Hi Billy, On Aug 30, 2013, at 9:59 AM, [email protected] wrote: > I thought I had heard it all before, but this takes the prize. > Well worth some serious research in the future…
Very interesting. Like any complex system, it is possible to derive significant benefit from a particular subsystem. Religious practices have always a certain value independent of religious belief (e.g., the communal benefits of belonging to a church). Conversely, religious beliefs (like modern Unitarian-deism) underly much of our scientific and political structures, even though they are divorced from actual religious practices. What the reductionists tend to overlook, though, is that reducing a complex system to a simple subsystem renders it sterile. Ritual prayer works great for him as a psychological crutch; but he has no metaphysic enabling him to go beyond that to the kind of world-changing prayer and faith we see in cutting-edge innovators, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Ernie P. > BR > > ==================================== > > > > > > W Post > Is faith the world’s most effective placebo? > > By Sigfried Gold, Published: August 28 , 2013 > > > My 15 minutes of fame, courtesy of an article in the Washington Post > featuring me as an atheist who prays to an invented God in order to > facilitate my participation in a 12-step recovery program, provoked a little > tempest in the teapot of atheist blog postings and commentary. My fellow > atheists have suggested, not always politely, that I’m not an atheist, that > I’m not really praying, and that praying is not acceptable behavior for > atheists. As politely as I can manage, I would like to defend myself on all > three counts. > To the charge of not being an atheist, I reply that, while I do pray to a > figment of my imagination that I sometimes call God, I completely reject > supernatural explanations for why things happen in the world and in my life. > I use purely psychological explanations to understand the effects I notice as > a result of my prayers. I would ask those who want to boot me out of the > atheist camp to explain what qualifications are needed beyond a rejection of > the supernatural. Is there some code of mental conduct for atheists that I > have managed to violate? Could I be reinstated as an atheist by admitting > that I’m not really praying? Atheist blogger Herb Silverman on the electronic > pages of the Washington Post says, “Atheist prayers sound a lot like what I > would call focusing or meditating, which some also view as a transcendent or > spiritual experience.” > > My daily regimen includes 30 to 45 of meditation in addition to prayer, so > when I claim to be praying it’s not because I just don’t know the difference. > Meditation involves various forms of relaxing or focusing the mind, focusing > at times on the breath, physical sensations, thoughts, sounds, etc. Insofar > as mental speech arises in meditation, it arises as a phenomenon to be > observed, not as an intentional activity. Prayer, on the other hand, is > intentional speech, silent or aloud, addressing a benevolent listener who is > not physically present. Recitation or chanting of mantras or repeated prayers > form a gray area between meditation or prayer, but outside this gray area, > the two are clearly distinguished by the active use of speech, not by belief > in the entity addressed when speech is used. > > Silverman goes on to say, “Although an argument can be made to do whatever > works for you, reality works best for me. I don’t need imaginary friends—nor > do most reality-based people.” > > Now, I can’t claim to speak for all non-reality-based people, but I don’t > need imaginary friends, either. I lived for 45 years without them. I just > happened to find that when I started talking to an imaginary friend, certain > struggles began to evaporate. It became easier to act according to my > conscience. > > When I started, I had a logical reason for praying to a nonexistent God: I > could see clear evidence that a bunch of people in my 12-step program were > succeeding at losing and keeping off remarkable amounts of weight while > simultaneously gaining a newfound sense of serenity, happiness and freedom. I > wanted what those people had; I was willing to do what they had done. So, > when they told me to get on my knees and start asking God for help, I did. It > didn’t change my conviction that God doesn’t exist, it just changed my > practices. > > Many people, performing the same experiment, have concluded that if the > praying works, God must exist. I didn’t do that. I had read a lot of > philosophy and psychology and decided that I could explain what was happening > without falling back on supernatural beings or events. I was familiar with, > among other things, studies showing that placebos can work even when patients > know they are taking them. > > We are all aware of the power of belief, but not everyone realizes how > flexible this power is. Much can be accomplished by believing in the power of > belief itself. This is not self-hypnotism or self-delusion. It is consciously > making use of a scientifically demonstrable feature of the mind. If making > use of recent scientific knowledge to improve one’s life is not acceptable > behavior for an atheist, I don’t know what is. > > > -- > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. 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