No More Religious Board Games! Anti-Christianity and Human Herbivore!

Finally, the best article on (anti) Christianity that I needed to read to reaffirm my new intentions, emerging beliefs, and values (Basically I've realized that all religions are just clever cult-worshipping myths. They're just elaborate myths, fables. Jesus isn't any different from the Hare in the tortoise and the hair or Buddha isn't any different from Prometheus (the god of fire from ancient greece). Religions are myths. They are not true. Jesus, Buddha, Allah...they never existed. That however is not condemning hope and faith. Hope and faith are very strong great things and MANY myths teach the lessons of hope, faith, discipline, etc. Religion is merely a myth. It's astonishing how BLIND so many people are in regards to how obvious it is that those figureheads truly did not exist, but they blindly go on believing...people that easily duped (i.e. devout christians) are frankly quite frightening because if they could be deluded into believing that a mythological figure like Jesus had as much evidence for existing as Paul Bunyan (see this great article on that) then...wow.

El Jesus Verdad (lmao!)

Great article. Discusses how all accounts of Jesus existing are hearsay. I think the most award-winning quote from the Great and truthful article was :

We know from history about witchcraft trials and kangaroo courts that hearsay provides neither reliable nor fair statements of evidence. We know that mythology can arise out of no good information whatsoever. We live in a world where many people believe in demons, UFOs, ghosts, or monsters, and an innumerable number of fantasies believed as fact taken from nothing but belief and hearsay. It derives from these reasons why hearsay cannot serves as good evidence, and the same reasoning must go against the claims of a historical Jesus or any other historical person.

They could seriously be deluded to committing seriously destructive acts possibly. I mean it's not "sane" to be that delusional. Additionally, people are alwasy messed up in life when they start speaking of Christianity and religion extensively (like Mel Gibson people gave him hell after his Passion of the Christ movie). Additionally, I was prosetylized pretty severely in Costa Rica a few times. To say the least, it ruined the vacation. I despise the delusional stubborness inherent to many Christians, so coming across the blog article felt SOO validating!!!!!! It felt validating because it made me realize that yes while 2.14 billion people in the world are Christians; 2.14 billion people are misled and delusional; their still exist who see through that illusion, that religion is truly merely a myth! So it felt validating probably in the same way that seeing a pink elephant in your living room that all guests deny exists and finally someone else admits that yes, they do see the pink elephant haha!! Or a more realistic analogy is maybe during a math test, everyone gets a certain answer wrong, and it's because the solution itself was inaccurate, but the teacher denies that the answer is innacurate and then you take the problem to a head of math board or something and they provide the real answer, proving that the book answer was inaccurate and everyone's "wrong answer" was in fact right. The clarity and validation I feel into seeing that someone else truly does "see the light" (and by see the "light", I mean, see the darkness in Christianity ...after all, it killed millions of people in the Crusades), is joyful.

It feels joyful to understand that finally someone else sees what I see (the author of that blog entry!) and that I can and should commence connecting with like-minded people who share similar spiritual beliefs. Just as a marathoner would feel uncomfortable around people who weigh over 300 pounds and have atrotious diets, I feel uncomfortable around Christians. Similarly, whether it be your behavior, diet, beliefs, and/or spirituality, it just feels validating to connect with people who share your similar behaviors, diets, beliefs and/or spirituality and capacity! Cool!!!!

This is major not exactly "changing point" in my life but "emerging point" of a change that's been occurring internally but hasn't had a place and time to emerge. Because for the longest time I'd known these Gross obviousl sources of untruth associated with widely-believed beliefs like Christianity, but was afraid of acknowledging them because:

• of fear of labeled as a demon-worshipper (a common fallacious argument of Christians. That if you don't believe in Christ, then you worship demons. A LUDICROUS argument. I don't believei Christ, or Demons, or Leprechauns, any more than the Pink tooth fairy eating a fig newton; they're all mytholgoical constructs!
• of fear that the cult-like warnings of christianity such as going to hell, not having salvation, being directionless, lost and confused would come true.
  But in Reality!! Confusion, directionless, and hellish condemntion, ironically, I feel is the grand result of Christianity (from personal experience and 'eye witness accounts")! haha
• just the fact that 2.14 BILLION people could be that deluded. This is the one that's scary. But then again. Tons of people do stupid things (like smoke or eat unhealthy food, which is somewhat delusional, too).

