Comments by "June VanDerMark" (@junevandermark952) on "Big Think"
channel.
-
42
-
27
-
15
-
4
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
Those in religions, that are certain that they know absolute truth, yet kill each other over who has the correct information from the gods, believe they are "critical" thinkers. This religious scientist, (which is an oxymoronic statement) Anthony Leewenhoek was certain that suffering could only occur because God had willed it to be so. From the book Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif … published 1926 … “Life lives on life—it is cruel, but it is God’s will,” he pondered. If a scientist is asked the question, “Do you believe that the universe was created,” and the scientist answers, “Yes,” that is not critical scientific thinking. That is “I accept as truth, whatever I was taught in my personal religion.”
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
If you are adamant to idolize the myths in your own personal religion, you probably won't be able to relate to the following information ... From the book … The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body … author … Frances Ashcroft
Who Am I?
Precisely what consciousness is has occupied philosophers and neuroscientists for centuries and we still lack a definitive understanding. Yet it is something that each of us is so familiar with and that we all experience. “I think’, said René Descartes back in the fifteenth century, ‘therefore I am’. But what, exactly, am ‘I’?
In Descartes’s view, the mind and body were separate entities. But the profound changes in our personalities produced by drugs, disease and brain damage provide the case – our minds are the product of our brains.
Despite our very powerful sense of self, neuroscience reveals we are no more than the integrated electrical activity of our brain cells. Uncomfortable as it may seem, there is no separate entity, no soul, and nothing that lives on after death – a fact that catapults science into direct conflict with many religions.
Descartes, who argued that mind and brain are entirely separate entities, placed the human soul in the pineal gland. It was here, he said, that the material brain in some magical and mysterious way communicates with the mind and with the immaterial soul. I don’t know what he would have said if he could have seen my patients looking at their own brains on a video monitor, as some of them do when I operate under local anaesthetic.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@sopanmcfadden276 If the universe always existed, that would explain that consciousness did not start because of a conscious creator, but rather consciousness always existed, because the universe always existed.
Having been taught religion, I also was heavily indoctrinated to believe that a god was responsible for all life.
I left religion at age 70, after all those years of always asking question about why nothing I was taught ever made sense to me.
I'm 83 now, and believe that when I die, thought will be no more.
Peace ... at last.
Until then, I know that if I want to be content, I have to try my best to be as kind to others, as circumstances allow.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@TacTicVa4a On our own we are not at all "intelligent." Example ... If there hadn't been any math in Einstein's day, who, today would even know his name? He was only able to use math, because through the eons of time, others kept learning from those before them ... bit by bit.
Yes, I do believe that we evolved from an ape-like species, and that if we had evolved with either hooves, or paws, neither science, nor religion would exist.
And if we go extinct, and the planet is not completely destroyed concerning forms of life ... those forms of life on earth, won't miss us. And they will keep suffering ... which is nature's way.
Much ado about nothing ... Shakespeare
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 Thankfully now hundreds of ex-members of clergy are setting wonderful examples ... showing that for those who are ready ... there is a way of escaping the brain-numbing religious indoctrinations.
From Apostle to Apostate: The Story of the Clergy Project … authors … Catherine Dunphy, Richard Dawkins … Leaving a job in ministry is unlike any other career change. Not only are there feelings of isolation, but there are also fears about how to communicate one’s skills in ministry to another Job. Most members who had already left church work detailed a long arduous journey to find employment outside of religion. Many, if not most, of them returned to school, seeking degrees in psychology, social work, business administration, and computer science.
As former clergy who have left churches of every denomination, synagogues, mosques, convents, monasteries, and theological institutions, we stand as examples of the reasonableness of doubt and its thoughtful conclusions. I cannot help but think that we offer a compelling voice for why science and secularism do a better job than religion and superstition of answering the so-called ultimate questions.
1
-
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363
The supposed savior of souls of Christians, was just the most recent savior-myth story. Example as follows, and please note how Chrishna was spelled, before the Christians came up with the word Christ, and how the Hindus then changed the spelling of their supposed savior to "Krishna."
From the book … The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors … Christianity before Christ, by Kersey Graves … first published in 1875.
and finally these twenty Jesus Christs (accepting their character for the name) laid the foundation for the salvation of the world, and ascended back to heaven.
