All About Life

A practical guide to understanding and managing your life

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We are what we believe

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The secret to life is that: “we are what we believe”.

  • Our beliefs define us.
  • They motivate us.
  • They explain us as a person.

Human beings are highly logical but we are limited by what we know (believe) and by the quality of that information. Most of us lack the opportunity, motivation, and resources to confirm our beliefs and unknowingly treat them as facts. Consequently our beliefs are often times more important and more influential in our life than are facts. Stated another way, our perception (of reality) is often times more important and influential in our life than is reality.

Our beliefs reflect our perception of reality. If we want to fully understand our life we need to identify, examine, and qualify our beliefs.

Our beliefs are a unique product of our personal experiences and our innate abilities and characteristics. The primary source of our beliefs is our culture. Therefore we need to examine our culture to understand our beliefs. And until we are able to transcend our culture (collective perceptions of reality), we will be limited by and to it.

We are so very much a product of the culture that shaped us that we often fail to recognize it as a artifact of our own making, until we are faced with a very different culture.Leakey, Richard. The Origin of Humankind, BasicBooks, 1994.

Indeed, we are products of culture far more then we are products of any other single force that shapes our behavior.Schumaker, John F. Wings of Illusion, Prometheus Press, 1990.

Life

By life I mean from an inner mental prospective. This is about who we are as a person, our thoughts and feelings, our hopes and fears.

Secret

This is a secret hiding in plain sight, obscured by the surplus of information in the world. It is the most fundamental piece of information we can have because it explains everything we know, think, and feel.

“ For centuries man lived in the belief that truth was slim and elusive and that once he found it the troubles of mankind would be over. And here we are in the closing decades of the 20th century, choking on truth. There has been so much brilliant writing, so many genial discoveries, so vast an extension and elaboration of these discoveries – yet the mind is silent as the world spins on its age-old demonic career.

…One of the reasons, I believe, that knowledge is in a state of useless overproduction is that it is strewn all over the place, spoken in a thousand competitive voices. Its insignificant fragments are magnified all out of proportion, while its major and world-historical insights lie around begging for attention.”Becker, Ernest, The Denial of Death, Free press Paperbacks, 1997

Restatement

This is a restatement of the nature / nurture argument: That we are a product of both our nature and our nurture, with an emphasis on nurture (culture).

Real World Evidence

The three concepts of 1) prior knowledge, 2) confirmation bias, and 3) censorship are the tools that societies, governments, and institutions use to influence (control) our beliefs.

  • Prior knowledge obtained during childhood is almost always taken for granted because it is invisible to the subject (but is obvious to an outsider).
  • Confirmation bias shows up as cognitive dissonance, partisan politics, and echo chamber in the news.
  • Censorship is everywhere in the form of blasphemy laws, book burning, and state control of the internet, etc.

Historical Evidence

These concepts have been used for good and for bad throughout history.

What is learned in the cradle is taken to the graveProverb

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.Proverbs 22:6

Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.Aristotle, The Philosophy of Aristotle

Give me the children until they are seven and anyone may have them afterward.Saint Francis Xavier

Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction.Adolf Hitler

If the older generation can not get accustomed to us, we shall take their children away from them and rear them as needful to the Fatherland.Adolf Hitler, June 1933

We begin with the child when he is three years old. As soon as he begins to think, he gets a little flag put into his hand. Then he follows the school, the Hitler Youth, the SA and military training. We don’t let him go. And then when adolescence is passed, then comes the Arbeitsfront, which takes him again and does not let him go until he dies, whether he likes it or not.Robert Ley, Nazi labour chief, 1938

Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Managing Your Life

We also draw together when we become aware that night must close in on all living things, that we are condemned to death at birth and that life is a bus ride to the place of execution. All of our struggling and vying is about seats on the bus, and the ride is over before we know it.Eric Hoffer

To acknowledge that we are a product of our environment doesn’t imply that we are helpless against it. Managing our life suggests a degree of control.

We can change who we are, at any point in our life, by changing our beliefs. And the necessary first step for this change is awareness of our situation.

The Fate Of The Average Man

A chance of fate determines the society and culture we are born into: our gender and race roles, our nationality, language, religion, social class, etc. Then the voices of socialization (custom, tradition and public opinion) so overwhelm us that by the time we reach the age of reason we accept them as fact and ride them to our death bed, forever failing to question their initial chance authority. Such is the fate of the average man.

But this isn’t the case for the occasional person who, through a supportive environment or spark of insight or outside influence, recognizes this situation and challenges it. But it takes continuous effort to silence these inherited voices because their authority runs deep and is only incrementally reduced with each successive try.

Each of us owes it to ourselves, our community and future generations to examine these inherited ways of thinking and replace them with a conscious, rational, deliberately chosen set of values and beliefs.

