Did You Know That. . . .?

Tags

cosmology, evolution, foreign affairs, genius, Good stuff to know, mind, pseudo-scientists, science, Syria, Writers

A lot of disparate thoughts travel through this brain case I can safely inform you. You know me well enough to recognize the dangers of entering into my sandbox of synaptic pleasures. I’m either hopelessly unfocused or a cobbled together unrecognized genius. Some days it’s more one, other days, well.

I’ve come to see it as a blessing of sorts. At least I try to see it that way. I should have been a college professor, but of course that but begs the question–on what subject?

Any the hoo, I have a lot of thoughts about Syria but not a lot of coalesced conclusions, so I’ll beg off at the moment. Is it too trite and cowardly to just say, I’m conflicted?

I had a bizarre discussion with fellow high-school mates about the issue of spanking as discipline which proved to me once again how easy it is to stay with ideas that are both comfortable and supported by simplistic memes that denote little if any critical thinking. More and more I conclude that indeed advances in the human condition are the result of a very few minds indeed, and put into place by mostly brain-dead human hordes who are spoon fed some “reason” for implementing them.

If all that sounds rather cloudy and vague, well, it’s a cloudy and vague day here in Las Cruces. It’s been raining off and on for several days, which is highly unusual, at least for us recent arrivals–we saw so little rain last year that it made one appreciate water as a life-giving commodity surely. This year, we were told, as of Monday at least we had not yet received four inches of the wet stuff, and we might get at least that during this week. Since the desert is nothing but sand covering a rock hard-pan, the danger in these parts is floods in low-lying areas. Water races to its lowest place and rushes along, making gullies and rivulets through the desert. These become ditches or arroyos as we call them here, and eventually the Grand Canyon if you can stick around that long.

So anyway, here are some things I’ve read this week that you might find interesting.

Vlad, who appears to be in the driver’s seat at the moment internationally that is, has some things to say and said them in the NYTimes.

It’s an interesting “open letter to the American people“. Part propaganda, part history lesson, part chutzpah, it is worth a couple of minutes to read.

Having a power mad ex-president of the Communist party and ex-KGB officer, Putin deigns to give America a lesson in democracy. One can but admire the rich irony of that alone!

What he has to say about the subject of exceptionalism is worth reading. There is truth in those words.

As I said, my thoughts on the subject of Syria are unclear. That Putin wants to be a “player” is clear. What it will cost is not so clear.

A man so determined to show off his “masculinity” bespeaks something surely. What that is, I am not at all sure of.

 

¤

I did mention the possibility that I am a hidden genius didn’t I?

That is almost surely a good reason for concluding that I am not.

Like “hero” we bandy about the word genius rather loosely these days.

If you would like to read an interesting take on what genius is and is not, then read I Dream of Genius over at Commentary. I found it a good read.

At least you can see if those you think of as geniuses are what the author does.

¤

If you would like to look at the mind in a different way, a more evolutionary way perhaps then you might want to pick up a new book out there by E. O Wilson, emeritus professor of biology at Harvard.

If you are unsure of whether you want to invest in The Social Conquest of Earth, then you can read through a review of the book from The Spectator.

HINT: once more we are compared to insects. All it all, it looks worthy of some good reading and some very good thinking ahead if you opt in. The review is not favorable on Wilson’s book. See if you agree. In either case, it seems a worthwhile read.

¤

Cosmic archaeology, need I say more?

Some say that aliens have looked and found us. But there is a thriving scientific community that spends its time looking for them. This is way more than looking for Goldilocks planets my friends, much more.

This is the type of scientific speculation that leads young boys and girls to dream of going into space, and leads them to enrolling in our best science and technology universities.

Come and dream for a few minutes. What can it hurt?

Go and read Distant Ruins.

¤

What happens when we both hear and see something? Do these two senses work together to enhance our fact gathering?

Is there a hierarchy of the senses? Do some matter more? Does one?

Oh I’m sure in the late recesses of a bleak and cold winter’s night, you too have asked this question.

So go and get the answer: Who did you hear, Me, or your lying eyes?

HINT: You might just have been McGurked!