1. Chrishna of Hindostan.
2. Budha Sakia of India.
3. Salivahana of Bermuda
4. Zulis, or Zhule, also Osiris and Orus, of Egypt.
5. Odin of the Scandinavians.
6. Crite of Chaldea.
7. Zoroaster and Mithra of Persia.
8. Baal and Taut, “the only Begotten of God,” of Phenicia.
9. Indra of Thibet.
10. Bali of Afghanistan.
11. Jao of Nepaul.
12. Wittoa of the Bilingonese.
13. Thammuz of Syria.
14. Atys of Phrygia.
15. Xamolxis of Thrace.
16. Zoar of the Bonzes.
17. Adad of Assyria.
18. Deva Tat,aud Sammonocadam of Siam.
19. Alcides of Thebes.
20. Mikado of the Sintoos.
21. Beddru of Japan.
22. Hesus or Eros, and Bremrillah, of the Druids.
23. Thor, son of Odin, of the Gauls.
24. Cadmus of Greece.
25. Hil and Feta of the Mandaites.
26. Gentaut and Quexalcote of Mexico.
27. Universal Monarch of the Sibyls.
28. Ischy of the Island of Formosa.
29. Divine teacher of Plato.
30. Holy One of xaca.
31. Fohi and Tien of China.
32. Adonis, son of the virgin Io of Greece.
33. Ision and Quirinus of Rome.
34. Prometheus of Caucasus.
35. Mohammud, or Mahomet, of Arabia.
These have all received divine honors, have nearly all been worshiped as Gods, or sons of Gods; were mostly incarnated as Christs, Saviors, Messiahs, or Mediators; not a few of them were reputedly born of virgins; some of them filling a character almost identical with that ascribed by the Christian’s bible to Jesus Christ; many of them like him, are reported crucified; and all of them, taken together, furnish a prototype and parallel for nearly every important incident and wonder-inciting miracle, doctrine and precept recorded in the New Testament, of the Christian’s Savior. Surely, with so many Saviors the world cannot, or should not, be lost.
1
-
1
-
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363
Now I understand why there are hundreds of ex members of clergy that have joined The Clergy Project, to find employment elsewhere.
From the book ... Apostle to Apostate: The Story of the Clergy Project … authors … Catherine Dunphy, Richard Dawkins
When you are reared to think of your faith and its leaders as infallible, dissent can be an unsettling thing. This is particularly true for clergy, who have devoted their lives to the subject of faith. I therefore especially hope that this story reaches those clergy who have yet to articulate their doubts. As they struggle through this process, I am thankful that they can look to the Clergy Project as an example of community and humanism as an example of good.
As former clergy who have left churches of every denomination, synagogues, mosques, convents, monasteries, and theological institutions, we stand as examples of the reasonableness of doubt and its thoughtful conclusions. I cannot help but think that we offer a compelling voice for why science and secularism do a better job than religion and superstition of answering the so-called ultimate questions.
1
-
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363
Religions galore ... were and are ... created out of myth.
The supposed savior of souls of Christians, was just the most recent savior-myth story. Example as follows, and please note how Chrishna was spelled, before the Christians came up with the word Christ, and how the Hindus then changed the spelling of their supposed savior to "Krishna."
From the book … The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors … Christianity before Christ, by Kersey Graves … first published in 1875.
and finally these twenty Jesus Christs (accepting their character for the name) laid the foundation for the salvation of the world, and ascended back to heaven.
1. Chrishna of Hindostan.
2. Budha Sakia of India.
3. Salivahana of Bermuda
4. Zulis, or Zhule, also Osiris and Orus, of Egypt.
5. Odin of the Scandinavians.
6. Crite of Chaldea.
7. Zoroaster and Mithra of Persia.
8. Baal and Taut, “the only Begotten of God,” of Phenicia.
9. Indra of Thibet.
10. Bali of Afghanistan.
11. Jao of Nepaul.
12. Wittoa of the Bilingonese.
13. Thammuz of Syria.
14. Atys of Phrygia.
15. Xamolxis of Thrace.
16. Zoar of the Bonzes.
17. Adad of Assyria.
18. Deva Tat,aud Sammonocadam of Siam.
19. Alcides of Thebes.
20. Mikado of the Sintoos.
21. Beddru of Japan.
22. Hesus or Eros, and Bremrillah, of the Druids.
23. Thor, son of Odin, of the Gauls.
24. Cadmus of Greece.
25. Hil and Feta of the Mandaites.
26. Gentaut and Quexalcote of Mexico.
27. Universal Monarch of the Sibyls.
28. Ischy of the Island of Formosa.
29. Divine teacher of Plato.
30. Holy One of xaca.
31. Fohi and Tien of China.
32. Adonis, son of the virgin Io of Greece.
33. Ision and Quirinus of Rome.
34. Prometheus of Caucasus.
35. Mohammud, or Mahomet, of Arabia.
These have all received divine honors, have nearly all been worshiped as Gods, or sons of Gods; were mostly incarnated as Christs, Saviors, Messiahs, or Mediators; not a few of them were reputedly born of virgins; some of them filling a character almost identical with that ascribed by the Christian’s bible to Jesus Christ; many of them like him, are reported crucified; and all of them, taken together, furnish a prototype and parallel for nearly every important incident and wonder-inciting miracle, doctrine and precept recorded in the New Testament, of the Christian’s Savior. Surely, with so many Saviors the world cannot, or should not, be lost.
1
-
Most theologians teach that the “mind” of God, is beyond all human understanding. However, that is just before they start insinuating that they do understand exactly what “God” is thinking. I suggest that egoism is the nature of the human beast.
>>>
In the second page of the King James version of the bible the words read as follows …
THE BIBLE
THIS BOOK REVEALS THE MIND OF GOD, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.
ITS DOCTRINES ARE HOLY, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable.
READ IT AND BE WISE, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you.
