Contact: george@deepermind.com
Contact: george@deepermind.com
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Introduction A New Paragon All religions, philosophies, and theories have one thing in common, they do not include everything. The most glaring example is how must religions ignore science. Another example is how science ignores the importance of hierarchies in the brain and the idea that there must be some groups of brain cells that govern over others. A common and over simplistic philosophy is that there is only me, and the rest of the world. The "me" has to be a whole, homogenous person with no divisions, no conflicts, and only one perspective. Reality is Made Up of Many Parts By accepting both neuroscience and spirituality we have the opportunity for much greater insight into building a model on how things work within us and how things work in the physical universe outside us. We could use an analogy with learning how a car works. If we see the car as one thing, there is no possibility getting it fixed. If the car breaks, we just buy a new one. Someone who know how cars works, sees the modern car as complex system consisting of both mechanical and electronic parts. Brain Location Not as Important as Function Neuroscience places great emphasis on the location of brain activity. But at a functional level, it does not matter if a thought is located at a particular place in the brain. The brain apparently uses distributive processing, that is a brain function does not have a location, but many locations. This has been verified by brain surgery, which has found that a person can still function if large portions of the brain are removed. There are exceptions such as the mechanics of listening and speaking have specific areas. Theory of Everything The Theory of Everything (TOE) is a hypothetical framework explaining all known physical phenomenia. If we expand TOE to include our experiences including spiritual experiences we can include that which is spiritual, has meaning, that which is experienced as well the physical world. In an effort to cover everything, especially spirituality and science we can arbitrarily create four divisions:
1. Spiritual-
2. Meaning-
3. That Which is Experienced-
4. Physical- Why Include God? Belief in God is popular. Worldwide 93% of the people believe in God. But popularity is not a good reason by itself. The best reason to believe in God, is to consider how amazingly mathematically the universe is constructed. There many simple algebraic expressions in classical physics that explain for example, how things are accelerated, how things heat up, and what electricity does. Leadership Required within the Brain The brain is the most complex thing we know about. About 100 billion brain cells and 125 trillion synapses are in the average human brain.
The first thing we must admit is that our brain is very complex and it would be impossible to have a brain that had no leadership. If every division of the brain was autonomous and did what it wanted to, we would never have any sense of internal unity. There would be nothing but conflict. To fix this problem, we have to have a internal brain government. This government cannot be run by one person, as this person would have to have its internal brain government. What we need would be a democracy so that the different parts of the brain-mind would help optimize ones life. The mechanics would require a mechanism similar to a constitution that would create the rules. This constitution would have to be strong and not easily changed. Everyone has their constitution within. Part of the constitution is what a person believes. But also woven into the constitution is staying alive, and doing things that make us feel good. This government of the brain-mind varies a great deal. Some people are in conflict, have no goals and are unstable. Other people discover how to live a life with meaning and purpose and have a fulfilling and successful life.
