Recently, Edge.org posted a talk by Clay Shirky called Gin, Television and Cognitive Surplus (you have to scroll about half way down the page for the original talk).
He gives a number of fascinating statistics about how Americans currently use their time and how they have in the past. He goes on the argue, quite persuasively, that the interactive medium that is the internet can be a powerful tool for deploying the surplus cognitive ability that is being ignored or underutilized by television and other forms of passive entertainment.
After my meeting last night a few of us were sitting around talking about the ways we use our free time. The other four had kids and were decrying the abundance of sex and violence that kids have access to through the internet and tv. I've been trying to reconcile the enormous utility of the internet with the fact that it is also being used for less "productive" means. The topic of pornography and violent rap music came up a number of times and I completely agree that no child should ever be exposed to either as an acceptable template for living ones life.
This morning I pulled up the article from Shirky and am beginning to see the less desirable aspects of the internet, like porn, as a coping mechanism that the brain can fall back to in times of fear or boredom. Its a fact of human history that most societies have made entertainment out of sex or violence at some point. I have written before that human consciousness can be burdensome when not engaged in some type of activity, and this is exactly what we are trying to deal with now. We don't always know the best way to use a tool as powerful as our brain so the best we can do is pacify it with perennial favorites like sex and violence. It shouldn't come as a surprise that we do the same with a tool like the internet.
But we are progressing. Eventually we start to explore and create new ways to employ our powerful new tools. Communities start blogs and forums about things that interest them. Support groups and information centers become available to people who have trouble with alcohol, marriage, math, history, career, or illnesses. We can begin to use our cognitive surplus to make ourselves better people; but usually after a fair amount of trial and error shows us some of the less productive ways to use it.
Finally, we can begin to use our cognitive surplus to grow and create in ways that would otherwise have been impossible. I can use this as a means to heal, connect, contribute, and learn. In the past I could keep a journal and through study and reflection try to become a better person. Today I can write my mind and, in real time, get feedback from others all over the world who have been in the same place or who have a different perspective. I can learn about options for living and techniques for coping. I can utilize my cognitive surplus instead of just distracting it. This process has been repeated many times before throughout history and is the hallmark of progress.
I have faith that this kind of engagement will always be more appealing to people than mere entertainment.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Self-Care
"I grow in my ability to relate to others when I allow them to be exactly as they are. The greatest gift I can give to myself is my own attention."
"We are best able to help others when we ourselves have learned the way to achieve serenity."
These are two great quotes that I looked up today because currently the biggest obstacle to my recovery is my relationship with myself. I have unreasonably high expectations of myself and then feel terrible when I can't meet them. I switch seamlessly between the roles of overbearing parent and guilt-stricken child. What a curious and insane adaptation to have developed!!
Most of the literature reminds me to devote some time everyday to me. I can accept and even love myself by learning to let go. I can accept and love me by remembering to look at myself the same way I look at everyone else.
I go to the gym with a close friend about 4 times a week. I never cancel because I would consider it a lazy and worthless thing to do. But it's so funny that when he has to cancel, I never level the same accusations at him. I just assume that he has something else he needs to do. Why do I expect so much more of myself than I do of others? So today I cancelled and am blogging instead. What a wonderful relief!
I think that the golden rule can also work in the opposite direction. I am going to start treating myself the way I would treat others.
"We are best able to help others when we ourselves have learned the way to achieve serenity."
These are two great quotes that I looked up today because currently the biggest obstacle to my recovery is my relationship with myself. I have unreasonably high expectations of myself and then feel terrible when I can't meet them. I switch seamlessly between the roles of overbearing parent and guilt-stricken child. What a curious and insane adaptation to have developed!!
Most of the literature reminds me to devote some time everyday to me. I can accept and even love myself by learning to let go. I can accept and love me by remembering to look at myself the same way I look at everyone else.
I go to the gym with a close friend about 4 times a week. I never cancel because I would consider it a lazy and worthless thing to do. But it's so funny that when he has to cancel, I never level the same accusations at him. I just assume that he has something else he needs to do. Why do I expect so much more of myself than I do of others? So today I cancelled and am blogging instead. What a wonderful relief!