1
-
1
-
1
-
I wrote the following November 27, 2017 … A spoof on agnosticism … Two agnostics sat on a fence, Pondering on how humans are dense, Wondering which way the wind would blow, Losing their balance to fall below. "If we fall on the side where religion is real," One said to the other "I will appeal, To God's holy grace for having doubt, Of his existence and his mighty clout." The other agnostic soon agreed, That falling for God and his holy creed, Would save them from a writhing hell, Where forever they just might dwell. Soon they climbed down off the fence, Convincing each other religion made sense, Why would they want to upset God, Who has all the power with but a nod. So the two agnostics became believers, No more would they choose to be deceivers, Doubting Thomases they would not be, Safe in God's arms for eternity.
1
-
1
-
1
-
From the book, “Ideas and Opinions” … author … Albert Einstein.
Nobody, certainly, will deny that the idea of the existence of an omnipotent, just and omnibeneficient personal God is able to accord man solace, help, and guidance; also, by virtue of its simplicity it is accessible to the most undeveloped mind. But, on the other hand, there are decisive weaknesses attached to this idea in itself, which have been painfully felt since the beginning of history. That is, if this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every thought, and every human aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@darlenegriffith6186 I was raised in a Christian culture, but I never could buy into that story that Jesus was a savior of humanity. So I kept on studying.
The supposed savior of souls of Christians, was just the most recent savior-myth story. Example as follows, from the book, and please note how Chrishna was spelled, before the Christians came up with the word Christ, and how the Hindus then changed the spelling of their supposed savior to "Krishna."
The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors … Christianity before Christ, by Kersey Graves … first published in 1875.
and finally these twenty Jesus Christs (accepting their character for the name) laid the foundation for the salvation of the world, and ascended back to heaven.
1. Chrishna of Hindostan.
2. Budha Sakia of India.
3. Salivahana of Bermuda
4. Zulis, or Zhule, also Osiris and Orus, of Egypt.
5. Odin of the Scandinavians.
6. Crite of Chaldea.
7. Zoroaster and Mithra of Persia.
8. Baal and Taut, “the only Begotten of God,” of Phenicia.
9. Indra of Thibet.
10. Bali of Afghanistan.
11. Jao of Nepaul.
12. Wittoa of the Bilingonese.
13. Thammuz of Syria.
14. Atys of Phrygia.
15. Xamolxis of Thrace.
16. Zoar of the Bonzes.
17. Adad of Assyria.
18. Deva Tat,aud Sammonocadam of Siam.
19. Alcides of Thebes.
20. Mikado of the Sintoos.
21. Beddru of Japan.
22. Hesus or Eros, and Bremrillah, of the Druids.
23. Thor, son of Odin, of the Gauls.
24. Cadmus of Greece.
25. Hil and Feta of the Mandaites.
26. Gentaut and Quexalcote of Mexico.
27. Universal Monarch of the Sibyls.
28. Ischy of the Island of Formosa.
29. Divine teacher of Plato.
30. Holy One of xaca.
31. Fohi and Tien of China.
32. Adonis, son of the virgin Io of Greece.
33. Ision and Quirinus of Rome.
34. Prometheus of Caucasus.
35. Mohammud, or Mahomet, of Arabia.
These have all received divine honors, have nearly all been worshiped as Gods, or sons of Gods; were mostly incarnated as Christs, Saviors, Messiahs, or Mediators; not a few of them were reputedly born of virgins; some of them filling a character almost identical with that ascribed by the Christian’s bible to Jesus Christ; many of them like him, are reported crucified; and all of them, taken together, furnish a prototype and parallel for nearly every important incident and wonder-inciting miracle, doctrine and precept recorded in the New Testament, of the Christian’s Savior. Surely, with so many Saviors the world cannot, or should not, be lost.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
It was said that when Donald Trump was President, he never started a new war with any other country, and that is true. However, he tried to start a civil war within the United States, in the hopes that he would be able to become a complete dictator. And once he ruled with an iron hand in the United States, nothing would stop him from going to war with other countries. Dictators are never satisfied unless they are dictating at others how to obey their own "personal" rules.
During the last election, it's only common sense that many Republicans didn't vote for Joe Biden because they liked him, but rather because they feared that Donald Trump was trying to destroy the Constitution, to in turn dictate his own laws, under the Pretense of loving the United States.
Those of you who wanted Donald Trump to overthrow the government, wanted to be the ones to also overthrow the government, so that you could dictate to others the new set of rules. Don't deny it ... because that is what you were, and are, thinking. You liked his style, simply because that would be your style, if only you had the power.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
Having been totally confused by religious mental clutter for 70 years, and then leaving it behind as a waste of my valuable time that was left to live, I was fortunate to wake up before I died. So, for the last 12 years, I have felt whole, just as I am. Religion teaches that the best part of us is elsewhere in a high dimension of spirituality. Theologians need us to believe that nonsense, so that they can live the high material life, with all its advantages, while on earth. You deserve to get your selves back from those thieves. Been there, did that, and they will never be able to steal my self away from me again, because I am no longer that little child that was indoctrinated all those many years ago, before I knew any better.
1