Food for thought –!!!

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Rohiniranjan
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Food for thought –!!!

Post by Rohiniranjan » Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:30 pm

If Alper (his book "the God part of the brain" has been seen as a free downloadable PDF on the web) has deduced rightly about spiritualism, religion, divinity as evolutionary protective mechanisms in human brain--and he does make a convincing appeal--then our favourite activity of mysticism, occultism, divination do seem to be due for a re-examination, if not for a revision!

Readers are advised/requested to first study his short book rather than respond with a knee – jerk reflex to this post! ; –)
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Post by eye_of_tiger » Tue Sep 06, 2016 2:42 am

Readers are advised/requested to first study his short book rather than respond with a knee – jerk reflex to this post! ; –)
I would not call a book which is 290 pages long particularly short.

While I do not want to instantly knee-jerk dismiss Alper's theory as invalid or worthless, I think that we badly and urgently need to better understand his reasons for attempting to free us from what he regards as the ultimate delusion of religion.

A failed and frustrated spiritual quest when he was young which involved experimentation with marijuana and LSD (and other serious psychotropic drugs) nearly killed him, and he seems to have made it from then on his life mission to prove that evolution has somehow hardwired us into believing in God, when God does not he believe actually exist independently of his own unconscious mind.

If it is true that our minds are hard wired for religion, then what does this say about atheists? Is this another thinly veiled excuse to attack and persecute a group of human beings, who do not fit comfortably into his theories of how this all works?

The case which is being put forward to support his "findings" is severely weakened by a large number of factual errors scattered throughout this incredibly complex and difficult to follow for most of us piece of writing.

http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2007 ... f-the.html

His "discoveries" seem to be consistent and in sympathy with the writings of the German philosopher and economist Karl Marx, who wrote "Religion is the opium of the people".

That is the idea that we or our minds created God and religion as a drug to comfort and help us to cope with the more harsh realities of life, and to continue to live while still reasonably sane in an increasingly uncertain world.

All I am saying here is that in order to properly assess whether we should accept his theories as fact, we need to first better know and understand this man's history with particular regards to his upbringing and his drug taking and failed spiritual quest for truth, which nearly took his life.

Since he has become so popular as a media personality (he is regularly interviewed by groups who would use his work to further strengthen and support their own disappointments with life, and on the basis of his theory criticize and persecute people who are religious), I would question his true motivation to push his case any further than he already has.

Everyone has a right to his or her opinions, but this does not automatically make every opinion factual. We therefore need to look much more carefully for the facts or lack of facts in any given situation, before making any judgements about whether a theory or course of inquiry is worthwhile pursuing any further.

Especially when accepting his explanation without question could potentially and needlessly destroy all feelings of hope for so many people, who have taken comfort and solace from believing that they will meet their loved ones after death. Surely if we are not spirits, then there will be nothing left of either of us to meet on the Other Side.

Alper has also made a lot of money from his books and interviews. While this is not a crime, it does make you wonder who or what his version of "God" looks or feels like.

Brian

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Post by Rohiniranjan » Fri Sep 09, 2016 2:54 pm

Hi EoT,

Thank you very much for your response to this thread and the valuable contribution. When I started reading this book by Alper, I knew that it might contain a rather different way of looking at the complex matter of religion and spirituality/spiritualism which would possibly be rather opposite to my own concepts about these topics – concepts that I have gathered and experienced over the decades in my lifetime. I, therefore, wanted to examine his thesis with a fresh pair of eyes and mind as open as possible. I therefore actively avoided cluttering my mind with the reviews and opinions which may or might not have been influenced by the personal positions of the reviewers, etc.  Subjective bias can and does creep in when trying to examine a point of view which is very different from the one that we hold and have held for decades. Basically, this is what I meant by the "knee-jerk" response.

In writing the book Alper has tried to be comprehensive in covering as many bases as possible, possibly inviting his own errors in understanding the vast domain and I'm not surprised that it shows up in places, such as Einstein's equation which the reviewer latched onto. I would definitely not recommend Alper's book to someone who is trying to understand quantum mechanics or similar. The anthropological – evolutionary observations that he made, as well as the neuroanatomical correlates that he brought up were crucial and he has done a fantastic job of doing so without any glaring errors or misinterpretations. He certainly has taken the time and effort to educate himself in these new areas and I respect him for that.

Now the matter of his drug history! Drugs and mental aberrations have been associated with many spiritual and religious explorations, possibly from time immemorial. We see that in shamanistic and tantrik [Indian shamanism] literature going back long periods of time. While in the past due to the social stigma this was not highlighted too transparently by many, however, with the world becoming more tolerant the stigma seems to have reduced and so authors are less shy of mentioning their past association with drug experimentation or mental disease/disorders etc. I therefore do not wish to be diminutive about his position based on his drug history just as I would not feel negatively about "the Power of now" by an author whose mind was clouded by an affective illness.

As to the matter of making monetary gains through his writings from time immemorial the fields of spiritualism, religion have relied on social support, through donations, through sale of religious writings all the way to self-help books, media appearances etc. Even on Internet, essentially free, altruism is often accompanied by ulterior motives. And by that I do not mean that the intention has been dishonest, nefarious or necessarily greedy!

Alper has written a pretty well-rounded, easy to understand book in the relatively small space that it took. It would be naïve to think that he has captured all of the reality that there is around this ancient and complex facet of the human mind that propels us towards exploring spiritualism and religion which most agree is rather a unique attribute of our species. The next step would require assumptions which seems to have been the strategy of humans so far, often without solid evidence and even orchestrated as becomes evident in another book "the evolution of God's…", by Kansal but perhaps deserving of a thread of its own!

Regards as always,
Rohiniranjan
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