very nice article.  Yes, it is possible to experience wonder, joy, gratitude and the general awesomeness of reality WITHOUT making up a story of a big guy who is responsible for that experience.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Feelings are not facts.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Frankly, I think these feelings themselves are far more significant than whatever beliefs we may attach to them.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

ClearPursuit is right. Feelings are not facts. A christian I once dated told me she knew God existed because when she gave her life to Christ it was an ethereal “impulse” rather than a “conscious decision”. Such a crazy idea has no cogency! It’s unbelievable how people think these things!

I find it incredible that an all-knowing god would give his creations the amazing faculty of reason and then damn them eternally for not using it. But that’s what religion says. Either you will spend eternity in heaven by ignoring the reasonable conclusions your mind leads you to, or you will forever suffer in hell for remaining true to your rational convictions.

And supposedly it doesn’t matter if you’re a loving, moral, charitable, well-meaning person. That will not save you from eternal damnation. Supposedly only faith can save you. Hey, speaking of feelings I’m getting one now ... the feeling that God isn’t the least bit interested in justice or common sense.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

‘But I feel it’ is the kind of excuse I get all the time from some moderate believers. I usually answer by telling them they underestimate the power of the human brain by far.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“Anomalies need to be investigated. Maybe only 2% are validated but they can be the driving force for paradigm shifts.” Marcelo Tuzzi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCeaO-b89Ak&eurl=http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/&feature=player_embedded#t=134

Some may find this youtube video of interest some may not. I suspect it depends on one’s system of beliefs.

Religion can come in many formats

Materialism being one of those formats

That is one of the discoveries I have made in my research into the mysteries of life that religion and materialism are two sides of the same coin.

Materialism can be as powerful of religion (belief wise) as any god based religion when it comes to the investigation of evidence..

In its purist form the scientific method has no room for preconceived opinions or beliefs.

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” -  Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

I recently had some conversations with friends about their certainty in Christ—or their “faith”.  As many people here will know, when you argue with a Christian, and questions get difficult, the last thing said often has to deal with their faith and that you just have to have it to understand.

Two conversations left me with a new understanding of what faith means.

First, I had a long conversation with a friend of mine who is a devout Catholic.  After about a four hour conversation, he admitted to me that his notion of faith was basically the belief that there was someone always watching over him.  I pointed out that his God was like a police state and that his feeling seemed more like fear than anything else.  Strangely, he agreed.

Second, I talked with a roommate who was a devout Lutheran and tried to get her to explain what faith meant.  She said it was a feeling that she had always had.  I asked her to think back to a time where she didn’t have faith.  She could not.  So, I asked her how she knew she had faith if she had no reference point—if there were no time where she didn’t have faith, how could she possibly know she had faith now.  She looked confused for a few moments and then said “that’s a good point.”

It seems obvious to me that the emotion tied to a given person’s understanding of faith differs.  In my Catholic friend’s case, his faith is fear of questioning an all powerful God.  I can remember this feeling when I was like 8 years old when I was sure I had a guiding spirit.  It eventually went away… For some religious people, I think they just never challenge that feeling and they carry a childlike fear into their adult lives.

My roommate’s faith seemed less like an emotion than an easy argument that her church taught her from the time she was very young.  I think it is likely that she was coached into telling others that she has faith whenever she isn’t able to answer a question.  Kind of an elitist response… a “you wouldn’t understand” retort to any good question.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

I’ve got a liberal Catholic friend who who is highly educated and openly gay.  He’s one of the smartest, most kind and generous people I know.  He criticizes me for “attacking things that mean a lot in people’s lives,” and he perceives today’s atheist writers as “violent” and says “Why does it matter what people believe?  Just leave them alone.”  As an openly gay man, he clearly doesn’t take the teachings of the Bible or the Catholic Church too seriously.  His rationale is he “feels” and “just knows” his god.  He says it’s mystical.  Mystical.  How on earth do you respond to that?

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Here is a Christian response, not to the article, but to some of the comments. 

First off, lets look at “tolerance”.  I want to bring this up just to make sure we are clear as to the meaning.  Tolerance basically means being OK with what someone else believes, even if it is different from what you believe.  I have religious tolerance because I don’t hate atheists, Muslims, Jews, or the like.  I disagree with them, but if I cannot disagree, I am stripped of my ability or right to a valid opinion.