I think that the golden rule can also work in the opposite direction. I am going to start treating myself the way I would treat others.
Friday, October 17, 2008
ADHD and Substance Abuse
In last months edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital reported the results of a 10 year prospective study designed to look at stimulant medications and their possible link to substance abuse disorders in adult males with ADHD. The study findings revealed no evidence that stimulant medications increase or decrease the risk for substance abuse disorders when used in children or young adults. Specifically, they looked at alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, drug abuse, drug dependence, and nicotine dependence.
I have mixed feelings about these results. On the one hand I am glad to know that these medications don’t appear to put those of us who take it at any greater risk than we already are for substance abuse. On the other hand, dozens of studies over the years have concluded that people with ADHD are between 5 to 12 times more likely to become drug or alcohol dependant, and the use of stimulants (which is the most common current treatment for ADHD) does not improve the odds. In my own journey with ADHD, I have found that my medication makes me much less prone to abuse alcohol and I have been hoping that the same might hold true for other ADHDers in general.
My father and sister both have ADHD and are both alcoholics. I also did the math for my extended family (very large and very irish catholic) a little while ago and found that 1 in 4 of my cousins is a recovering alcoholic or has had at least one intervention. With over 20 cousins and half of them already having kids the numbers just don’t look very good. Studies also confirm that ADHD is approximately 75% heritable, which means that 75% of children with ADHD have at least one parent who has it. I think if I ever get married I will go adopt a bunch of those Chinese babies.
But I need to acknowledge that although ADHD seems to be largely uncontrollable, it can be effectively managed. I also need to acknowledge that environment plays a huge role in the development of alcoholism and I am living proof that education can change the outcome. Growing up I never went more than a few days without hearing an AA slogan or insight from my dad. I remember him telling me his story when I was in 3rd grade and thinking that I had heard it all before. Sometimes he even took me to meetings so that I could hear the stories, and as I got older I could begin to recognize the progression in friends who had a drinking problem.
The day I learned my mom had cancer was a Friday and after my football game I went to see her in the hospital. Then I went to a friend’s house, got black-out drunk, and spent the night on the bathroom floor. What’s ironic is that my dad, who had been sober for over 20 years, probably did the same thing. Fortunately, after that night I realized I couldn’t get away continuing to drink and can probably count on one hand the number of drinks I had in the remaining 3 years of high school. But it wasn’t easy. Even knowing all I did and watching my family fall apart because of alcohol, it was difficult to maintain a social life and always be the sober one.
I was scared of alcohol and what it might do to me, but at the same time hated to be different. I used to wish for a pill that would neutralize alcohol so that I could drink and be social but never get drunk or suffer the effects. I guess this is a plug to parents out there that despite the best efforts of teenagers, some pressures will always exist.
Before I started in Al-Anon I did my best to crush any thoughts that something wasn’t fair. Life’s not fair – I would think – so just deal with it. But, since coming into the program I have started to let myself say it. It’s not fair that those of us with ADHD have to work harder than normal folks to make the same gains in life. It’s also not fair that we need to be so much more careful about drinking – which is how a lot of people relax after doing extra work. It’s okay to say because it’s true. It’s okay to say because it helps me to accept the situation. After that I can choose what to do.
I got dealt my hand from a different deck of cards than most other people. Consequently, the rules of my game are a little different and I will most likely need to figure them out for myself. I have opportunities open to me that other don’t, which is good because I can’t just do what others do and expect it to work. I need to question. I need to explore. I need to learn. I’m never quite going to fit in, and that’s okay because I never wanted to in the first place.
I have mixed feelings about these results. On the one hand I am glad to know that these medications don’t appear to put those of us who take it at any greater risk than we already are for substance abuse. On the other hand, dozens of studies over the years have concluded that people with ADHD are between 5 to 12 times more likely to become drug or alcohol dependant, and the use of stimulants (which is the most common current treatment for ADHD) does not improve the odds. In my own journey with ADHD, I have found that my medication makes me much less prone to abuse alcohol and I have been hoping that the same might hold true for other ADHDers in general.