G.I. Joe Jesus



Squirrel Buddha

So again A lot of the reasons why I didn't validate my serious disbelief in Christianity was fear, the appeal to fear, appeal to the cudgel fallacious argument tactics that Christianity uses, and just atonishment with how many dumb-founded people there are! But these personal declaration is a MASSIVE vindication and personal exoneration because it means that instead of trying to "mull with" or "change" or try to see, or help, or interact with people who believe in Christianity, I can just know and deeply understand that on a spiritual level I hold completely concretely different believes from them and I will not expect to have a friendship on a spiritual level (on a belief, identity, social, behaviorial, level quite possibly friendship however!), but on a spiritual level, I deem Christianity an inferior spiritual belief simply because it represents a type of person who has not utilized their mind. Anyone who utilizes their mind will see that Christianity is just a myth and they should utilize and apply their mind to discover what ultimately brings them truth.

Kierkegaard writes, "I must find a truth that is true for me'

Very true, Soren! ;D

It makes me feel proud that while I can find a way to respect Christians, and can elicit a way to discover a respect for anyone who has belief and faith in something, I can do all that, but it does make me happy -- geuinely, deeply happy -- to say and know and validate that I hate Christianity. I hate the cult-like customs, myopic delusional methods, the appeals to fear that it utilizes, and most importantly I loathe and condemn Christainity's shadowing of many of the world's truths and leading 1/3 of the people in the world to beleive falsities, lies. I find this strong realization of mine, clear and validating because I know it resonates with my mind, my personal experiences, and it makes it easier to breathe (in life) knowing that I believe that. I think in the past, there was so much pressure (so immersed in the cult of Christianity) that it was difficult to even dissect what you genuinely believed. Nevertheless, I know I am true gentleman, I am not a demon-worshipper, I am not "going to hell", I am not any of those repurcussional traps that Christianity has set up to falsely categorize non-Christians, so I know I am none of those things, and I know that I am confident, and immensely clear, and happy, and I know that I hate Christianity! yippee!!!!!!!

Now that said. I thought it important to note that I don't have much anger at Christianity. Sure, I encountered some very brash, dangerous, and narrow-minded Christians in life, but I've had discussions about this and encountered devout Christians, people who are indiffernet to religion, people who are questioning of it, strict aethists, agnostics, etc all these different types of relationships to religon, and I'm finally realizing that I am not formulating my own view on religion but I already have deeply formulated my view on religion and have just awaited for the validation for my "equation" to emerge, so to speak. And it's thus: quite simply, I think faith, belief, good morals in life are very important; principles are essential! However, my source of those principles are what I consider safe resources, resources that are genuine and scientific and utilize reason, evidence, and are extractions of what works in a variety of areas:

1. Exercise
2. Nature
3. Emerson's Self-Reliance
4. NLP
5. Math
6. Understanding of Human Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry, Physiology
7. My books Validate Your Life, Compassionate Reservoir, and Expressing the Observation

Those are the basic "tenets and tomes" if you will of my personal creed.

There's no question about it, those 7 things, genuinely provide me with and embody IMMENSE clarity, energy, fulfillment, belief, trust, liberation, happiness, and success. I have so much clarity from those 7 things, that I can literally mentally run circles, thousands of circles ;), around Christians and people who have simply chosen to not utilize their mind. (Yes, while I respect Christians for setting up anchors to an idol figurine and associate hope, or faith, or penitence or whatever they want to it, I ultimately consider a devout Christian someone who hasn't fully utilized their cognitive 8-pound muscle that rests in their cranium. However, I do want to be clear on the distinction between :

1. valuing and respecting someone who has engaged the capacity to believe and follow a set of principles and rules (albeit an unintelligent set of believes)
2. someone whom has fully learned to utilize their mind on spiritual level

I'm saying that Christians have 1, but lack 2, meaning that I respect them more than a person who has neither 1 nor 2. However, I'll connect with a person who has both 1 and 2 with MUCH more respect than a Christian, obviously!

I've learned that religion (for me at least) not only does not bring clarity, peace, and happiness, but out of all the times in my life where I've studied and/or practiced a major religion I've experienced the opposite. I've experienced obfuscation, distraught, and distress. For ME Exercise, nature, Math, and Science are the ultimate forms of faith, clarity, fulfillment. I know that as truth. And it feels quite dandy understanding that about myself!!