¤

Another thing I imagine you’ve given a lot of thought to is why we are so fascinated by the lives of the writers we read and admire. I mean how much has been written about the life of Hemingway for instance? Are we not enthralled with the secret world of Proust, or Dickinson? How about Emerson or Fitzgerald? Balzac? Oh come now, you know you are curious.

A biography writer, shares some thoughts on what we can and cannot learn about those whose words cause us to depart this reality and enter another, one that sometimes we would rather inhabit.

Good reading here.

¤

Finally, if you have ever had the occasion to be “linked” to a “scientist” or other “expert” on something like global warming or evolution, or biblical literalness, American exceptionalism, the Judeo-Christian roots of American government, or similar things, you know what you are up against.

If you had the resources and or time to do the research,  you would almost surely find that most of these experts are anything but. Some our out-and-out failures who can be bought for a price, others are traveling into areas for which they have no formal expertise at all, and others are simply grifters, ready always to make a buck upholding any cockamamie “theory” that comes down the pike.

There is a great little site called Encyclopedia of American Loons. You can look up the biography of a startlingly large group of imposters and get the real low down on what they know and don’t know. An invaluable site. Since they seem to be novice bloggers I asked to them add the widget for a search engine and they have. Now you can enter a name and find out if they have bio’ed him or her. Or if you just want some fun reading, just go read a few.

So, now that I have solved all your reading needs for the weekend, I’ll leave you to it, with promises of more to come.

Related articles

• Sen. Menendez reacts to Putin’s op-ed: I wanted to vomit (thelead.blogs.cnn.com)
• Vladimir Putin Lectures the US on Morality in the New York Times, Greenwald Co-Signs (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• The Social Conquest of Earth – Edward O. Wilson (konradebooks.com)

 

How Do You Decide?

Tags

mind, opinions, psychology, thinking

I’ve mentioned more than once that I’ve been engaged in debate on Facebook with people who went to my high school, on a variety of topics.

As you might expect there are two camps, the liberals versus the conservatives. As you might assume, there are any number of shades of grey.

It got me to thinking. Yes, we are THERE again.

The Contrarian asks me occasionally why I bother. “You will convince no one, you know that don’t you?” he muses.

Yes I know that. Here is my list:

1. There are lots of people who read but don’t comment because they are interested but not passionate. My comments may provide the last piece of the puzzle that enables them to form an opinion. They more people who are involved in the process the better.
2. I learn a great deal myself. Arguments lead me not to empty talking points but to actual research, and so I learn refinement of my opinion as well as to create a more cogent argument for what I believe.
3. In attempting to figure out why those who disagree with me believe what they believe, I’m forced to confront my own reasons for believing what I believe. Sometimes I find that my reasons aren’t worthy of supporting that opinion–in a word, they are self-serving. I can adjust  my opinion accordingly.

It’s this latter point that I wish to address.

I’m inclined to think of myself as something of a Renaissance woman. Now before you commence to laughing out loud, let me proceed. I am such only in the sense that my interests are very far-ranging and always have been. Along the way, I’ve managed to learn more than the average person about a whole lot of things from cosmology to paleontology, to biblical studies and theology, and so forth. I am not a Renaissance woman in the sense of having expertise in any of these, just an intense interest and the willingness to learn.

That said, this is how I approach forming an opinion. I will use the example of an area of biblical study called Markan priority. Markan priority simple states that the Gospel of Mark was probably the first gospel written that has come down to us. It posits that both Matthew and Luke used Mark, their own independent information, and a source called “Q” to form their own gospels which were written 10-15 years after Mark’s.

I’ve read numerous books on various aspects of biblical studies, some couple of hundred at least, and I have studied under three professors with PH.D’s in the field. I’ve attended dozens of workshops and adult education classes on various biblical issues as well. So I consider myself above average in knowledge.

Yet, I am no expert. Far from it. I cannot read Koine Greek which is essential to actually study of the bible on a professional level. So how do I arrive at an opinion?

You may first wonder why anybody cares. I can tell you that they do; there is a hotly contested debate over this issue. Why?  Because to a fundamentalist, not only the words in the bible, but their very organization within the bible is something God ordered. Open any bible and you will find that Matthew is the first gospel you come to. To disturb that by suggesting that Mark was written first is tantamount to calling God a liar.

