anthrosub
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Edit note: I should have done this in the first place.
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Disclaimer:
Do not read this thread if you are sensitive or otherwise offended in the least by discussions of alternative world views. The points I make are intended to put ideas on the table and engage in discussing them. There is no effort (stated or implied) to convert anyone's point of view to my own. If you choose to read this and you are sensitive, I ask you to please offer your disagreement and refrain from posting on the defensive.
Thank you
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I'm starting this topic apart from the evolution/creation thread because although it's related somewhat, I think it stands apart. What you're about to read is the result of my personnal journey of exploration into all the big questions about life and draws from many areas of study...plus my own thinking. I don't claim it to be fact and as far as I know, nobody else has proposed something like this, so I'm not quoting anyone else. I ask the reader to merely put aside their own convictions for a moment, long enough to consider the possibility of what I'm proposing.
I'm sure everyone at some point in their life has wondered who they are, where did everything come from and where is it all going. I first started seriously thinking about this at the age of 10, when I started reading books from the library about dinosaurs and the age of the earth as described in the texts. It occurred to me one day that the bible makes no reference to any animals not currently in existence. From that day until the present, I have spent most of my life seeking information that points to an answer.
The areas that I draw from specifically are archeology, paleontology, philosophy, psychology, physics, geology, sociology, mathematics, and religion. The rest is my own thinking...gleaned from putting all that I've learned together and thinking it through. I could sit here and write a long, thoroughly detailed outline (it will be long enough as it is) of all the points along the way but I'm sure this would be more than anyone wants to read at the outset. I would be happy to explore anything anyone wants to discuss in subsequent posts.
So, consider this...
We are all human beings sharing a similar physiological makeup (most importantly the brain). When we are born, the brain is still growing and not fully developed. Although we begin having experiences at the day of birth (probably even while still in the womb), we have no memories to speak of...yet. It takes roughly a year of exposure to our parent's language before we can talk and begin to form sentences to express ourselves.
By the age of roughly two years old, our brain has developed enough and our language acquistion has matured to the point that we start experiencing our own thoughts (and those of others communicated through language). We have also accumulated memories and these memories lay the foundation for what will eventually become our identity. From here on, we slowly begin to identify ourselves through thinking...we become self-aware and develop an ego.
Our parents, syblings, friends at school and in the neighborhood, teachers, books, TV, and everything else we come in contact with feeds our memory and refines our identity. In some cases, we are told who we are outright (i.e., "You're a boy not a girl.") and in many others we are taught (i.e., "You're an American."). We also have experiences where we tell ourselves who we are (i.e., "I broke the window and my parents are angry with me, so I'm a bad person.").
The point here is all that we "know" comes from memory...thought. As we continue through our lives, every new experience is interpreted through the filter of our own thoughts and those thoughts come from our memory. Original thinking, is the experience of taking what we know and extrapolating a new perspective. This is something we see in children all the time...why?...because children don't have a large memory base to draw from and have not yet developed the habits we all display as we get older (personality, behavior, likes, dislikes, etc.).
We are in a very real sense...who we think we are. But because we can see that there's things we don't know, we ask questions hoping to get answers. We know that we don't know because we experienced the process of learning something new many, many times. Now here is where things get interesting.
For some reason, we can't be content with simply not knowing. Something about the makeup of our ego compels us to find an answer by any means necessary. It's seems the ego is so accustomed to getting an answer that it simply can't accept that maybe there really isn't one. But what I suggest here is not that there isn't an answer but that this is simply a product of how our brain is structured and how we use it. This is one indicator of how we as human beings are all inwardly alike.
If, as I just outlined we are what we think, then the "unknown" is outside that sphere of information. This sounds simple but wait...what I'm saying is who we really are includes all that is outside that sphere. What the ego is struggling with is trying to do something it cannot do...step outside the boundaries of its own makeup. Occasionally it does happen, such as having an epiphany...a realization that in effect is a sudden spontaneous leap of understanding. It happens because for a brief moment, the mind has gone quiet and opened itself up to taking in information without filtering it first.
This is what is meant by, "Lose your mind and come to your senses."
Think about this description I've offered. It makes plausible how much of what we see around us in the world came to be. Why people resist each other based on culture, religion, politics, or simply why two individuals need to go through an adjustment period while learning to live together. It explains why we have religion and science to begin with and why one is preferable to some and not to others. When someone says, "This is what I believe or this is my theory..." what they are really saying is, "This is what I think."
I'm drawn to science because it emulates how the brain works to begin with. To me, religion fills the void where the ego insists there must be an answer. Back in the mid-1980's a man named James Burke produced a program shown on PBS titled, "The Day the Universe Changed." You can see it on the Discovery Channel from time to time. He also co-wrote a book titled, "The Axemaker's Gift" and I highly recommend them both.
anthrosub
< Message edited by anthrosub -- 7/10/2005 2:37:38 AM >
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"It is easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been fooled." - Mark Twain
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
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Add on to that the tainting of text for political reasons, for societal reasons... and you've got one big mess. And THEN bear in mind that the new testament is (if you want to believe it was written by who credits themselves) written by a bunch of guys who are basically saying "yeah, I was there, man! I saw it! I MET Jesus and he said this..." 
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