All You Need Is Love

In the Christian bible 1^st John 4:8 states, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Spirituality

In my religious days that verse was one of the cornerstones in my life. Even as a child before taking religion seriously I had always felt a strong connection with nature and had a deeply passionate feeling for life. It felt deeply meaningful to me like a pure natural love and I felt it everywhere and in all people. It gave me a sense of confidence in where I was in my known world. Later, whether in my Christian years or my meditation years it was still by use of this feeling where I was able to discern that I was in the right place.

When I was a kid we went to church on Sundays. But I couldn’t seem to associate the sense of spirituality I experienced in my life with the biblical god whom I was taught about. It wasn’t deliberate it just didn’t feel like it was the same thing even though my experiences could be classified as spiritual. It was of course promoted during those years by good parents, kind friends, and good experiences. Back then one could have called it “spirituality” but it is now what I call a natural sense of unity.

In my mid teens I took Christianity quite seriously and in my early twenties I left that and started practicing ancient yoga meditation to which I became deeply devoted. Though I had profound experiences in meditation I think most lasting was that same natural sense of unity I had as a child but only magnified. Funny enough in my late twenties I became an atheist because of significant lingering issues that neither god nor religion could address. But yet as an atheist I could still experience the benefits of meditation, closeness with nature and a deep sense of humanity, just in a more sophisticated sense. How could this “spiritual” sense still exist if I no longer subscribed to the idea of god or religion?

Atheism

Now I wouldn’t want to misrepresent myself and say that everything was the same one way as a religious person and continued feeling the same way as an atheist. There was a change, a transition. I lost something I never had but I gained a new understanding of something I always had. Part of this was that natural sense of unity which was eclipsed during this change but later shined again within a new understanding. For more details about this transition please see my previous articles.

I honestly believe that had religion not been introduced to my life I would have become roughly the same man that I am today. Christianity was an unfortunate loss of time with a lot of hard work and very little reward. The heavy discipline of original yoga meditation, though relaxing, I found still damaging to the ego by surrendering the self just as in Christianity (see my article on “The Virus in Religion”). It was now clear to me that those passionate feelings I experienced as a child were not from god because they were still able to survive in one form or another throughout my transitions. “How could spirituality exist if there is no spirit?” I wondered. It’s quite simple: it came from within me. It is not a spirit in the supernatural sense but spirit meaning the psychological seat of emotions and character. This can still be an important part of who we are but ultimately it is of an emotional origin.

Now I don’t like to refer to life stories as a way of proving a point because science doesn’t utilize anecdotal evidence; rightfully so. But I try to provide relevant experiences for which scientific and historical evidence already exists. This is to encourage free-thought in readers who are “on the fence” who have newly embarked on this area which is otherwise forbidden by religion. It may seem audacious for me to suggest that spirituality is merely a psychologically based experience but there is more of a consensus than some may think. Next time you or someone you know is experiencing something spiritual, whether it is praying, yearning for comfort or feeling the presence of god, try to find out what they’re really feeling rather than what they were told what they are feeling.

One of the most common false conclusions religious people make when asked about their most convincing proof of god is, “I can feel Him. Therefore I know.” Christians often claim that it is their “personal experience” of god which renders proof. We know it would be incorrect to say that what they feel is not real. Those feelings are very much real. But it is the attribution of these feelings which is incorrect and has been done so almost traditionally. The religious have neither had a better explanation for it nor have they the reason to look for one. For the religious, they label it the way they were taught to: they are told that it is god. This is true in the emic perspective.  But as scientific facts started emerging we started to see that those feelings are not god.

Contemplation and Expressed Desires

Our genes have a lot to do with our intelligence, our character as well as our moral inclinations. Though this amazing and complex subject certainly has some ties to ideas behind spirituality it is something which we will leave, however, for a future article. For the purpose of staying on topic we will continue on the idea of spirituality as an emotional byproduct.

When it comes to spirituality, the brain’s complex laboratory of neurochemicals, cognitive mechanisms and emotions all play the leading role. For starters, Sigmund Freud wrote in depth on his theories of the psychological development of god. An article from Philosophy of Religion sums it up well by stating, “For Freud, as for [Ludwig] Feuerbach, religion is wish-fulfillment. Freud adds the explanation that the adoption of religion is a reversion to childish patterns of thought in response to feelings of helplessness and guilt. We feel a need for security and forgiveness, and so invent a source of security and forgiveness: God. Religion is thus seen as a childish delusion and atheism as a grown-up realism.”

It may seem a little far fetched but there is a lot of psychological investment in what we intrinsically feel toward parents and inherently in a psycho-social sense toward a loving god. Many of the emotional needs that people seek from their “heavenly father” are the same as some needs sought by children from their parents. But the psychological need that religion tries to fulfill is only a small part of the picture and isn’t so much regarded in this area of study anymore. It does however provide a platform for us to examine what we vainly seek for our selves through the avenue of religion. I might even add that as the origins of religion are highly emotional so are the resulting scriptures. It follows that as a passionate species we still feel a sympathetic resonance with it. I argue that as emotions are often irrational or illogical, so too are the many “quirks” we find in religion.

I might even go on to speculate on my natural sense of unity by saying that this form of spirituality is a yearning to return to the pureness of childhood: if one is fortunate to live in a family where a healthy childhood was promoted, a child’s early mind, which is unhampered by adult struggles in life, is relatively “perfect” or sets the standard thereof. In this sense ignorance is not just bliss but it is simplicity and retrospectively speaking a reformatted version of our fundamental selves. It can simply be a refreshing way to decompress from the pressures we accumulate throughout life. In this ideal is the purity we seek; it is a return to innocence.

This is in part spoken in a theoretical sense but by this we begin to understand that what we seek in the form of spirituality, quite possibly an introspective mirror, reveal the desires we seek for our personal selves. Having fulfilled those emotional needs fills the “god-sized hole” we have in our hearts.

Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience of Religion

In more recent studies in the area of cognitive neuroscience we’ve been able to gain more of an insightful understanding as to why our minds tend to render the notion of the supernatural. Freud almost hit the nail on the head with his idea of transference: continuing the desires for a caretaker or parent into the adult age by conceptualizing god(s). I wouldn’t deny this exists in some form or another but the whole of spirituality is much deeper than this.

Since the days of our early ancestors, or even primates for that matter, instinctive and cognitive mechanisms evolved along side of their behavior to assist them in meeting the challenges they encountered in life. These are the demands of daily living such as care taking, avoiding predators, hunting, migrating, etc. These developed as instincts or traits which made these tasks easier and more efficient. This is analogous to the reason why you don’t have to learn to ride a bike each time you set-out on one! But some of these mechanisms can interplay and indirectly create “quirks” on which we then derive strange explanations for. I hope I’m not bursting anyone’s bubble but in contrast to the religious mentality, our brains are not perfect. There, I said it! (Wink)

Ancient times or modern, we have always been a social species. Hunter/ gatherer societies lived and flocked in groups as it was advantageous for things like hunting and protecting their selves and their young from predators. As living in groups deemed advantageous it became inherent in the brain to provide positive chemical feedback to infer “this is good” and to “keep doing it”. Thusly they continued this behavior. So derivatively speaking it’s easy to understand why going to church can feel spiritually beneficial to us because we naturally feel comforted and encouraged while in the company of like minded people. It is a sense of community.

Church services themselves, particularly those with rigorous worship rituals like the Baptists, the Evangelicals and especially indigenous tribal groups can be tremendously moving. In their worship rituals they reproduce the rush of adrenaline much like how one instinctively experiences through running or even like being pursued by a predator (experiencing urgency, enhanced strength and hopefully achievement). As a matter of fact the good old Boogie Man, that monster lurking in the dark that we as children have all feared, is an instinctive survival trait from our ancient past. Remember, before our early ancestors learned how to build shelter they lived in the midst of nature and they were well aware of the fact that there were nocturnal predators out hunting for food. Waking up to a Bengal tiger licking your foot tickled only for a moment!

Aside from instincts there are also cognitive factors which we often attribute to the supernatural. The notion that the mind or spirit could conceptually continue after physical death is largely a result of us being unable to conceive cessation of consciousness. We encounter a paradox when attempting to imagine non-existence because doing so requires one to be receptive to even perceive this notion. This is, in part, a side effect of what is known as the mind body split. The mind body split in cognitive neuroscience is responsible for the introspective part of our selves: the internal self as opposed to the physical self. Most people claim this suggests that the mind actually does continue beyond mortality but this is fallacious. We know a lot about the mind now days and that includes its idiosyncrasies.

Another aspect that plays a very important role in spirituality is in peoples claimed ability to perceive the will or direction of god. It is spurred from decoupled cognition. Its intended purpose serves us the function of being able to hypothesize what a known person might think or act in a given situation. It is useful in guiding ourselves socially especially in accordance with a parent or a boss for example. Similarly this function acts in the extraordinary feature of postulating “What would Jesus do?” or “I hope my dearly-departed grandparents aren’t watching me!”

Interestingly enough neuroscientists found that the frontal temporal lobe, which houses our sense of self, is also the same part of the brain in which we associate our sense of god. This doesn’t mean that there really is a “god part of the brain”, it’s “our” part of the brain but the notion of god is often so personal that it becomes part of our identity. This also explains why some religious people could be personally offended by reading my articles!  To add to the experience, the activity in the parietal lobe, which is responsible for our physical sense of orientation, can decrease during meditation rendering the illusion of being “larger than life” or an expanded consciousness. We can clearly see that, as I’ve mentioned throughout this article, spiritual experiences come from directly within us.

By seeing that there is this mental mixture of god and self we can deduce that those who claim to perceive the “voice” or “will” of god are literally speaking of themselves- not god. When they say “God told me to run for president.” as a few of the 2012 Republican Primary candidates stated, they were subconsciously saying, “I really want to run for president!” Like talking about ones self in the third-person perspective, the little voice of god is really an extension of the self. It is only misattributed to their identity and association with god. But of course I would be proven wrong if we elect three Presidents of the United States this year!

As we can see this conflicting sense of self and god can be troublesome if not totally disastrous. As devoted believers speak not only as themselves they often also speak from what they believe is the infallible and monumental standpoint of god which is seemingly exempt from any or all criticism. This can result in ideas from “God has asked me to tithe to the church” to “God has asked me to kill the infidels.” This cynical result brings a sobering awareness to those critical of religion and hopefully to those in religion because it reveals the necessity of understanding where spiritual impulses comes from and how it can affect each and every one of our lives. 

People who were unfortunate to have incurred brain injuries can also experience spiritual-like side effects. We understand now that these types of experiences are injurious manipulations of the neuroanatomy in the brain. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist, had an experience unparalleled by other researchers in her field. Jill suffered a major stroke and a brain hemorrhage. After eight years and a full recovery Jill’s description of the onset of her injury provides a real and tremendously moving account of her phenomenal experiences as a byproduct of the brain. Both the detail and significance of this is so great I cannot afford the room herein and so I refer you to this must see video link I’ve attached above which applies perfectly to this point.

Those who incur life changing brain injuries are often not as fortunate to have the extensive recovery as Jill did. They are sometimes incapable of willful direction of their post-injury behavior such as in the classic example of Phineas Gage; the brain is responsible not only for the notion of spirituality but behavior as well. It is the same misfortune for those who are born with the psychological predisposition of a sociopath or other negative social dysfunctions rooted in the brain. When the brain is damaged or defective are they exempt from gods “laws” when the men who wrote the bible weren’t even aware that this possibility could exist? What is the religious people’s explanation for the purpose and destiny of one who was born with a defective brain?

