Joe started 2016 with one of the biggest questions of all - does God exist?
I started Joe's video with a cynicism that evaporated as Joe’s perspective unfolded. His well told story impressed. It helped that his words resonated with my own evolving experience.
Still while listening, at times, an image of playing basketball in zero gravity crept into my imagination because, like so many others, Joe lacked a fundamental frame of reference to stabilize the mind boggling complexities and conflicting notions of our inner and outer worlds that he was doing his best to rationally discuss.
Still while listening, at times, an image of playing basketball in zero gravity crept into my imagination because, like so many others, Joe lacked a fundamental frame of reference to stabilize the mind boggling complexities and conflicting notions of our inner and outer worlds that he was doing his best to rationally discuss.
Something so fundamental it’s never thought about, ergo its implications remain lost to us. Namely, recognizing the profound difference between our Human Mindscape (individual and collective) and Physical Reality.
This lack of a clear baseline appreciation for our own brain’s* place in the universe leads to all sorts of hubristic assumptions, and a reflexive disregard for information outside of one’s own realm.
Let me go through that key again quoting from an essay I wrote a couple years ago.
“… missing was a much more fundamental division crying out for recognition. Specifically, the magisteria of Physical Reality vs the magisteria of our Human Mindscape. …”
What’s important about that is that it forces us to recognize that both science and religion are products of the “realm of Our Mindscape.”
Science seeks to objectively learn about our physical world, but we should still recognize all our understanding is embedded within and constrained by our mindscape and all that we’ve learned through our minds.
Religion is all about the human mindscape itself, with its wonderful struggles, fears, spiritual undercurrents, needs and stories we create to give our live’s meaning and make it worth living, or at least bearable.
What’s the point? Religions, Science, political beliefs, heaven, hell, even God they are all products of the human mindscape, generations of imaginings built upon previous generations of imaginings, all the way down.
That's not to say they are the same thing, they are not!
Though they are both valid/necessary human endeavors,
but they are certainly fundamentally and qualitatively different.
Religion deals with our interiors, inside our minds, hearts, feelings and souls,
Science does its best to objectively understand the physical world beyond all that.
~~~~~~~~~~
*Or more specifically our mind, that thing our brain creates, during its short dance of life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, before the hate comments roll in, I know that people's religious and spiritual beliefs are a very sensitive topic and I only present this to explain my own beliefs and thoughts on the subject. Take what you like, leave what you don't. But we're all cool here, dig?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_0O-gpeYo | Jan 11, 2016
00:15
J.J. asked: You seem like a really smart guy Joe, so I'm interested in what religious beliefs you have. And if so why, okay?
00:40. There’s two types of questions that I get asked on here, one is the kind that has an absolute answer you can do a Google search and find it all the facts yourself. The other type doesn't really have answers out there to be found so the only thing that I can search is myself. The first one is much easier, thanks Jonathan.
{Joe’s back story.} … {The cracks between church “religious” teachings evolve as a young man’s experiences and observations accumulate.} …. {04:00 “feelings can’t be trusted”} … {“Seeker vs. Agnostic”}
4:20. “I do care, a lot, enough to be constantly searching for an answer. But the paradox about being a seeker is that as I’m searching for an answer I also think that the answer can't be known. Which makes me skeptical of anybody who thinks that they do know the answer …”
04:37. because to me it's not really about God it's about you know just reality I mean what is this thing we live in this sensory space around our bodies and it all makes sense to us we think we've got a good bead on things but when you look to the edges of our collective knowledge you start to see that this whole thing just falls apart we now think …
05:30. so you can't trust your feelings, and you can't trust your observations, so what can you trust nothing. Nothing. Which is exactly what you're supposed to focus on when you meditate. Meditation has been used for millennia as a way to transcend the physical space and enter a higher enlightened consciousness. Every major religion has some form of meditation …
06:00. (considering “enlightenment moments”)
7:25. (Orch-OR Orchestrated Objective Reduction)
(connection to outside consciousness - quantum entanglement)
(your brain and consciousness)
9:00. Emergence: "A process whereby entities, patterns, and regularities arise through the interactions among smaller or simpler entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties.”
9:50. “… does our existence serve a higher purpose that we have no way of seeing ourselves. Emergence says it could, astrophysics says that the atoms in our bodies are the same as the atoms scattered all throughout the universe. …”
10:25 “… none of this really spoke to organized religion. I think that's really more of a societal and psychological thing. And so I didn't really get into that, I just personally think that religions have their good and bad.
A lot of really good things have been done in the name of religion, and yeah a lot of really terrible things have been done in the name of religion.
But if it wasn’t religion, I think it would have been something else.
People are looking for a reason to do the things, the justification to do the things, that they want to do in their own mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment