Discussing Assertions: Mental Problems

            A telling problem our society has is the very thing we utilize to strengthen it, human testimony. What we say has weight (I know, I’ve been over this before), but as shown earlier, we cannot always trust human consciousness, it likes to wonder, sometimes way off into the distance, and so we must rely on knowing whether the mind of the source is reliable (Easy enough), and in so doing we can make a judgment. But this isn’t enough, (What a party pooper), perfectly sane and rational minds can be just as fooled by themselves as the madman’s, in fact maybe more so, because if we see society as a majority of the time believing with us, we tend not to question our thoughts and in fact hold fast to them.

            Skepticism, is an easy word to throw around, but seems vary hard to teach. Why are religious people not skeptical of their religion, but are skeptical of science? Isn’t skepticism the tool of the scientist, so how has it backfired on it and caused this friendly fire to take place? (How inconsiderate of skepticism really) Simple, when one believes something is true, one tends to not believe the contrary. “But there is no good evidence for their position!” True enough, but they don’t know that. Society panders to those with both money and power, and the church has both, not to mention that tradition seems to trump just about any good reason for change imaginable, plus plenty of people who do not believe say such nonsense as “What does it hurt?” and this gets us nowhere.

            Society reinforces ignorance, not because it knows better, but because it doesn’t. Too many institutions exist that help pander to mythological thinking, for as much as theists attack the so-called ‘liberal media’ I cannot help but look at the ratings of the litany of series that cascade over television, film, and every other conceivable medium (Don’t forget about porn!) that promotes the idea that ghosts exist, or that the sasquatch is real, or any other such maddeningly improbable statement. The only reason they don’t like it is because it just isn’t their specific brand of foolishness, but they should be happy, the more idiocy that exists the less people learn about the real world and pay more attention to the pretend one.

            This is not an indictment against the human imagination, heaven forbid (Because it exists to do so), rather it is a sigh of despair for our species. Human imagination is our greatest asset, and yet our greatest burden, what we think gives us power to achieve seemingly anything (Come on laser toilet brush), and yet when we forget this our minds can run wild and harm any and everything that stumbles into its path. Just looking at the wonderful worlds of fiction created by brilliant minds and word sculptors the likes of which we will never see again, and yet these worlds they have conceived have not been misconstrued as having happened, they are brilliant tails of lands never seen, worlds existing solely in the minds of single human persons, and what is more beautiful then that? God may have made the world, but he’s not the only one who can do that, and there are far better minds then He who have written far greater worlds into existence.

            Our mind gives us power, but it is not our own, we do not control what the mind does (I know I don’t), and thereby we are at its mercy. The brain thinks, and then the brain forgets what you were looking for and you spend all your time looking for something that’s right in front of your face, and then you’re like ‘I wonder if I took out the dog?’ only to find pee on the carpet. Why does your heart beat? Seriously, why? Who’s telling it to do so? Your brain, but you’re not aware of it, unlike when you walk, when you feel that you’re telling your feet and legs to move, your heart just goes on its own, if you never knew it was there you wouldn’t even think about it. This is true of many things within you, you aren’t telling your stomach to digest, it does it on its own, no effort required. So it seems to be with the brain, are you telling the brain to think, or are you just quieting down enough to hear it, and is it the one who’s quieting you down in the first place, and do you have any real choices at all, and why do I feel like a robot? We seem to think that a duality exists, us and the brain (Two against the world!), but this isn’t the case, the brain is you, all of who you are is stored within the brain, that is why it is the saddest thing in the world to see someone slowly lose their mind, to forget who they, and everyone they love, are. When the brain is damaged, who you are is damaged, if the brain is dead, then it follows that the person is dead, we are our mind, and our mind is all we have.

            But in religious terms there is a duality, the soul and the flesh (What a cute couple they make, am I right?), and the flesh is not to be trusted (Stupid skin, always getting paper cut’s for no reason). This is confusion, somehow proven with the idea that ‘We are not our body, therefore we must be more then that, and since the brain is part of the body, we are not our brain.’ (That’ll teach those pesky neuroscientists what’s what!) But this is an attempt to philosophically argue away a fact, a lobotomized person is not the same person they once were, the real them isn’t tucked away in there, like they’re in some form of mental solitary confinement, that person is gone! To damage the brain is to damage the mind and therefore damager the person themselves, if you don’t believe me give it a try, I guarantee you wont be you when you’re done (Please do not do this, and if you do I’m going to say it now “I told you so”).