So I have read all the arguments pro and con on Markan priority. I understand them well enough. I am aware that at this time, there is a clear and fairly overwhelming majority who believe that for all kinds of reasons, Mark was probably written first. All kinds of other things make sense when this is assumed. They make no sense by and large when you don’t.

So my opinion, given that I am no expert myself, is that the better opinion is that Mark was written first.

This is how I arrive at opinions on any field of study that I am not an expert in.

Sometimes, I might even wish that the things were otherwise. When it comes to theories about the future of the universe, I’m compelled to accept that the majority opinion is that the universe is continuing its expansion from the “big bang” and that that expansion is accelerating. I’d rather believe that the universe is in a “steady state” meaning it’s stable. For some reason, that’s comforting to me. But I feel that I have no basis to buck the experts who spend their lives studying this stuff, and like any real scientist, aren’t going to pursue dead ends intentionally. There is not glory in pursuing obvious falsehoods.

So while an opinion might make me feel better, I cannot maintain it for that reason alone.

Similarly, I’d love to believe that global warming isn’t true. It would make me feel a lot better about the future certainly. But I’m constrained to believe what 97% of all climate scientists tell me–that humans are indeed part of the equation of global warming and that we need to do what we can to turn it around before it is too late–if that is at all possible.

What troubles me deeply is the degree to which average people, who have no expertise in the area of climate (just like me) are passionately in the camp of the 3% claiming that global warming is a hoax. Since they cannot possibly be following the same process of opinion forming as myself, what system are they using?

I’m afraid that they are buying into the hoax theory simply because they wish that to be the answer. Either because they feel guilty that they have been a part of the problem, or because they don’t want to pay (taxes) to attempt to solve the problem. If you admittedly aren’t an expert, how do you “choose” one set of arguments provided to you by  those who have a very high stake in their position, i.e., gas and oil interests and those they pay to “study” the issue?

Is my model of opinion formation wrong? Am I missing something here? I’m puzzled, and when I am, I figure you guys can bail me out. So straighten out my aching head, for I’m confused.

Illusions of Significance?

Tags

AFA, brain, Bryan Fischer, Christianity, Christine O'Donnell, food, Frances Pivens, Glenn Beck, GOP, gourmets, human medicine, mind, Native Peoples, Patriot Act, religion, right wing media, right wing wingnuts, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity

One of the side effects of being sentient or self-aware, at least at human levels, is our propensity to try to get inside the heads of other people.

We ponder why Sally did this and why Don did that. We find certain behavior curious, ridiculous, courageous, all by our own standards as we have come to believe them.

Even more curious, we tend to project intention onto objects. We kick the car, and scream at malfunctioning vacuum cleaners.

Do we create God as well? In our minds? Of course every atheist would say yes. Science gives no definitive answer, and perhaps will never have such a capacity.

Still, the mulling of such ideas is useful. Read Slate’s article and also take a gander at the book it’s based on: The Belief Instinct.

***

The Atlantic has an interesting one on “foodies”, those gourmet nuts who gush about food as if it were sex. Which it is for them no doubt. It is pure gluttony at some level. Are you the type who reads breathlessly a description of some dish? Or do you skip to the chase? Are you the type who scours the Internet looking for odd ingredients not to be found in even the most up scale Piggly Wiggly? Or do you think good old domestic cheddar is just fine? The author points out that Livy said that when we glorify the chef, we are heading for the end. What do you think?

***

Here’s one for ya. Remember Christine O’Donnell? Witchy poo? Well she’s another one that missed the trolley. Ms. abstinence is trying to keep her little political life afloat, by going after George Soros, and all the groups he funds. She’s operating out of her house, with her tiny little PAC. She’s soliciting funds–nice to pay the rent and heat as a “business expense” isn’t it. She also claims that Barack Obama considers her his biggest threat. If you want more, please go the SciFi Channel.

