Candid thoughts

One thing led to another for me.  I'm getting over a flu bug so had time on my hands.

Tyler's article posted at http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/news-from-a-spy-in-the-ace-camp/ got the wheels of my mind churning:

Why not tackle some problems?  

Hey Tyler. I'm new to so much. I went K-12 in ACE. I admire your thoughtfulness and open-mindedness. I'm really impressed with your story on ACE on the leaving fundamentalism blog.  I hope you follow your dreams.  Your in a good position to make a remarkable impact on the modern world.

I'm 37 and just discovering the truths about evolution. I'm really into Karen Armstrong, Dawkins, Dennet, Hitchins, Harris, Richard Orstiene "Evolution of Consciousness" (this was the very first strongly evolutionary book I made myself read; that was just 4 years ago). I'm fascinated with Julian Jaynes ideas on the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Joseph Campbell's "Myths to live by", is a great read for those of us raised in the dark ages.

I've had a slow journey from faith to non-faith, for me the fundamentalist were right, god and evolution don't mix. My college degree was in sacred scriptures.  Somebody had a dim idea to proclaim "men of one book", I bit on the bait, and wasted 5 years of "lower learning" while chewing, swallowing, and digesting the myths of the Bible.

I had the goods; I was a loving, loyal follower of Jesus. I have some personal understanding of what historians term "the dark ages". That was then. I've moved on very gradually over time, and well now, there is a lot of re-learning going on.

I firmly believe that ACE abounds with double-binds, cognitive dissonance and disassociation. Each of these plays and integral part in keeping children's minds enslaved to the fundamentalist rhetoric.  From my point of view these are the dangerous, abusive elements of a system of education that leaves it's graduates susceptible to the preditorial purposes of that sect of fundamental Christianity who believes the bible to be inspired (KJV only) the world is ending, that we'll possibly be martyrs, and on and on...the system likely would have died out much earlier had it not been for the brain-washing techniques of the Howards and their click.

I've had some frank discussions with church leaders regarding this rhetoric.  They come alive.  Defensiveness seems to cloud any ability to think clearly over any countering argument that one might present.  There is a seeming willful blindness (I really enjoy the ability of Christopher Hitchens to take advantage of this blindness in  the vast archive his debates I've seen on youtube).  

I'm very intrigued by JP Sartre's way of putting things. He talks about fleeing fear (The Emotions: Outline of a Theory" pg 68) not to put distance between ourselves and the thing feared, but more or less a closing our eyes as an un-trained boxer to avoid seeing the fists of the opponent: willing with magical thinking the opponent into non-exists. In Being and Nothingness he speaks at length of "Bad Faith" which in a nut shell is knowing what we are fleeing from other-wise we would not be fleeing. We do this fleeing from ourselves not for any other reason than to build up our own reality. A person in Bad Faith, knows that the very thing he protects so carefully (I looked immovable) is something he knows to be false. Social conditioning, herd instincts, and the like are examples of how a believer can live with such dissonance in his mind and life.

Self-awareness---the ancient inscription at Delphi read "know thyself", is the solution to finding ones way away from the craziness of out-dated belief-systems, and bring one to a place of responsible action.

I allow that not all people will need to or must throw out their belief in God, to think rationally. I think, though, that it might do us some real good to tackle the beasts of fear, ask ourselves frankly why we cannot sound the depths of any sacred belief, and break all the don't-talk rules of our up-brinings in order to arrive at a place of more wholeness.

I'm more interested now then at any other point in my life of living as authentically as possible.