Why book bans are “necessary”

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We know that we humans are influenced by our environment. That we are subject to the things we see, hear, and experience. If this weren’t the case then companies wouldn’t be spending billions of dollars on advertising and politicians would immediately stop campaigning. But the continue because they are able to affect our thinking, spending, and our actions.

This is why book bans are becoming more popular. Because books have the power to influence readers in ways that the conservatives don’t like. They encourage independent thinking. Parochial Christian thinking needs to be protected against outside influence or it will fail. It is a delicate thought system that needs constant guarding and reinforcement to survive. It depends on dependent thinkers. But the books they want to ban risk showing readers (Christian children) a world contrary to what their conservative Christian parents taught (indoctrinated) them.

The difference between education and indoctrination is in it’s breath (or focus), and it’s goal. Education presents a wide range of information, much of it contradictory, and expects the student to incorporate it with their previous experiences and come to their own conclusions. Indoctrination presents a narrowly focused set of information designed to lead the student to a target conclusion. Education teaches the student how to think. Indoctrination teaches what to think. Education is about the process. Indoctrination is about the goal.

Both education and indoctrination are ongoing throughout one’s life. Indoctrination needs guard rails on the limits of knowledge for it to survive. This is the purpose of book bans, which are but one small part of the larger thought control system, is to restrict knowledge inconsistent with indoctrination goals and to keep people thinking dependently. Whether it be Christian values, Muslim values, or governmental goals (CCP, North Korea, Russia), indoctrination depends on controlling the flow of information to produce and maintain dependent thinkers.

This is why book bans are necessary: to preserve and advance indoctrination goals. Otherwise people might stray and learn something “harmful” (but true).

The nature of the gods

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It has been estimated that there have been over 4000 religions throughout history. And each one has one or more gods. There is no definitive definition of what a god is. But most if not all of these gods have these three things in common:

  1. They can’t be falsified
  2. They have powers to benefit humans
  3. They can be influenced by human actions

They can’t be falsified

Their existence and powers can’t be falsified. In other words, they can’t be proven false. They can’t be proven true either but they also can’t be proven false. The latter is the most important feature for a God.

“… not be approachable by direct application of the scientific method. The founding idea [God] must be so untouchable, subjective or abstract in its formulation that man, in his current technological state is ill equipped to prove or disprove the contention at hand. Non-falsifiable, of course is not synonymous with un-falsifiable.” https://theethicalskeptic.com/2012/04/28/what-constitutes-a-religion/

The non-falsifiable nature of gods is why there are fewer gods now than in the past. Science has explained many of them away so their numbers have dwindled significantly.

They have powers to benefit humans

If the gods were powerless to benefit us then there would be no reason to pay them any attention. Or in the case of multiple gods with different powers, people would look to the one with the power they needed and ignore the others.

They can be influenced by human actions

This is the functions of religions, to influence the gods in our favor. Religions teach their followers what their god expects and how to please that god to get their reward and to avoid their disfavor. Religions are a god’s support group.

Extra terrestrial v terrestrial

Gods have typically been other worldly, or not of this world. But there is precedence for terrestrial gods. The Egyptian pharaohs were living gods. And Julius Caesar thought of himself or at least wanted himself to be thought of as a god.

And in current times there are a number of organizations setting themselves out to be god like. Governments like the CCP, North Korea, and the Russia. They are god like because it’s impossible to (successfully) challenge them and prove them wrong. Those who try are “disappeared” or silenced in other manners.

The outside world sees their faults but those people trapped in their sphere of influence are denied that opportunity by design.

Some excellent (religious) insights into human nature

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I have often suggested that it’s useful to study religions (their scholars) because they cover spirituality better than we secular thinkers do.

A great case in point is this article titled “Why Is Shirk the Greatest Sin of All?” located here: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/why-is-shirk-the-greatest-sin-of-all.

“Humanity’s enduring fascination with the same set of existential questions—life after death, the human soul, morality, ethics and the nature of God—has compelled some anthropologists to describe us as Homo Religiosus, distinct as a species based not on ‘sapience’ (wisdom, intelligence) but on shared religious activity. Even in modern times with the decline of traditional religion, human beings cannot escape these so-called religious questions.

… The modern world has not departed from religion, but has simply replaced traditional ones with others.

Such religious fixations are the primary concerns of humanity, as they should be. How an individual, community, or civilization chooses to answer these questions determines their very spirit and essence. The answers inform the very purpose of our existence, who we are accountable to, and what we are accountable for.”

The author uses the word religious but I prefer spiritual.

Humans are spiritual for 3 reasons;

  1. We are incredibly intelligent, including looking for cause and effect in everything.
  2. We are self aware, we are conscious of our existence.
  3. We see and are aware of our own impending death early on in our lives.

