Why do intelligent people still believe in religion? 14: Death and comfort | GinaConspiracy
Many people claim that the belief in God gives them comfort in troubled times It allows them to believe that there is someone in charge and creating order when it feels like utter chaos
They also claim it helps them feel comfort about death I will discuss both arguments in this video Lets start with the first The argument that god will help you feel comforted in trying times Well yes he can help you feel comfort, but if I have learned anything about life, comfort leads to mental stagnation, and the inability to change your situation as well
A study showed that people who are told they are being prayed for during a surgery actually had a lower level of survival than those who weren't told My interpretation of the data is that these people upon hearing it, took a very passive view on the surgery and said, well its in God's hands now, nothing I can do about it! The people who didn't think that they had backup from god, had to actually do research and follow the advice of the doctors and be aware of the harsh reality of the situation they were in and accept it could happen but fight kicking and screaming and taking their lives in their own hands Comfort is something parents give to small children to help them feel safe The feeling of safety is very important for small growing brains to learn However at some point one has to grow up and face reality
Comfort is very addicting and it muddles the brain It is a way to brush off or avoid thinking about a problem or a habit or way of thinking you have, so you don't actually end up learning from your mistakes and may have the problem all over again It took many bitchslappings from reality for me to learn to avoid comfort, except from my memory foam matress Comfort makes us lazy and passive Comfort is a weakness, which on can enjoy only if they have done everything else they can to ensure their own wellbeing
Children going through rough times can create an imaginary friend which is a natural coping mechanism for brains so underdeveloped and limited in understanding of the world Its a way of filling in a gap that will allow the child to still function in society, even though something horrible happened and they can't understand what or why it happened Primitive peoples ended up doing the same in the form of gods and spirits, because of their limited understanding of the world Now that we have knowledge by the truckloads however it is our responsibility to the people who sweated and labored to discover it for us to study it and use it instead of relying on an imaginary friend to fill in the gaps of what we don't understand However as mentioned in the first video in the series, laziness is inherent, and the addiction to comfort is quite overwhelming if you are an addict
Now for everyones favorite topic, death People claim that because of god they can have peace with death In the God delusion, way more Christians fear death than atheists That comfort about death is used by many as a way to just not have to think about it The people who have looked death in the face in a rational way and accepted it, like a lot of atheists have, tend to be less fearful about it
Those who haven't studied and thought about it want to postpone it at all costs even at the cost of prolonged pain and suffering because the unknown is so scary Death is probably the only area of life where the normal rules of logic no longer apply reason This is for two reasons 1, It is a huge paradigm shift which I mentioned in my video is always rough Death of someone you love or just know is a information overload which will require you to rewrite your concept of your life It is highly hallucinogenic as you now have to realize that you will never see that person again and having the person no longer in your life against you will or theirs is traumatic and 2, deep in our core is a fear of death which seems to be programmed deep into our reptilian brain
It is so hard wired into us that overriding it takes some series will-power Otherwise we would have accepted death too easily and our species wouldn't have survived My step-dad began feeling stomach pains out of the blue and 6 weeks later we found out he had stomach cancer The doctor told him he could try chemo, but he and my mom asked what the chances were of him making a full recovery I have a feeling the doctor was surprised that he wasn't begging and pleading to hang onto life longer
He said the chances were highly unlikely So they decided to try what they could in terms of nutrition and let what may come come 6 weeks later he died being visited and surrounded by people who loved him When I left him for the last time, his body weak and just hours away from death, I felt an emotion that I was shocked at I was mad at my mom for not convincing him to try chemo
I knew logically that they had made the right decision and I am usually aware of my emotions and capable of not being controlled by them This one was different, it was an emotion that was very primal It was my fear of death and it was something I had never experienced before As much as I tried to shake it off like I've learned to do with most emotions that can bring me down, this one I could not shake I had to let myself hate(not around my mom of course) and not fight it and let the emotion work itself out
I had to ride the emotion wave and acknowledge the emotion without letting it overwhelm me as irrational as it was These two emotional phenomena are a serious combo for why people, even ones who claim to want to see Jesus, have such a hard time with death Religion uses these two powerful forces to the max the unknown and uncertainty and natural fear is great in ensuring that people will latch on to any idea that makes them feel good and comfortable People give reports of operating room resurrections, where they report seeing Jesus Whats funny is people of other religions see whoever it is that they expect to see as well in similar instances
People who may have been bad people according to religious people will see Jesus as well Atheists however claim to have felt like they just fell asleep and were waking up The reason everyone sees there holy person is that they expect to see that person Oxygen deprivation of the brain causes delerium and halucination of bright lights Knowing you died causes high levels of emotions and in this suggestive state and your preconceived biases
Remember that memories are not photographs but a constant rewrites with new perspectives added In skeptical ghost hunting, if two people see what they believe to be a phenomena, they are not allowed to talk to each other until they get their statements of what happened down If they talk together it it quite possible they will use the power of suggestion on each other and decide together what they saw, rewriting their initial memory of the experience Most of the time, the stories do not match when done this way, as opposed to if they get together and unknowingly colaberate their story because they want to believe that what they saw was supernatural There is no good evidence for a life after death or a religious figure, and even if we did not know as much as we do about psychology, experiences perceived with a lack of oxygen is really not the most reliable at all For those of you dealing with the death of a loved one, or just a friend, time and the ability to ride out the hallucinogenic wave of emotion and information overload is the only way to allow yourself to heal in the long term
Don't fight the emotion let it out, but don't let it overwhelm you It is an emotion that must be processed on your terms not your emotions
Source: Youtube
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