***

Most of the world could ignore the blatherings of Glenn Beck except for the fact that his nearly insane followers become Rottweilers with the theories he gives them. Frances Fox Pivens has been one of his targets. Based upon an article she co-wrote in 1966 about helping welfare recipients receive their due, she has been raised to the level of a founder of the marxist/socialist/destruction of America “tree” that arises out of Beckian mental illness. Vilified in the most ugly terms (I’ve read the comments) in The Blaze, and else where, Dr. Pivens has been subjected to e-mail harassment and many a death threat. She responds with some commentary on the rise of the crazies.

***

It does seem to me, in the last couple of years, that the claims of the extreme right have become more and more outlandish. Especially so of Beck and perhaps Limbaugh as well. They seem more and more emboldened to spew invective at whole groups, call the President any creature this side of Arcturus, and to generally make fun of anything non-white and educated beyond the 10th grade.

At the same time, there is a definite change in the numbers. As to Beck, his TV watchers are down 50%, and radio stations are dropping him. Limbaugh has been losing ground as has Hannity on his radio show.

How to explain? I think it’s an attempt to shore up the shrinking numbers. But the people who are leaving are precisely those who are tired of the “Muslim President” cry, and are searching for something a bit less biased. The hard core will never depart and don’t need the increasingly wacky theories. They generate enough of their own!

***

In a major “oops” House Rethugs failed to pass an extension of the Patriot Act. It seems that House Tea Partiers joined forces with House Dems to deny the leadership its  passage and leaving them somewhat embarrassed. It will undoubtedly pass under different House procedures, but still, it goes to show that the GOP has a snarly tiger by the tail.

***

One of our favorite wackadoodles is Bryan Fischer, head of the AFA. He is obsessed, as you know, with homosexuality (which explains ever so much). He has a new target: Native Americans. Incensed by the invocation,  he tells Native Peoples that it is high time they got with Christianity and gave up their filthy pagan ways. Oh Bryan, you eat, drink, and sleep hate. I bet you could collect all the people in the world that you like in your very own living room.

***

Oh, what? Oops! Doin’ a bit of the happy dance. (Whispering) they are eating their own again. Come watch! Beck looks into his crystal ball and sees that the precious Right is now agin’ the Tea Party and all of them REAL patriots. They are trying to assassinate us! “Or maybe it’s just a coincidence,” he ponders, “but I don’t believe in coincidences,” his insane brain says. “Talkin’ about freedom” he spittles, and “wildcards” who must be suppressed. Oh gosh, I should feel sympathy for one who is but a step from the rubber room, but dang if I can feel THAT emotion. Glee would be more like it.

Well, enough.

What’s on the stove? Fried chicken, mashed taters and gravy. (Which means I don’t have to do dishes!)

Related Articles

• The real threat of Glenn Beck’s fantasies (3quarksdaily.com)
• Alexander Zaitchik: Is Glenn Beck Sinking? (huffingtonpost.com)
• New York Times: Leave Frances Fox Piven Alone! (nicedeb.wordpress.com)

More Flotsom on the Sea of Life

Tags

Catholicism, Eat-Pray-Love, gay rights, GOP, mind, Muslims, psychology, racism, religion, science, self-help books, transgender, wingnuts

There is a new blogger named Ben who has a blog called 65-BitSarcasm. He’d a dude obviously and I think a young one–meaning he is probably under 30. He is amusing, and I found him through Cappy at Writer’s Block, which I find most amusing.

Anyway, Ben wrote about seeing Eat, Pray, Love, the new movie by Julia Roberts. I’m not the most likely person to set out to see such a flick, mostly because I generally shy away from the obvious. Like The Bridges of Madison County.  I never saw that, though I like Meryl Streep. But I really don’t like Clint Eastwood much. So there ya go.

Anyway, Ben made some good points that people often see these movies and recipes for their own personal change. And they aren’t. Most certainly the book is not. You don’t run off to Italy, India and Bali to find your answers just because the author did. It merely suggests that you need to listen to your heart (or whatever deity, power, or higher essence you adhere to) and have the courage to strike forth in a new direction, following your instincts.

It’s what I have said before is wrong with most self-help books. They are the author’s WAY but not necessarily any but a handful of the billions of other unique humans who we occupy space with. Actually one could make that argument about Jesus. He announced and illustrated a WAY to unity with the Godhead. But many of us believe that there are other paths as announced by the Buddha and so forth.

