[PUG] RANT: Reality has a Liberal bias...

I'm just worn out. I debate with social conservatives and traditionalists, and provide the strongest peer reviewed evidence I can to back up my assertions and I provide reasoned arguments supported by age old philosophical propositions but it is not enough. I'm told it is all "biased". It doesn't matter how perfectly objective and analytical the study is or how well it follows the scientific method, it is biased unless it supports their viewpoint. If is it particularly damning to their worldview, then it is "PC" the sweet and short way to dismiss everything as politically correct, and thus somehow not true. I have yet to find anyone who can explain to me the reasoning behind this, but it seems sufficient to them.

Has thinking become a value? When I was a child, I never would have thought that there would exist a group of people who are proud that they don't think. In fact, not only are they proud that they don't think, but they are proud that others can't make them think. Now I'm not trying to stereotype here, but it seems whenever I push anyone from these particular right wing groups on the facts that they take a position that reasoning and logic are inferior to their religious faith and internal moral compass. How on earth can they reduce thinking to a value?

I'm notorious for being a smartass, and occasionally just an ass, but nothing I can ever say or do could ever demean a person as much as them tossing their own ability to think and reason for themselves.

The more I study human beings, the more I realize humans like to follow a script. Religious beliefs and political ideologies simply serve as a way for human beings to mindlessly serve as actors in this world, fulfilling roles that were written for them by directors who may have lost touch with reality themselves.

Everyday, I find myself challenging every label that I have felt ascribed to myself. INFJ, gay, liberal, social worker, etc. it all seems like the labels have become more important than the being. I am who I am, too complex to be narrowed down and pidgeon holed into some convenient category for others to stereotype in some misguided attempt to control or pass judgment. It's not like I don't do the same. But I'm tired of it. Maybe I just need to view the world holistically. That seems to be the only thing that people on opposite sides of the religious and political spectrum agree on. Love your neighbor.

 

Works for me. I'll make it my new policy.

 

Clearly, because even the absolute truth would be biased depending on who you ask.

 

Feel free to spell it out for me.

 

Maybe its time I give some personal background on this...

I was raised Christian. In fact, I was probably just as religious as 00chris00 when I was younger. As I entered the age of reason, which was I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, I noticed people got really defensive and sometimes even angry when I asked them questions about the religion. I also had different interpretations of a lot of the scripture they had us memorize in Sunday School (and later in Youth Group) and so I was often told how things were suppose to be interpreted. As you probably can tell by now, I'm not the type of person who can be told how to think. I never really took the miracles and supernatural stuff in the Bible too seriously, and I actually thought as I was growing up that stuff was put in there for the kids to believe. I never really believed in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny but I played along and it was kind of the same when it came to church. When I finally realized that adults actually believed the stories were anything but symbolic and allegorical, I tried to convince myself of the same, but it just wasn't happening. When it comes to believing in forgiveness, love, community, etc. I'm good, but talking serpents, arks that hold two of every animal on earth, and a long haired dude with magical powers that can turn water into wine, is way too much of a stretch. So I incorporated a lot of Christian values, but very little of Christianity. On an intuitive level, I just always felt it was a controlling thing.

I often like to blame my sexual orientation from driving me away from the religion, but in truth, my church taught that as long as you took communion at some point and earnestly prayed to accept Jesus as your personal savior, then Jesus would be in your heart forever and you could never be separated from him again no matter how you sinned. As I did so when I was a child the Christian elements of my family consider me saved and a Christian and simply remind me from time to time that I am going to have to humbly atone and repent on the day that I meet my maker. I'm not sure how they came to this interpretation, and I use to think my church was the only denomination that had this belief, but now I understand several denominations hold this view.

As I studied history, science, philosophy, other religions, it was just the final nail in the coffin. I remember when I read that Thomas Jefferson constructed his own bible by cutting out and pasting what Jesus had to say and leaving out all the miracles, that I was called to consider myself a deist. After studying ecology and Taoism, I was drawn towards a more pantheistic view of the world. That is why I tend to have very pandeistic views when it comes to my spirituality.

I have lots of good friends and I'm very comfortable with my spirituality, so I can't say that I'm looking to "belong anywhere". I do have an incredibly low tolerance for hypocrisy and ignorance, and so when I see people using the Bible to judge how others live their lives, I can't help but feel a great deal of anger. For example, I can't tell you how many times I've met people who have been married multiple times and they argue that gay marriage is tantamount to the destruction of the family and traditional marriage. That being despite the fact that Jesus spoke indepth against serial monogamy, but never spoke a word about homosexuality. And I find it ironic that people would use the Bible, a book written in the Bronze age, as some sort of infallible word of God when there are clear inconsistencies and contradictions within its own pages. And of course there is the patriarchal structure of the books, which makes sense given the time it was written, but which people seem to detest taking into historical context. I suppose that is the controlling element that I find abhorrent in the religion.

Do I believe in God? In my own sense, I do. There are times when my anger towards Christianity seems to come between me and what I perceive to be God, but I consider that to be my problem and one of which I am constantly seeking a resolution.

 

QOTD

 

It's interesting that is the seat of all persuasion. No logical, rational argument is ever going to change a person's mind no matter how well supported it is by evidence and reason, the only way to influence others is to understand their feelings. Propaganda and advertisement is considerably more effective than any degree of education or debate simply because of this fact.

 

Level of education and field of study is the only difference I have perceived within individuals that would lead them to challenge this aspect of human nature. Based on what I have seen, I estimate that maybe 10% of the general public has critical thinking ability, and of that 10% I estimate that only 1% of those make a concerted effort to shape their own metacognition by challenging their cognitive and emotional biases. The number of individuals who seem to have any degree of awareness of their own patterns of thinking is incredibly small. Even I have trouble considering myself a member of that group because I often give into my passion despite knowing it is a fruitless endeavor and usually the equivalant of ego masturbation.