Spirituality is about finding ways to cope with our terminal existence.

Societies have historically offered extra terrestrial (religious) answers to these questions. Later societies are gravitating towards human based (secular) answers.

But religions are deeply embedded in human history and they are the default thinking for most people. So it’s typical to talk about religiosity rather than spirituality

The author identifies that the way we answers these questions makes us who we are.

“Imagine the consequences of starting with false beliefs [e.g. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, etc.] on these fundamental issues? Such falsehood at the root will only multiply into branches that ultimately lead to ruin and destruction.”

He (correctly) suggests that if one’s basic assumptions are false, that will undermine the validity of their conclusions.

I found an article on a Christian website that discusses the significance of our fundamental assumptions but in different words:

“Creationists and evolutionists, Christians and non-Christians all have the same evidence—the same facts. Think about it: we all have the same earth, the same fossil layers, the same animals and plants, the same stars—the facts are all the same.

The difference is in the way we all interpret the facts. And why do we interpret facts differently? Because we start with different presuppositions. These are things that are assumed to be true, without being able to prove them. These then become the basis for other conclusions. All reasoning is based on presuppositions (also called axioms). This becomes especially relevant when dealing with past events.” https://answersingenesis.org/creationism/creation-myths/creation-wheres-the-proof/

Both of these authors acknowledge the influence that our fundamental assumptions have on our conclusions. For example, religious assumptions lead to religious conclusions. Secular assumptions lead to secular conclusions.

And what is the source of our fundamental assumptions? It’s our early childhood environment. Or in the case of a religious family, early childhood indoctrination before the child has reached the age of reason. This way they are incapable of intellectually challenging or questioning the assumptions and instead digest them as facts.

And to further reinforce those assumptions (fictions), a feature of both Christianity and Islam is that young children are taught/indoctrinated not to, and/or that they are incapable of thinking for themselves and must defer to God/Allah as the only source of authority.

“… theologians have also debated whether an individual can independently come to the Truth without guidance in the form of revelation from the Ultimate Source of Truth, Allah. Such a debate is merely theoretical as the Qur’an is clear that regardless of whether one is capable of reaching the Truth or not, out of His Mercy, the responsibility to believe in the Truth only comes if a messenger is sent to convey that Truth.”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;”Proverbs 3:5

Then it suggests why religions have been so successful through the years:

“They may practice an idolatrous religion or culture [e.g. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism. etc.] because they enjoy being part of a community, the comfort of social cohesion, and the desire to conform. Perhaps they have simply inherited it without giving due consideration of their mind or heart. So their example is like the Qur’an describes, a mere “statement that emerges from their mouth.” However, when the ugly truth of idolatry becomes clear to them, they must make a decision to depart from these practices, or close their eyes and continue despite recognizing the great wrong and betrayal that idolatry represents…”

“These idols [e.g. Muhammad, Jesus Christ], although people themselves, are carved by their ‘worshiper’s’ desires and whims. They would never be idols unless people recognized them, and they would never be recognized unless they conformed (or are carved) to what the people desire…”

Religions have been proven to be very effective coping mechanisms. And whether they are ultimately true or not doesn’t affect their value to their believers.

This author has clear insight into the faults of other religions but lacks insight into his own beliefs. But that is to be expected from a religious advocate.

As long as we can identify the bias and false beliefs in his thinking, this article offers some great insights into human nature and I encourage you to read.

Where does hate come from?

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The source of hate is generally one’s family and/or the society at hand. But now a popular source of hate is the internet. People can learn hate by surfing and finding something that resonates with them. Something that fits their personality and their situation.

Either way, hate is a learned phenomenon. Then it needs a supportive environment in order to mature and advance into violence.

But ultimately, hate needs a receptive mind. It’s the parents who have the most influence over their child’s development. Hate will not develop where there is no room for it.

But it will develop nicely if the seeds have been planted in a child’s young and developing mind. Hate usually begins at home, founded on the attitudes and values of the parents.

Why studying religions is a legitimate secular activity

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On first blush you would think that studying religions is a waste of time because they are all based on false Gods. But if you go one layer deeper and consider that these false Gods were created by their underlying societies, then you see them in a different light. Studying religions is actually a study in history, sociology, cultural anthropology, and human nature.

Religions are concerned about the spiritual nature of man. There are few if any secular resources discussing the spiritual nature of man. But there are numerous religious resources holding those discussions.

These discussions are important because secular thinkers too have a spiritual side. So if we go to some of these religious websites and review their discussions with a critical eye we can gain a lot of valuable information.

Religions can offer some deep insights about mankind’s spiritual nature because they have been studying it for hundreds/thousands of years.