Second, faith is not fear.  My God is not an overlord or judge who is constantly questioning everything I do, controlling me, and waiting until I die so that he can judge me.  He is a father figure.  One who has a relationship with Christ is one who is in communion with him personally. 

Third,  it is just as rational to believe in faith as science.  Science is based on the “assumption” that the universe operates under laws.  As far as we can observe them, we can see patterns that we can call laws.  Faith is based on the “assumption” that there is a God.  Both of these are assumptions.  I am an engineer and find the assumption that there are laws in the Universe valid.  But I also find the assumption that there is a God valid.  Most seculars or modernists choose to invalidate the assumption that there is a God calling it irrational because id doesn’t fit their assumption that the universe operates under laws.  Personally, I think it is basically a way to avoid being responsible for immorality and a way of building up the self instead of humbling the self.  But that’s just me.

Finally, there is no way for me to prove God.  God exists.  Christianity deals not with superstition and lore, but with truth.  Hard immovable truth.  Nothing less.  For people to believe in this truth, faith must be in place, for the simple reason that the truth is not provable.  But I have news for you, EVERYONE has faith in something.  Secular modernists have faith that the universe operates on laws, but this in itself is not provable. 

I am tolerant in that I am fine with people believing in science.  But trust me, I don’t need to be liberated from my theology; I find my freedom in Christ.  All I ask is that you all be tolerant!    I am tolerant even though I don’t agree.

Disciple of Christ

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Hello Disciple.

Tolerance of differing religious ideas is expected and necessary in a democratic society, and so we have the free exercise clause in the first amendment to the US Constitution.  Few here would argue with that. 

Most also would agree that tolerance of all ideas does not imply tolerance of all behaviors.  So, the notion that the biblical god desires the killing of homosexuals may be discussed in our society, but the killing is not allowed. 

Respecting the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion does not imply respect for religion itself.  So, as an American I respect the right of my neighbor to sacrifice chickens in his basement to placate a deity.  But I do not respect his religious idea, and have no moral or civic duty to respect his idea.  In fact, in this instance I might feel obligated to speak loud, long and hard against the idea because I find it intellectually and morally repugnant.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

To Disciple:

The mistake you make when comparing faith and science is that the assumptions made by scientists are routinely and rigorously tested against the evidence. The assumptions made by faith are never tested in this way, which is why they can not be shown to have any basis in reality.

A good example of this is in your very next paragraph where you assume, without blinking an eye, that Christianity deals with “hard, immovable” truth even though truth “is not provable”. How do you know that Christian doctrine is the hard, immovable truth, when it can’t be proven? You are making arbitrary, unfounded assertions about your belief system, and relying on “faith” to give you an excuse for doing so.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“Finally, there is no way for me to prove God.  God exists.  Christianity deals not with superstition and lore, but with truth.  Hard immovable truth.  Nothing less.  For people to believe in this truth, faith must be in place, for the simple reason that the truth is not provable.”

Truth is realized and not due to faith. Faith can be blind faith, very blind faith. They were interviewing a bomber in an Israel jail. I.e. his bomb did not go off. They asked why would you do such a thing? He responded that he wanted to be a martyr and have 72 virgins waiting for him on the other side in his heaven.

The journalist said do you believe that god in interested in your sex life. His response was and I quote “I hadn’t thought about that”. Here is a young man that had not thought about what would happen if he killed others in a suicide attack. This is the problem with faith. He had faith in what others told him.

This is why I set out almost two decades ago to do my own research and would not eliminate anything from my research, nothing. I read, as many different topics as I could and found I needed to use a cross validation approach, as there were so many conflicting teachings in the world. But there were constants and those constants may be closer to truths than faith based teachings. Materialism can be as faith based as religion. Of course materialist cannot see that just like the religious cannot see that their reliance on faith may be blind faith.

This is why I believe that any person that claims to be seeking truth but refuses to study or read others research because they have already made up their mind what is truth is only deluding themselves. What is truth? This is also why I state materialism and religion are two sides of the same coin, both convinced they know truths.

