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Old 08-27-2012, 08:05 AM
 
Location: Somewhere out there
9,616 posts, read 12,877,101 times
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The documentary by Morgan Freeman last night (his spectacular "Through The Wormhole" series) on the existence of a Creator, I believe it was called "Did We Invent God?", was both insightful and full of new information on the psychology of belief.

Morgan Freeman: 'I Think We Invented God'

In essence, through some very elegant experimental efforts conducted by fully objective psychologists and behavioral scientists, the latest inarguable studies show that we humans do indeed have a specific need to put the endless chaos of the world around us into some form of order.

Those scientists also explore the limited abilities of our animal friends to project themselves into out-of-body scenarios, and these studies come to the conclusion that the highly evolved human mind seems to be alone in it's ability to both project our own sense of experiential reality onto other situations, but also to imagine reality in non-living things.

It looks at our human ability to infuse, in our mind at least, spiritual and even divine or reactive qualities into non-living items. Such placement of life and meaning into the non-living is unique amongst man, and it is also almost the entire rational for all of the world's various religions.

I highly recommend taking 45 minutes to watch it if you truly have an honest and intellectually-driven interest in these very enlightening hypotheses, where some modern objective observation techniques, coupled with clear thinking and rational deductions, have come to some rather startling conclusions about man's fantasy and real worlds.

Of course, if you choose to NOT watch and evaluate the frailties and deep psychological requirements of our human spirituality, then you will not want to explore such ideas. Which will be a huge loss for the legions of truth deniers and spiritual imaginers out there!

Through the Wormhole: Did We Invent God? : Videos : Science Channel
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Old 08-27-2012, 12:05 PM
 
6,222 posts, read 3,987,122 times
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I love that series and glad you referred to it. I didn't know if you guys considered it wacko or not.

The correct definition of a God should be anything that is more intelligent than self.
No. We did not invent God. We are infinitely removed from the Host of Host but we know It powers the nodes.

At this point I' am confused as to whom created what because there was a being on earth and it's chromosomes were fused @ II, is this true for all human members? Darwinist are claiming the fusion as proof evolution, Ufologist are claiming this as proof of alien manipulation and the Church is claiming this as proof of the nephillim.
The depiction I've seen of the fusion appeared haphazard, the telemeres were fragmented- un-natural. So again I believe there is a Host of Host as evidenced by SA node etc but we are so un-natural, we've got other things to worry about. Obviously as we have manipulated other life-forms so have we been manipulated. I can't quite see how a reduction in chromosomes is advantageous.

It seems the earth experiences mass extinctions every 6K years so I am so sure man has tried to come to terms with this throughout the years. Who knows what life was like before the axial tilts?!
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Old 08-27-2012, 12:07 PM
 
Location: The heart of Cascadia
1,328 posts, read 3,166,693 times
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I thought Morgan Freeman was God.
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Old 08-27-2012, 12:14 PM
 
Location: SC Foothills
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I watched it but it wasn't 45 min. long, only about 10 or less. So....what I get from what I saw is that man did indeed invent "god", and it really is all in their heads. Way to go science!!
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Old 08-27-2012, 02:15 PM
 
Location: Yuma, Az
344 posts, read 394,699 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rifleman View Post
The documentary by Morgan Freeman last night (his spectacular "Through The Wormhole" series) on the existence of a Creator, I believe it was called "Did We Invent God?", was both insightful and full of new information on the psychology of belief.

Morgan Freeman: 'I Think We Invented God'

In essence, through some very elegant experimental efforts conducted by fully objective psychologists and behavioral scientists, the latest inarguable studies show that we humans do indeed have a specific need to put the endless chaos of the world around us into some form of order.

Those scientists also explore the limited abilities of our animal friends to project themselves into out-of-body scenarios, and these studies come to the conclusion that the highly evolved human mind seems to be alone in it's ability to both project our own sense of experiential reality onto other situations, but also to imagine reality in non-living things.

It looks at our human ability to infuse, in our mind at least, spiritual and even divine or reactive qualities into non-living items. Such placement of life and meaning into the non-living is unique amongst man, and it is also almost the entire rational for all of the world's various religions.

I highly recommend taking 45 minutes to watch it if you truly have an honest and intellectually-driven interest in these very enlightening hypotheses, where some modern objective observation techniques, coupled with clear thinking and rational deductions, have come to some rather startling conclusions about man's fantasy and real worlds.