There are volumes written and volumes to be written on this area of evolutionary cognitive neuroscience of religion and it is incredibly fascinating. I’m certainly no expert in the field but I encourage everyone to read Dr. J. Anderson Thompson’s general audience-friendly book, why people believe in god(s) for an incredible tour through our early human behavior and modern psyche.

Mis-Belief

Here are a few more real claims to the supernatural of which we now know have their origin in neuroscience. We all know that there are people out there who honestly believe that they are psychic. In an experiment some of these people were tested as they claimed that they can psychically perceive, with high accuracy, the shapes on the back of Zener cards hidden from view. But in the scientifically controlled setting where the results are statistically analyzed we see that they are the same to that of a random draw. Have you ever seen a psychic win the lotto? Neither have I. The cause: self delusion.

Another example is the Ouija Board. Legend has it that they can be used to talk to the dead. Understandably so! Years ago back in my paranormal investigations I’ve tried it on several occasions and the planchette actually moves! But what’s moving it is far from dead. It’s very much alive and it’s us! It is what is known in psychology as an ideomotor response. It is unconscious movement made by the body such as salivating while only thinking about the sourness of a lemon, the suggestive forces in hypnosis, reflexes and even the shedding of tears while crying. It is commonly explained as the driving force in many other supernatural tools such as pendulums, divining rods and automatic writing.

Another claim of spirituality is where the consciousness seems to leaves the body during a near-death experience. Though it is often a tremendous and unforgettable experience we have learned that it is a type of survival mechanism that is triggered within the brain when it is undergoing severe trauma or stress. It removes the conscious mind from the current of pain neurally and into tranquility or euphoria at which point pleasant hallucinations may occur. It does this as simply as flipping a switch.

We cannot deny that these experiences mentioned in the paragraphs above, especially the ladder, may be deep and meaningful but once again, these are experiences which come from inside of us and not from outside of us. We can now see that these are all fine examples of how natural physiology can create “quirks” on which we then draw the erroneous conclusion of “something else”.

Let My People Go

We’ve already shown here and in past articles that these experiences are not a result of a god and religion; god and religion were the initial resulting explanation for these experiences. Religion throughout the world is as varied in the cultural sense as music, food, dance, clothing and superstition. Cross culturally, however, children learn to believe without question because their parents believe as did theirs. In that tight constraint they do not have a world view of the myriad of ‘competing’ religions and the logical contentions against them. Consequently, in the cyclical sense, society attempted to do the same to myself but I broke the cycle. In light of this fact it doesn’t mean that these feelings are no longer meaningful; they can be but understand them for what they are.

I find it frustrating that churches perpetuate ignorance by not teaching the accredited historical facts in how their religion was developed and spread but they also blatantly ignore science which is the foundation of the developing world around them. Developing science utilizes critical processes in testing and validating points before professing them, something that religion seems to be exempt from. My point here is that there are several reasons why people take refuge in religion but in the wake of the progressing world around them it is the responsibility of their churches to inform and educate them. Certainly the church is worried about one day becoming obsolete but by not confronting reality they are doing themselves and their followers the disservice of misleading them. This is the height of irresponsibility. Someone once said, “By standing still as time goes forward you move backward.”

Spirituality or the natural sense of unity is different for everyone. As spirituality has its complex roots in our emotions let us utilize this knowledge to seek within ourselves, or other qualified humane resources, aid in the fulfillment that we desire while utilizing common sense, critical thinking and a loving sense of self-betterment. We all have different feelings and connections to our surroundings and we all have different ideas of the purity of mind we may seek in our efforts to mentally reclaim or revitalize our worn selves. Dependent or liberating they are all part of us in which we need to learn to understand without having a casting of religion embedded in it.

I feel fortunate to have been able to experience the passionate view of life that I had as a child prior to indoctrination. I’m glad that what I felt was only a passion for the beauty in life rather than a dependency plaguing me for a lifetime. It’s a lot easier looking at things the way they are rather than being inflicted with so many archaic dogmas that so clearly go against the flow of human nature. Once we have brought it down to this basic level I think that John Lennon had the right idea in mind when he sang the words, “All you need is love.” Does it really need to be more complicated than that?

Site:

• Thagard, Paul. The Emotional Coherence of Religion. Journal of Cognition and Culture 5.1-2, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden 2005.

• Alcorta, Candace S. and Sosis, Richard. Ritual,Emotion, and Sacred Symbols: the Evolution of Religion as an Adaptive Complex. Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 2005.

• Bocock, Robert. Sigmund Freud,-pg 86. Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

• Thomson, Jr., MD, J. Anderson and Aukofer, Clare. why we believe in god(s). Forward by Dawkins, Richard, Pitchstone Publishing, 2011.

• Hudson, Janice and Tanner, Meredith. Bunkbed Positions. Toronto: Room Publishing, 2006.

• Holt, Tim. Sigmund Freud: Religion as Wish-Fulfillment. Philosophy of Religion, 2008

• Lawson, Willow. Brain Area Affects Sense of ‘Self’. ABC News. (year not given)

What I'm Reading....

why we believe in god(s)
By: J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD
      with Clare Aukofer

BUY NOW

ISBN: 978-098449321-0


Thanks to the Skeptic Society I had the privilege of meeting Dr. J. "Andy" Thomson and had my book signed at his Cal Tech lecture.








Description from back of book: In this groundbreaking volume, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD, with Clare Aukofer, offers a succinct yet comprehensive study of how and why the human mind generates religious belief. Dr. Thomson, a highly respected practicing psychiatrist with credentials in forensic psychiatry and evolutionary psychology, methodically investigates the components and causes of religious belief in the same way any scientist would investigate the movement of astronomical bodies or the evolution of life over time - that is, as a purely natural phenomenon. Providing compelling evidence from psychology, the cognitive neurosciences, and related fields, he, with Ms. Aukofer, presents an easily accessible and exceptionally convincing case that god(s) were created by man - not vice versa. With this slim volume, Dr. Thomson establishes himself as a must-read thinker and leading voice on the primacy of reason and science over superstition and religion.

