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brains, faith, humor, insanitybytes22, logic, madness, mystical, opinion, reason, supernatural
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People who refuse to listen to reason…..are my kind of people.
I’m not a huge fan of “reason,” in part because we tend to define it improperly in the modern world. “Reason” in modern times is perceived as somehow being related to our sanity. “Reason” is also defined as, “the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic.”
There are two problems with this. First of all, we’re obviously all mad here, and second of all the, “power of the mind to think” does not follow a process of logic. Not even a little bit. We have been so inundated by culture, so today there is this prevailing myth that our brains are just like computers and that “logic and reason” are far superior and infinitely more valid than anything else, be it emotional, intuitive, or supernatural. Reason looks a bit like Mr Spock the Vulcan on Star Trek, or perhaps the later version, Data the android.
And we’re very, very, proud of it, too. Arrogant and haughty even. A bit like they did right before the French revolution, we’ve built an idol to the “goddess of reason.” Those totally reason based and rational humans from the French revolution, actually built a literal monument to her and held a coronation…..right before they just started beheading everyone.
A bit funny, but I just finished this long and boring test on logic and reason. Ha! Little did I know that if you score high enough, they just add another 300 questions. I aced it, scoring in the top 2 percentile. I submit this meaningless bit of trivia, not to brag, but to assure you that I am an expert on reason and logic. I know of what I speak.
I don’t desire reason, I don’t envy logic, and it’s not attached to pride. In fact, it’s been a real bear, a pain in the rear. For whatever reason, my brain recognizes patterns and spots logical contradictions with a vehemence. It can be exhausting sometimes. Rather then trying to become more reasonable, more logic focused, I’ve really had to learn how to take my “thoughts into captivity” and “lean not into my own understanding.”
Chuckling here, but if you truly want to whisper sweet nothings to me, go ahead and call me “delusional, insane, unreasonable, irrational, and absurd.” Fortunately that happens with some frequency in the blogging world.
So the mind’s ability to think, understand, and form judgments is actually not logical at all, it is mystical. Some synonyms for “mystical” are actually, “religious, spiritual, transcendental, paranormal, otherworldly, and supernatural.”
Some honest neuroscientists are going to say the same thing, we really have no idea what is going on up there. They still struggle to even define “consciousness,” the “mind,” the “soul,” or to understand its inner workings. The brain is still an uncharted frontier, what powers the mind is a complete unknown.
So, “logic and reason” are actually intuitive, imaginative, and mystical, in the sense that they can see things that are not “seen.” It is logical to see the trees swaying and to deduce, the wind is blowing. The wind however, is completely invisible to the human eye. To see a tree and to perceive the lumber to build a house, is logical, but it is driven by imagination,emotion, and intuition. It sees something that is not yet there.
Artists have understood this concept since forever. They’ll see an old stump and logically conclude, there’s a dolphin trapped in there waiting for me to reveal it. Most of the time I cannot see their dolphin with my own eyes, but if they have a good track record for carving such things, it’s quite logical to conclude they shall soon produce a dolphin.
As it says in the bible, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
But we have the mind of Christ. Ponder that one. I kind of think of it as wi/fi signal to the Almighty, open 24/7 with no interruptions, no denial of service attacks. We may well trip over the cord or temporarily break the connection in some way, but that connection is available to us all of the time, everywhere. Also, it’s free.
As Christians we could really benefit from confronting the fears of our own madness, from confronting the fears we have of other people’s madness, and showing one another some more grace and kindness. Christians like other people, often like to pride ourselves on our own reason and logic, seeming to forget the part about talking donkeys, burning bushes, parted seas, and the Son of Man rising from the tomb on the third day.
Atheists are right to call us “unreasonable, irrational, and illogical.” The solution is not to defensively puff ourselves up and assert our own capacity for logic and reason, but rather to firmly embrace and welcome the mystical and intuitive parts of our faith. They are a vastly superior form of thought, the place where wisdom lives. The place where God lives.