My father and sister both have ADHD and are both alcoholics. I also did the math for my extended family (very large and very irish catholic) a little while ago and found that 1 in 4 of my cousins is a recovering alcoholic or has had at least one intervention. With over 20 cousins and half of them already having kids the numbers just don’t look very good. Studies also confirm that ADHD is approximately 75% heritable, which means that 75% of children with ADHD have at least one parent who has it. I think if I ever get married I will go adopt a bunch of those Chinese babies.
But I need to acknowledge that although ADHD seems to be largely uncontrollable, it can be effectively managed. I also need to acknowledge that environment plays a huge role in the development of alcoholism and I am living proof that education can change the outcome. Growing up I never went more than a few days without hearing an AA slogan or insight from my dad. I remember him telling me his story when I was in 3rd grade and thinking that I had heard it all before. Sometimes he even took me to meetings so that I could hear the stories, and as I got older I could begin to recognize the progression in friends who had a drinking problem.
The day I learned my mom had cancer was a Friday and after my football game I went to see her in the hospital. Then I went to a friend’s house, got black-out drunk, and spent the night on the bathroom floor. What’s ironic is that my dad, who had been sober for over 20 years, probably did the same thing. Fortunately, after that night I realized I couldn’t get away continuing to drink and can probably count on one hand the number of drinks I had in the remaining 3 years of high school. But it wasn’t easy. Even knowing all I did and watching my family fall apart because of alcohol, it was difficult to maintain a social life and always be the sober one.
I was scared of alcohol and what it might do to me, but at the same time hated to be different. I used to wish for a pill that would neutralize alcohol so that I could drink and be social but never get drunk or suffer the effects. I guess this is a plug to parents out there that despite the best efforts of teenagers, some pressures will always exist.
Before I started in Al-Anon I did my best to crush any thoughts that something wasn’t fair. Life’s not fair – I would think – so just deal with it. But, since coming into the program I have started to let myself say it. It’s not fair that those of us with ADHD have to work harder than normal folks to make the same gains in life. It’s also not fair that we need to be so much more careful about drinking – which is how a lot of people relax after doing extra work. It’s okay to say because it’s true. It’s okay to say because it helps me to accept the situation. After that I can choose what to do.
I got dealt my hand from a different deck of cards than most other people. Consequently, the rules of my game are a little different and I will most likely need to figure them out for myself. I have opportunities open to me that other don’t, which is good because I can’t just do what others do and expect it to work. I need to question. I need to explore. I need to learn. I’m never quite going to fit in, and that’s okay because I never wanted to in the first place.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
About Me
After getting a lot of the philosophical reasons for my blogging out in my first two posts, I thought I'd devote one to who I am. This is more of an attempt to see what I come up with than it is to give anyone else an explanation of who I am. For the time being I will remain anonymous, partly for my job but mostly for me.
I was born and raised in and around Washington DC. My dad is an alcoholic who got sober in the 70s, but starting when I was in middle school began having periodic relapses. My mom’s response was to become cold and distant to him while being neurotic and hysterical toward me. When I was 15, she got cancer, my dad started drinking, and they got a divorce. Today he’s sober and she lives a few states away with her new husband and my youngest sister…but this isn’t supposed to be about them.
Today I am an outwardly successful twenty-something who has a comfortable job and is trying to make sense of my life. Current alcoholism in my family brought me to Al-Anon about 6 months ago and 6 months before that I was diagnosed with ADHD. The kind of introspection that both of these events encouraged has had me uncovering a lot about myself that I never knew existed. Mostly it has made me begin to think that I don’t have the first clue about what constitutes a healthy relationship. I have heard it called co-dependence or a neglect of the inner-child or dissociation, but that really seems to put my various emotional adaptations in a purely negative light. I also think that my greatest character assets are the result of the events that drove me to Al-Anon and to begin treating my ADHD.
I have a horrifically short attention span, but because of that I also learned how to return to a problem 10, 20, or 100 times until it is solved. There are very few issues in life that don’t respond to persistence.
I have a difficult time trusting other people, but because of this I have been financially independent since I was 18.
I am very self-critical, but that has turned into a work ethic that led my supervisor to remark that I am the most responsible person under 40 she has ever known.
