Clinging Beliefs

What is believing in a higher power you don’t know?

This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “What is it called when you believe in a higher power but don’t know what it is?”

It is a paternalistic instinct we are born with and inculcated during childhood socialization, and is called “wishful thinking” for adults.

There are many “higher powers,” at least when contrasted against whatever “powers” a human being has.

None of those higher powers are a replacement for one’s parents, no matter how much one wishes theirs were not so toxic. The sad reality is that such wishful thinking is a byproduct of centuries of generational trauma.

If you’ve ever noticed how well-adjusted people are from loving families, you’d have realized how much natural self-confidence tempered by humility they exude. All that is required to develop that maturity is a parent who understands love and expresses it honestly, even when it’s most arduous and demands the most brutal honesty with oneself by admitting one’s shortcomings to one’s children.

This attitude and desire are biologically driven instincts with the essential elements guiding them. These are built into the brain’s hardwiring in the prefrontal cortex, from which a sense of justice and balance within the universe is derived.

“What is particularly interesting about these findings is that they suggest that the sense of justice is not something learned through experience or socialization but rather something built into the brain. This is consistent with the idea that certain moral principles are universal across different cultures and societies, such as the idea that it is wrong to harm others or that honesty is a virtue. These moral principles may be rooted in how the brain processes information about social interactions and relationships.”

https://www.laparoscopyhospital.com/news/news.php?id=28&p=35&search=

Sense of justice discovered in the brain

Click to access The%20evolution%20of%20a%20sense%20of%20justice.pdf

How can an atheist be sure there is no creator?

This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “How can an atheist be so sure that there is no God/creator if there is creation? Doesn’t creation mean something has been created?”

The concept of “creation” was invented by humans who first conceived it when they discovered smaller versions of themselves popping out of their bodies. While living with something growing inside for most of a year, they realized something new grew within them.

Then humans discovered tools. At first, those tools were found objects like bones to be used as weapons or extensions of one’s reach.

Eventually, humans learned they could improve on found objects by fastening rocks to the end of a bone to function more effectively as a weapon.

Throughout all of this, humans developed language, and within that process, they began to create sounds to describe what they witnessed.

As it happened, the notion of something arising out of nothing was expressed as a sound indicating what was understood of that process.

Humans knew nothing of natural processes and how they might have differed from the human process of shaping objects into tools or giving birth to new generations of humans.

Humans then knew nothing of virtual particles and quantum foam, so it was easy to assume some form of magical hand was involved in constructing little humans inside big humans in a way that was not unlike how they shaped better tools with rocks and bones.

The reality, however, that we can see around us and everywhere is that natural processes can lead to massive changes and the creation of the new without any guiding intelligence.

It is generally understood that mountains and lakes were “created” by natural processes and are not the product of intelligence deliberately moving continents to reshape the surface of the Earth.

The universe is far beyond being much more vast than anything we can imagine on Earth. That means it’s as impossible for a singular intelligence to deliberately shape matter into an unimaginable variety of specific forms as it is for an active intelligence to create Mount Everest or the Nile River.

Creation means something from constituent materials assembled into a structure. “Creation” does not imply any guiding intelligence while the vastness of the universe eviscerates any egotistical notion of such an intelligence remotely resembling what we understand of human intelligence.

It’s a delusional form of arrogance held by believers that blinds them to the nature of reality and it is a sickness of perception that threatens our future as a species on the planet.

As an atheist, how do I rid myself of clinging remnants of religion still existing in me?

This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora, and can also be accessed via “https://divineatheist.quora.com/As-an-atheist-how-do-I-rid-myself-of-clinging-remnants-of-religion-still-existing-in-me-8“

You don’t in the same way you don’t get rid of scars. They’re a part of you for life.

The injury may no longer affect you, but you will live with a reminder of it until you die.

That’s just life.

There is no point in fighting with yourself over “clinging remnants,” especially when they can still be helpful as shields against the perpetual assaults of believers.

Being aware of your “clinging remnants” gives you deeper insights into the effects of religion on a person’s mind and helps you to develop an objective perspective of yourself while improving your ability to help someone else when they’re struggling with the impact of their conditioning.

Being aware of “clinging remnants” helps you to be more aware of other forms of conditioning or manipulations like gaslighting because you’re more attuned to the subtle implications of words and their meaning.

Whatever may be clinging today may drop off over time to be forgotten while other remnants you were unaware of begin to crop up and occupy your attention. This is a natural part of the healing process that helps you to develop deep insights into the tangled web of confusion that religion weaves into one’s consciousness and unconsciousness.

This deconditioning process is a valuable experience in developing self-knowledge and awareness of oneself in depths many never achieve. They may irk you for a long time, and even for the rest of your life, but you will find moments where their presence allows you to perceive events or a situation on levels of subtlety that surprise you how people can miss what appears evident to you.

The most important goal is not to fight against the remnants but to develop an objective perspective of them. Understanding one’s sensitivities is like a vaccine against being conditioned in other areas and ways by different types of bad actors one encounters.

Good luck.