I’m all for sober mindedness, and also how, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” However, the bible is plumb full of tales of supernatural events and miracles, all designed to rock us out of our comfort zones, to demonstrate to us that God does not conform to our own perceptions, nor does He operate within what “reason and logic,” or even science, will insist on telling us what is true.
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See, there's this thing called biology... 
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
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Thank you, much appreciated! 🙂
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You’re very welcome my friend 🌷😎
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UB on a roll. Lol
I’m pretty sure you covered this idea in so many ways above, but imagine a house owned by the Lord named Wisdom-
A place then with so few visitors- because we don’t have to go there- we don’t have to ask- we know it all-
A sobering thought to not know how the iron head doth float- or care.
Wisdom and the pillars of God!! But reason and logic do have their place- it is reasonable and logical to know God and His word can be trusted.
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I sure appreciate that, Colorstorm! It really is reasonable and logical to know God and His word can be trusted. I certainly don’t want us to just ditch the critical thinking skills entirely, but there sure is something to be said for some child like wonder and complete dependence. 🙂
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As an athiest I got quite a shudder when this tract turned into a Christian message. But hey, it can’t harm me. I enjoyed it, agreeing with much of it. So much of it is obvious and un -arguabley true. It made me remember the difference between Wisdom and Knowledge. Knowledge is knowing that a tomatoe is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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Ha! So very true about the tomatoes.
I’m so sorry that you would feel the need to say the Christian message can’t harm you. I’m sorry that the message has sometimes been so poorly delivered, that harm is something that comes to our minds, rather then safety,comfort and love.
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the mad hatter just came to mind…my mind that is 🙂
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Oh, the Mad Hatter, he’s a charming fellow, or at least he is when Johnny Depp plays him. 🙂
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Kind of like renegade pirates become quite handsome 😛
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Bahaha! Right? Pirates have scurvy and they don’t bathe. Also, they are frequently missing body parts. But never mind all that, put an eye patch on the handsome bugger and all is forgotten. 🙂
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Makes the “ladies” swoon 🏴☠️
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First of all IB the post is interesting. I do believe the brain to be a computer that generally has a mind of its own, it is prone to bad decisions and many influences we are unaware of; however it can be trained. I also believe neuroscientists do understand a little more about brain functions than you would like to let on in your post.
Secondly in the conscious state we are able to define logic and reason, it is just about how you go about defining what it is. We are similar but exclusive, we are influenced and moulded as a person from birth regarding our cultures, childhoods, families, experiences and of course our genetic disclosure etc. These influences are what make logic and reason intuitive, imaginative, and mystical to many.
It comes down to our ability to understand, separate and review these inherent influences and be able to define and establish on thorough and evidence based investigation of what is known today and readjusting what was believed to be true. Some would say it depends mostly on how strong in opening the mind you are to comprehend newly sourced material and evidential information without having to see it first hand or accept established genuine scientific investigation and this can often be a hard pill to swallow.
An obvious simple example would be that the Earth is flat, and gravity is not real.
Of course it is easy to suggest that many thousands of scientists are fooled, are conspiracist merchants or plainly just lying about the sphere and gravity. However, since the era of modern science the outdated logic and reason that was supported by evidence from the most simplistic previous and primitive versions of logic and reason can be identified very easily without every individual on the planet having to go into space to see for themselves. Simply questioning airline pilots, sailors and global travellers would be called a modern method of logic and rationality by any computer or human brain.
Going back to the influences in our lives such as the leading candidates of religion, politics, life experiences, social influences and the complexity of the brain it is easy to see why modern evidence and knowledge will mostly be overruled for the older and well established former logic and reason. Most upgrades from modernisation are outrightly rejected, just like we often treat our computers, if our long held beliefs and logic are well established by our computer brains and all is working fairly happily and is ok most of the time, why would we take the emotional risk to upgrade to a later software package? The reasons not to upgrade come from many sources and modernisation will not and cannot be accepted by most and the old packages will be in use until inevitably being tossed into the junk pile.