J. Anderson "Andy" Thomson, Jr., MD, is a staff psychiatrist at the University of Virginia's Student Health Center and Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, and maintains a private practice of adult and forensic psychiatry. He serves as a trustee of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Clare Aukofer is a medical writer who has collaborated with Dr. Thomson on several projects.


....and another...

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
By: Richard Feynman

BUY NOW

ISBN-10: 0691024170
ISBN-13: 978-0691024172








Book description from Amazon.com: Famous the world over for the creative brilliance of his insights into the physical world, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the nonscientist. QED--the edited version of four lectures on quantum electrodynamics that Feynman gave to the general public at UCLA as part of the Alix G. Mautner Memorial Lecture series--is perhaps the best example of his ability to communicate both the substance and the spirit of science to the layperson.
The focus, as the title suggests, is quantum electrodynamics (QED), the part of the quantum theory of fields that describes the interactions of the quanta of the electromagnetic field-light, X rays, gamma rays--with matter and those of charged particles with one another. By extending the formalism developed by Dirac in 1933, which related quantum and classical descriptions of the motion of particles, Feynman revolutionized the quantum mechanical understanding of the nature of particles and waves. And, by incorporating his own readily visualizable formulation of quantum mechanics, Feynman created a diagrammatic version of QED that made calculations much simpler and also provided visual insights into the mechanisms of quantum electrodynamic processes.

Just a little something I try to keep in mind as I go through the actions of the day....

This is narrated by the late great Alen Watts and animated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Thanks to OurTVproductions for posting this video on YouTube.

What I'm Reading.....

GOD, NO! Signs You May Already Be An Atheist AND Other Magical Tales

By: Penn Jillette

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ISBN-10: 145161036X

Thanks to the Center for Inquiry - Los Angeles I had the opportunity to meet with Penn Jillette in Beverly Hills for a book signing.....I regret I couldn't make it..... 





Book description from the inside flap: 
Not only can the man rant, he can write. 

From the larger, louder half of the world-famous magic duo Penn & Teller comes a scathingly funny reinterpretation of The Ten Commandments. They are The Penn Commandments, and they reveal one outrageous and opinionated atheist's experience in the world. In this rollicking yet honest account of a godless existence, Penn takes readers on a roller coaster of exploration and flips conventional religious wisdom on its ear to reveal that doubt, skepticism, and wonder -- all signs of a general feeling of disbelief -- are to be celebrated and cherished, rather than suppressed. And he tells some pretty damn funny stories along the way. From performing blockbuster shows on the Vegas Strip to the adventures of fatherhood, from an on-going dialogue with proselytizers of the Christian Right to the joys of sex while scuba diving, Jillette's self-created Decalogue invites his reader on a journey of discovery that is equal parts wise and wisecracking.
 

What I'm Reading.....

A UNIVERSE FROM NOTHING: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing
by Lawrence M. Krauss
(Afterword by Richard Dawkins)

BUY NOW

ISBN-10: 145162445X

Thanks to the Skeptics Society I had my copy signed by Dr. Krauss at his lecture at CalTech.

Book description from inside flap: 
“WHERE DID THE UNIVERSE COME FROM? WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE IT? WHAT WILL THE FUTURE BRING? AND FINALLY, WHY IS THERE SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING?”

 

Lawrence Krauss’s provocative answers to these and other timeless questions in a wildly popular lecture now on YouTube have attracted almost a million viewers. The last of these questions in particular has been at the center of religious and philosophical debates about the existence of God, and it’s the supposed counterargument to anyone who questions the need for God. As Krauss argues, scientists have, however, historically focused on other, more pressing issues—such as figuring out how the universe actually functions, which can ultimately help us to improve the quality of our lives.

Now, in a cosmological story that rivets as it enlightens, pioneering theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss explains the groundbreaking new scientific advances that turn the most basic philosophical questions on their heads. One of the few prominent scientists today to have actively crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss reveals that modern science is addressing the question of why there is something rather than nothing, with surprising and fascinating results. The staggeringly beautiful experimental observations and mind-bending new theories are all described accessibly in A Universe from Nothing, and they suggest that not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing.

With his characteristic wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations, Krauss takes us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved—and the implications for how it’s going to end. It will provoke, challenge, and delight readers as it looks at the most basic underpinnings of existence in a whole new way. And this knowledge that our universe will be quite different in the future from today has profound implications and directly affects how we live in the present. As Richard Dawkins has described it: This could potentially be the most important scientific book with implications for supernaturalism since Darwin.

A fascinating antidote to outmoded philosophical and religious thinking, A Universe from Nothing is a provocative, game-changing entry into the debate about the existence of God and everything that exists. “Forget Jesus,” Krauss has argued, “the stars died so you could be born.”

The Virus in Religion

 

Introduction

In looking at how society has changed over the past few thousand years I often wondered why organized religion has lasted as long as it has. Though I was religious for many years of my life I no longer hold any religious beliefs as I finally gave in to the logic and reason which was pressing me from the beginning. As the world looks very much different from outside of the box it seems almost clear as day that eventually the rest of the world would follow. From ancient times to this age of science and education and with a noticeable increase in secular ideals it appears that religion still seems to linger on. And so I wondered why. This question made me look closer into the workings of religion to help understand why it perpetuates in this modern, competent and intellectual society.

It’s no task at all to search where religion thrives on this planet. From the top of the Himalayas to the bottom of the city basins to the hearts and minds of modern man it lives and survives in many different forms. Studies have reflected that in the variance of our societies it becomes easier to see that religion is more predominant in places that are more economically challenged. It goes without mention that atheism is almost nowhere to be seen in those places. For people who are living in poverty life is but a strain and in those situations people need a rock to stand upon. What is it over all that the followers benefit from their religion? The answer in its most basic form is rooted in social and psychological consolation. Though there are some benefits that religion can offer it may be more indirect or passive in coping with matters in the real world rather than working for an actual cure. The sense of community for example is a stronghold for a growing society but its success is given a false sense of prosperity if it gathers in the name of false doctrines. Let us see how and why that is.