Now please don’t respond and tell me that all science is truths. Some have been proven to have high probabilities but the reality is science is more about theory than proof when it comes to many of these mysteries of life. I don’t know which came first scientism or materialism. Ok maybe materialism. The history of science has proven how powerful scientism really is. I.e. no way heavier than air flight, etc.

The atheists keep attacking religion and the bible; that is like kindergarten. The bible is full of ignorance. Man’s ignorance. But it has also some profound wisdom separating the two must be a personal journey and one must show interest in taking that journey. To share your wisdom with others they will only demean them. Of course even the Christian thinks he has wisdom that his bible is all truth. And so goes the journey of human life.

How a person can believe they have a god of love and then read that that very same god has chosen people and told them to kill entire villages and cities to have a homeland is beyond me. The human mind can convince itself of some pretty interesting things.

The universe is not going to give up its mysteries easily. What would be the challenge or development in that? What the materialists don’t appear to understand is that the paranormal is not as conducive to a scientific method that works better on physical matter.

In its purist form the scientific method must be free of opinions and beliefs. Almost impossible to do, if not impossible, but one must make a conscious decision to do so if they are interested in discovering these mysteries of life.  One has to stand outside of materialism and religion to see they are both sides of the same coin. The you tube video above suggest Dawkins is not that interested in others research or evidence and therefore not interested in discovering these “truths”.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Texas Atheist,

Your statement:
“Either you will spend eternity in heaven by ignoring the reasonable conclusions your mind leads you to, or you will forever suffer in hell for remaining true to your rational convictions” is pure eloquence!

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

WHO ARE WE.

Some of us are taught to perceive God as a powerful entity that is separate from us. Consider the possibility however that God is not separate from us, and is really a universal consciousness, encompassing all space, all matter and all things. In this form, humans and everything as we know it would be a part of this totality and therefore be part of God , differing only in their levels on consciousness. The argument that God made all things is more appropriately stated as God is made of all things. This is a very sobering conclusion as it requires us to look at everything around us including ourselves as part of the same thing.
Life can be viewed as a process of evolution where entities at one level of consciousness, are subconsciously evolving or “homing in” on an ultimate state of consciousness where they will experience and can express as a singular entity. This is the state we call God.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

WHO ARE WE.
“Some of us are taught to perceive God as a powerful entity that is separate from us. Consider the possibility however that God is not separate from us, and is really a universal consciousness, encompassing all space, all matter and all things. In this form, humans and everything as we know it would be a part of this totality and therefore be part of God , differing only in their levels on consciousness. The argument that God made all things is more appropriately stated as God is made of all things. This is a very sobering conclusion as it requires us to look at everything around us including ourselves as part of the same thing.
Life can be viewed as a process of evolution where entities at one level of consciousness, are subconsciously evolving or “homing in” on an ultimate state of consciousness where they will experience and can express as a singular entity. This is the state we call God.”

From my point of view these comments are very well stated and concise. Almost two decades of research into the mysteries of life has revealed to me that these comments may indeed be a well-stated view of reality. My bias of course. I continually get surprised on this website. Maybe indeed this is not just your typical atheist website. That would be an interesting discovery to find such a website.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Oh dear, so we are now on the touchy feely justification for religion.  I mistakenly thought we already knew that ‘feelings’ are unreliable. I will go further and say that they should be ignored.

The value of a belief is the evidence in its support. This is an objective matter. Strength of belief (feelings if you will) is irrelevant. It is hardly surprising that no one flies planes into buildings, or sacrifices first born sons and what not, in the name of science.  Where feelings clash, no reconciliation is possible. Do we not already know this?

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

JohnS if you share your pearls with those that lack understanding or see no meaning to life or think they are the chosen ones they will demean them. I wondered how long on a website such as this one   that someone would demean such a profound statement about reality.

By the way John you did not use the term feelings once in your comments. That is the power of bias and paradigms. The human mind is capable of reading things into a comment; that is the power of the paradigm effect. The human mind is a fascinating phenomenon.

The word God has so much baggage even though you only used the word to show what most people call God is something else. Share your pearls and they will demean them. Now we must ask why share our pearls. Ouch.