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Kind an interesting bit of trivia, but defining the mind has always aligned itself with the technology of the day. The mind was once perceived as a wheel, later a steam engine, then a factory, a telegraph, and eventually a computer. People who actually study the brain will tell you, she is definitely not a computer.
“Of course it is easy to suggest that many thousands of scientists are fooled, are conspiracist merchants or plainly just lying about the sphere and gravity.”
Precisely what you so often accuse Christians of? You are quite convinced that millions of Christians are deceived, fooled, or just plain lying.
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“People who actually study the brain will tell you, she is definitely not a computer.”
I agree but it is comparable in many ways.
“The human brain is often compared to a computer, full of bits of information, able to make swift, steady connections. Just like a computer, the brain has many programs like the ones that allow us to move, think and make decisions.” (Ohio Valley Center for Brain Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation)
“Your brain is like 100 billion mini-computers all working together” (newscientist.com)
“You are quite convinced that millions of Christians are deceived, fooled, or just plain lying.”
Yes I am, generally the brain has been hardwired from our earliest ancestors who invented the gods to answer the questions of the natural world and to help them survive the hardships of life. Christianity is just an evolved and more complicated ideological worshipping process.
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So words like, “is often compared to” or “your brain is like,” are simply allegories, metaphors. A poetic, even perhaps a romantic comparison is being made. That however is not science or facts or evidence. Those are simply words designed to convey a feeling, to spark imagination and emotion. From that place you then deduce, “the brain has been a hardwired” like a computer might be, but a computer without a programmer from your perspective.
That is actually not science at all, that is socialization and culture speaking.
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“That however is not science or facts or evidence.”
A theist complaining about what are facts or evidence is a new one on me and as science compares the brain to a computer, I think I am in safe territory.
“but a computer without a programmer from your perspective.”
Our brain was originally programmed and the hardwire process was started by the first people classed as Homo erectus with the brains that had to understand the natural world and therefore had the capability to be able to imagine that a god must exist in a world like the supernatural that they could not see.
When primitive man discovered that often their sacrifices and offerings of worship made an improvement to the weather, made sure the sun would rise every day and maybe an odd miracle occurred, This allowed them to find food, shelter and safety so they developed socially and progressed to making symbols and likenesses of their imagined gods hoping to appease them as much as they possibly could. Of course over time they added to their faithful beliefs with various practices of worship and afterlife traditions, but of course they were fooling themselves and disasters were seen as punishment from an unhappy god. Does this make any sense to you?
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Steve said:
‘Our earliest ancestors who invented the gods to answer the questions of the natural world and to help them survive
…’
Really? You were there? You are a mind reader? You knew their intent? Are you never embarrassed at your own circus antics that pretend to give you an air of intellect that your ‘ancestors ‘ supposedly never had?
Or is it simply possible that their attempts to speak of gods was because men KNEW there was a true God- and so like today, men would rather pretend that a house creates itself- that a computer creates itself- and that men refuse ultimate authority- just as you do today.
Will you ever get it?
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“Really? You were there? You are a mind reader? You knew their intent?”
Just as you were there during the world flood, the last supper and Jesus birth and resurrection.
“Or is it simply possible that their attempts to speak of gods was because men KNEW there was a true God”
There are thousands of gods. Why would your jealous god allow all of these false gods to be worshipped and loved from possibly 200 thousand years ago or the very least the known ancient Hinduism 1700–1100 BCE. I guess they were all born at the wrong time and are all doomed for hell. Maybe the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter are actually the real King of the Gods, so how would you know they are not?
“and that men refuse ultimate authority- just as you do today. Will you ever get it?”
I get it, ultimate authority? Man has strived for this since time began and they used anything they could, including gods and religions. Look at the main culprit the Catholic Church created under the Roman Empire, still today they dress in ridiculous clothing that projects authority to the millions of suckers who support thousands of God’s paedophiles.
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