Sam Harris

When one buys into a belief structure which claims manifestation is ruled by a deity, the nature of reality becomes colored in with the imaginary.
One diminishes the vast experiential potential of the human mind by clinging to a faith that this imaginary deity has a plan for them.
When one colors in the intellectual blank spots with the will of an imaginary god, the ever emerging freshness of the thinking mind is smeared and clouded by an ancient dogma originated in fear and based on nonsense.
And that’s a damn shame.

Seekers spend an inordinate amount of time seeking enlightenment.
And yet no one has ever been able to say what enlightenment is.
(There is a very good reason for that.)

The objectifying mind of man can accomplish many wonderous things.
It can build dams, roads and machines that fly to the moon.
But it stumbles in confusion when it mistakes its own labels for reality.
It enters a dream-world shadowland when it blends its own labels for things that have an actual, material counterpart (rocks and rainbows)  with those things with no physicality ( truth and justice).
It lives in a world composed only of adjectives.
It thinks that it can arrange its concepts in neat little rows and build a ladder to what it calls reality.
In never dawns that, so far, no one has been able to do that.
Maybe….....it will be the first to break out of the trance and then…......and then…..........
.....well golly….....it doesn’t really know what will happen after that.

The human brain follows the scent of dopamine up the thought stream much like a salmon seeks its home waters.
The neurons try to repeat the experiences that strum their feel good chords:
Sitting in church with friends and family, getting the third ace and raking in the pot, carrying a ball across a line or sniffing one up the nose, feeling the tug on a line or a heart, sitting at the feet of an adored master or looking down on adoring eyes, seeking spiritual perfection or the perfect ice cream…......................
The brain is addicted to dopamine and life is the dealer.

‘Why are you here?”,  they ask.
Oh, it’s just the brain making fun of its self.

On one of my treks through the Amazon Basin, I happened upon a small tribe who for some strange reason had never developed the ability to speak.
In order to converse with one another, they carved small figures out of wood and carried them in a special pouch decorated with feathers and shiny stones.
The bag was slung over their shoulders and carried with great effort throughout the day.
It was used as a pillow at night.
They are never seen without it.
The carvings were about a half of an inch high and each pouch contained about eight hundred pieces.
The concept “tree” was represented by a round twig with three branches and water was symbolized by a simple round bead.
When they needed to converse, the figures were arranged and rearranged in rows, some of which would branch off as the conversation progressed.
I took me over three years to learn what all the carvings meant and another two years to fill my own pouch.
After I had become fluent in their language, I carved a little cross upon which I pinned a tiny man.
Alas, all of my efforts to teach them about the love of Jesus seemed only to confuse them.
I’m afraid that they may never get to heaven.

It isn’t God that establishes and underwrites morality.
It is fear of imaginary gods and their retribution that constrains the mind’s natural urges.
There is an evolved natural morality in sentient beings, but in man it lies hidden beneath the rotting refuge of religion.

It is the sense of self that peers out into its imaginary kingdom and thinks that it has free will.
If given the choice between tea or milk, it will objectively evaluate the almost infinite up sides and down sides of both; and after careful deliberation, it will decide.
Well…....to it…....that’s what it looks like.
The self, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) is not the most objective observer when it comes to its own actions and abilities.
It is the psychological center of world composed of the brain’s labels.
It is not really the thinking machinery but is a by-product of the brain’s reactions.
The sense of being a separate autonomous self evolved to help the physical organism feed and mate.
In all matters concerning free agency, the self is not capable of evaluating its own abilities.
It simply lacks, and never evolved, the tools to do that.

They all scurry about gulping grass…........a shadow flies over and the ground squirrel hawk-alarm screams through the colony…...each animal hears it and decides to run below ground.

There is no difference in believing that there is a creator god at the center of the universe and accepting the fact that there is a little god in charge of the body.
They both have the same origin, the same mentality and exist only as ideas.

Does a mosquito choose who to bite?
Well…...by golly they do and I can prove it.
They must have this free will thing also.
You know…......maybe even trees choose when to drop their leaves and worms choose to climb out
onto the sidewalk when it rains.
I choose to imagine a world where everything has free will.
Then I don’t have to worry about whether or not I have it.

toombaru - 09 August 2012 09:36 PM

When one buys into a belief structure which claims manifestation is ruled by a deity, the nature of reality becomes colored in with the imaginary.
One diminishes the vast experiential potential of the human mind by clinging to a faith that this imaginary deity has a plan for them.
When one colors in the intellectual blank spots with the will of an imaginary god, the ever emerging freshness of the thinking mind is smeared and clouded by an ancient dogma originated in fear and based on nonsense.
And that’s a damn shame.

Some of that sounds like the ‘god-of-gaps’ position, where any unexplained area, phenomena or force etc. is attributed to a god. Religion has had to give up so much ground though, that the gaps are smaller than ever, and they’re being swallowed up at faster and faster rates.

But that’s all pretty obvious to those who are used to acknowledging things that don’t necessarily cheer you up, bring comfort for comfort’s sake, and so on.

I dont think the theologians have hit the roof and come back empty handed just yet. There always seems to be one step more on the ladder.