As I heard a so-called guru state once “nothing comes into experience uninvited”. Not sure I buy that entirely but something to think about.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

I enjoyed this article. It was recently brought to my attention (by the teacher of a Theology class I just completed) that, as an athiest, the one thing I cannot possibly have is hope. I found this a rather odd thing for him to believe. I responded that I have hope every day - hope of spending another day in the company of loved ones, hope of making someone smile, hope of seeing a beautiful sight, etc.

I’m probably taking the bait, but I have to comment about Disciple’s opinion that non-belief in god is “basically a way to avoid being responsible for immorality”. I am fully responsible for and conscious of my own morality. I take pride in being a good citizen and a good person. I do not require the instructions of a god to make me understand that it is appropriate to abide by the ‘golden rule’ and other common-sense ethical guidelines. I make ethical decisions every day, simply because it feels right to do so.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“I take pride in being a good citizen and a good person.”

This is a very honest comment. Now I think if one goes deeply into why we take pride in being a good citizen and a good person you may discover from where that interest of being good has its home. As far as pride it is opposite of humility so therefore it can be very restrictive in our search for truths. Sorry about the pride thing that one has bitten me in life more than you could ever realize.

Look at some synonyms for pride and I think you will see where my comments are coming from. Looking into a mirror is not an easy task. After all our egos tell us we know when in reality we do not know. We may know about something but intelligence is a knowing beyond knowing.

“I make ethical decisions every day, simply because it feels right to do so.”

Again go deep into from where that interest lies in consciousness to make ethical decisions and you may find you are more than you ever imagined possible. As far as feels right many have commented on this blog about feelings and how deceptive they are.

I.e. we can feel good with our pride and our ambition and our success or whatever.
I.e. we can feel good with our “arrogance, conceit, self importance” and our….
The world teaches us to have pride not humility, which one is more conducive to learning new knowledge and realizing a knowing beyond knowing.

“Christianity deals not with superstition and lore, but with truth.  Hard immovable truth.  Nothing less.” Disciple.

I am a very skeptical person life has taught me that but anytime someone starts claiming to have truth or truths all kinds of red flags come up. Christianity the Christianity that Jesus is given credit for teaching died on the cross with rare exceptions. Christianity as practiced today is more about man’s dogma than truths.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Disciple, you’re comparing the tested and constantly reevaluated findings of scientific discovery to an arbitrary assumption that a certain kind of God exists. That is simply not the same thing, even if you try to pretend so.

You also speak of tolerance without understanding that tolerance has limits where it hurts others or infringes on their freedom and well-being. I’m very tolerant of anyone who wants to spend their own time sitting in a room talking to an imaginary being, even if I personally can’t help finding this is ridiculous. However, when the Catholic church ends up telling young girls not to use condoms by lying to the public that they cause AIDS, fans intolerance against homosexuals and loudly proclaims it did and will continue to protect pedophiles, tolerance MUST end and so must tolerance for tolerating these things. It’s not far-fetched to wonder whether, given the track-record of malevolence, a moral person should not speak up against catholicism in general.

Lastly, being tolerant does not mean being not allowed to challenge ideas and assumptions, point out flaws and fallacies, etc, in a conversation. Like your blatant fallacy that you think it makes sense you can proclaim God exists when you already established you can’t prove God exists (and you’re even talking about a very specific version of a god). That’s a quite ridiculous illogic on your part and I point it out in the same way that I’d point out any other logical fallacy (like someone telling me cats purr because they have a diesel-fueled motor): by telling you that and why this makes no sense.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

Disciple of Christ said:

>Secular modernists have faith that the universe operates on laws, but this in itself is not provable.

That the universe operates on laws is a hypothesis, not a faith claim.  If evidence is found that contradicts this claim, it will be discarded.

The difference between faith and science lies in how people answer this question:

Is there any evidence that would make you change your mind?

Rational, scientific people say Yes.  Believers say No.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“Is there any evidence that would make you change your mind?
Rational, scientific people say Yes.  Believers say No.”

