Since truths are simply chemically enhanced perceptions that warm the synapses, altering the chemical makeup is changing reality. This is also the true efficacy of prayer.
Inside our brains, the mind is drugs making up those realities and that, is what we believe is true and real. Religion is the result of a race—who can dispense the most candy by playing on the highs and lows of human survival. More candy—more truth. More trauma, more candy. They thrive on it.
By altering what nature has limited us to see by evolving for survival, adding more fizz is simply expanding our sphere of awareness. So, no perception is anymore real than any other, just more acute—and acute translates to truth.
Heaven would be simply endless endorphins in a stupor of pleasure (for the eternal body) resurrected in its perfect state, able to dispense at-will, whatever you will.
TheCommonAtheist 
Religion is the opiate of the masses. 🙂
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God or not, prayer is good. That’s my take away. If you can meditate or pray your way to bliss, so be it.
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the one thing with prayer is it comes with a promise that fails. And ends up being no more than victim blaming e.g. “You didn’t do it right”.
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Like I said, God or not, Prayer also works like a meditative chant, bringing peace. Indeed, if you expect an answer, you setting yourself up. But if you can stay in the prayerful moment, it does you some good.
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that seems to ignore the purpose of prayer.
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after I had my first experience with psychdelic drugs (salvia), I certainly realized that the brain is quite a silly thing. No matter what I would try to will be be, nope, the world was still made up of Twizzlers (a long ropy licorice like candy here in the US).according to my brain.
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Heaven is a giant hypothalamus encased in a ring of highly energetic, fist-sized pituitary and pineal glands dispensing chemical cocktails like some self-rewarding chemist.
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Other than a perfect, omnipotent god, I would suspect a really good scientist where his experiment got away from him.
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I designed such a creature! And it’s wild.
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Do you have something to share? A snippet?
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You’ve seen it, haven’t you? Let’s bake a species! Part 2: Holy crap! There really is a God, and it looks like this!
https://thesuperstitiousnakedape.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/lets-bake-a-species-part-2-holy-crap-there-really-is-a-god-and-it-looks-like-this-7/
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Thank you sir
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Like the Irish priest said to me, “’tis not that God needs to be told, it’s the one praying who gains, regardless of the outcome.” (maybe paraphrasing)
Some of what has been said in these comments is supported by Sam Harris in ‘Waking Up.’
Do non-believers ever pray mentally in a sort of knee jerk reaction to a very stressful or fearful situation? Kind of like, “if you exist, please fix this shit.” Sometimes I’m faced with things that anyone would know I want to go away or be fixed, but my brain tells me that back in the day, I would pray. Now, I just cuss a lot more. Same result in most cases (meditative swearing). 🙂
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And much more self-satisfying.
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The joy and peace I have felt following Jesus are far better than any drug I’ve taken or anything I ever gained from drinking alcohol. I have experienced answered prayer. I suspect the best in this life will be a bit like playing in a mud puddle with the pig compared to traveling in the mountains or enjoying the vistas of heaven. I recently read Imagine Heaven by John Burke. The near-death experiences he discusses certainly give me even more hope.
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You don’t need any more drugs than are already in your head to activate the feeling. Even over false love or a lie. Prayer is a coin flip. Usually things work out right after you think they won’t. I could very likely explain your miracle.
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My NDE left me with no concept of god at all, though it certainly put a new meaning to life. I am much happier now, knowing there is no god, of any kind, just life.
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If you read between his lines, drug and alcohol addiction and was cured by miracle. Now he’s traded two addictions for one, but never addiction free.
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As an ex addiction counsellor, I always knew religion was the strongest addiction of all. But I was not allowed to fight it, for it wasn’t considered as harmful as alcohol or heroin.
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yes, drugs can alter perception in a thousand different way. what is true and real can never be altered, influenced and destroyed. if it were, could it be real and true ??
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Folks, even if I were a non-theist, I would not want to lightly dismiss the wisdom and practice of whole cultures for thousands of years.
Looking at this from another perspective, prayer and meditation can also work to impact neural pathways in the brain which people can find helpful and life-giving. It’s doesn’t always have to be negative.
https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/your-brain-prayer-meditation-ncna812376
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So Becky, just curious. If prayer and meditation can be “helpful and life-giving,” in your opinion are there any restrictions on who a person prays to?
And how do you feel about meditation as practiced by New Agers, who also put faith in crystals, aromatherapy, and sound therapy?
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Rats, Nan, I just typed a whole response which the computer nixed. Starting over.
I think we have tremendous freedom in Christ. There are tons of these things that IMO Christian faith does not specifically address such as whether crystals might have healing properties or the benefits of aromatherapy or sound therapy. If this is helpful to people, I can’t see a problem. I don’t know that science has proven anything relating to the healing properties of crystals. But, I have a bunch around my house just because I think they’re beautiful.
Nan, to take this a step further, who is to know with certainty if some people might possess latent psychic abilities which can be further developed or if plants and animals possess certain auras. It is wrong to label something as being “from the devil” on the one hand, or “delusional” on the other simply because we haven’t personally experienced this or don’t understand it.
I don’t see anything wrong with meditation in general. As to whether it matters to whom one prays..I think CS Lewis had a great deal of wisdom in this area. He felt something to the effect that if a person honestly is open to truth and seeks to know God and to do good, then their prayers are in a real measure connecting with God. ( The Lord knows our hearts, so to speak.)
