Judgement Day

Today is the day of the Rapture. Nothing is going to happen, but a very large group of people will be disappointed. They will be made fun of, and ridiculed by the media. They will get a lot of attention, and may become more proselytizing than before, or may move on, who knows? Although it s tempting the poke fun at them, I don’t believe that this is an appropriate reaction. Many of us hold unexamined beliefs that have derailed our lives at one time or another. Those of you who know me will know that I’ve had more than my share of weird ideas.

Today, I think, should be a day for the rest of us to think about or or unexamined beliefs. I used to think, for example, that a good use of my time off was to rest and for the next day. Experimental evidence, however, has shown that people tend to feel better when they spend their days doing something useful, or productive. After spending more of my time doing things that I want to do, rather than passively absorbing media, I feel better for it. After examining the evidence,  I actually went back to college to begin working on my Masters degree. Again, an unexamined belief was keeping me from fully appreciating my life. If it is true that it is judgement day, let us judge our own thought processes instead of pointing and making fun, because no one has a perfect model of reality built in to their brain. Of course, the idea that we should face the world with out denial may also be wrong.

Do hold any unexamined beliefs? If so, how can you test them? What would be the benefit of abandoning them, if any, at all? It may be a good idea to talk to people you trust about those ideas. Fresh perspectives seem to help a lot. Please feel free to share some of your own experiences on this topic.

Some Thoughts on Dark Matters

So I was reading an article in the Scientific American website that tells us that Dark Matter is one of those things modern Science is really far from completely understanding. The article says that although Dark Matter makes up the majority of the Universe, we only know it is there, because of its gravitational influence on the rest of the cosmos.

My interest in the article, however, became somewhat more personal when I noticed the comment section. Apparently, a few people. had taken it upon themselves to point out that Dark Matter is actually a manifestation of human consciousness. Here is what they said:

Dark Matter is the manifestation within our consciousness of the darkness within our hearts

Of course, the comment could have been a joke. One can hope.

It seems like every time we run across some sort of barrier to our our understanding, someone has the need to fill in the gaps with creative storytelling. We all do it, though. When we worry about something, it is often because of what we imagine will happen if we don’t. It is because we do not have enough information, so we imagine things to make us feel better about the lack of information. The same holds true about our daydreams. As long as they remain as dreams, they are merely a convenient way to avoid interacting with a universe filled with Dark Matter, and other Weird stuff we do not understand. I am not against daydreaming, as long as we know that failing to act on it renders it in to a very cool form of entertainment.

According to the article, it may be 10 years until we figure out what a whopping 96% of the universe actually is, but in the mean time, we should get used to dealing with imaginative “revealed” explanations. Maybe, however, Some of us can choose to embrace the beautiful uncertainty and mystery of the world around us. I, for once, will gladly wait 10 years to Know what dark matter really is.

The imageon this article is in the public domain

Mind Hacks: The mighty fortress of belief

Here is an awesome article about belief. It might have subconsciously inspired my own. Though I didn’t get a chance to read it until today. Enjoy!

Mind Hacks: The mighty fortress of belief.

Some Thoughts on Belief

One of my best friends came for dinner on her way to the Rainbow Gathering in Philadelphia. Although I consider myself to be a fairly open minded person, I had a hard time not rolling my eyes at some of her ideas, but I also noticed her boyfriend’s self restraint after me or my wife expressed some of our convictions. In the end we managed to have a good time, but I am sure that my friend did the same thing my wife and I did on the way back from our reunion, that is, we had a long conversation about the points we could have made, had we not been constrained by social niceties.

I am not interested in talking about the issues that were brought up over our dinner conversation, I am sure most of you can imagine how things went. We talked about the virtues of a vegan diet as compared to a local natural one. We even dabbled in homeopathy, and vaccinations, and capitalism. Being that my wife and I were not on our way to the Rainbow Gathering, most readers should be able to figure out where we stood. What interested me about this conversation, other than the pleasure of my good friend’s company, was that I couldn’t believe in some of the things she and her boyfriend believed. In some cases it wasn’t that I even had an opposite belief, it simply was that I could not get my brain to even consider their ideas.

I am fascinated by the things people see as real, and enjoy being confronted with different world views, because they force me to consider parts of the big picture that I never though about before. Emergence theory, for instance, was a new concept when I read about it for the first time, and it changed my life forever, but some ideas are behind me. It is as if I’ve gone past a point of no return, and nothing short of concrete evidence will let me consider them. It is not that I’ve found a substitute belief. When I quit believing in Santa, for instance, I did not have to find an alternative, I just let him go.

The more I learn about the world, the less I believe in things. I have also had to let go of certainty, rather, my mind just looks at things, and measures how plausible they are. In some cases, those things fall into the very implausible category, and no amount of faith or good will can force me to suspend disbelief, evidence, in the other hand, can persuade me very quickly, and leave me free to abandon old ideas as quickly as I let go of Santa.

You won’t find me at a Rainbow Gathering any time soon, maybe not ever, but I can appreciate the existential search people in the fringe are going through. It makes for an interesting exchange and it gave us something to talk about as we shared our table. I always learn from all people, even when my brain is wired differently.

Is there anything you can’t believe no matter how much you may want to believe in it? Do you make concessions to people who believe differently in order to maintain harmony? Are there any beliefs you are unwilling to let go? If so, why?

Note: A Rainbow Gathering is a reunion of individuals with similar values, who participate in an outdoor celebration. They hold hippie, countercultural, and bohemian attitudes. Although I respect other people’s ideologies, some of their views are very different form mine. They are not necessarily associated with the LGBT movement, which I support.