My observation has been this is not always true. So-called rational scientific people are not always interested in even investigating any evidence that is outside their paradigms or cherished beliefs. Stated another way scientific people can succumb to scientism. Even so called religious believers consider themselves rational people even through many of the very foundations of their religious beliefs don’t pass the simplest of logic tests.
Now here is the tricky part both the religious and those rational scientific people have no idea that they are doing this. We cannot see this paradigm effect working within our consciousness. It is like at a subconscious level and hidden from our mind’s view. We don’t have a clue we are filtering information that does not agree with our beliefs.

Maybe a hint at a subconscious level but that is why we get upset when anyone challenges our beliefs and we all have beliefs. This tendency to get upset over conflicting information or evidence may also be called Cognitive Dissonance. Anyone stating they don’t have beliefs is in profound denial, very profound denial.
In fact it even gets more complicated than just the paradigm effect, we also have confirmation bias. We allow information into our consciousness that tends to agree with our beliefs and subconsciously reject information and even evidence that challenges our cherished beliefs or paradigms. Of course confirmation bias and the paradigm effect are interrelated.

This is why people that are on the outside of religion and atheism can see this bias phenomenon very clearly. Not that they these people don’t have their own paradigms and issues to deal with. They also have egos, confirmation bias, paradigm effect, cognitive dissonance etc.

Again, we don’t have a clue we are even filtering; in fact we get very upset with anyone that tells us we are doing this. Very upset. This is why a great philosopher once stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. We know not our bias, but we often see in others their bias. That is the role of deep introspective meditation and reflection, and accepting embarrassment as a blessing and learning opportunity.

If we are going to do research that allows our minds to be open to new discoveries we must get over this erroneous belief that we are completely free of confirmation bias and the paradigm effect. In research humility is better than pride.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

So, researcher, are you saying we are all guilty of the above and you are not?

You seem to take the word atheist as more than it is. You seem to make atheists into something most would deny. Is this your bias? Can you see it?

An atheist doesn’t believe in a god or gods. It doesn’t mean he/she doesn’t have beliefs and other biases. We’re human so of course we all know we filter information and show bias. You aren’t telling us anything we don’t already know.

Making a video about Richard Dawkins not accepting evidence is…well, just saying he doesn’t and then editing a video to “prove” this doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. Dr. Dawkins is amazingly patient, IMHO, with people continuing to show him the same evidence, over and over and over and over. Look at my evidence for the paranormal!! I’ve got something no one else has!! And, then they proceed to tell him the same old stuff, i.e. how they “feel” something is there or whatever. It is the same old thing.

So, it is not an open mind we atheists are missing. For most of us, it is just no longer having the patience to listen to the same old “proof” and “evidence” which is merely “feelings” and “opinions.”

Stop lecturing us on being closed minded and biased against your evidence and actually present something new and real. I will try to be patient and look at it.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“So, researcher, are you saying we are all guilty of the above and you are not?”

No you are not reading what I have stated. Read below. I suspect our emotions can overwhelm ever our ability to read what others state. We are indeed emotional Beings. Please read what I stated below to answer your question.

“This is why people that are on the outside of religion and atheism can see this bias phenomenon very clearly. Not that they these people don’t have their own paradigms and issues to deal with. They also have egos, confirmation bias, paradigm effect, cognitive dissonance etc.”

“Stop lecturing us on being closed minded and biased against your evidence and actually present something new and real. I will try to be patient and look at it”

This not about evidence it does no good to present evidence to a materialist as it does no good to present evidence to the religious. We must show interest and seek our own evidence. I have been down the evidence route and it is a dead end with both the materialist and the religious.

Your defense of Dawkins is like a religious person’s defense of the pope. Dawkins wrote a book and it appeared he mentioned consciousness once. The hard problem once; how interesting with a book on the god delusion.

The point in the video was not whether Dawkins accepted the evidence but that the evidence was not allowed to be presented by Dawkins or the director. It is up to the listeners to make up their own minds about the evidence Dawkins and the person presenting the evidence for telepathy.

I do agree with you that you tube video should have presented the TV audio of what they said but maybe they could not get rights to it. Maybe not. It appears they repeated word for word what the TV station stated. If not they are guilty of misrepresentation.

Or do you consider Dawkins the authority and so no evidence needs to be presented that contradicts his authority. He decides what should and should not be presented as evidence. Then this is not a debate but a sales job for his ideas. The religious people have their authority also; the pope and the bible. Again your response has proved my point about atheism and fundamental religion being one and the same. Can you not see that? Go deep.