Steve Pavlina's Brilliant #3 step for graduating from Christianity I resonated with SOooo strongly. Why? Because I'd done part of that. I picked up a Gideon's (isn't it clever that GIDEON is also the acronym for Global Infectious Disease & Epidemiology Network) LOL!! And I started in Genesis and then Exodus, etc. And I was like "Isn't it a little ridiculous that these people (these fictional characters in the Bible) live to be 800, 900 years? In the cult-worshipping-centers...erm I mean Christian Churches you don't hear priests blabbing about your 792nd birthday coming up "like the people in the Bible", right? No, of course not, because what goes on in Churches is part "semi-legitimate" anchoring of good values to words like "Jesus" and such and a lot cult-tactic. Churches leave out the utterly ridiculous stuff that's in the Bible. And the fact that so few Christians have actualy "read their textbook", read the Bible, is a testament, if you will, to their delusional and lost state! :D

"If you’re going to call yourself a Christian, then at the very least, you should read the entire Bible cover to cover. Wouldn’t you agree? After all, it’s touted as the most important work of your entire faith. If you’d rather watch TV than finish reading the Bible, perhaps you aren’t cut out to be a Christian. Don’t worry — my blog will still be here in a few years when you’re done." -- From Steve's Blog

Oh my god I love this guy!! That's BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Whenever I run into another brainwashed Christian, whose haranguing me for being a religious miscreant or some other absurdity, I now have the option of just labeling him as a delusionally obdurate and clouded person or grilling him on the Bible, the very text that he/she will likely know so little about!!! :D After all, the catch is, that upon reading the Bible cover to cover, any 100-IQ, average-minded individual or more intellient would realize that Christianity is just a mythology and the Bible, simply a long Wayyyy overrated, overtalked about fable (the Bible also serves as the backbone for the cult tactics utilized in Christianity as well!). Damn this is a liberating blog entry and era of vindication in my life! :D

I'm just going to go ahead and respond to a few VERY eloquent, VERY lucid, very reassuring, and joy-inducing paragraphs of validation I read on Steve's awesome site:

Now if you actually attempt this, it’s a safe bet that you’ll be bored to tears.

LMAO!! Exactly!! Genesis and Exodus were seriously some of the most Boring reads possible. And it's clear how the monotony and horrendously boring scripture of hte Bible was purposely meant to make it unbearably difficult to read and long, because a "core text" unread is more easily the source of delusion and brainwashing. And it's this aim, how the Bible was seriously literally engineered for cult, brainwashing, that angers me. But I digress and find salvation and humor in Steve's awesome and authentically true analysis!

The vast majority of the Bible’s content is very, very dull. It’s filled with long-winded genealogies and badly written stories. There’s a lot of aimless wandering in the desert. Very little of the Bible’s content is likely to be relevant or interesting to you. The good parts are few and far between. It’s an ideal cure for insomnia.

LMAO!! So true!! Go steve pavlina blogger friend!!

If you somehow manage to read the whole thing (an act that requires significant persistence), you’ll be left wondering what the big deal is. You’ll probably wish you’d spent that time reading something more interesting or educational.

The Bible is simply not a very interesting or useful book. Aside from the general dullness, it’s also filled with internal contradictions. This is intentional. You aren’t supposed to be able to make sense of it or discover profound truths on every page. The book is designed and marketed as a mystical work, such that you’re beholden to the Church as your interpreter.

Yikes! And that's true. I remember seeing a costa rican friend studying the Bible. The way he studied it, it was almost like he was trying to read a book but had forgotten how to read. He was always flipping pages and circulating ideas, and trying to "figure it out". I think that reaction is normal because there's absolutely NOTHING to figure out! The Bible is the biggest marketing scam on the planet!! Additionally, it's extremely circumventing. DELIBERATELY CIRCUMVENTING I think is the word of the day of the Bible so that it draws you into the church to "figure it out" (but remember there's nothing to figure out, except how to give alms out of your pocketbook into the church) lmoa!! scary and true. Truth is stranger (and scarier) than fiction. For Christians, this truth may hurt at first, but ultimately, understand the religion for what it is , an over-inflated, over-marketted, hyped up mythological marketing cult sham, it will be liberating to know that later on from a personal validity point of view!

Okay...great. So I know all of the above to be True. 100% true. I no longer fear the false cult-repurcussions and appeals to fear of firmly being a non-believer and firmly seeing Christianity as very poorly worded, incredibly hollow, and boring "myth" utilized for brainwashing. Great. But what do I do about the anger of so many people believing that and having been raised with that brainwashing and having done communion and then during my teens having wasted soooooo much time actually partially taking the time to question and maybe on-off believing in christianity?! What do I do about the anger of having been duped into thinking that for so long?? Well, I guess my exoneration from the anger arrives in teh form of the joy I feel in knowing that I'm liberated from the sham of Christianity and validate the future experience and joy of connecting with like-minded intelligent people like Steve Pavlina and others who share like-minded expansive and lucid spiritual vistas!

