I Feel I Am Progressive Christian

[BeachOfEden]

Finally people are seeing where I have been coming from. Does it really make sense that on a site created FOR Progressive Christians that one should be subject to being tisk-tasked for voicing their disagreements with conservatives? How is THIS progressive in nature? If I wanted this I'd visit a pro-conservative forum on Beliefnet.

[flowperson]

I'm not so sure that Huggy Bear and Snoop Dogg are related, except in spirit. However, in the flesh, they probably both partake (partook?) in the sacraments of the Rastafari, hence the mostly undecipherable linguistics that both engage(d) in. Probably altered the ways in which their brains work(ed) too. No wonder Harry (Henry?) Anslinger was so upset in the 1930's.

 

Reggae Rules! They've even got Willie Nelson doing it these days! And he's fromTexas!

[October's Autumn]

THink of it this way:  If you think you have it all figured out then you are a conservative.  If you know you still have stuff to learn you are a liberal. 

Oh yeah, nobody's ever heard of a know-it-all liberal.

 

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Go back and reread my post. I don't think you understood what I was saying.

 

I didn't make up the definitions of liberal and conservative. They are in the dictionary.

 

Liberal

5 : BROAD-MINDED; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms

 

Conservative

3 a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions

 

 

from www.m-w.com

[des]

Well darby, don't feel bad. This sounds more like New Age with a few brain parts thrown in than neurology. It's about as real as "red and blue" are to states of the union (though I would not claim these to be "new age"). :-)

 

Very few people do much to change society as individuals. The more current short list might go like this: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, the ex-head of the Polish labor union, etc. I doubt anyone knows anything specific about their neurophysiology, as compared with others.

 

Flipping about my receptor coils and starting up my antimatter convertor amygadas. Oops, mixing my sci fi. :-)

 

--des

 

Okay, Fred, if you want to wade into the realm of reality, let's haul out the brain science. A conservative is a person who over-relies on the anterior cingulate gyrus and the amygada of the brain, and who, as a result, is unable to learn from his/her mistakes, is perfectionistic and possibly obsessive (lending a "counting and cleaning" style to this person's religious experience), is uncompromising, fearful of spontaneity, and quick to blame other people for his/her own mistakes. Such a person doesn't use "whole brain thinking". I venture to say that a person such as this has fewer useful things to say that will change society for the better than, say, a person who does use "whole brain thinking" -- a person who is able to think creatively and intuitively (temporal lobes), objectively (basal ganglia combined with pre-frontal cortex), compassionately (very strong output in the gamma brain wave range), and is able to learn from his/her mistakes (proper use of the anterior cingulate).

 

Uuummmmm......Huh?

 

Jen (Is that who we are today?) Your stunning intelligence is so superior to the rest of us here, it boggles the mind. Of course, perhaps I'm just playing with half of mine, according to your science. (My wife might claim "half" is being generous)

 

Please continue to teach and astound us.

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[FredP]

Go back and reread my post.  I don't think you understood what I was saying. 

 

I didn't make up the definitions of liberal and conservative.  They are in the dictionary.

Fair enough. By those definitions then, there are relatively few real genuine "liberals," and not all of them are on the left!

 

Sincere apologies if I read my own prior frustrations with this topic into your post.

[FredP]

Flipping about my receptor coils and starting up my antimatter convertor amygadas. Oops, mixing my sci fi. :-)

 

Watch out for those tachyon bursts, too, they're a doozy.

[FredP]

Not only is his outfit really BOSS ( the pastels are SOOO anti-establishment in the country club environment), but the rims on his golf cart are to DIE FOR! 

It's nice to see Snoop branching out from Girls of Spring Break video series.

[cunninglily]

It's nice to see Snoop branching out from Girls of Spring Break video series.

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LOL

 

no shite dude

 

 

lily

[des]

Fred, being a trekker (if you are one), maybe you know about the Chinese menu "Geordi LaForge speak". There are three or four columns of phrases: One is to whom you are speaking: "Not right now Captain, I must"; "Riker I'll be with you in a moment, I'm"; "Steady, I need to"; one is a verb: recalibrating, starting up, reformulating, reinitating, reintializing, etc. The first is to whom you are speaking: etc, The next is a noun like receptor coils, antimatter chamber, dilithium crystals, etc. and the fourth is one other type of thing like a place or a purpose:in the jeffrey's tube, to maximize engine efficiency, for output stabilization, etc. You randomly chose one in each column. So you get something like Not right now Captain I must recalibrate the receptor coils for output stabilization". See, you too can talk like Geordi LaForge. :-)

 

 

--des

Signing off, steady, I must reintialize the antimatter chamber to maximize engine efficiency.

:-)

 

 

Flipping about my receptor coils and starting up my antimatter convertor amygadas. Oops, mixing my sci fi. :-)

 

Watch out for those tachyon bursts, too, they're a doozy.

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[October's Autumn]

Go back and reread my post.  I don't think you understood what I was saying. 

 

I didn't make up the definitions of liberal and conservative.  They are in the dictionary.

Fair enough. By those definitions then, there are relatively few real genuine "liberals," and not all of them are on the left!

 

Sincere apologies if I read my own prior frustrations with this topic into your post.

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No, many are on the right and then move left I find "liberals" in the more common definition are just as likely to be stuck in their beliefs as are conservatives.

 

I do the same thing (Reading prior frustrations into posts) so I'm sure you'll have to call me on it at some time in the future!