“So, it is not an open mind we atheists are missing. For most of us, it is just no longer having the patience to listen to the same old “proof” and “evidence” which is merely “feelings” and “opinions.””

The bias in that statement is beyond my understanding of the human mind. But it does make life interesting. What would the journey be without the bias?    This statement above shows you completely missed the point of the video and have done little or no research into evidence that suggests a high probability of telepathic communication. That is the power of bias.

Yes I know my writing style is preachy, short and blunt; please try to get past that.

Is it impossible for people to see that you are proving my point by your responses? My statements and responses show me I have my own issues to deal with. We humans are ignorant or unaware, if we were not ignorant and unaware we would not be unique Beings. Our ignorance and unawareness is the basis for our very existence as unique life forms, we call humans.

The evolutionary process guarantees us we are all unique but at a price. I.e. unawareness or ignorance is the price of uniqueness. And the price of that ignorance is suffering. And the origin of that ignorance, well that’s another story.

Welcome to the human species ignorant and unaware. The ego despises those words.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

To Researcher,

If you take any and all of your above statements and change the word “God” to Zeus, what do you get?  Change “Jesus” to Hercules and “Christianity” to Paganism.  Does what you say still make any sense to you?
 
When you hear “Daffy Duck says to do unto to other as you would have them do unto you”, and you think to yourself, gee that Daffy Duck guy is pretty smart…. Maybe that’s something you want to keep.  But when you hear “Mickey Mouse says to bring all the non-believers and slay them before his feet” and you think that this guys a nut.… Why does that change for you when the name Jesus is used instead?

If the statements only make sense because of the Name (Jesus) used in the quote, but makes no sense when it’s a different name, you may want to reconsider the value of that quote. 

Seriously, try it.  Use the print button above and cross out God and replace it with any other name, and then re-read your statements.  You may be enlightened. 

Best wishes.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“If you take any and all of your above statements and change the word “God” to Zeus, what do you get?  Change “Jesus” to Hercules and “Christianity” to Paganism.  Does what you say still make any sense to you?”

I have no idea what you are talking about, as I don’t remember using the word god or the word Jesus. I might have used the word Christianity or Christian. Maybe I used the word god in the statement that the word god has a lot of baggage.

Maybe you are   referring to JohnS or disciple or my comments about John S’s comments. Take another look at my comments please not sure you meant researcher.

From my point of view many of the Christian beliefs come from paganism. I mean drinking symbolic blood and eating symbolic flesh is about as pagan as you can get. And thousands, ok millions, line up each Sunday to do that. Ouch. And as far as Christianity in my view it is the largest cult in the world if one understands the definition of cult.

Attacking the Christian religion is not a real challenge to the mind. Now Buddhism is a bit more difficult, but not impossible, etc. The atheists seem to be fixated at finding faults with the Christian religious beliefs but from my point of view are unable to see the fallacies of materialism and treat materialistic theories as facts. But that is my view and should not be taken as fact. No one’s view should be.

Do your own study and research into as many possible mysteries as your mind can tolerate.  Now that is my view and my decision to do in my life. Nothing is off limits.

(Religions, history of religions, enlightened Hindus and Buddhists, materialism, psychology, metapsychiatry, Darwinism, evolution, atheism, theoretical quantum physics, paranormal, mediumship, spiritualism, mystics, NDE’s, OBE’s hypnosis, etc.)

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“Now I think if one goes deeply into why we take pride in being a good citizen and a good person you may discover from where that interest of being good has its home. As far as pride it is opposite of humility so therefore it can be very restrictive in our search for truths. Sorry about the pride thing that one has bitten me in life more than you could ever realize. Look at some synonyms for pride and I think you will see where my comments are coming from. Looking into a mirror is not an easy task. After all our egos tell us we know when in reality we do not know. We may know about something but intelligence is a knowing beyond knowing.”

