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Essentially, the issue boils down to this: what do you do when no matter what you logically assure yourself, you believe at your core that an omnipotent entity hates you?
...uuuhhh...get ice cream...?
I got nothing.
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The author(a psychologist) points out in this chapter that our belief in what a higher power represents springs from our experiences with our parents: if we come from a loving home, we believe in benevolent forces at work in the world. If our parents are abusive and religious, regardless of what we consciously believe to be true, deep down we believe in a monster god that is as willing to abuse us as our parents were.
This sounds like a subjective fallacy to me...you could measure how prevalent the "just world fallacy" and/or "mean world fallacy" is amongst the different family types and all; just because it
sounds true doesn't mean it is. Data, data, data!
Otherwise, it's pretty straightforward that being from bad families regardless of religious bent or race is going to produce children that are worse off on average. But I think that children tend to project their impression of God based on their impression of their fathers in particular.
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How can one function when the deepest part of you thinks you're cursed by a force you can never defeat? And does my Asperger's make this even harder? How can my perception of the entire world as a painful, damning place not also influence that core belief?
Pop psychology would have you believe that your mind is an unfathomable, complex gadget that you can't fix or even access fully. While that statement isn't completely wrong, it's not completely right either. The brain just doesn't respond to cajoles from the consciousness - it responds to emotional stimuli.
so, like I said, get ice cream. Though that works for me because I like ice cream. Maybe you're a Nachos man.
19 Jan 2012, 5:11 pm