Steve writes "#4 Assess What You've Gained".

I think that is important especially for overcoming the anger of having been deluded for a good decade into partially believing Christianity. What did I gain from Christianity?? hhmm hhmm hhmm . Actually I don't have to think about it that much. I know very quickly what I gained:

1. Anchoring Awareness. I learned the power of anchors. A preacher can sit up on a pedastal and anchor the emotional states of "belief, hope", "discipline", "salvation from your problems" to a little t-shaped figurine and a five-lettered word beginning J. That's NLP at work, and that, mis amigos, is simply auditory and visual anchoring! The preacher gets people in this state of "respect", most people dress up for church, after all, and then all these anchors get fired off. So from any religion the anchoring done to the purely cognitive idea, the purely cognitive picture representation of a peaceful Buddha, or a compassionate Jesus, or an all-seeing Allah or something ARE great anchors to draw up. But all you're doing is mentally recalling those manufactured images, which is fine, because those peaceful, clear, states are poweful and good to be able to tap into any way that you can.
   
2. How a Cult Operates Awareness. The other thing I gained from Christianity is awareness how a cult operates. This knowledge is useful to 1)prevent getting trapped in a cult again and keeping yourself free with rational-minded intelligent people and 2)
   

Disconnecting from the "all non-christians are evil" mentality is huge. I

"If you study a lot of different belief systems as I have, you’ll learn that no one has a monopoly on your soul. All of these belief systems are man-made and flawed. Some are driven by powerful marketing machines. Whether you subscribe to any of them or not is of little concern to the rest of the universe."

I really like that one: "No one has a monopoly on your soul". So incredibly true and well-phrased! In a way, I did a lot of what Steve did. About 9 years ago, during my Junior year of highschool after I had this immense awakening and calling to lifecoaching, I spent hours and hours day after day for months in a local Barnes and Nobles perusing every religious tome, book, or encyclopedia (yes their are Eastern and Western religion actual encyclopedias). I studied religion simply like learning about the tenets and customs of ancient civilizations. The eight fold path and 4 noble truths of Buddhism, the very cool tonal scale of scientology, the commandments and proverbs of christianity, the 5 pillars of islam, the three deities Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, of the polytheistic religion, Hinduism, as well concepts such as Boddhisattva and Maya (illusion). I discovered there's an incredible amount of "junk" woven into religions! Each religion seemed to have this all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent deity that they just called different names (a Buddha, an Allah, a Jesus, a Kali) that were all basically the same thing and yet each religion vehemently and vicerally heralded their own "nickname" of thise all powerful force as the best and that all other "nicknames" were blasphemy. Additionally, each of these tenets or truths of the religion had a lot of similarities. The 8 fold path and 4 noble truths of Buddhism, for example were almost identical to the 10 commandments of Christianity. I thought, "Man! Did the creators of these religion all meet in a "Create Your Religion" club thousands of years ago, brainstorm similar ideas and all use their own marketing scheme?!" It certainly seemed that way. So I put enormous hours of study (probably close to 150-200 hours) into learning that religions are kind of like a board games! In monolopy or Chutes and Ladders for instance, there's always:

• an end (the Finish Line in Monopoly or Chutes and ladders that you have to get your piece to, or heaven for Christianity, Nirvana (Buddhism), or Moksha, "Exoneration from a cycle of suffering" (Hinduism)
• there's negative consequences for certain actions like "Going to Jail" (monopoly), falling down a Chute (Chutes and Ladders), Sinning or going to Hell (Christianity), Samsara's Cycle of Suffering (Buddhism)
• then there's weird little things that happen in the game: "Like buying houses or hotels" (monopoly), "getting a wild card" in Crazy 8s, Communion in Christianity, experiencing Meditation (Buddhism), Focusing on Rama and Sita (to made-up mythological characters of Hinduism).

One of the reasons why sharing this analysis become so uplifting to me was this exchange I had with a woman I met through one of those cheesy dating services. I had met quite a few women on it and non of them matched up to what we were each looking for. So when I found this one woman and we clicked it was exciting. She had majored in psychology; we were the same age; we were looking for identical qualities NOT in a relationship and IN a relationship (in other words, we both wanted and did not want the exact same things!), physically she was decently attractive, and we had a meaningful exchange. So it seemed like on our levels of capacity (I had a passion for and history of personal study with psychology a lot, too), belief, and maybe even identity, we clicked! It was exciting and it felt romantic. However, then I discovered that she was a Christian and that "her family was strict Christians" which meant that dating a non-Christian was impossible for her and she cut off the relationship like that!! My first reaction was astounded ridicule: Really?! This religion had really infected her so much that she couldnt' see that a potentially could match for experimenting with a meaningful relatinoship wasn't an option? It was just so incredibly illogical! My second reaction was frustration. I was frustrated that we seemed to connect on so many levels except spirituality and her spiritual level "wrote off" all the other parrallels! My third and final reaction was that of relief. I realized that if this woman was as close-minded as not being able to connect