In the distant past, aside from social and psychological matters, religion much like mythology had attempted to explain the mysteries of our great universe. Today however, the mysteries of how we got here and how our expansive universe was created have clearly been discovered and explained in the realm of modern science. And the matters of who we are and where we came from have also been meticulously deciphered by way of history and biological science.  Though they are ever beautiful those things no longer remain a mystery. But in early times religion provided the explanation. It addressed something that we as citizens of this universe desired answers for and….well….we created them. That’s excusable as long as we acknowledge the systems of science and knowledge that came along after those archaic notions phased out. But they didn’t and it fascinated me now more then ever: why?

Like many Americans I grew up culturally Christian. Our family went to church on Sundays and Christianity was enforced without flaw in the household. But in my early teenage years I started to question our beliefs. I started addressing matters in religion which we contrary to logic and history. Not everyone has questioned their beliefs but I say with confidence that we all have had encountered matters contrary to logic. Unfortunately when talking about these things with a parent I was scolded and had no choice but to retreat to the shores of uncertainty and blind belief. From countless people I had been told, “There are some things that we are not supposed to know.” As time passed I started to feel that this answer was merely an insult to our intelligence. It was only after thinking about this fact when it finally hit me: it was the thinking that was the problem. It was the operating system itself within religion and it was a notion that frightened me. Its simple infrastructure was responsible for keeping billions of people intellectually captive for centuries! From what I can now see it had the caliber of a major epidemic: it was the virus in religion.

Description of the System

To my surprise the “system” as I will call it is quite simple but brilliantly designed and it very clearly achieved what it was intended to do. To see it one has to strip down the ‘fluff’ to isolate the working components; the engine of this vehicle. Take away the material data such as god, divinity, morality, etc the remaining skeleton is similar to a social design implemented by nothing less then a tyrant. It takes a given group of people and applies a small but strict set of demeaning rules. It repressed education and self-exploration. It propels itself with a work and reward modus operandi. It has an internal support system which keeps its leader in charge and financially solvent. It has a crime and punishment system and just to top it off it has a big finale at the end of the show. It’s a monster of an idea and it’s been functioning this way for centuries.

Application of the System in Older Times

To show that I am simply not fabricating or exaggerating such a heinous idea I decided to find a similar system which operates under the same set of principles. Take for example the slave labor over a century and a half ago in our own United States. Slave labor was terribly oppressive and having not even basic human rights the opportunity to get an education was out of the question. The slave owners were well aware of the fact that if slaves became able to read and write their minds would develop. The more they learned the more they would be likely to question their decadent status and attempt a rebellion. So keeping the slaves uneducated aided in keeping their spirits down and compliant. When offering simple necessities like food and shelter as form of pay kept the slaves moving barely enough to continue fulfilling their duties and their masters’ desires. Religion uses a similar design.

Ironically religion was very prominent in these circumstances because people in this lowly place needed a rock to stand on; to sooth the broken spirit. I have no doubt that religion played a monumental role in keeping countless people strong when they had no other source of strength. It would be wrong of me to argue that it would have been inappropriate for them to resort to religion under these circumstances because at that time, it was the way of life. There was no other form of liberation available to them at the time until true morale combined to make a change. What I mean by this is that modern science was still an adolescent in that day and wasn’t readily available to nearly everyone as it is now. In today’s life modern science is blaring at us from every angle; so great that it contradicts the biblical explanation we talked about earlier with minimal effort. However, even if one is not so well read in the sciences just applying simple logic independently to the ideas in religion starts to extinguish its seemingly eternal fire. Back in the days of slavery, it was much different.

This is why I decided to write this article: because this time has already come¹.

Core Structure and Rules

Looking closer now at this system we can start to see its anatomy. At the center of this system is the core set of parameters: the holy bible. Though the bible is believed by the Christians as the ‘given word of god’ history now reveals that it is a collection of motivational proverbs, liturgical material, allegorical literature and scantly history combined in a single volume by the biblical committee in the early Christian era.

In this social system the bible plays two important parts: one, it has a set of rules by which each and every follower must intently obey. Second, the follower is required to believe everything that it has to say about life and the universe no questions asked. In fact, doubting the holy spirit or divine origin equates to eternal damnation. The same for those who are even slightly skeptical or “lukewarm” are described as being “spewed from the mouth of god.”  Even though there is no solid evidence of a god it cannot be questioned or doubted. If you do, you’re out of the club. So here, for structural purposes this is the authority and framework.

Repress Education and Self-Exploration

With the bible setting the core structure and parameters comes now the people for which it was made for. Within these walls come the unfortunate ceiling of repression of education and self-exploration. It is accomplished in the way like one puts blinders on a horse to narrow its view to a desired perspective. And with human beings, it promotes ignorance. This notion occurred to me when I was in college and I had the liberty to take courses on world religions. The world then seemed backward to me in the way that people should first be taught about the origin and history of different religions before devoting their lives to it. In my opinion it seemed that if this were to occur people would have more control of their lives for the benefit of themselves and for the goodness of humanity. But unfortunately the world doesn’t work in this way and for those who are born into a religion often do not see that there is an outside reality of virtue.

A strange quirk that I noticed about religion, which isn’t just part of Christianity, but is an integral component in most religions is the incessant fixation to their religious scripture: in this case the bible. Well it makes perfect sense that this is the chosen doctrine that their world revolves around. But if I may go out on a limb I might even be able to propose that this in itself is evidence of not strength but of weakness. It was back in my Christian days I noticed how people revolved their daily lives around the bible and nothing else. I actually was well read in the bible but felt that, like any book, I had the notion and ‘spirit’ now I can go forward and apply it to my life. I didn’t need to constantly resort to it because its essence lived within me. Metaphorically speaking, once a person lights the match of knowledge it gets put to bigger and greater things. One doesn’t continue to keep igniting it once it’s already lit. But the mentality of revolving the world around one book means one thing: shaping the mind with repetitive indoctrination.

