And I'm getting to a point where I think a part of me really knows this.
I've had moments over the past week where, when something pops into my brain and i feel that compulsion to answer it, to make sense of it and explain it, a part of me is able to say, but the Bible is bullshit. Something happening now doesn't make the Bible any less bullshit . It's an obviously man made story, constructed from the culture and myths that surrounded that specific part of the world at that specific times. Virgin births, rising God's, baptisms, communions, special afterlife salvation, all products of the Mediterranean at that time
There was no god Jesus. There may not have been a Jesus at all. When my brain gets scared asking itself about miracle claims, supposed healings, visions people had at Marian sites, I'm starting to stop and think, the base story is false. Nothing that stems from it had any credibility. All it takes, for example, is one person in pious fervor to point and shout, look! A column of light! It's the Virgin ! For everyone else to exclaim they see it too. And then what will people claim to see at the next apparition? A column of light , because they've convinced themselves it's true, or they want to feel a part of the action, or they're lying for Jesus
None of these stories require god, only the pious, the vulnerable and the naive
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
...and telling them what to see. Suggestion is very strong. Micheal Shermer videos show this aspect of the human brain. What would happen if the “image” was suggested to be Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield?
Welcome back!!!! :)
@Mikhael. “ only the pious, the vulnerable and the naive”
Exactly. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. “Wanting” to a great degree, does...
I haven't heard of Michael Shermer, but googling I want to read and watch some. He sounds like he talks a lot about some of the stuff I have learned about the mind
That's one plus that has come through my struggle, I have learned so much about the human brain. I never knew about psychogenic illness, I never knew how common it was for even perfectly healthy people to hallucinate, I never knew howbploajt out memories are.
I have my own example there , even. I grew up in a vokitile home and I remember on my mind terms, my older brother made a suicide attempt, and I am 100% sure this happened when my grandma was in the hospital but I am also 100% sure this happened on a day my grandma was home. It is not possible for both accounts to be true but my brain had formed the memory this way.
When I was researching Fatima it held so many additional stories of what happened at the 12 "visions" before the sun, and there was one vision where supposedly many people saw this beautiful silver object fly around the sky, the description being something impossible. And after my initial panic I remembered another story, from Medjuorji, where one person pointed to a huge cross and said look! It's spinning! And suddenly everyone was crying and freaking out at it, even though others and cameras saw nothing
There's so much to the power of suggestion and beliefe and crowd unity and I /never/ realized that until I started to research religion and now , I just don't believe that there was anything in these cases for people to see. All it is is religious fervor and eyewitness testimony
Early Lourdes cases have dozens of doctors saying they saw wounds close before their eyes or tumors shrink in seconds and now I'm just like no. That's bullshit. That doesn't happen. It just doesn't.
@ Mikhael
Hey bud, nice to see you again. Nice day in Toronto here, +10C and sunny, I got to take my dog on a long walk and blew some of the dust of winter out of our systems.
During my early teens I lived in Ottawa, and my father bought two season tickets for our local professional football (not soccer) team. We had seats down low in the end zone. But one day I was at a game with one of my brothers, and we tried a experiment. At the same time, both of us stood up, turned around, and gazed at a point high up at the back of the grandstands. Just about everyone in the end zone, I estimate over two thousand, all turned their heads to see what we were looking at.
Such is the power to influence unwary people.
At about the same time in my life, our family was driving north a few hundred miles to visit my uncle. My father did not begin the drive until he got off work, so we spent most of the journey in darkness. I was in the back seat with my brothers and during one long boring stretch, absolutely nothing around, where we were driving down a very straight section of road, I looked back and saw a very bright light that was not from the road, but slightly above and to the side. Over a period of many minutes, it kept slowly approaching. It was obviously not on the road, I eventually concluded the only explanation it was a UFO acting like one would see in the movies. For the next few minutes I became very convinced I was witnessing a UFO.
Eventually it caught up with us, and as it slowly went past on my left side, it formed into what was familiar, a train running on a track that ran parallel to the road..
I know exactly how you feel.