A Religion for the Non Religious

[Catholic_Lady]

It reminded me of something that Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, wrote in 1996 in The Dilbert Principle.

Thousands of people have told me workplace stories (mostly through e-mail) that are even more absurd than the examples above. When I first
started hearing these stories I was puzzled, but after careful analysis I have developed a sophisticated theory to explain the existence of this bizarre
workplace behavior: People are idiots.

Including me. Everyone is an idiot, not just the people with low SAT scores. The only differences among us is that we're idiots about different things at different times. No matter how smart you are, you spend much of your day being an idiot. That's the central premise of this scholarly work.

I proudly include myself in the idiot category. Idiocy in the modern age isn't an all-encompassing, twenty-four-hour situation for most people. It's a condition that everybody slips into many times a day. Life is just too complicated to be smart all the time.

The other day I brought my pager to the repair center because it wouldn't work after I changed the battery. The repairman took the pager out of my hand, flipped open the battery door, turned the battery around, and handed the now functional pager back to me in one well-practiced motion. This took much of the joy out of my righteous indignation over the quality of their product. But the repairman seemed quite amused. And so did every other customer in the lobby.  On that day, in that situation, I was a complete idiot. Yet somehow I managed to operate a motor vehicle to the repair shop and back. It is a wondrous human characteristic to be able to slip into and out of idiocy many times a day without noticing the change or accidentally killing innocent bystanders in the process.

Life is complicated.  So the moment he speaks of "truth" he loses me.  In a time not so long ago we could all agree on "facts"  (a truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true) even if we could still disagree on what those facts meant.  These days "facts" seem to be currency for the ignorant to trumpet whenever it suits them ( witness Randy the Dope and his buddy Habermas). 

What is truth?  Climate change?  ( Not to the oil industry.)  Bigfoot?  Ancient Aliens??  God??? ( Only to the lunatic fringe.)  How about 9-11 Truthers?  They have the word 'truth' in their name but facts still seem to elude them.

That article strikes me as word salad by someone with a little too much time on his hands.  He should probably check the battery in his pager.  It might be in backwards.  Oh, right.  Pagers are now obsolete.  See how quickly that happened.

By truth, he was referring to the reality around us. Space, time, how small we are in the universe, etc.

[Minimalist]

Case closed.




So what?

[Catholic_Lady]

Case closed.




So what?

Just thought it was a good article, sorry.

Out of curiosity, did you get through all of it?

[Tonus]

Pretty much everything he says here is stuff I had already thought of, and you probably have too... (and ironically very relevant to my faith, so perhaps we're not so different after all!) ...but the way he illustrates it and lays it all out is pretty awesome!

I found it to be a bit overwrought, and the impression is that the writer should have organized his thoughts a bit more before posting. There seem to be two or three concepts that he's trying to explain and he mixes them up a bit and it becomes long-winded and boring.

He seems to be talking about setting goals and carving a meaningful path for ourselves by focusing on certain core values that can help us to feel better and avoiding the primal, gimme-now-now approach that can create psychological highs and lows on a downward curve. There are quite a few self-help/self-motivation 'gurus' out there who have various approaches which are similar: how to give your life meaning and purpose through goal-setting and standards-setting. He also dabbles in subliminal and subconscious influences and how they can affect our attempts at achieving meaningful goals in life. But I think the "fog" analogy confuses concepts like how our subconscious shapes the way we perceive the world and the extent to which we can understand and control how our subconscious mind works.

While I think that determining a purpose and meaning in our lives through goal-setting is very effective, I don't like to consider it as a religion or as a spiritual approach to life. Appeals to a higher power or purpose motivate us to leave our fates in the hands of outside forces or work towards the ends of someone who doesn't have our best interests in mind. I'd rather take control of my life and my fate instead. When god is the person you face in the mirror instead of a mysterious cosmic arbiter, you realize that you are responsible for your life, and that makes you feel more powerful and more free.