And so, it is this closed-mindedness which shows there is no growth except for what level of self-betterment one can obtain in a repressed environment. In fact I know of no church which teaches the history of their religion as it is seen in full view of accredited historians. How many of the followers know of how the book was assembled, how their ideas were spread across the lands, e.g. the Spanish Inquisition, and the fact that Christianity has a history as black and as bloody as any other primitive religion.

Furthermore the institutionalization of children within these walls often leaves them ill prepared for the real world that awaits them. I must say that I did have a relatively happy childhood up until I was about ten. I thought the world was all kind hearted and pure. The ideals I was taught in Sunday school weren’t there to teach me how the world was but to teach me how to behave. Aside from basic human morale people need to be taught about the world. Non-Christian friends of mine talked the same way, played the same way but I always knew that they knew something that I didn’t. So when it comes to censoring things around children I have to say that the goal is not to protect them by shielding them from the world but to protect them by teaching them about the world. Extreme censorship in this context is not a mark of noble quality but of systematic configuration in this perpetuating system.

As inferred earlier the repression of education and religious indoctrination go hand in hand. I honestly feel that this is a bigger problem than most people really know. It is not the matter of just not believing and living ones own life; it is the fact that religion hits the foundation and affects the development of the person inside religion. The history of world religions and the sciences of astronomy and biological evolution are integral components such as earth science, physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics, etc. However, the first three subjects are repressed in our society and the others taught without hesitation. But being that the aforementioned are so prominent in whom we are and where we came from affects the meaning and direction of our individual lives to a significant degree. Knowing how this universe came about is an integral part of being human and an important factor in the direction of our lives!

The astounding dynamics of the creation of our known universe is much more fascinating and extraordinary than the mythical story as depicted in the Christian bible. It never ceases to amaze me how people attempt to evoke scientific and historical axioms from the bible being that it came into existence centuries upon centuries before the era of modern science and that a number of its historical incorporations are not flush with accepted historical facts. This common practice demonstrates the ignorant zeal and confidence believers maintain in supporting what is most important to them. Take for example Archbishop Ussher of Armgah. In the year 1650 the archbishop assumed that the bible was a year by year chronology of our Earth’s history and quantified it to be that of six to ten thousand years of age.  This as we know did not become a mere rule of thumb of ecumenical thought but it became the leading figure that many churches still support. It is needless to say that this “scientific” submission is clearly contradictory to any earth science which has been logically deduced.

Proposing the absurd period of the Earth’s age as six thousand years eclipses also form both believers and non-believers the beautiful and complex story of biological evolution. The wonder and beauty of all life clearly wasn’t something that was created instantaneously as depicted in the dull story of Genesis. Of course back then it was a satisfactory explanation before man had any ability to research such things. But now, we know differently. Seeing how single celled organisms were created from the depths of the ocean and changed into more complex beings like man millions upon millions of years later is truly one of the most breathtaking processes science has ever revealed to us.

Adding more insult to injury is yet another area of life which is highly regulated in the system of religion. Human sexuality is another prime aspect of who we are but it is, to say the least, a taboo in religion. Thank goodness that we’re able to at least provide sexual education in middle schools as without that, only for a competent parent, education in sexuality and reproduction probably wouldn’t even exist. I’ve personally known parents who feel conflicted about the idea of sex, who are uncertain what role it should play in even their own lives and neglect to teach it to their own children. Once human nature takes course it quickly results in pregnancy. The fact that parts of the Catholic Church condone abstinence and condemn preventative factors like condoms couldn’t be more contrary to any living specie. Additionally, telling people to wait before they’re married before engaging in sex can in some ways be seen as a wise policy but really doesn’t flow with the nature of man; allowing people to know themselves and each other on a deeper level is part of being a progressive society. Having knowledge of how to protect themselves not only in sex but in relationships would yield a wiser policy.

As stated above seeing where we came from and where we’re going allows within us a feeling of oneness with nature; a satisfaction comparable to a religious sense of belonging. One can say it is the original intent of human spirituality and it pains me just knowing how many people are denied their human right to know².

Work and Reward

Continuing on our anatomical analysis of the religious system we now take a look at how the work and reward system operates. Let us suppose that a believer is a “good” person who does good things and when good things happen to that person it follows that that person is being rewarded.  There can also be a good person who does good things and when bad things happen it can be considered a punishment, but not always. When a logical explanation cannot be found it is said that the person is being tested. Funny enough, you can have a non-believer to whom good things happen and the conclusion is that god is just letting him know that he loves him.

It seems to me that this illogical idea attempts to explain how and why things happen in life on the premise of proving the existence of god and his active role in peoples lives. In reality things happen. We cannot logically conclude that god is controlling the mundane circumstances of life that are by far too short to call miraculous. The circumstances in life change depending on what one or another does or does not do. And some things we have no control over at all. There really is nothing mysterious here. We as a fully functional society in this age do not need an explanation for how and why things happen in life except for what we can observe and learn directly from life itself. We do not need an entity that takes credit for positive circumstances and to pass the buck on negative ones. We are better than that!

Intermezzo

So far on this soon to be autopsy we have examined the application and use of this social system, the core structure and parameters, the repression of education, and the work and reward system. As the latex gloves snap on we move to the anatomy of the “tail end” where we shall see the reproduction system and the crime and punishment system.

Reproduction and Internal Support

In the proverbial hive of the massive colony of followers we have a queen bee overseeing the entire operation: the church.  In conjunction of the peoples’ daily spiritual battles of the human condition it is the duty of the believer to spread the gospel. In many if not most situations the newly recruited come from a troubled situation and are looking for some guidance and find it. After getting acclimated, they too, go out and recruit others. This is merely one way this massive entity extends, gathers, and replicates.