Anyway, that was just a plug for a new blogger mostly. One starts out with such big expectations and while a few blogs catch on and soon have hundreds of thousands of followers, most languish in the lower environs where we are pleased as punch to have a couple of hundred stopping by. We wish him well, and Cappy, who is fairly new I believe too.

And now for things completely different:

I was pleased to see a new LGBT group called Catholics for Equality has formed. There are others I believe, at least from what I learn at The Wild Reed, but I think that the more that various church groups openly promote equality, the sooner we will see change across the board. The say of course that the next generation will make all the difference, since they mostly consider this a non-issue, duh. As well it should be.

Nothing is more fun that watching the uber right snipe at each other. We are told that the conservative blacks are kinda p.o’d at Sarah for her encouragement of Dr. Laura to “don’t retreat, reload.” Not helpful to use such an issue as race invective to advance one’s political  aspirations.

And there has been no end to the sniping going on between Annie Coulter and WorldnetDaily. Annie calls them “fake Christians,” and based on a good deal of what we have read there, there is reason to agree with her. Hate is their middle name. There is a link at the end to WND and if you have never been, go see what passes for Christian conservative thinking. It’s truly ugly.

Doncha just love how the uber right has rephrased its opposition to the Islamic Center at Park 51? Since it was explained to them what the Constitution says, they are now quick to claim that it’s not be cause they shouldn’t be allowed,  but that they should respect the sensibilities of non-Muslims who are so deeply hurt by the idea of the center.  Except that, what sensibilities are being offended? The sensibility that the ignorant equate all Muslims as the same? And where in the Constitution is sensibilities an exception to freedoms?

Kirsten Powers has a nice article at The Daily Beast about the GOP’s summer of fostering hate against all “others” in our land. One of her most telling points is the regularity with which FOXy and it’s fellow traveler’s Slippery Gingrich and Sarah, that woman is an idiot, pounce upon each and every instance of supposed “racism” on the part of these “others” against white folk.

A truly compelling look at what it means to be transgender in America, Jewish, and religious to boot. Jhos Singer paints a picture that you will not soon forget. This society truly does only function on the male-female dichotomy, forgetting (by ignorance or design) that there is so much more to each of us than such simplistic dualism. A fine, poignant, and beautiful look into the body human.

Quinn O’Neill has an excellent essay at 3quarksdaily on the issue of what we should maximize if we could, human rationality or human happiness? It’s more complicated than you might think. I think I would in the end opt for rationality. I think happiness is an ultimate derivative of being a rational, critically thinking person. As I learn to value all persons, it seems to me, I automatically enrich my own life.

Enuf already!

The Name’s the Thing

Tags

categories, empathy, grace, groups, Human Biology, Jesus, labels, mind, serendipity, sympathy

Serendipity is defined as the act of making discoveries by accident. It is, I would suggest, the movement of grace masquerading as coincidence.

I have learned that if I am open, nuggets of wisdom come to me from others and if I let them lay fallow in the warm earth of my mind, they will be joined by others, watered and will suddenly break open with a new idea.

Such is how I have learned to operate in the writing world of blogging.

The mind is a curious machine. Of that we can all agree. We remain puzzled by much of it, and perhaps we always shall be, at least in this human form.

Whatever new thing is presented to us is taken in and an attempt to understand it commences. In order to understand it, we must, perforce, place this new thing in some context of all the things we already know. It is most like, least like, similar to, sounds like, acts according to, and so forth.

In other words we label, and said label stays with us, often unknowingly throughout life, secretly forming impressions and beliefs about things without our willful knowledge. It is human nature, and at most we can be aware that we are doing it, in an attempt to “see” clearly. It is the antithesis of Buddhist teaching of non-duality. We find it hard to “let it be” as it were.

Much is being made by some, of our propensity to label people. Liberal, progressive, conservative, neo-con, right-wing, fundamentalist–you name it, we label it. And yet, they are mostly useless. If you asked 1000 people who voted for X, they would perhaps in total give you 75 reasons why they did so. The 1000 would split along these reasons, and the resultant “groups” would be insignificant in terms of a demographic.