[Catholic_Lady]

Pretty much everything he says here is stuff I had already thought of, and you probably have too... (and ironically very relevant to my faith, so perhaps we're not so different after all!) ...but the way he illustrates it and lays it all out is pretty awesome!

I found it to be a bit overwrought, and the impression is that the writer should have organized his thoughts a bit more before posting.  There seem to be two or three concepts that he's trying to explain and he mixes them up a bit and it becomes long-winded and boring.

He seems to be talking about setting goals and carving a meaningful path for ourselves by focusing on certain core values that can help us to feel better and avoiding the primal, gimme-now-now approach that can create psychological highs and lows on a downward curve.  There are quite a few self-help/self-motivation 'gurus' out there who have various approaches which are similar: how to give your life meaning and purpose through goal-setting and standards-setting.  He also dabbles in subliminal and subconscious influences and how they can affect our attempts at achieving meaningful goals in life.  But I think the "fog" analogy confuses concepts like how our subconscious shapes the way we perceive the world and the extent to which we can understand and control how our subconscious mind works.

While I think that determining a purpose and meaning in our lives through goal-setting is very effective, I don't like to consider it as a religion or as a spiritual approach to life.  Appeals to a higher power or purpose motivate us to leave our fates in the hands of outside forces or work towards the ends of someone who doesn't have our best interests in mind.  I'd rather take control of my life and my fate instead.  When god is the person you face in the mirror instead of a mysterious cosmic arbiter, you realize that you are responsible for your life, and that makes you feel more powerful and more free.

Thanks for the well thought out reply!

Your last paragraph, though is not what he's saying. He's not saying we should appeal to a higher power. He doesn't believe in a higher power. And he is precisely telling us to take control of our own lives and fates.

[Longhorn]

Yuck.

Big words, pointless fucking analogies, metaphors, and so much vagueness I can barely tell what I skimmed over. 'Truth', 'wisdom', 'spirituality'. That's when you know they're full of shit. Nice words with no real meaning.

He's trying to talk about something valid and make a point, but the way he does it is nauseating, to me. Got a Chopra/Coelho vibe. It's, well, bullshit. Taking right out of the ass. Making shit up. When you take a closer look, you'll see there's really nothing there you didn't already know, it's just dressed up in words used in a wrong context.

[Catholic_Lady]

Yuck.

Big words, pointless fucking analogies, metaphors, and so much vagueness I can barely tell what I skimmed over. 'Truth', 'wisdom', 'spirituality'. That's when you know they're full of shit. Nice words with no real meaning.

He's trying to talk about something valid and make a point, but the way he does it is nauseating, to me. Got a Chopra/Coelho vibe. It's, well, bullshit. Taking right out of the ass. Making shit up. When you take a closer look, you'll see there's really nothing there you didn't already know, it's just dressed up in words used in a wrong context.

I know those words usually come from religion, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's an atheist. It may have made more sense if you had read it.

[Longhorn]

Yuck.

Big words, pointless fucking analogies, metaphors, and so much vagueness I can barely tell what I skimmed over. 'Truth', 'wisdom', 'spirituality'. That's when you know they're full of shit. Nice words with no real meaning.

He's trying to talk about something valid and make a point, but the way he does it is nauseating, to me. Got a Chopra/Coelho vibe. It's, well, bullshit. Taking right out of the ass. Making shit up. When you take a closer look, you'll see there's really nothing there you didn't already know, it's just dressed up in words used in a wrong context.

I know those words usually come from religion, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's an atheist. It may have made more sense if you had read it.

They don't need to come from religion. Take 'being aware of the truth', for example. I read what he said. It's just that what he's saying doesn't really mean anything.

[Catholic_Lady]

I know those words usually come from religion, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's an atheist. It may have made more sense if you had read it.

They don't need to come from religion. Take 'being aware of the truth', for example. I read what he said. It's just that what he's saying doesn't really mean anything.

Fair enough.

[Minimalist]

Case closed.




So what?

Just thought it was a good article, sorry.

Out of curiosity, did you get through all of it?

Yeah. Reminded me of Dilbert from 20 years ago.