“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt” –B.R.

Search on the Dunning-Kruger effect and read the paper. It starts out humorous, and (for me) ended up quite disturbing.

That’s unusual as well. Most people who do one, don’t tend to do the other.

As for the ‘greater than yourself’ part, well there are plenty of things and beings that are greater than me in one respect or another. General humility and reality shows us that and only a maniacal narcissist would think otherwise. At best, we can aspire as individuals to be at the top of a very small niche and then almost always only for a limited time.

Yet, when I meditate, I’m not seeking something other than myself. If anything, I’m looking to loose the self and if I paradoxically gain some new insight into who I am in the process that’s a win but not a goal. The idea of a goal in meditating seems to be self-defeating; like hurrying up to calm down.

Because of that, I find your comment about ‘greater than yourself’ linked to meditation to be alien, to be bizarre. It’s as if you added in meditation because I did not because you actually practice it yourself. Maybe I misunderstand based on the way you responded and this is not what you meant?

As for the rest, if you have some basic psychology then we probably have similar insights into why people think as they do. If not, I’m currently caught up on the Brain Science Podcast with Ginger Campbell and can highly recommend it. (Link omitted to avoid the blog software from automatically throwing this message to moderation.)

Since I was raised in middle America by my primarily Christian family (father is was pastor), I feel that a lot of my beliefs do have some Christian fundamentals, but I do not consider myself a Christian since I do not feel that the only path to enlightenment is faith in the Christian religion and Jesus Christ, nor do I feel compelled to spread the faith that I was indoctrinated with while growing up.

Since I would be considered “adapting my beliefs”, I bother with prayer and meditation because I do believe in something greater than myself (ourselves) and I cannot explain why my conscience (or soul) seems to have an embedded desire to seek answers for why I am here and what I should be doing. While I do enjoy reading the Bible and other worldly books of faith because they are intelligent and interesting books, I do not find them to be the cornerstone of my beliefs, in which I then do not feel that I need to synchronize my beliefs with a certain religion.

As far as “dump begging the invisible” goes, I try not to “beg” when in prayer or mediation with my conscience, but rather seek answers that a can then be applied to actions. I do pray or think about others, but my expectations do not hinge in hope that “God” will intervene and fix the problem or make things better.
As far as “God” actually answering prayers or healing people, I feel that if a person is healed (I.E. an alcoholic) or a prayer does come true, then “God” did not physically have role in this. But rather there is a logical explanation, such as the person (alcoholic) had an dramatic experience or realization that they applied into actions, in which that person then was convinced that they were healed by “God”.

If you are adapting your beliefs, why bother with prayer or the Bible at all?

Why not skip the difference — dump begging the invisible — and switch to mental training such as meditation or a martial art that has been shown to be effective?

I don’t feel that God, Yahwehy, Elohim, Allah or whatever the world’s language has come up with, really plays favorites by answering prayers for some while not answering prayers of others. Prayer seems to be often times to be misused or an illusion, where people ask God to do something. If the person does get healed or an instance happens where the prayer seems to have come true, then God has performed a miraculous miracle, but if not, then it was God’s will to prove a point or to send a message.
In my opinion, prayer or pondering with your conscience should be used to get inspiration or a logical solution to overcome a problem or issue that you are encountering in your life. The ultimate solution relies in summoning the determination in one’s self to rise above the dilemma, in which God may play a part in, but does not physically alter the circumstance.
Furthermore, it seems like it is certain religions and people who have taken advantage of the prayer and healing concept, who then take advantage of those who want to believe in something that cannot really be explained. It turns out that most believe out of hope and fear. The hope is that in the end, they will go to heaven where all things will be perfect, and the fear is that if they do not conform to the religion, then they will go to hell for eternal suffering.
To conclude, people will believe what they choose, and power of prayer should not be under estimated, but I feel we should realize that it is ourselves that truly determines the answers to those prayers and to the destination of our life.

I ask that question of many Christians, and the best answer I get is “Well, people do” or they say some general group of people think that. Meanwhile, they can’t give me a single person’s name that thinks that we ‘got here by chance’ or ‘came from nowhere’.

So, please, give me a clue. Provide a name. From that we can start a conversation.

—————–

Additionally, 2 out of 3 people on the planet aren’t Christians. See for yourself;

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

To address your comment, do you think that most people on the planet would not spend time on your deity if they really thought it was real? Yet, most people spend time worshiping other deities that you likely do not think are real. Correct?

As for any after life existence, I can say with total confidence that there are no souls and thus no way to ‘go’ to any after life.

I am on the forums if you want to continue this discussion. The forums are located here; http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/forums/index.php

Last Tuesday, me and Z did some asteroid bowling. Ah! Nothing so violent — yet strangely so calming!

Anyone who didn’t acknowledge the true gods of the Greek Pantheon is obviously just CrAZeEeEEe! :-}