Of course, if you choose to NOT watch and evaluate the frailties and deep psychological requirements of our human spirituality, then you will not want to explore such ideas. Which will be a huge loss for the legions of truth deniers and spiritual imaginers out there!

Through the Wormhole: Did We Invent God? : Videos : Science Channel
I read a few years ago that there is evidence that the human species psychologically needs a god-like concept. It is not a strict human need, per se, and it does not include all individuals. I don't know much about social psychology, but anyone can see that pretty much every civilization has had some god-form. Sometimes it is several gods, sometimes one. Usually the spokesman and/or creator for the specific god determines where the alleged god exists, his form, and his rules and guidelines when it comes to his followers.

Personally, I think that when religious beliefs are used by individuals to make public policy, then those religious beliefs should be examined scientifically, and should be subjected to the same criteria as anything else. Another words, if individuals proclaim that god renounces same sex marriage, it should be proven that the alleged god exists, given that the god is used to determine public policy.

I did not see the video, and I probably won't. But I'm sort of bothered when some entertainer steps outside his entertainment profession and starts to soapbox to the general public, be it something philosophical, or political. Maybe Freeman was just acting as the emcee.
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Old 08-27-2012, 02:34 PM
 
Location: On the Edge of the Fringe
7,570 posts, read 6,027,494 times
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I do watch that show. My kids love it!
It does base much of it's content on noted scientific fact. I can reference a number of journals in psychology and physics both which would validate some of the points made.

And Yes, Morgann Freeman is just the EMcee and host. He has a great voice and a great presentation and is able to come across as entertaining and interesting without being as condescending as say Alex Trebek.
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Old 08-28-2012, 07:09 AM
 
3,448 posts, read 3,121,185 times
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Animals are instinctive I think and then the question becomes how does this feature operate, how does it work exactly.

It is possible that the chimp went to the girl with the covered glass's because the chimps "idea of how we associate and evaluate is just like themselves"

the chimp went directly to the girl, the chimp would have been using its abilities to quickly determine advantage. The fact that the girl could not see the chimp simply suggests that the chimp would have entirely expected that the girl would have been able to smell her....scent is a very large part of how chimps evaluate including a reasonable threat or fear factor the chimp would have figured the girl was factoring in those things as well. I don't believe the threat-fear capabilities have to do with scent all together in my own ideas but won't get into that just now.

So in this suggestion where the chimp does not connect people with having minds, I don't think its on target with above explanation. To be honest I think it shows the opposite. In order to make a definitive choice, a definitive analysis was in motion which would seem to suggest the chimps consideration for advantage in clearly making a without question choice where there were options....I don't see a series of 20 or so tests where random was in play. So I'm comfortable with the proposition that the clip is in error at this time. The chimp would have expected the same abilities he has on the girl, where site is not a key player....don't forget wev'e been outta the woods for a while.

Because chimps in opinion are slightly conscious and have a different brand of consciousness in their supplementary aware conscious abilities, they do not experience the dynamics of space-time as we do in our very slight notice. The disorder in behavior we notice by further ability in reflective thought made possible by reason, is simply absent in the chimp to such a degree. IOW they have less conscious participation in choice, and therefore are in fact relatively speaking less bad or disordered. Therefore they do not need to be religious, they simply do not self understand a large deviance from order , due to behavior. The instinctive barely conscious animal behaves with an assumption of purpose. An assumption of purpose demonstrates an assumption of value and therefore, there is no need to convince or express what is assumed.

Ok this pattern business. The screen showing and playing white noise and there are dots all over the page in what appears to be random scatter. I seriously don't understand what they are confused about. Of course the natural tendency is going to be looking for a pattern, the premise suggested doesn't play a role in that large of a way....looking for patterns in a pic creating white noise?
Well in white noise they play a soft rolling ocean and the like. Its a go to thing because it suggests nature is clam, liveable....and it is introduced , as a suggestion....the mind is already accepting the calm, its now looking at a pic with dots...the pic with dots would have the same effect as a search to contain the source of the suggestion...the survival says yes..ok...where....and looks. Plus the dots in cause by the sound would contain deep unconscious comprehensions in a concrete something, in direct and found consequence in the sound...so the mind seeks out to ...unify...become ...with...the calm I did this quickly for now and I see there is more ideas in the link

Last edited by stargazzer; 08-28-2012 at 08:04 AM..
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Old 08-28-2012, 08:32 AM
 
707 posts, read 683,955 times
Reputation: 284
Quote:
Originally Posted by rifleman View Post
The documentary by Morgan Freeman last night (his spectacular "Through The Wormhole" series) on the existence of a Creator, I believe it was called "Did We Invent God?", was both insightful and full of new information on the psychology of belief.

