Cognitive Dissonance
04/30/07 09:06
It's Spring here and simple human nature has taken
over. We've come to life along with all the other
animals and plants. The groundskeeper Butch and I
have been exceedingly busy cleaning and servicing
equipment, mowing and tilling and mulching and
digging and scratching around in our little piece of
the Earth. It's been mostly mindless,
good-for-the-soul kind of toil, the kind
that leaves you sunburnt and spent. Makes you sleep
like a baby and get up a little stiff in the back.
It's the type of work that I'm naturally good at.
Both sides of my family go back at least two
generations of Arkansas cotton pickers. The kind of
people who take pride in working hard for low pay.
Gratification through physical labor is in my genes.
And since the kids tend not to bother me when I'm running a shovel (they don't want to get involved), it leaves plenty of time for thought. My mind keeps coming back to the Believers and their incredible ability to believe anything their chosen authority figure tells them is true, regardless of it's connection to reality. I've been compiling a mental list of ludicrous and contradictory beliefs I've heard expressed by our own religious right:
People who can ignore simple logic and believe like this are the reason the world is the violent place it is and always has been. James Randi says gods are childrens blankets that get carried over into adulthood. I think that's a pretty good analogy. Mankind just can't seem to give up his security blankets. The Believers are willing to do virtually anything, defy reality, even wage war trying to define reality just to hang on to those damn blankets. A basic flaw of religion is that in order to be taken seriously in the complete absence of evidence to support their sacred text(s), every religion must be completely intolerant of competing religions. To accept another belief system to be just as valid as one's own is to reveal them both to be smoke and mirrors and fairy dust. I'm not optimistic that we won't eventually destroy ourselves fighting over competing invisible cloud-daddies.
And since the kids tend not to bother me when I'm running a shovel (they don't want to get involved), it leaves plenty of time for thought. My mind keeps coming back to the Believers and their incredible ability to believe anything their chosen authority figure tells them is true, regardless of it's connection to reality. I've been compiling a mental list of ludicrous and contradictory beliefs I've heard expressed by our own religious right:
- Islam is one crazy messed-up religion. And the whole thing was stolen from Christianity.
- 87% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Christianity is under attack in America and Christians are being persecuted.
- Tens of thousands of Iraqis protesting against dubya is a sign of democracy and progress in the War on Terra. Tens of thousands of Americans protesting against him emboldens the enemy and sends the wrong message to our troops.
People who can ignore simple logic and believe like this are the reason the world is the violent place it is and always has been. James Randi says gods are childrens blankets that get carried over into adulthood. I think that's a pretty good analogy. Mankind just can't seem to give up his security blankets. The Believers are willing to do virtually anything, defy reality, even wage war trying to define reality just to hang on to those damn blankets. A basic flaw of religion is that in order to be taken seriously in the complete absence of evidence to support their sacred text(s), every religion must be completely intolerant of competing religions. To accept another belief system to be just as valid as one's own is to reveal them both to be smoke and mirrors and fairy dust. I'm not optimistic that we won't eventually destroy ourselves fighting over competing invisible cloud-daddies.
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