So religions were just a silly board game with funny names and markers and a made-up "finish line" all heavily-marketted as this "spiritual necessity". Was about to take a board game seriously? So seriously that I would actually exclude people who didn't play my board game? In a sense, a Christian convening and associating with only Christians and frowning on non-Christians or Buddhists frowning on non-Buddhists is about as ridiculous as you chastising and looking down on non-Monopoly players or "non-Crazy 8s" or "non-Chutes & Ladders" players!! The whole reality of religion was so moronically peurile and pathetically manipulative and of all "SILLY" -- religion is so righeously absurdly silly -- that taking it seriously wasn't an option for me. I didn't have the qualifications of stupidity to continue to take any of these pre-ordained religions seriously. I wasn't stupid enough to believe in any of these religions! Now, it's VERY important to note that having a personal set of hand-crafted principles, beliefs and tenets is very uplifting and nourishing and something great to use as a guide in life. But hand-crafting your and structuring your own set of beliefs and principles is completely different than subscribing to these pre-packaged overly-spiritualized board games of religion. I think the best analogy is religion is like buying those pre-packaged frozen food meals that include the veggie, the meat, and the desert all in little microwaveable shrink-wrapped trays and eating the EXACT same meal for breakfast. lunch, and dinner for the rest of your life. What I encourage of cultivating your own set of principles and personal beliefs to guide and structure your life, is like gathering up fresh fruits and vegetables, maybe some fish, a bunch of spices, cutting, and cooking your own 3-course meal everytime you need nourishment. The result of cultivating your own set of beliefs and principles is that you get a much more nourishing, fulfilling, uplifting, and more "tasty" life! :D


Anyways. THIS Blog is FANTASTIC. OMG I love it!! From the Article on How humans are more anatomically designed as herbivores to this great article on moving beyond the nuisance of Christianity. It's a fantastic blog. I highly recommend it.

I don't think ANY post on these theme of liberating yourself from religion could be complete without Mentioned Richard Dawkins. Read Richard Dawkins. I just finished his book The God Delusion and hearing such a massively well-scholared intelligent dissection of religion and the commitment to understanding truth restored my faith in humanity and mankind.

Some notes on Dawkins's work.

1. Richawrd Dawkins. (anti-religion YAY!) To cap it all, Adam, the supposed perpetrator of
   the original sin, never existed in the first place: an awkward fact -
   excusably unknown to Paul but presumably known to an omnis-
   cient God (and Jesus, if you believe he was God?) - which
   fundamentally undermines the premise of the whole tortuously
   nasty theory. Oh, but of course, the story of Adam and Eve was
   only ever symbolic, wasn't it? Symbolic? So, in order to impress
   himself, Jesus had himself tortured and executed, in vicarious
   punishment for a symbolic sin committed by a non-existent
   individual? As I said, barking mad, as well as viciously unpleasant.
2. George Carlin (in Richard Dawkins Book God Delusion). "Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible
   man - living in the sky - who watches everything you do, every
   minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten
   things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten
   things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning
   and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer
   and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the
   end of time . . . But He loves you!" (lmao. great ridicule).
3. GREAT Atheist Commandments (BEST!!)
1. • Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to
   you.
   • In all things, strive to cause no harm.
   • Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and
   the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and
   respect.
   • Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but
   always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and
   honestly regretted.
   • Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.
   • Always seek to be learning something new.
   • Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and
   be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not
   conform to them.
   264 THR GOD DELUSION
   • Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always
   respect the right of others to disagree with you.
   • Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason
   and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by
   others.
   • Question everything.
   