Morgan Freeman: 'I Think We Invented God'

In essence, through some very elegant experimental efforts conducted by fully objective psychologists and behavioral scientists, the latest inarguable studies show that we humans do indeed have a specific need to put the endless chaos of the world around us into some form of order.

Those scientists also explore the limited abilities of our animal friends to project themselves into out-of-body scenarios, and these studies come to the conclusion that the highly evolved human mind seems to be alone in it's ability to both project our own sense of experiential reality onto other situations, but also to imagine reality in non-living things.

It looks at our human ability to infuse, in our mind at least, spiritual and even divine or reactive qualities into non-living items. Such placement of life and meaning into the non-living is unique amongst man, and it is also almost the entire rational for all of the world's various religions.

I highly recommend taking 45 minutes to watch it if you truly have an honest and intellectually-driven interest in these very enlightening hypotheses, where some modern objective observation techniques, coupled with clear thinking and rational deductions, have come to some rather startling conclusions about man's fantasy and real worlds.

Of course, if you choose to NOT watch and evaluate the frailties and deep psychological requirements of our human spirituality, then you will not want to explore such ideas. Which will be a huge loss for the legions of truth deniers and spiritual imaginers out there!

Through the Wormhole: Did We Invent God? : Videos : Science Channel

Is this really the kind of ingnorance people use in their analogy for the existance of God. I guess some people will use anything in an effort to not believe.

"Now, people who think that God invented us think that the Earth can't be more than 6,000 years old."
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Old 08-28-2012, 09:56 AM
 
258 posts, read 206,743 times
Reputation: 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by KatieGal View Post
I read a few years ago that there is evidence that the human species psychologically needs a god-like concept.
The field is called neurotheology and has been studied for decades. Belief and the brain We have an innate fear of the unknown of course because it could be dangerous. So if we don't know what causes something, such as thunder, we simply give Thor the Thundergod the responsibility and the cause isn't unknown anymore. And we can even try to manipulate him by praying to him or sacrificing stuff. It gives us an illusion of control over the unknown.

Through the Wormhole: Did We Invent God? YouTube

Last edited by ArtieE; 08-28-2012 at 10:48 AM..
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Old 08-28-2012, 01:09 PM
 
707 posts, read 683,955 times
Reputation: 284
Quote:
Originally Posted by KatieGal View Post
I read a few years ago that there is evidence that the human species psychologically needs a god-like concept. It is not a strict human need, per se, and it does not include all individuals. I don't know much about social psychology, but anyone can see that pretty much every civilization has had some god-form. Sometimes it is several gods, sometimes one. Usually the spokesman and/or creator for the specific god determines where the alleged god exists, his form, and his rules and guidelines when it comes to his followers.

Personally, I think that when religious beliefs are used by individuals to make public policy, then those religious beliefs should be examined scientifically, and should be subjected to the same criteria as anything else. Another words, if individuals proclaim that god renounces same sex marriage, it should be proven that the alleged god exists, given that the god is used to determine public policy.

I did not see the video, and I probably won't. But I'm sort of bothered when some entertainer steps outside his entertainment profession and starts to soapbox to the general public, be it something philosophical, or political. Maybe Freeman was just acting as the emcee.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ArtieE View Post
The field is called neurotheology and has been studied for decades. Belief and the brain We have an innate fear of the unknown of course because it could be dangerous. So if we don't know what causes something, such as thunder, we simply give Thor the Thundergod the responsibility and the cause isn't unknown anymore. And we can even try to manipulate him by praying to him or sacrificing stuff. It gives us an illusion of control over the unknown.


Through the Wormhole: Did We Invent God? YouTube
Actually taking the "leap of faith" requires a lot of guts. Just like anytime we go into the unknown. But the experience is worth the reward for those who have the courage. In fact these analogies are so over used in the same way to confort and reconfirm the non-believers emotions. I think the atheist takes as much comfort in their misconceptions as they claim the believer does in theirs.
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