and their townsmen, and minister and the congregants. Even Jesus Christ, not only as God but as a human, is seen as a supreme authority over man. There is always a servitude mentality in the human mind, and the gratitude and service not only works for humans on earth but we use it when we interact with our deities as well.
As Cynthia preached, a woman about forty years old waltzed in the room thankfully interrupting our discussion. "Have you found what's wrong with me?" I had two episodes already, and the nurses must have seen in the cameras above my frustrated feet hanging from the bed and taping the floor. My symptoms? My eyes would blur, my equilibrium would falter, and I'd wobble as if I drunk too much alcohol. I looked up to this doctor for medical advice. Whatever medication she said I should take, I'd consider her suggestion. Whatever she told me to do, I'd do. If I didn't, I'd suffer the consequences: a longer hospital stay, chastising from the nurses, or a hospital bill in my mail box. I'm just the patient, and she is, well, a doctor. Why shouldn't I obey her?
"No," she answered, "it seems like you're still having seizures even though we haven't taken you off your meds. Your body is getting enough rest; no EEG abnormalities in that area." Both disappointed and shocked that I still had seizures, I didn't speak. I guessed I was afraid that she might give me more medication or take me off to see what was happening. "We can't give you another surgery," she said, "since your seizures are occurring in different areas in the brain." She jotted some notes on her pad, asked if I needed anything, and after I said no, she left.
"Hun," Cynthia pealed her keys from the chair, "I have to get going and get my kids from the daycare. How long will you be in the hospital?"
"I don't know. Probably not that long, since they aren't finding anything special."
"Give me a call. I'll come by tomorrow." We hugged, smiled, and she kissed me on the cheek.
My head dropped when the door closed. I wish I had not broke up with her. "Why did you?" I guess there's a lot of reasons why we broke up. She wanted children, I did not. "So. I thought it was the love that counts." It is, though it was my first relationship. I don't think I'd fall in love again. "Maybe you will maybe you won't."
I noticed conversations like this happens in my head a lot. Sometimes it's so hectic that all of the sudden I've created a whole new personality and later, a whole new person. Dr. Thomas affectionately calls this the Decoupled Cognition affect. "We humans have the remarkable ability to create and implement a complex interaction with an unseen other--boss, spouse, friend--in our minds, regardless of time or place, in the past or in the future. Decoupled Cognition is the key to religious belief."54 For example, if an atheist (someone who, not by his choice, disbelieves in any supernatural deity and related ideas all together), tries to convert to religion, he, according to Dr. Thomas, create the illusion of an unseen other. He learns about his faith, practice it, and pray.
As we study, practice, and pray, we hope in our prayers that our disbelief would develop into fervent belief. Dr. Thomas says that first a person asks the unseen other for help; and, as their desperation thickens, it takes the form of prayer: "Why can't I believe in God...God help me." The unseen being we pray to materializes into a real being we call God. We find love in the being we converse with and we love Him. When our experiences are shaped from our practices and prayers that "change our lives" we, thus, believe. Decoupled Cognition lets us creates in our minds, actions, and experiences that an idea and concept once learned in a book is now real. Dr. Thomas's interpretation of religion makes religious individuals followers of a made-up deity.
A four foot one, long haired, and smiling lady came in the room with notepad in hand. "We have your discharge papers," she said with a lisp, "you should be ready to leave in about four hours."
Good, but it still didn't answer my questions about my new symptoms. "My symptoms?"
"The doctor said it was just stress." The neurologist came in after the nurse, "you know stress can cause a lot of symptoms that mimic serious illnesses and conditions."
"They can?" I knew this, but vision loss and imbalance? That's a little too much.
She said stress can cause people to have heart attacks or strokes. A lot of people die from the affects of stress. Just as my symptomatic experiences can mask a serious illness that is only brought on by stress so can religious experiences we think are coming from God are generally brought on by our needing to find love in our lives or finding solace in religion we put our trust in. Dr Thomas mentioned that our religious experiences are triggered by the temporal lobe in our brains. The temporal lobe is responsible for memory and some parts of speech. It could cause hearing and or seeing things that are distorted or in some cases not there. I've been diagnosed with right temporal lobe epilepsy; and, I knew all to well that a epileptic can "hear things or voices" that are caused by the brain not God. Dr. Thomas says that "one can misattribute our inner voice to an outsider's voice. It has been documented for years that many individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy have intense religious experiences, and that extreme religiousness is a common character trait among such patients."106
I called my friend and told her I'd been discharged and came home from the hospital, I found no comforting feeling that God protected me from new seizures or God helped me through this stress as so my friend told me. Dr. Thomas made great points in how our beliefs in God(s) are masked by the psychosis of the mind; and, that isn't bad. We all need a survival technique to understand the meaning of life and our purpose. It's whether we trick ourselves into thinking what we "believe" is not a belief anymore but a fact is where we step into muddy waters. The downfall and paradox about that is, we say we need to have faith--believing in something that can't be proven by the senses. Yet, we state our beliefs are fact--that which is proven by the five senses. If we knew what we believe to be fact, we would not need faith for what we'd know was true. In the Christian faith, there's a boomerang affect related to this: Jesus said blessed are those who have not seen but believe. So, religious belief and fact do not coexist comfortingly. Dr. Thomas concludes that such belief patterns are all in the mind. The more we need God, the more His actual existence will turn into ourreality.
I thought youd find this interesting to read