4. Dawkins' Atheist commandments GREAT!
   
1. • Enjoy your own sex life (so long as it damages nobody else)
   and leave others to enjoy theirs in private whatever their
   • inclinations, which are none of your business.
   • Do not discriminate or oppress on the basis of sex, race or (as
   far as possible) species.
   • Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think
   for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree
   with you.
   • Value the future on a timescale longer than your own.
5. Alfred Hitchcock (from Richard Dawkins) "It is said that Alfred Hitchcock, the great cinematic
   specialist in the art of frightening people, was once driving through
   Switzerland when he suddenly pointed out of the car window and
   said, 'That is the most frightening sight I have ever seen.' It was a
   priest in conversation with a little boy, his hand on the boy's
   shoulder. Hitchcock leaned out of the car window and shouted,
   'Run, little boy! Run for your life!' "
6. Richard Dawkins -- "Religion has at one time or another been thought to fill four
   main roles in human life: explanation, exhortation, consolation and
   inspiration." (Science now completely Explains life. Religion provides no moral bearing on how to live; terrible group rapes and outdated commandments in religion. This is great because it shows that religion TRULY is obsolete!! A need for defining our own morality, however, IS VERY necessary and VERY present and that's why personal principles are essential!)....
7. Richard Dawkins -- Consolation, according to the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, is the
   alleviation of sorrow or mental distress. I shall divide consolation
   into two types.
   1. Direct physical consolation. A man stuck for the night on a
   bare mountain may find comfort in a large, warm St Bernard
   dog, not forgetting, of course, the brandy barrel around its
   neck. A weeping child may be consoled by the embrace of
   strong arms wrapped around her and reassuring words
   whispered in her ear.
   2. Consolation by discovery of a previously unappreciated fact,
   or a previously undiscovered way of looking at existing
   facts. A woman whose husband has been killed in war may be
   consoled by the discovery that she is pregnant by him, or that
   he died a hero.
8. (This is VERY interesting because to me, science, math, and the awe and mystery of mathematical precision and scientific technology found installed in Nature, in cellular technology, in science is the most inspiring. Again, this is MASSIVELY validating because for me the only thing religion has brought was the ANTI-THESIS OF CONSOLATION. Religion brought me being prosyletized in costa rica, religion brought me fear of fiery pits, screaming irate peope ranting things about trinities...religion brought discord and has never brought consolation! Why is that so many homeless people are connected with churhces? Because churches attract and manufuacture lost people! Science, in contrast, brought me deep truthful consolation. Science is something I can honestly absorb. I can pour over the "tenets" of the cellular respiration or the "tomes" of euclidian geometry and photosynthesis. Science and math are my source of explanation and consolation, and inspiration. And for exhoration, I combine and use a combination of science, logic, and my own principles! Seeing how much WELL-written (dawkins') material there is on anti-religion and how little well-written material on religion these days, restores my faith in humanity and mankind! :D
   
9. Carl Sagan (Science as truth!) -- "Not explaining science
   seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the
   world. This book is a personal statement, reflecting my lifelong love
   affair with science."

Heart Attacks -- Infarction

Some quick medical jargon.

Myocardial Infarction (MI). Sound familiar? Well how about "Heart Attack". The same. Infarction is the diseased state of a temporary (or permanent) loss of blood to tissue. The heart, composed of myocardial tissue, that doesn't get enough (or no) blood for a period of time experiences a Myocardial Infarction, or Heart Attack. Nifty to know; not nifty to experience.

The Bicameral Mind and Consciousness

In 1976, Julian Jaynes took a break from his Princeton instruction to write the ground-breaking "Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind", in which he detailed specific accounts on the nature of consciousness from a variety of civilizations -- the Sumerians, Mayans, Asians, Hebrews, and most significantly, the ancient Greeks. In his account of the mind's consciousness, Jaynes references ancient texts, saying that characters in the Iliad "possess no general consciousness" (Jaynes 69). Additionally, he drew psychological connections between the language centers of the brain --Broca's area, Wernick's area, and the supplemental motor cortex. According to Frank Wallace, his conclusions "will rank among the five most important books ever written by the year 2000" (Wallace 1).

Julian's comments of the Greeks and Hebrews possessing no consciousness is highly debatable because in Homer's account of the fifty days of the tenth year of the Trojan war, there had to have been at least some intelligent consciousness to construct the Trojan Horse contraption and for the heroes of the Iliad to perform some of the feats described in the epic. Similarly, many could argue that characters in the Bible -- such as Cain choosing to slay his brother, Abel -- acted out of their own volition.

However, Jaynes provides scintillating evidence illustrating how ancient characters, specifically the Greeks, seemed to be controlled by something other than their own consciousness. After all, the writers of the Bible, despite the profoundly evocative evidence of which they describe, do not appear to have a conscience or, at the least, introspection. It is not until later writings of the Old Testament, like in Ecclesiastes do the writers take up a distinctively introspective tone. In the first verse of Ecclesiastes, the writer states how his studies revealed him that wisdom is meaningless: "I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heaven burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (Bible Ecclesiastes 1:13). I would have to strongly disagree with this writer because he then on to say that, in addition to wisdom, pleasures, toil, and advancement are meaningless. Sure, maybe toil could be labeled as purposeless, but wisdom can generate knowing which can help others in their process, and pleasures can provide temporary satisfaction.