But neither am I blind to just how much my character defects are killing me. The habit of constant vigilance that I learned as a child leaves me exhausted most of the time. My self-criticism about a lack of attention and low energy makes me feel shitty for no reason at all. My inability to find and maintain healthy relationships is most apparent in my relationship with myself. Before two weeks ago it never occurred to me to think of myself as a human being with emotions and needs. I treated myself like you would treat a dog that kept peeing in the house – it’s just a dumb animal that needs to be given firm commands and put in a crate at night.
This blog is an attempt to explore the process of building a relationship with myself. I also hope that because it is online I will be encouraged to keep writing. In the best of all possible worlds I hope that it’s something someone else can learn from and maybe derive a bit of strength and hope. I'm basically a happy guy most of the time and would like to share some of that.
I was born and raised in and around Washington DC. My dad is an alcoholic who got sober in the 70s, but starting when I was in middle school began having periodic relapses. My mom’s response was to become cold and distant to him while being neurotic and hysterical toward me. When I was 15, she got cancer, my dad started drinking, and they got a divorce. Today he’s sober and she lives a few states away with her new husband and my youngest sister…but this isn’t supposed to be about them.
Today I am an outwardly successful twenty-something who has a comfortable job and is trying to make sense of my life. Current alcoholism in my family brought me to Al-Anon about 6 months ago and 6 months before that I was diagnosed with ADHD. The kind of introspection that both of these events encouraged has had me uncovering a lot about myself that I never knew existed. Mostly it has made me begin to think that I don’t have the first clue about what constitutes a healthy relationship. I have heard it called co-dependence or a neglect of the inner-child or dissociation, but that really seems to put my various emotional adaptations in a purely negative light. I also think that my greatest character assets are the result of the events that drove me to Al-Anon and to begin treating my ADHD.
I have a horrifically short attention span, but because of that I also learned how to return to a problem 10, 20, or 100 times until it is solved. There are very few issues in life that don’t respond to persistence.
I have a difficult time trusting other people, but because of this I have been financially independent since I was 18.
I am very self-critical, but that has turned into a work ethic that led my supervisor to remark that I am the most responsible person under 40 she has ever known.
But neither am I blind to just how much my character defects are killing me. The habit of constant vigilance that I learned as a child leaves me exhausted most of the time. My self-criticism about a lack of attention and low energy makes me feel shitty for no reason at all. My inability to find and maintain healthy relationships is most apparent in my relationship with myself. Before two weeks ago it never occurred to me to think of myself as a human being with emotions and needs. I treated myself like you would treat a dog that kept peeing in the house – it’s just a dumb animal that needs to be given firm commands and put in a crate at night.
This blog is an attempt to explore the process of building a relationship with myself. I also hope that because it is online I will be encouraged to keep writing. In the best of all possible worlds I hope that it’s something someone else can learn from and maybe derive a bit of strength and hope. I'm basically a happy guy most of the time and would like to share some of that.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
What's my responsibility?
What is my responsibility (if I even have one) in spreading rationality or fighting bad ideas that may be more harmful than helpful? With religion, for example, the idea of faith has become a major obstacle to human progress. I’m sure there was a time in history when faith served a beneficial role in creating the social cohesion necessary to build the foundations of culture. But recently with issues such as stem cell research, nuclear weapons, and climate change we need to let go of the false certainty offered by faith in order to see the facts of our world.
So having come to this conclusion, should I engage this subject anymore? If I do, I feel as though engagement might be with the intention of telling believers that they are wrong. Do I simply want to reassert my intellectual dominance over them and regain control? Or can I learn enough about myself and the situation in general to let others fight this battle and be content to engage in my own life? Can I be secure enough in myself to let other believe what they will? I think that as long as I remain aware that as a human I will always have a tendency to want to be in control, I can engage others in this topic without the aim of gaining some kind of power. I must remain always mindful of my motives.
But beyond that, is there some imperative to engage believers and try to open their eyes to what I see as the truth? Can I do this with compassion and not out of the need to feel superior to them? I really feel as though this sort of engagement falls under the category of education. It should be an attempt to educate people about an alternative, and more productive, view of the world and the accompanying mind set. I think that most people in the world (including myself) would agree that there is a moral imperative to educate those who are unaware of alternatives. This philosophy is the centerpiece of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which is widely used in support of education. After I engage someone then they are still free to decide how they want to live their life.