Our unique make-ups simply don’t allow such easy simplistic categorizations. We are a dizzying array of contradictions, counterpoints, and metaphors. In our own minds our decisions are logical but often they may seem arbitrary and wildly upside down to others. Yet we label away in earnest.

There is a difference between empathy and compassion or sympathy. Some can sympathize with the screw up, but  cannot empathize with him, because some tend to see themselves as rational,  and not tempted into such irrationality. The empath on the other hand, sees their own limitations, and places it on a continuum. Others, they can see, fall elsewhere, and they do not see one as “better” than other.

Let me give an example. The sympathetic person comes into contact with a homeless person. They offer assistance in the form of helping that person obtain employment. They go away satisfied, they have succeeded. The person is now employed, and on the road to getting control once again of life. Two weeks later, they see the same homeless person pan handling on the same corner.

The sympathetic person is angry. He sees the homeless one as “lazy” happier to live on the “dole” than do an honest day’s work. He labels the person as unworthy of further efforts.

The empathetic person sees something quite different. He may offer the same assistance, but if he finds the person panhandling again, he doesn’t become angry. He realizes that the person is unable to cope at some level with what he can cope with. He accepts and can understand that some persons by personality, psychology or life experiences, cannot handle the stress of bills, work schedules, and so forth. I might  acknowledge  that I could not handle being a air controller–the stress would be too much for me. That is my limit.

Our ability to “walk” in someone else’s shoes, helps us not to label. We can accept, and we can agree that such persons deserve warm, dry, shelter each night, health care, and food. We accept their limitation because we are mindful of our own, knowing they are only different in degree.  We can see the homeless person as “doing their best.” And doing one’s best is all we can ask.

I have, therefore, found it profitable to  challenge assumptions in my life. At least, at this juncture of my life. I often suggest that certain phrases, certain old assumptions make no sense to me. I have no idea what they once meant, and we fling them about as if they meant something. We “know” what we mean in using them, but we don’t really “know” what they mean do we?

We preach faith, because we are sure that we are right about what we preach, yet we don’t acknowledge that the essence of faith is the fact that we don’t have the facts to back up what we believe. So what are we declaring as “true?”

Jesus spent much of his ministry trying to help people to challenge the assumptions they lived by. He shook them up, shocked them at times. He challenged the Pharisees again and again. You do all these “things” these rituals. Do you know why they were instituted? Do they still accomplish their intended ends? If not? Well? Are the ends still valid? Then find a new  way of accomplishing them. If not, then simply discard them.

We do well to, from time to time, examine the rules of the road that we live by. Are they valid, these ends we so tout? If so, is this the most effective means to accomplish them? If not? Well?

We would all do well to emulate Jesus. Buddha said similar things too. All the great thinkers and doers, all the great prophets and seers, all the philosophers and such, look at our assumptions and question them. They remix and separate, they re-organize, turn around, flip upside down. They challenge us to justify our beliefs and our commitments.

When Jon Kyl, (R, AZ) suggests that maybe unemployment benefits for laid off workers are somehow “encouraging of laziness in finding a job,” I suggest it’s time to question our assumptions once again. Mr. Kyl’s assumptions are certainly not mine. And it suggests a lot about Kyl and people like him in their opposition to say things like health care, and other programs that are designed to help the less fortunate among us.

Think about it.

Exploring the Faith Matrix

Tags

atheism, divine, duelism, faith, God, meditation, mind, presence, unbelief

I’ve acquired some wonderful new friends on Facebook, people who, from my perspective, see the world rationally. One, said something that got me to thinking.

C.S. Lewis, (or someone!) said something to the effect that if God/no God were an even proposition, then, choosing God cost nothing and garnered a great reward if God is real, but not choosing  God would cost eternity if you were wrong. You get the point. My friend suggested that he had not found this argument compelling.

I share that conclusion, perhaps mostly because I “back read” my belief that there is not all or nothing, salvation or damnation dualism when it comes to God in the first place. But even if that is  not true, I think my friend is right. Fear should not be the motivator to  “becoming” a believer.