On the other hand, if someone does evil evoking and even praying in the name of Jesus, then they are not truly serving Jesus even if HIs name is being confessed.
Nan, now I don’t feel that every contradictory philosophy out there can be equally true. That would not seem logical to me or make good sense. And, obviously, as a Christian believer, I feel that the most full and complete revelation of the character and purpose of God has been revealed in Jesus Christ.
But, for me, this does not mean that we can’t also find many commonalities and to varying degrees learn from other religious and philosophical streams as well.
But, what do you think?
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What do I think? For life in general, I think we have to depend on ourselves with assistance as needed from family and friends (real people). (In the current scenario, we may need to add medical entities as well.) I hold no delusions that some other “source” is going to magically insert itself and make things all better.
You said that you didn’t feel “every contradictory philosophy out there can be equally true.” The question then becomes who determines which philosophy IS true?
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It depends Nan on which idea dispenses the best hormonal response when aligning new ideas with your anchoring bias.
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Oh yeah. I forget those pesky little hormonal responses.
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Do you feel this is true for everyone though? Might people come to faith for a variety of reasons even apart from hormonal response or anchoring bias?
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No. Everyone instinctively does what makes you feel good, fear, or familiarity. No one is ever born again. They just trade one addiction for another. Its like church and food replacing heroine.
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Jim, as a young person, I honestly had a strong desire for truth and to know God. You know, I come from a pretty tame, somewhat boring liturgical church background. I think my faith runs deeper than just hormonal responses. Although I can certainly see some truth in what you’re sharing. We’re complex and all different, and so there may be many reasons why people are religious or non-religious. I also feel that many people move away from Christian faith based in fear and to avoid pain because sadly their experience in the church was traumatic and abusive.
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I would say that most people leave the churches because of the outcomes of faith, or that the “explain as you go” dismissal of contradiction became too much for their integrity. They won the tug of war between a group in error, vs themselves.
Atheism is proof man can be tempted more than he can bear—with knowledge.
There are a fair number of atheists who sealed the deal after understanding some of the neurology.
You began to learn all this Jesus from a young age? Wouldn’t it be something to examine if children were taught early in about biases and the foibles of human cognition? With a fair slate and some real choices to select from religion would lose an entire generation.
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Of course, people should not chose to follow Christ by default or simply because of cultural indoctrination. It is always good for young people to read widely and to be encouraged to ask questions whether they are being reared by theists or non theists. I feel that yes we could lose some people from the church, but I also think in the long term the institutional church could become stronger and more consistent in walking out the ethics of Christ. IMO, people are closer to the Kingdom of God when they take their faith seriously enough to examine and consider things like cognitive bias rather than to simply warm the pews and to go along for the, perhaps with their actual hearts and minds far from expressing the love of God.
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Oops, I meant to say “go along for the ride.” This is probably more of an issue in the mainline than in some of the other churches. I was actually told by a leader in a church I attended once that she was actually there because it was good for business. Her husband was the local funeral director.
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Becky, you assert that “people should not chose (sic) to follow Christ by default or simply because of cultural indoctrination.” Yet when parents begin at a VERY early age talking about Jesus and using various scriptures to reinforce their parental duties, what’s the common result? Look at yourself.
Sure, there are some who become believers as adults, but it’s extremely rare they made the decision without some latent associations being triggered.
Why else would your good book advise to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”?
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Nan, my own parents were not really zealous in their faith. I honestly don’t remember having spiritual discussions at home or being encouraged to read the Bible as a child. We attended church as much from habit. It was part of the culture. Nan, all parents are going to share and teach their children the things that are important to them. I’m sure that parents who are non theists are teaching and sharing with their kids their views relating to religion. What I think is most important is that our love and support of our kids is unconditional and not tied to an acceptance of our views one way or the other. In the long run, they our going to make their own choices anyway. Years ago when I was homeschooling, I couldn’t help but notice that the most strict and authoritarian parents in the end seemed to have the more angry and rebellious kiddos.
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Becky, I wasn’t referring to “spiritual discussions” nor encouragement to “read the bible.” The spiritual training I was referencing can be very subtle. Casual conversations may include references to one’s core beliefs, religious symbols are often on display in the home, perhaps a bible is on the coffee table. Even the fact that you attended church imprints the “Christian Way” into your psyche.
You may be correct that non-theist parents also share their views on religion, but I’m more inclined to think the subject is rarely, if ever, discussed. Sure, there would probably be times they would talk about religion if/when a child asked questions … which most likely would come about because of something they heard at school or from playmates. But generally, for non-believers, there is simply no reason to discuss religious-related topics.
And while we don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on this, I have no doubts about what you wrote in your closing remark.
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Imprinting can be ever so subtle.
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Well, yes, Jim and Nan, I agree that imprinting can be subtle. But, to be honest, I don’t know how we can get around this. We are human and will always reflect some bias. But, here is how this can work the other way around. This is the story of a young woman who was reared in a loving, secular home with a built-in bias opposed to Christian faith. But, then through greater exposure to a breath of Christian thought and people at university, she began to think and feel differently.
http://www.veritas.org/oxford-atheism-to-jesus/
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I would think that just analyzing the step by step inconsistencies would be enough to make you wonder. By appealing to faith firstly, anything can happen after that.
“Faith is consent to that which is opposed by reason—Jean Messlier
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We all have our stories … 😉
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