What is being presented is just model of how we work. It does not necessary follow the physical construction of the brain. Some older Sun computer systems have distributive distribution properties which allows data storage in arbitrary locations. Some brain functions are located in specific areas. Insight is probably located in the frontal cortex of the brain, but the soul may be scattered across the brain. We don't know but it does not matter. This in itself is not a religion, but a skeleton for building a personal religion. One can see there are many aspects to defining how we work inside. All our parts connect together, some connections are stronger than others. Our Purpose and the Soul The human being has a purpose as defined by our soul. Since we are not all the same, there are different types of souls. We have different purposes in making a good world. The essence of goodness is a given. It comes from outside us. We can define a good hammer is a hammer that works. We can define goodness as what works for us. But we need to know our purpose. The root principles of our purpose is not as simple as that of some object. We are very complex and need a hierarchy within us to direct this complexity. This direction cannot come from the complexness, but from an outside reference source. God This outside reference source is God. Every belief system has an ideological idea of what God is. In reference to our soul, God gives us purpose. God defines what is good for us. God sets up who we are and where we are going. Since God is the creator of the universe, God is not something in the universe. God is the artist and not the painting. God "paints" on our soul. The soul is the part within us that connects us to God. If we loose our soul, we become aimless, doing things on whims, and do not understand what is good for us and others. Without a soul, different parts of ourselves can try to take over ourselves. We become addicted to shallow purposes and our life can be easily a waste. Our Spiritual Emotions The soul does not guide us merely through the intellect, but more profoundly gives us spiritual emotions that generate divine feelings such as love, compassion, inspiration, and true joy. Our Earthy Emotions The belief system can also be built from primitive earthy emotions that are generated by the body. These emotions include fear, sex, hunger and the need for shelter. Our Belief System The spiritual emotions help build our belief system that provides day to day guidance. The belief system can also be built from primitive earthy emotions that are generated by the body. Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Maslow's hierarchy of needs clearly shows that there are instinctive needs which are necessary to keep the body alive and healthy. In moderation as guided by spiritual emotions, earthy emotions are enjoyable and healthy requirement. When these need are satisfied, or are not required, it is important let them go and stop. Our Consciousness So far we have been taking about ourselves as if we were a machine consisting of different parts. But we are also experiencing life. We are conscious and aware of our feelings, thoughts, our body and the of world. Tasks The consciousness considers all the other parts of the person to place a priority on what is important. The most important thing to do is sent to the task department. This department figures out if it is really that important. If it is, the task department then figures out the best plan of action. And finally, the department declares that the problem has been solved, or that it cannot be solved. Each process in the task department is monitored by inspector department. Did I do a good job? Were my thoughts muddled? Did I eat too much? Two Different Worlds The world that we experience is a simulation of the physical world and what is going on inside us. The inner world and physical world are two different things. The physical world is made up of particles and force fields and never directly experienced. The Self The self within us is the definition we give ourselves. It is how we see ourselves. We wear different hats. A person can be a wife, homemaker, teacher, driver, purchaser depending on circumstances. The Body The body is part of physical world, but at the same time it is us. We can be defined as an experiencer, but this experience is dependent on the body. Our awareness, our consciousness disappears with sleep, a bump on the head or a sedative. Our Relationships The self interacts with others through relationships. Other people are identified not only through the inner world simulator but through emotions as well. Without emotions people in our life would seem like imitations of the real thing. We can share our earthy emotions, but there is more satisfaction in sharing our spiritual emotions. Language and Music We seek to challenge current authority by making science apply to personal experience and to make religion solid by not believing in mere words, but in the spiritual experience. Language is the basic conduit of relationships. Though language we can experience others and share all the parts of ourselves. We can share emotions as well through a special language we call music. New insights and concepts are generated though the imagination. The imagination places new stories, images, and concepts into our simulated inner world. This allows structure to be built for understanding the complex universe that includes ourselves. Beliefs and Imagination All beliefs are created in the imagination. Old religions have imagined their unchanging dogma, rituals to the point that new insights are forbidden. Prays cannot change the physical world. God made it perfectly as a part of Him. To study the physical world is like studying the painting to understand the painter. Older Beliefs So much time and effort has been wasted by assuming the Bible and other holy books are written by God. The Bible seems to indicate that slavery is ok, that men are more important than women, and that rain falls from cisterns (firmaments) in the sky. By Goggling "atheist bible" you can see many other things that are wrong about the Bible. The Bible is not all wrong, however. For example, Luke 13:9 says if you plant a tree and does not bear fruit, cut it down. And this is exactly my intention. Atheism and extreme skepticism is an attempt to simplify the world. If there is no God, there would be no goodness, only ethics. There is no solid belief so being nice can be defined minute to minute which is like having no strong standards. Having poor strong standards, however is worst. Most atheists are good tolerant people. Gestalt is concerned about overall perception rather than an understanding of higher principals. Yes, the sum of the parts is greater than the parts themselves. General semantics helps us make words have clear meanings. A map is not the territory. In the same way, we should not confuse models of reality with reality itself. This is a great understanding that can be used, in part, to sort out the confusing worlds of religion, philosophy and psychology into an interconnected belief system. Recommended books which support many of my ideas. Feel free to write me if you have questions or My email address is:
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