It seems to fit rather well here that the church is not shy to remind its followers about their duty of being humble; that they are not worthy of what they have and not worthy of their gods love. This idea kills their pride and sense of individuality and replaces it with living for the sole purpose of gods plan. It is the complete and total mental surrender of ones’ self to the one mass forever trapping and subduing the individual. Though this system is self-abolishing to its believers this system with all its “fluff” manages to persuade them that this is a good thing. Whether it is a dictatorship or a religious cult, this honestly sounds like a big cup of “sit down and shut up” just without the whipped cream or sugar. Bearing a burden of this stature on a people is in itself immoral in the eye of those outside of the box. Some may argue and say that this mentality is to promote submission of self to a higher intelligence. However, if it really was, the guidance which people are seeking in religion is something that can be prescribed by other methods.

The masses of people have another recommendation from the church and that is to tithe and donate in every way possible so that the cause will go on. Here’s the reward system again: they’re told that what they give they will receive many times back...when they’re dead. There are verses in the bible that tell them that for whatever little they give they shall receive boundless treasures in the kingdom of god. As leaders keep the troops motivated they assure them that they are doing a good thing by subsidizing the church when so many of their followers are living in poverty. If anyone can benefit from their money it is the same pocket from where it came. Well unfortunately the followers do not or cannot see this and don’t think any better. When all they know are the parameters in which they live and strive to survive then how could they think any different? Even if a believer ponders for just a second about what’s outside the box they are heeded away by fear that they will be eternally tortured for even thinking about it. Now in all honesty if this doesn’t sum up tyranny, cult, and mass manipulation then I don’t know what does. Imposing on someone the fear to think has to be one of the greatest crimes on humanity.

Thanks to the strength of the human intellect more and more people are starting to think³.

Crime and Punishment

Just as with the work and reward system, the crime and punishment system works in much the same way. If, by chance one does not believe, no matter how nice, how moral, or how much good that person does and regardless of how good or bad their life circumstances were, they’re supposedly going to be punished…when their dead. In my life I have known some genuinely good non-believers. However when spoken about by Christians I was told that these non-believers have everything right accept for one thing: the belief in Jesus. And as a result they will suffer unfathomable unending torture as a punishment…when they’re dead. To me, this notion, coming from “moral” people, was in itself immoral. In fact, it seemed to me that it was also primitive, barbaric, closed-minded, and jealous in nature, controlling, audacious, unfounded, and immature. Looking at it this way really does show that this system has a major problem: it just can’t step up to the plate! It just can’t “man up” and show us what it claims it’s made of. Instead it’s showing us exactly what it is made of: nothing. And for the record that’s exactly what’s going to happen in its future: nothing.

 In fact to make things more interesting there are actually people out there who are either just tired of going on in the same old routine in life or who just can’t wait to see their enemies crushed. And for those people there’s a special show scheduled which they call the “end of days”. As it’s said Christ will come crashing through the sky, the dead will rise and cause all hell to break loose on Earth. After World War III there will be one thousand years of peace and then the curtain finally closes and everyone goes home. Honestly what can I say but, “That’s show business!”

I think George Carlin hit the nail right on the head when he spoke about religion.

Conclusion

As I said rather forwardly it seems that there is a real problem here. As we take away the pretty things in Christianity such as the compassion of Jesus, the reassurance of gods love, and bountiful rewards we are left with a cleverly hidden skeleton of mass manipulation and tyranny. Talk about a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” It really is a very sad situation. Promising people their rewards or punishments till after death leaves them astray with no shepherd out looking to bring them to safety. Having no proof of their protector, no rewards for their hard work and controlling their mentality is rootless just like slavery was.  

Fortunately, unlike a virus, we may not have to let it run its course. But there may not be a cure if there’s no notion of something wrong and most people are willing to die for their beliefs regardless of what reasoning is put in front of them. But by outlining the differences between these realities hopefully religious believers may begin to see the differences and begin to find their way home. It would be more productive looking at the face of religion as mythology as those tales were also created to loosely explain the unexplainable or give meaning to certain principals in life. As they are not taken literally so too should religion be viewed from the historical perspective as mans archaic system of laws and rudimentary attempts at understanding our universe.

There is a better way to live. There is a structured way people can guide their lives by their own selves. There are ways to meet with like minded people and share the deep sense of community and humanity without being soldiers in someone else’s war or sprout seeds from mans’ convoluted and ignorant past. They don’t have to give up the sense of “spirituality” because that heightened sense of awareness and inspiration is part of who we are and is meant for embracing not false misleading doctrines or mythology but the brilliance of life and the whole of humanity.

Notable articles as indicated by superscripts above:

1) Psychology Today: If We Live in an Age of Anxiety, How Can Religion Be Dying?

2) Psychology Today: Why Do You Exist?

3) Psychology Today: Why Atheism Will Replace Religion: New Evidence

Be Bright

It never ceases to amaze me how much of my life was hampered by the reins of religion. Every once in the while I’ll come across something in my life that I noticed it could have been different had I grown up in a moral but non-religious family. One of those ideas I’ll share with you now.

The influence of religion in our lives was extreme. We were taught in this way because our mother was taught that way. Her and her five siblings were taught that way because their parents were taught that way. As my parents divorced around the time I was ten my father’s secular influence unfortunately wasn’t really in the picture as it had been decided that we would be living with my mother.

As the shock waves of the divorce started to settle down I eventually started pursuing interests in my life. I became a highly devoted and accomplished pianist studying classical music on my own. I became recognized in middle and high school which later resulted in my performing solos at concerts and special events. I also considered myself a scholar as I took on long detailed research projects outside of school in anything that sparked interest in my young mind. Growing up in a poor family I had little to no allowance but whatever I did manage to save I always spent on sheet music and books. I loved reading but I never read fiction. There were simply too many interesting things in life that I wanted to learn. And so it began.