If I truly do believe that I have a moral imperative to educate others for the sole purpose of spreading truth, then it would seem clear that I should engage as many believers as possible. However, this line of reasoning strays dangerously close to an ideology and ideologies are the hallmark of religion. But is an ideology of education possible? Aren’t the ideas of ideology and education incompatible? I am not completely sure that I am capable of answering that question but when I think through the problem there does seem to be a logical conclusion. Education is primarily concerned with presenting facts and it is a fact that there is very, very, very little evidence (I only leave the door open a little because I am aware that I don’t know everything) to support the logical existence of a god. In fact I would argue that what people call evidence of the existence of god is simply the lack of evidence of anything else (e.g. the origins of the universe and the laws that govern it). It is certainly very easy to come up with reasons (which some people would call evidence) to support a belief in god but very had to produce evidence of god itself. On the other hand, ideology rests entirely on the unprovable. An idea does not need to be good or bad, just thought up and spewed into the world. Some ideas are obviously better than others, but the strength of an ideology is fundamentally groundless and as such is completely at odds with education. The strength of an ideology actually rests in its ability to create a place for itself in the mind of a person and then create some action from them. The ideas of education and ideology do appear to be incompatible.
I also feel that transcending a need for belief in god would enable people to avoid the kind of manipulation so common throughout religious history, and as a result would create a better society. It would not avoid manipulation all together, but would be a very large step in the right direction. It would give peoples a powerful tool to start truly thinking for themselves, which is the basis of free will (even though I don’t really believe in free will except as a matter of semantics that can be practical when discussing the human thought process, but that is a topic for another day).
But just working from personal observations, it doesn’t appear that many people want free will or (perhaps to be a little more generous) they have never been able to understand the true implications that free will holds. Free will means the ability to decide what you think. I ask myself why so many people question their faith and then end up going right back to believing anyway. No doubt there are many interconnected answers but there does seem to be one very powerful explanation.
I believe that most people do not want as much free will as they are capable of having. I believe that most people do not want to slosh around in the murky waters of moral reasoning long enough to come to a concrete understanding (understanding, not knowledge) of their belief structures. It is much easier and faster to have one person do the thinking and then take that person’s word that a certain set of actions is moral and acceptable for living ones life by. This is especially true for those who do not possess an aptitude for abstract thinking, and I think we can agree that some folks just aren’t cut out for that. Accepting certain morality structures without questioning every square inch of it leaves one much more time to work and play and raise a family. Is this kind of shortcut “wrong?” It is probably not wrong in the absolute sense, but at very least it is lazy. Is telling your child that they are not allowed to question your shortcut wrong? Some, including myself, would say yes. Is it wrong to kill or enslave another human being for taking a different shortcut? Absolutely!
The other reason I believe that those who question ultimately return to their faith is the social pressure to have a faith. I know from personal experience that it is very difficult to always have to define your own belief structure outside of the social norm (although some studies indicate that as many as 30 million Americans do not identify with a particular faith).
These people who take the shortcut seem to be in the majority. Would this majority still hold if most people ever thought to get outside their belief structure and truly question it? I think that most people are unaware that they are allowed to dive into that murky water and take the long way around to a truly ethical philosophy of the world that is independent of unsupportable dogma. This long way to the truth is in my opinion infinitely more rewarding as well as practical in a way that dogma can never be. It is practical because it is flexible and can change with the world. There is nothing as beautiful to me as true understanding. To others maybe it is beautiful to live a simple life of black and white decisions where rules are absolute and everyone knows their part in the act.
But even with shortcuts in place many folks cannot make heads or tales of their life. Do I honestly hope to make these peoples’ lives better by destroying their ideological crutch? I will say up front that this is a question that no one can claim to answer. No doubt this period of change or fall from grace would be very painful for some if I were to successfully change their mind. Some might decide that life is not worth living if a god truly does not exist and they might commit suicide or become severely depressed. Some would no doubt go on a crime spree or binge on sex, drugs, materialism, etc. This would be the result of the unfounded idea that without a god there is no morality. But I have confidence that most would adapt. After this initial period of transition, subsequent generations should have no problem accepting the idea. I believe that the human mind is more flexible than we can possibly know. I also believe that a good deal of the people would feel liberated and begin to see life for the first time.