The writer encourages one to stand in awe of God, which, personally, I feel is a way of simply method of acquiring more blind followers to the Christian faith, but respect for an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent force -- given that one exists -- would definitely be a good thing. The writer takes quite a derogatory and brusque tone, telling the reader that God lacks time for fools, of which I strongly disagree because he later says to "fear God and keep his commandments...For he will bring every deed into judgment" (Bible Ecclesiastes 12:13). People should never live in fear of anything. It is a flaw in Christianity, in my mind, to encourage -- basically demand -- anyone to live in fear and awe of any power, regardless of its capacity for judgment. One should be in awe of themselves; as Janyes has speculated the only "God voices" are those of our own mind. Listen to and stand in awe of your own certainty. The point is clear, however, the writer, reflecting on what qualities are meaningful and the culmination of some of his studies, has taken a more reflective non-bicameral tone. Janyes These are gross speculations, but most people would have at least a scintilla of reflection after witnessing Noah's Flood, Thus began the Jaynes' Theory of Consciousness.

Jaynes argues that these ancient heroes had no grasp of subjectivity and introspection, lacked all cognizance of one's own level of awareness, possessed no "internal mind to introspect upon" (Jaynes 75). According to Jaynes, in this state of mental bicameralism and the absence of inner monologue, people commonly experienced external god forces pushing the automatons around with "voices". However, Jaynes brilliantly asserts that those "external God voices" did not come from external deity, but rather from the other half -- the "speaking half" -- of one's own mind. Janyes says that the speaking half of one's mind It is difficult to label Achilles, Agamemnon, or Moses as people that did not act on their own accord. Where they people who were greatly in touch with spiritual connections and intentions? Yes, but not necessarily people that were robots to some divine voice. Instead, Janyes puts forth the possibility that even the divine messages they received came from the other half of their own mind simply "waking up".

What could have been possibly waking up were intrinsic motivations. There exists two major branches of psychological motivation -- extrinsic motivation , working for external reward, and intrinsic motivation, working for the pleasure of the activity itself. It's amazing that, if the bicameral mind theory has veracity, the heroes of ancient Greece were not worshipping external deities and making sacrifices to the God voices they heard, but rather, they were obeying the commands of their own mind and making sacrificial worship to the right-side of their brain! In short, they had sincere connection to there inner voice.

It was certainly a different time back then. Today, such divine invocations from external voices would be swiftly mis-diagnosed as schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, or some other disorder from the frightening annals of "abnormal psychology". If you've seen the movie Dr. Strangelove, then you've witnessed the erratic, explosive gestures where Dr. Strangelove's hand seems to have a life of it's own, a condition also known as "alien hand syndrome", or AHS. Alien hand syndrome is a neurological disorder that can occur with damage (or surgery) to the corpus callosum, which frequently is fount in the surgical severing of the callosum for extremely epileptic patients. Cases of AHS can get so severe that one hand begins to "fight" with the other hand, so that, for example, if the left handed opened the refrigerator to grab bowl of pasta, the right would just as quickly shove the pasta back into the fridge and slam the fridge shut! The halves of the brain failed to reach a "compromise" before taking action could be one explanation. AHS has drawn the attention of scholars and scientists interested psychological volition, philosophy of action, and human consciousness. Risking the possibility of AHS to cure epilepsy? Tough choice, but fortunately, thanks to advancements in surgical technology people don't have to make that choice, but the ancients with the possible existence of a "bicameral mind", most certainly had difficulties with hallucinations, visions, and voices from the other half of their mind!

Jaynes points out that as civilization developed and the right-brain dominance over the left decreased, consciousness truly emerged. The concept of divination and spirituality emerged when bicameralism faded (the brain halves fused) and the need for an explanation of "all those voices" arose. Interesting that during the re-integration of the cerebral halves, kids were have said to have more voices from the "gods", but lost these abilities with later schooling. This could imply that schooling generated more of a conscience or that it caused the right-brain to "listen" and the left-brain to "speak" whether or not that is a beneficial shift or not.

