The Dudeism Forum

Quote from: Boston Rockbury on February 11, 2013, 01:50:17 PM

Quote from: BikerDude on February 11, 2013, 01:38:14 PM

Quote from: Boston Rockbury on February 11, 2013, 01:04:13 PM

Quote from: BikerDude on February 11, 2013, 12:42:06 PM
Except for every one of the 911 bombers

If they can afford to drive Porsches then I guess they can't be poor. You got me there dude!

Actually your point is taken though.
I suppose that if we want to traffic in generalities then (in at least the instances of the "big" plots) the perpetrators are generally educated people from generally uneducated countries.
Can you say "conflicted"?
What happens when common sense crashes head long into Bronze Age superstition and generations of cultural indoctrination?
A person can be educated and comfortable and still support this sort of cognitive dissonance thanks to religion and culture.

Quote
We have been lulled into ignoring just how strange and insupportable many of our religious beliefs are.  How comforting would it be to hear the President of the United States assure us that almighty Zeus is on our side in our war on terrorism?  The mere change of a single word in his speech—from God to Zeus—would precipitate a national emergency.  If I believe that Christ was born of a virgin, resurrected bodily after death, and is now literally transformed into a wafer at the Mass, I can still function as a respected member of society.  I can believe these propositions because millions of others believe them, and we have all been taught to overlook how irrational this picture of reality is.  If, on the other hand, I wake up tomorrow morning believing that God is communicating with me through my hairdryer, I'll be considered a nut, even in church.  The beliefs themselves are more or less on a par—in so far as they are in flagrant violation of the most basic principles of reason.  The perversity of religion is that it allows sane people to believe the unbelievable en masse.

One of my favorites..

Quote
Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever.

I quite like all that sort of shamanic stuff  - you know Carlos Casteneda and what have you. Does that count as bronze age? I dig the idea of taking some freaky mushrooms and being able to see the world through the eyes of an eagle or a wolf or a republican.

It when it happens without the mushrooms that is the problem.

Quote from: BikerDude on February 11, 2013, 01:57:59 PM

Quote from: Boston Rockbury on February 11, 2013, 01:50:17 PM

Quote from: BikerDude on February 11, 2013, 01:38:14 PM

Quote from: Boston Rockbury on February 11, 2013, 01:04:13 PM

Quote from: BikerDude on February 11, 2013, 12:42:06 PM
Except for every one of the 911 bombers

If they can afford to drive Porsches then I guess they can't be poor. You got me there dude!

Actually your point is taken though.
I suppose that if we want to traffic in generalities then (in at least the instances of the "big" plots) the perpetrators are generally educated people from generally uneducated countries.
Can you say "conflicted"?
What happens when common sense crashes head long into Bronze Age superstition and generations of cultural indoctrination?
A person can be educated and comfortable and still support this sort of cognitive dissonance thanks to religion and culture.

Quote
We have been lulled into ignoring just how strange and insupportable many of our religious beliefs are.  How comforting would it be to hear the President of the United States assure us that almighty Zeus is on our side in our war on terrorism?  The mere change of a single word in his speech—from God to Zeus—would precipitate a national emergency.  If I believe that Christ was born of a virgin, resurrected bodily after death, and is now literally transformed into a wafer at the Mass, I can still function as a respected member of society.  I can believe these propositions because millions of others believe them, and we have all been taught to overlook how irrational this picture of reality is.  If, on the other hand, I wake up tomorrow morning believing that God is communicating with me through my hairdryer, I'll be considered a nut, even in church.  The beliefs themselves are more or less on a par—in so far as they are in flagrant violation of the most basic principles of reason.  The perversity of religion is that it allows sane people to believe the unbelievable en masse.

One of my favorites..

Quote
Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever.

I quite like all that sort of shamanic stuff  - you know Carlos Casteneda and what have you. Does that count as bronze age? I dig the idea of taking some freaky mushrooms and being able to see the world through the eyes of an eagle or a wolf or a republican.

It when it happens without the mushrooms that is the problem.

Sure dude, that's how we got George W Bush