The most important thing they would begin to see is that an absolute human ethical system does exist. Ironically the people who would come to this conclusion first would probably be those who reacted to their new “freedom” by binging on sex, drugs, materialism, etc. I have no doubt that they would not get the satisfaction from these indulgences that they expected. They would also begin to experience that true fulfillment comes from connection to other human beings and to their own consciousness. ALL HAPPINESS AND ALL ETHICAL SYSTEMS ARE CONTINGENT UPON ONES RELATIONSHIP TO OTHERS AND TO ONESELF. Without fully understanding the dynamics involved with this statement, most people attempt to describe certain aspects of these relationships by invoking a supernatural entity who either understands it or who is responsible for creating it. I readily admit that without the proper tools and perspective, these relationships can seem mysterious, arbitrary, and just too good to be an accident. So what is the correct perspective for viewing relationships? That’s probably a question that each person needs to answer for themselves.
So having come to this conclusion, should I engage this subject anymore? If I do, I feel as though engagement might be with the intention of telling believers that they are wrong. Do I simply want to reassert my intellectual dominance over them and regain control? Or can I learn enough about myself and the situation in general to let others fight this battle and be content to engage in my own life? Can I be secure enough in myself to let other believe what they will? I think that as long as I remain aware that as a human I will always have a tendency to want to be in control, I can engage others in this topic without the aim of gaining some kind of power. I must remain always mindful of my motives.
But beyond that, is there some imperative to engage believers and try to open their eyes to what I see as the truth? Can I do this with compassion and not out of the need to feel superior to them? I really feel as though this sort of engagement falls under the category of education. It should be an attempt to educate people about an alternative, and more productive, view of the world and the accompanying mind set. I think that most people in the world (including myself) would agree that there is a moral imperative to educate those who are unaware of alternatives. This philosophy is the centerpiece of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which is widely used in support of education. After I engage someone then they are still free to decide how they want to live their life.
If I truly do believe that I have a moral imperative to educate others for the sole purpose of spreading truth, then it would seem clear that I should engage as many believers as possible. However, this line of reasoning strays dangerously close to an ideology and ideologies are the hallmark of religion. But is an ideology of education possible? Aren’t the ideas of ideology and education incompatible? I am not completely sure that I am capable of answering that question but when I think through the problem there does seem to be a logical conclusion. Education is primarily concerned with presenting facts and it is a fact that there is very, very, very little evidence (I only leave the door open a little because I am aware that I don’t know everything) to support the logical existence of a god. In fact I would argue that what people call evidence of the existence of god is simply the lack of evidence of anything else (e.g. the origins of the universe and the laws that govern it). It is certainly very easy to come up with reasons (which some people would call evidence) to support a belief in god but very had to produce evidence of god itself. On the other hand, ideology rests entirely on the unprovable. An idea does not need to be good or bad, just thought up and spewed into the world. Some ideas are obviously better than others, but the strength of an ideology is fundamentally groundless and as such is completely at odds with education. The strength of an ideology actually rests in its ability to create a place for itself in the mind of a person and then create some action from them. The ideas of education and ideology do appear to be incompatible.
I also feel that transcending a need for belief in god would enable people to avoid the kind of manipulation so common throughout religious history, and as a result would create a better society. It would not avoid manipulation all together, but would be a very large step in the right direction. It would give peoples a powerful tool to start truly thinking for themselves, which is the basis of free will (even though I don’t really believe in free will except as a matter of semantics that can be practical when discussing the human thought process, but that is a topic for another day).
But just working from personal observations, it doesn’t appear that many people want free will or (perhaps to be a little more generous) they have never been able to understand the true implications that free will holds. Free will means the ability to decide what you think. I ask myself why so many people question their faith and then end up going right back to believing anyway. No doubt there are many interconnected answers but there does seem to be one very powerful explanation.