Surely, non believers care about their community and humanity. Surely they volunteer, and give money to good causes. But just as surely the believer engages in other behaviors based on faith. Attending services regularly is but one of them. An active prayer life, or spiritual practices constitute more “time” devoted to faith. These cost in time what can be spent elsewhere. And I think everyone agrees that a one time “I believe” is not evidence of a living faith. So, the non-believer must expend something beyond a mere assent to faith. Therefore, he/she is entitled to a better proof.

Unfortunately no proof is forthcoming. Only the believer sees proof, because proof is not of a tangible sort, it is a special way of seeing and knowing that is more akin to wisdom than intellectual fact finding. That of course sounds fishy to the unbeliever, and I also understand that.

But it remains true, nonetheless. It is a paradox. Richard Rohr in his books describes this as the losing of oneself to find oneself. Jesus of course said this first. It is precisely the act of being counter intuitive that aligns us with the divine. Like  Justice Black, we know it when we see it.

A few days ago, I was driving to town for groceries. On the way back, I found myself in a tangle of intellectual musings. I cannot recall the topic now, but I “awoke” to find myself going down the road, a bit unsure of exactly where I was. Within a minute or so, I recognized a barn or house, and realized that I had executed at least two turns and was within a couple miles of home.

We have all had that experience. But think of what really is entailed. My mind (the one I am aware of) was busily engaged in working out a details of some thought on some subject. All the while, another “me” was lifting foot from gas, applying brake, turning wheel, and so forth, more than once. Some part of “me” was “seeing” the road, observing potential danger, reacting. Two of me were working in tandem, each apparently unaware of the other.

So what you say? Well, it seems to me that it suggests something of value. We are not who we think we are. Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” and many of us take that to be a fine statement of existence. Yet, this shadow person, and there may be more, quietly seems to work along side, taking over as needed, to preserve me when my mind veers to daydreaming. It keeps me from walking off cliffs, and driving off bridges.

Is it so hard then to realize that within me is a God spark–that “feeling” of unity with something so much bigger than myself? I think not. All those who meditate know this feeling. I am aware that I tread dangerously close to the argument that “god is in the gaps”. In other words, what I cannot explain, I assign to God. As science explains more, God continues to shrink.

I do not mean this. I mean, that it is increasingly clear that the mind is more complicated, more multifaceted than we might have thought. I am an ego, that is the part of me that I talk to, but I am talking to something aren’t I? I must in some way recognize that there is more to me than this ego personality, developed from birth, the result of all experience and learning that are peculiar to me.

This “other” me, the one that calls me to do right rather than wrong, the one that calls me to hope rather than despair, the one that soars in creative dreaming, rather than logical rational mundane reality, this is the Spirit that offers. It offers union. It is the Divine being patient, gentle, never forcing, never demanding, waiting, offering, loving. Blessedly, I’ve had this experience, and at least for small moments in time, I have fallen into that offering. I have released my fears and need to control. I have experienced freedom, and unconditional love.

As I said, I cannot prove it. It cannot be proven. It must be experienced. It cannot be willed, nor demanded, nor intellectually mandated. The best way developed so far to take this journey is by meditative practice. It is getting outside of  dualism. If I were to offer to my non-believing friends one thing, it would not be a bible, nor a theological proof, nor inspirational stories galore. It would be to read a good book on mediation, and then try it.

Even if you never experience this transcendent  moment, you will find it serves good purposes. It will lower your blood pressure, reduce stress, and actually, I’m told, make you a clearer thinker. Answers to sticky problems come forth. That is good enough reason. The fact that you may encounter for the first time, God, and thus learn the joy and peace of  the Holy, is bonus.

Why not try? You have nothing to lose but yourself.

Evolutionarily Yours

Tags

amygdala, brain, depression, evolution, frontal lobes, God, Human Biology, image of God, medicine, mind, neural pathways, PTSD, science

Long time readers here, know that I suffer to a degree with SAD, seasonal affective disorder. During these past couple of weeks, with temperatures hovering near or below zero most days, I’ve spent time sitting at the window, since blessedly the sun was out most days.

I handled the intense cold and resultant miseries rather well, and was mostly upbeat and happy during our self-imposed snowbound exile.