Getting into the anatomical details, Janyes Theory focused on the primary communication and language centers of the brain, namely Broca's area and Wernicke's area both connected to each other with the arcuate fasciculus. In neuroscience-speak, Broca's area is a.k.a Brodmann's area 44, located in the left frontal lobe around the triangular section of the inferior frontal gyrus, and Wernicke's area is a.k.a Brodmann area 22, found on the left posterior temporal lobe close to the temporo-parietal junction. Both of these, you'll notice, are located on the left hemisphere of the brain, which could relate to Janyes theory of the left-"listening brain" and right speaking brain. However, Broca's area is connected with the motor mechanics of using larynx muscles to produce and comprehend speech and, while Wernicke's area, on the other hand, being involved in receiving information and transforming it into linguistic words, is all "listening". In short, Broca's gets the words in your mind out, while Wernicke's puts the information in your mind into words. With Broca's aphasia, you can comprehend, but speak in stilted, random manner, while one with Wernicke's aphasia cannot comprehend words, but can speak them in a semi-meaningful manner.

Broca's area and Wernick's area

The loss in the ability to speak or understand spoken language due to brain damage of Broca's area results in "non-fluent aphasia" and "fluent aphasia" if speech command is lost in Wernicke's area. Frequently, conjugations and pronoun-understanding may been lost with the retention of nouns and verbs, but without a logical ordering in speech production. While someone suffering from Broca's aphasia comprehends a majority of what they pick up, their speech production is jumbled. For example, to say they went to the store, they might say "store went, I say", or something similar. Wernicke's aphasia, known as "fluent-aphasia" produces aphasia that sounds more coherent, but lacks meaning. The decrease in comprehension levels is visible in Wernicke's aphasia, as well. While it is a sad situation because 72% of aphasics are isolated from work, 50% have taken speech-therapy only to be less excluded, there exists a National Aphasics Association (NAA) that helps those in need.
(en.wikipedio.org 1)

But with the rise of consciousness came the fear of acting with one's own volition, which brought the uncertainty of doubt. In this doubt, man began to think:

1. "Man is made to feel guilty. He is condemned for having lost his innocence by inventing consciousness. He is condemned for assuming the responsibility to use his own mind to guide his life. He is condemned for exchanging his nature-made bicameral mind with a man-invented conscious mind." (Wallace 10).
   
   
2. Considering the "problems" from exchanging in a animal-like conscious-less state for a brain, man is given automatic solutions if becomes obsequious to authority. Here, man erroneously exchanges self-responsibility for personal decisions to lead one's life fore as well discarding his ability to follow his own mind.
   

Well, using one's own mind and one's own authority isn't a problem at all. It's a solution! The Matrix and Blade Runner from the cyberpunk genre -- where tensions between hackers, A.I. and mega-corporations brew in the not-so-distant future -- Neotech, and the concept of Validate Your Life have latched onto the vital task of abandoning the guilt of consciousness to escape the fallacy of Original Sin and of consciousness, and embrace those strengths.

Look at famous works like Hawthorne's The Birthmark and the punishment and expulsion from the Garden of Eden in the Bible to see that consciousness is frequently a condemned change, when it should be promulgated. Neotech, the mortal enemy of mysticism, which uses "non-sensory, non-rational, non-definable, non-identifiable means of knowledge such as 'just knowing'," engenders using one's own reason and senses to make conclusions. "People knowledgeable about fully integrated honesty or Neotech have the tools to control their own lives and destinies, free from crippling mysticism and harmful false authority" (Wallace 11). While Neotech has a fantastic goal, remembering to listen to intuition now and then is fine if just, for the least, to try to create a reconciliating synthesis between Neotech and mystic philosophies.

The Neotech approach certainly does have a stronger case because it chooses not to betray, but to utilize one's own mind. For about two years in my life, I took up a mysticism approach and tried to seriously commit to astrology, signs, and lots of other voodoo before it felt as though it took me absolutely nowhere in no direction. However, there exist different degrees and criteria for progress that could fit "mysticism success", but Neotech is much more logical and applicable. It's important to acknowledge mental conscience, but also vital -- sometimes more vital -- to obey the spiritual, mystical body. Ultimately, a reconciling balance of neotech-mind-consciousness and mysticism-spiritual-heart creates freedom. In Buddhist thought, Nirvana is not a place that one arrives at or discovers, but it is an acquired internal state free of desires and fears. Recognizing the history of bicameral mentality is vital to not only honoring and respecting, but it is essential to protecting and perpetuating the current human state of consciousness and insight.

en.wikipedia.org. Broca's Area. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area
Holy Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1984.
Jaynes, Julian. Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976..
Wallace, Frank. Consciousness: The End of False Authority. I & O Publishing Co., 1991.
Xiong, Joseph. Aphasia: A language Disorder. Biology 202: Serendip, 1999. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web1/Xiong.html