I believe that most people do not want as much free will as they are capable of having. I believe that most people do not want to slosh around in the murky waters of moral reasoning long enough to come to a concrete understanding (understanding, not knowledge) of their belief structures. It is much easier and faster to have one person do the thinking and then take that person’s word that a certain set of actions is moral and acceptable for living ones life by. This is especially true for those who do not possess an aptitude for abstract thinking, and I think we can agree that some folks just aren’t cut out for that. Accepting certain morality structures without questioning every square inch of it leaves one much more time to work and play and raise a family. Is this kind of shortcut “wrong?” It is probably not wrong in the absolute sense, but at very least it is lazy. Is telling your child that they are not allowed to question your shortcut wrong? Some, including myself, would say yes. Is it wrong to kill or enslave another human being for taking a different shortcut? Absolutely!
The other reason I believe that those who question ultimately return to their faith is the social pressure to have a faith. I know from personal experience that it is very difficult to always have to define your own belief structure outside of the social norm (although some studies indicate that as many as 30 million Americans do not identify with a particular faith).
These people who take the shortcut seem to be in the majority. Would this majority still hold if most people ever thought to get outside their belief structure and truly question it? I think that most people are unaware that they are allowed to dive into that murky water and take the long way around to a truly ethical philosophy of the world that is independent of unsupportable dogma. This long way to the truth is in my opinion infinitely more rewarding as well as practical in a way that dogma can never be. It is practical because it is flexible and can change with the world. There is nothing as beautiful to me as true understanding. To others maybe it is beautiful to live a simple life of black and white decisions where rules are absolute and everyone knows their part in the act.
But even with shortcuts in place many folks cannot make heads or tales of their life. Do I honestly hope to make these peoples’ lives better by destroying their ideological crutch? I will say up front that this is a question that no one can claim to answer. No doubt this period of change or fall from grace would be very painful for some if I were to successfully change their mind. Some might decide that life is not worth living if a god truly does not exist and they might commit suicide or become severely depressed. Some would no doubt go on a crime spree or binge on sex, drugs, materialism, etc. This would be the result of the unfounded idea that without a god there is no morality. But I have confidence that most would adapt. After this initial period of transition, subsequent generations should have no problem accepting the idea. I believe that the human mind is more flexible than we can possibly know. I also believe that a good deal of the people would feel liberated and begin to see life for the first time.
The most important thing they would begin to see is that an absolute human ethical system does exist. Ironically the people who would come to this conclusion first would probably be those who reacted to their new “freedom” by binging on sex, drugs, materialism, etc. I have no doubt that they would not get the satisfaction from these indulgences that they expected. They would also begin to experience that true fulfillment comes from connection to other human beings and to their own consciousness. ALL HAPPINESS AND ALL ETHICAL SYSTEMS ARE CONTINGENT UPON ONES RELATIONSHIP TO OTHERS AND TO ONESELF. Without fully understanding the dynamics involved with this statement, most people attempt to describe certain aspects of these relationships by invoking a supernatural entity who either understands it or who is responsible for creating it. I readily admit that without the proper tools and perspective, these relationships can seem mysterious, arbitrary, and just too good to be an accident. So what is the correct perspective for viewing relationships? That’s probably a question that each person needs to answer for themselves.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
So whats in a name?
Its weird that I didn't start out to write a blog, just find out what one was about. They asked what I wanted to name my blog so I said "what the fuck, I'll give it a shot." Then they asked for a name and I thought of all handles like soccerprincess or jesusfreak that people use to succinctly describe the entirety of their being. So what's important to me? Well its not soccer or jesus.
It's not a god or gods, a school, a club, a job, girlfriend, a car, or even the collective good will of all humanity.
The way I see it, the only thing worth anything is the collected body of humana knowledge. This may at first sound unimpressive or uninspired but it makes sense to me. It works for me because knowledge is the most valuable object that the human mind can seek, attain, or pass on to others. Knowledge has enabled humans to transcend much of the brutality and harshness of nature that drove our distant ancestor’s day to day life. It has also allowed us to repeatedly overcome the brutality we have inflicted on ourselves throughout human history. Knowledge is not a physical entity but it has allowed us to shape and then transform the physical world we live in.