With the return yesterday of vastly warmer temperatures, I found myself strangely depressed and grouchy. It got me to thinking, and you know what that means–I have something to say.

I’ve said often enough that one of the reasons why I can see God’s hand in creation so very clearly, is that life is tenacious. Spotting a lone dandelion growing in the cracks of an old sidewalk proves that. It seems that evolution does it job in providing mechanisms that protect our lives in various circumstances.

I came to the conclusion, that this was just one more instance of that. In the midst of the perceived “danger” the brain somehow protects us from the depression that such events should precipitate. After the danger is past, the natural depression descends since we can now afford to give attention to it. 

This led to something I remembered from a three part show on PBS regarding the brain and how it functions. The Emotional Life describes a variety of brain mechanisms, often illustrating the working by showing dysfunctional brains where the mechanism is faulty.

One such is the amygdala, that small portion in our more primitive brain that operates to alert us to danger. A life-protecting mechanism in and of itself, it prepares us for “fight or flight,” flooding our bodies with adrenalin. This information is then sent to the frontal lobes, site of our rational cognitive thinking.

Here is where the problems begin. The prefrontal lobes examine the evidence and assess the danger. However, they are behind the game at this point. The amygdala is already in action, and the pathways from frontal lobe to amygdala, are not direct as they are from amygdala to frontal lobe. They are convoluted, containing a fairly round about way of getting there.

The amygdala thus functions to push the body to respond before the frontal lobes can get the information back to it, that it can relax. It has already poured forth its adrenalin. Interesting you say, but so what?

The commentator suggested that this portion of the brain, the FL to A pathway is not yet evolutionarily developed. We are on the way to a better connection, but not there yet. Evolutionarily speaking, it was better to be ready to act than to mull it over first. Makes perfect sense.

A couple of other fascinating things also are explained. It probably comes as no shock to most people that during a crisis (something fear inducing or terrorizing), we seem to have heightened senses. We hear, see, smell, feel, taste, more acutely. This apparently has something to do with the adrenalin or other chemicals that are released during such crisis conditions.

This means, that every single thing that happened during the moment of terror is exquisitely recalled in perfect detail. One can literally, upon proper cuing, smell the smells, and hear the sounds. Of more serious consequence, the memories are literally seared into memory. This has important implications for PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Here a particularly frightening episode is  cued, and the person feels for all practical purposes as if they are once more actually there, within the event again.

Each and every recall brings on the adrenalin flow and the terror is relived in 3D . For years, given the military’s desire to downplay the disorder, and because we knew very little of the inner workings of the mind, no real treatment was effective. Now there is some hope. Namely, the patient is forced to recall and describe again and again in detail what they are experiencing. And the frontal lobes slowly help the person accept that the signals are but memory. In other words, the patient’s own mind signals back sooner that all is well.

In time, hundreds of thousands of years no doubt, we will have the capacity to shut down the amygdala much quicker when there is no real danger present. So we live with the disorders that faulty connections allow for now.

Why is any of this interesting? Well quite simply to me, understanding the inner workings of my mind is one of my ways of understanding God. I have come, over time, to the conclusion, that being made in the “image of God” can only mean having a brain that thinks like God’s does.  Surely we all recognize that God is not the image of Michelangelo’s in the Sistine Chapel. Yet most of us do recall that image when we think of God.

Yet, I believe God is not corporeal but spirit. As such it would seem to me that we would have no reference point at all to “think” of God unless our minds were similar in nature. This is not to say that God does not have multiple “minds” each designed to the species (earth bound or otherwise). And in some sense, the evolutionary development of the human brain moves toward a more God-like orientation as it develops. Cats, as far as we know, don’t meditate on God, humans do.

It suggests to me that we are moving toward God as we move away from war, hate, anger, anxiety, selfishness, vanity, sloth and all those “sins”. As our brains develop, we move away from them as well. The frontal lobes take over and are the cop on the block, as it were.

Which is all to say that I appreciate my brain for its protection of my psyche during the great ice age just endured, saving my “depressing” day for a “safe” one. I look forward to the day when my brain doesn’t need this safety net, but can control itself by reason. Evolutionarily speaking the time needed is but a drop in the ocean of time. See ya there!