Why do intelligent people still believe in religion? 23: Insanity vs Delusion | GinaConspiracy
Well a person pointed out last night a glaring error in video number 21 “Humans suck at comparative languages” I was always told in my fundamentalist church growing up that the KJV was translated from Latin and only later editions were from Greek and Hebrew
I posted this believing myself to be right without fact checking it As it turns out I was wrong The KJV was strictly from Greek and Hebrew except for 2nd Esdras which is from Latin but that's not an issue in most protestant beliefs Seeing how it was from Greek and Hebrew only though meant that the parts that were written originally in Aramaic were translated into Greek or Hebrew and then into English, only in later translations did they translate directly from Aramaic I was of course extremely embarrassed because I was having an online debate with someone and sent them to this video to prove a point and someone pointed out the error right after, sigh
This just points out fallibility oral tradition Most of the was complied after many centuries of oral tradition and just like language and genes it can change factuality in time The New testament stories were not even written down til at least 40 years after Jesus was allegedly killed, unless the theoretical Q document was written earlier The KJV being translated from Latin is one of many Oral falsities that I have had to eliminate by research, study and humility Half of religion is a holy book, the other half are things someone they know or who someone else told the person who told them was true, so therefore it must but true, especially in terms of apologetics or prophecy
When you were told something with authority, very young especially if it sounds like it must be true, you wont even think about looking it up to find out if it is true Citing your sources is extra work but it makes the truth shine through easier and it prevents looking incompetent and creating embarrassment Sadly because admitting you are wrong causes this embarrassment many have convinced themselves they can't possibly be wrong to protect themselves from cognitive dissonance I did happen to get lucky though and realized I had written up a short video for this series last week that goes perfectly with this mistake This was supposed to be made prior to the sacrifice video but I forgot I had it, anyway, here goes
I have gotten quite a few angry comments on this series by religious people who feel insulted that I am saying that all religious people are stupid or insane Well if I thought that I would have called this series “Why do complete morons still believe in religion?” I know many very intelligent people of faith They claim that I'm calling all religious people insane, however insanity is a definition of mental state and ability to survive in society, and since the majority of the world is religious they are clearly not insane as they religious can do well in society just as well if not better than the non-religious The term I would use is delusion A delusion is an illusion about reality that you believe without question, or just do not know Ignorance is the parent of delusions
Well all have ignorance, I don't know how a lock works or how to pick one, or exactly the mechanism that make plants grow, or quantum physics I can pretend in my mind that I know to make myself feel better about myself but deep down I don't know When you don't understand something your brain naturally does one of 2 things 1) it ignores the subject because it has little importance or relevance to your life, or 2) you make up a working explanation to to help you muddle through This working hypothesis gets you by unless you are challenged by reality or people or educated and that gap gets filled in making things about reality more clear to you I can't tell you the number classes I've been in where a certain veil on how reality works in lifted and I didn't even realize that I was ignorant of my own ignorance
The concept was just out of sight out of mind because I didn't not realize its importance to my life A delusion is when you take the working hypothesis of what you don't know and strongly and dogmatically believe it I have eliminated many of them over my life and I may still have a few for all I know However the more I know about the varying fields I have studied I think I've eliminated the most import ones Now when you collect too many delusions in areas of your life that are vital to your ability to fit in with society you are now insane
Now I don't think that the majority of religious people are insane There are some but the majority are just delusional This delusion can only be eliminated be introspection, education, understanding your own mind and having at least a working knowledge of science and how it works So why do these delusions persist? Well many times they have never been challenged Being around many skeptics in the past few years has caused challenges to many of my prior ideas and delusions and caused me to reject them, and they had nothing to do with religion just science and human behavior If you never get into debate or dialectic discussion your delusions can persist for the rest of your life
A debate is a place where all arguments are sent to compete and the best and most logical arguments wins The long standing rule is that two things to never discuss are politics and religion Well seeing that the right wing broke that rule, then the game is on, if you make a delusional statement, then it should be challenged and corrected At first your pride is usually hurt and it make you uncomfortable because you feel inferior when something you knew for certain is being shot at, but over time you will begin to develop better ways to defend your idea (or just fact mine like creationists) or you will discard that delusion, especially if the person who challenged you was good at explaining a better way to think about the topic Another reasons why delusions persist is that our culture idealizes emotion and tends to villify reason and logic
Look at many of our movies or shows, look at how Spock is treated on the Star Trek, or any old sci-fi Emotion is what makes us human and logic is for robots according to older movies You should go with what you feel or believe as opposed to the facts and evidence around you Anyone who understands health and psychology will tell you that having emotions is important and healthy and integral to our very existent, but blindly idealizing them is stupid and is what can cause many delusions and the inability to cope with reality Religious people are delusional in aspects of their life that are rarely challenged and protected from questioning
I do not want any delusions, life is beautiful and wonderful enough without living in an imaginary world, The more you know about your world the better you can effect it to make it a better place to live in
Source: Youtube
Leave a Comment