There were a few subjects that I felt compelled to read about which some would say are controversial. They were the subjects of paranormal investigations, UFO’s, world religions, human sexuality and miscellaneous nostalgia. They were all “normal” ideas to the naturally curious mind. I read about the stories; the people who encountered strange objects in the skies or claimed they had psychic abilities. I then read about the research and the laboratory experiments that were conducted. I additionally conducted my own experiments. As an amateur astronomer I was already watching the skies and recorded anything “of interest”. The subjects were exciting and adventurous for a young man like myself but my overall mindset was investigating the truth. I wasn’t set out on proving that these things were indeed true but I was set out investigating whether they are true or not!

I kept my “underground library” in a locked cabinet as I knew my mother wouldn’t understand my reason for having them. One day she decided to break into it to see what “evil” things I was hiding and the experience for me was of persecution by having books confiscated and destroyed. My heart was torn as I saw my books ripped apart and thrown away. I pleaded with her that I was not interested in the “worship of the devil” as she accused me of but it was in answering my own questions of what these things are and whether or not they exist; that we indeed had a right to learn and understand for good cause. My inquisitiveness was called “seeds of the devil” and “wrong”. Unfortunately after my mini-inquisition I underwent a heavier religious discipline. And so it would take me years before I had the time, place and freedom in which I could once again engage in these studies.

Now granted, paranormal investigations and UFO’s seem next to the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause now but back then as a teenager it was an honest inquiry and exciting! It was my right to seek knowledge and understanding: to be skeptical. But I lived for years under the rule of religion and dogma. Under that roof I had “no rights” and had no choice but to honor my mother as unquestionably correct and righteous as dictated in the Ten Commandments. My freedom of thought was years delayed and I can’t help but wonder what kind of person I would have become if I was allowed to exercise my freed mind.

Just the same I felt a dissonant chord strike within me years later when watching a documentary on Leonardo de Vinci. Leonardo was researching (by way of dissection) the heart and had noticed build-up in the arteries. He recognized that this build-up was a result of something streaming in the blood and might possibly have been the cause of death of the person under his scalpel. It was at that moment that he was summonsed to the Vatican where he was then charged with Necromancy and ordered a cessation of all his medical research. As I understand it it was his drawings and writings which helped save him from further persecution and even death as they showed his honest quest for understanding and not communion with the dead. Although writing backward left-handed didn’t help him there but hey, he was self taught!

Thought da Vinci’s lifetime was at the beginning of what we know as modern science it’s always interesting to ponder what he might have further contributed to the understanding of this blockage. Fortunately the work he had previously completed was still groundbreaking in the ways of modern science as diligently articulated in this essay on his clinical research.

Even though da Vinci had a personal idea of what spirituality was he still had the mind to employ scientific inquiry and not simply set aside his subjects as ‘god’s perfect creations’ which should not be subject to scrutiny. I’m sure that if I had the freedom to study freely the known universe I would have made more of a significant contribution to my intellectual life and perhaps even my prosperity. The following years after that critical point religion and other family problems forced me to find answers in no other place but religion. That inevitably futile search lasted ten years as I later left home, left Christianity, and tried finding the answers in other religions like ancient yoga meditation and lastly Buddhism. I eventually and finally found what I was looking for outside of the realms of religion and spirituality: sense, i.e. non-contradiction. I found it through the medium at which I first started my quest: science and critical thinking.

Today I am clearly not a religious person but I can consider myself a spiritual person. But the term “spiritual” is an old one that refers to a higher part of ourselves and what we feel about our involvement in the universe…or multiverse. Though I do not believe in god, gods or spirits I don’t like to use the term atheist. It kind of has a negative connotation so non-theist is more of an appropriate word. To make things more complicated though I am a non-theist I do still have what people would call spirituality! I therefore like to refer to myself rather as bright as coined by Daniel Dennett.

Though I will reserve my writing on spirituality and becoming a non-theist for another posting I will share briefly with you where my spirituality lies in order to show that in this type of transition life does not become less special. In fact, it became more special that I have ever, ever perceived.

There were a few losses and gains from this change. I think it goes without mention that I’m comforted knowing that god and my deceased relatives are not watching me in my private moments…at all! You know those moments where you wonder, “I wonder if they can see me…..” Nope!

One loss from this kind of change is knowing that I’m not going to live forever. Okay~ minor set-back. I had to now put my prime focus on living for the now. I know that whatever I wanted to experience I have to do before I die. I had to re-examine and re-evaluate my past and make sure that I got the best out of life for what I am physically and mentally able to achieve. I couldn’t just be a good boy, chill out and party it up in god’s great kingdom! But looking at life in this way put more of an importance in what I do every day.

Putting the prime focus on this life also allowed me to find and redefine my own spirituality. The simple idea that the beginning of our beautiful Earth and its inhabitants were no longer the simple miracle of a god; the extraordinarily complex and beautiful system of its origins seems more amazing to me and now shined as bright as the sun in my mind with sparks of amazement, reverence and wonder.

Reading Charles Darwin’s The Origins of the Species and The Descent of Man for example thrill me in much the same way that reading sacred scripture would have done. Watching something as extraordinary as David Attenborough’s First Life or Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life brings to reality the true greatness behind global life. It sparks the notions that this is real and this is about me, where I came from and where I am going. It is, in itself, a truee sense of spirituality, i.e. a heightened awareness and connection to all life which in this view is one life.

When asking me my religions preference at my initial examination my personal physician wrote down “agnostic / atheist” in my file. I told her, “Scratch out agnostic and underline atheist. I know what I believe.” She smiled a bit and said, “You have big shoulders.” “What do you mean?” I asked. She responded, “That’s a lot of weight to carry.” It was then that I realized that indeed I did and I was proud. I had not only the confidence and strength of mind to question the binding ideas of religion; I also gained the scientific knowledge to prove to my logical mind what was real. But most importantly I realized that I was also happy; that I reclaimed my sense of spirituality and sense of belonging that I once had. That was the third and final piece of the puzzle I needed to complete what I initially stared years ago.

New Yorker Magazine Cartoon