Knowledge is defined as a true and justified belief. When put so simply, knowledge may appear quite unremarkable, until one stops to consider how many beliefs we hold that are true but not justified or that are completely justified but false, almost true, or indeterminate. Examples are almost too numerous to count which demonstrate the inadequacy of the mind in determining justification for a choice or action (See The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow).
Knowledge is almost never something we gain easily. At best we can acquire it from loving teachers and diligent study. It requires interaction with the world because “nothing is true but reality makes it so.” It requires us to make an assertion about the orientation of objective reality and then test it. This assertion will almost always be wrong and require us to reject it and try again. Only after much searching and learning and testing and thinking are we sometimes lucky enough to find a tiny nugget of thought that satisfies the criteria for knowledge.
This process is daunting, but also much more difficult than it appears, because the second indispensable criterion for knowledge is that the truth creates a belief that is justified. One can note that the truth of the seasons and cycle of the moon was known long before people ever knew about gravity, the tilt of the earth’s axis, or the solar system. It becomes almost impossible because very rarely is a belief created by truth. Mostly, we come to a belief and then work backwards to try and rearrange the facts.
Thus our knowledge is a collected body of truth accumulated and validated, at no small price, by those who came before us. Think about all the false assertions about the world that must have failed the acid test of reality before we arrived at what we have today.
Jared Diamond tells the story of the almond in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. The wild plant produces an almond that is high in cyanide and thus extremely poisonous to humans and any other animal unfortunate enough or stupid enough to eat them. In order for us to get the nut we eat today, must have taken not only a very timely genetic mutation of the plant, but also many generations of people determined enough to keep trying until they found a plant that didn’t taste like death or cause them to vomit. A beautiful metaphore.
Knowledge is my love. This is what I spend my energy on.
It's not a god or gods, a school, a club, a job, girlfriend, a car, or even the collective good will of all humanity.
The way I see it, the only thing worth anything is the collected body of humana knowledge. This may at first sound unimpressive or uninspired but it makes sense to me. It works for me because knowledge is the most valuable object that the human mind can seek, attain, or pass on to others. Knowledge has enabled humans to transcend much of the brutality and harshness of nature that drove our distant ancestor’s day to day life. It has also allowed us to repeatedly overcome the brutality we have inflicted on ourselves throughout human history. Knowledge is not a physical entity but it has allowed us to shape and then transform the physical world we live in.
Knowledge is defined as a true and justified belief. When put so simply, knowledge may appear quite unremarkable, until one stops to consider how many beliefs we hold that are true but not justified or that are completely justified but false, almost true, or indeterminate. Examples are almost too numerous to count which demonstrate the inadequacy of the mind in determining justification for a choice or action (See The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow).
Knowledge is almost never something we gain easily. At best we can acquire it from loving teachers and diligent study. It requires interaction with the world because “nothing is true but reality makes it so.” It requires us to make an assertion about the orientation of objective reality and then test it. This assertion will almost always be wrong and require us to reject it and try again. Only after much searching and learning and testing and thinking are we sometimes lucky enough to find a tiny nugget of thought that satisfies the criteria for knowledge.
This process is daunting, but also much more difficult than it appears, because the second indispensable criterion for knowledge is that the truth creates a belief that is justified. One can note that the truth of the seasons and cycle of the moon was known long before people ever knew about gravity, the tilt of the earth’s axis, or the solar system. It becomes almost impossible because very rarely is a belief created by truth. Mostly, we come to a belief and then work backwards to try and rearrange the facts.
Thus our knowledge is a collected body of truth accumulated and validated, at no small price, by those who came before us. Think about all the false assertions about the world that must have failed the acid test of reality before we arrived at what we have today.
Jared Diamond tells the story of the almond in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. The wild plant produces an almond that is high in cyanide and thus extremely poisonous to humans and any other animal unfortunate enough or stupid enough to eat them. In order for us to get the nut we eat today, must have taken not only a very timely genetic mutation of the plant, but also many generations of people determined enough to keep trying until they found a plant that didn’t taste like death or cause them to vomit. A beautiful metaphore.
Knowledge is my love. This is what I spend my energy on.
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