Thank you for your comments, Researcher. This was my first visit here, and I’m pleased that someone took the time to reply to me, but I have to admit that I’m not sure I caught your point. I am aware of theories as to where a person’s interest in being “good” springs from, but since you were not specific, I do not know whether you were referring to any particular theory or whether you are simply encouraging me to develop my own (which may very likely differ from yours.)  Looking in a mirror (so to speak) is not a difficult task for me at all, quite frankly. I presume to know little, so I am rarely disappointed to find that, in fact, I know little. I do have pride about many things, and I consider that good. I have not been “bitten” as a result of my pride, but someday I could be.

“I make ethical decisions every day, simply because it feels right to do so.” Again go deep into from where that interest lies in consciousness to make ethical decisions and you may find you are more than you ever imagined possible. As far as feels right many have commented on this blog about feelings and how deceptive they are.”

Feelings can certainly be deceptive. But we all have them, and they do affect us - like it or not. When I have a good feeling, it is a fact that I feel good, no matter how irrlelevant the thing may be that caused the feeling. Other people may wish they could disregard feelings, but I personally like to feel good! Why wouldn’t I? (Now, bad feelings I would gladly shrug off if I knew how.)

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“I do have pride about many things, and I consider that good. I have not been “bitten” as a result of my pride, but someday I could be.”

You gave a very personal and honest answer. I studied under a person that devoted his life to a personal inquiry into the mysteries of life and he pointed out how often things we feel good about may not be all that good. If we click on some synonyms for pride maybe that will help.

Feelings good can be very deceptive. I will give you some examples, which may not be that popular as patriotism is very intense but here goes. I watch the military channel often I hear fighter pilots talk about how they felt good about shooting down other fighter jets. Well from my point of view that war was illegal and based on fear not reality.

I find it interesting that many of those people that felt good at the time they killed what they called gooks have returned to that country and talked to those “gooks” and now state they regret their participation in that war. Years of thinking about that war they have seen that their feeling good may not have been all that good.

The Germans felt good when Hitler invaded Poland and France and the Germans lined the streets to cheer him on. Several years later there were bombs dropping on their homes and at the end of the war it is said that the Russian soldiers raped up to two million German women as they hated the Germans because of how many of their people were killed when Hitler invaded Russia.

Feelings can be very deceptive as our feeling good can sometimes create harm or even suffering to others.

Pride can be a double edge sword it can feel good but if it leads to arrogance or conceit; problems arise. Just watched a TV show tonight where a group of stockbrokers felt good with all the money they were making but in the end many people lost money even their life savings with their marketing strategy. In an individualistic competitive society where everyone is on their own one might say “so what” the customer should have known better.

I guess we all have to examine our own lives and decide if our feeling good is actually good or something else.

“Other people may wish they could disregard feelings.” Feelings are wonderful but it depends on what they are based on.

As far as looking into a mirror that is my way of saying we begin to look past appearances or our pride and begin to see a deeper meaning to our lives. We begin to ask what is the meaning of what appears to be, not why but the meaning. And we begin to see the selfish and often that frightened insincere ego within us that wants to feel good all the time. Most never take that look it is to threatening.

Until we take that inner or examined look we will have no idea of what I have just written. In fact the words will look completely ridiculous. I have found that the biggest “thing” we will find if we take a honest look into that mirror is how much we need to change our perception of self and others and the world. Still working on that one it is a life long journey.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

“Until we take that inner or examined look we will have no idea of what I have just written”

I’m sure glad you said that. Because I was beginning to think I was the only one in the room who had no idea of what you had just written!

I find your ideas to be rather…“deep” (for lack of a better word). Good luck on your journey to perception. I may be on one too, but at a more leisurely pace.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

I find your ideas to be rather…“deep” (for lack of a better word). Good luck on your journey to perception. I may be on one too, but at a more leisurely pace.

Well stated

The discoveries I have made since my research began into the mysteries of life have created an enthusiasm in me. But then before the research I had an enthusiasm for teaching seminars on continuous improvement mentality or in Japanese “kaizen”.

At least that passion allowed me to travel the world and get a first hand look at other industrialized countries.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.

>If we are going to do research that allows our minds to be open to new discoveries we must get over this erroneous belief that we are completely free of confirmation bias and the paradigm effect. In research humility is better than pride.

This is well-known and the scientific method has built-in features to mitigate it.  For one thing, no one does science alone.  Peer review catches such things, at least over long periods of time.

You don't have permission to flag this entry.