[Realspiritik]

Okay, Fred, if you want to wade into the realm of reality, let's haul out the brain science. A conservative is a person who over-relies on the anterior cingulate gyrus and the amygada of the brain, and who, as a result, is unable to learn from his/her mistakes, is perfectionistic and possibly obsessive (lending a "counting and cleaning" style to this person's religious experience), is uncompromising, fearful of spontaneity, and quick to blame other people for his/her own mistakes. Such a person doesn't use "whole brain thinking". I venture to say that a person such as this has fewer useful things to say that will change society for the better than, say, a person who does use "whole brain thinking" -- a person who is able to think creatively and intuitively (temporal lobes), objectively (basal ganglia combined with pre-frontal cortex), compassionately (very strong output in the gamma brain wave range), and is able to learn from his/her mistakes (proper use of the anterior cingulate).

 

Uuummmmm......Huh?

 

Jen (Is that who we are today?) Your stunning intelligence is so superior to the rest of us here, it boggles the mind. Of course, perhaps I'm just playing with half of mine, according to your science. (My wife might claim "half" is being generous)

 

Please continue to teach and astound us.

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Darby,

 

I’ve been thinking for a few days about how to respond to your cruel attack on me.

 

Jen (Is that who we are today?) 

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Perhaps one might argue that major events like the meltdown on the Gulf Coast should overtake such small, personal concerns as your unwarranted attack on my integrity. On the other hand, maybe not. Maybe Cunninglily is the one who’s being honest and forthright when she tells the rest of us not to come to the Gulf Goast, but to take a good look in our own backyards. This site is part of my backyard, as it is for many people who are looking for a safe place to talk about feelings, God, and maybe even miracles.

 

It is painful and frightening for people who are recovering from the spiritual abuse inflicted by some Christian factions to come on this site and witness an attack on a person who is simply stating scientific fact. Not opinion, which is subjective, but scientific fact. I invite you to spend hundreds of hours researching the brain, and I invite you to volunteer for an extensive psychiatric workup including, but not limited to, a single photon emission computerized tomography scan (SPECT scan for short) of your own brain before making accusations about me that you cannot support.

 

I do not apologize for being a channeller. I do not apologize for yearning to share what I have learned after years of intensive work. I have miracles in my life – the miracle of being loved, and being able to love. But I got no free lunch from Jesus or the God Team. I had to work my ass off to let go of my own bad habits. When I was 18, I met all the criteria I stated above for being a conservative. I was rigid, fearful of spontaneity, perfectionistic, and quick to blame other people for my mistakes. But I got over it. I got over it because I finally realized I was ashamed of my behaviour. I got over it because I wanted to become more creative, intuitive, objective, compassionate, and flexible.

 

It’s there for everybody. You just have to want it bad enough.

 

Jen

[des]

AFAIC, I think this thread should be locked. There is no point of making what amounts to "my neurology is better than your neurology attacks" and not expecting an attack right back. This could only go on and on. I hope darby and others won't fall for it. Since we are all human around here, that would be my suggestion anyway.

 

 

--des

[Guest admin]

I'm keeping an eye on this thread, you guys. Please be respectful of each other. Whatever you may think in private, please be kind. There are ways to disagree and still be civil, ok? For example, saying that someone else has nothing useful to contribute to society would not be considered a nice thing to say, regardless of how you personally interpret scientific research about the brain. I don't care if you consider it a fact, it is a hurtful thing to say and will not be tolerated on these boards.

 

This is not, I am sad to say, a democracy. I am queen of the boards, I have access to the delete button, and I am not afraid to use it

[FredP]

I think it's important to understand what brain science can and cannot contribute to this discussion. If anybody cares, I can brag too: I did interdisciplinary work in philosophy of mind and cognitive science for my undergrad philosophy projects. I spent the next decade immersing myself in cognitive science and evolutionary biology and their relationship to philosophy and spirituality, Christian belief, eastern meditative practices, and whatever else you can think of. I'm not trying to trump anybody; I'm just saying that nobody has the market share cornered on the "objective" findings of brain science.

 

The reason I don't haul all that stuff in here is that none of it confers any special authority on me on matters of politics, society, philosophy, or spirituality. The best brain researchers in the world wouldn't dare call their philosophical opinions "objective" in any sense of the word, so I'm certainly not going to claim objectivity for my own opinions. Neurology has given us fantastic insight into the way the brain processes experiences and information. It can even give us terminology for describing the mechanisms behind everything from fight/flight responses to altruism -- and even open-mindedness and closed-mindedness, as Jen has shared. It can reveal exciting correlations between spiritual experiences and brain states, and show how certain kinds of practices inhibit or encourage being in certain kinds of mental and spiritual states. This knowledge lends scientific corroboration to many thousands of years of meditative practices across the globe. All valuable, and very exciting, findings. It even gives philosophy-engineer geeks like me a window into the ways God chose to manifest knowledge and agency in the physical universe.

 

But you can explain all about lobes and cortices and neural pathways until you're blue in the face -- none of that tells me why I should be loving rather than indifferent, or open-minded rather than closed-minded. That's where good old fashioned philosophy and theology come into play. Which underscores again the fact that all branches of knowledge have something important to contribute to the human situation. No area of study, including brain science, is a panacea, or an appropriate reduction of all the rest. It focuses, however accurately, on one slice of the spectrum of knowledge.

[FredP]

Fred, being a trekker (if you are one), maybe you know about the Chinese menu "Geordi LaForge speak".

Yes, I am... Not too actively anymore though. That's really funny, and sadly quite accurate! The Troi-speak generator would be far simpler, but about as predictable. "I feel... [pain|anguish|loneliness|joy|gratitude|love]."

[des]

Well there is another common Troi-speak generator, which is really easy...

"I'm sorry Captain, but I'm not sensing anything"

or

"They're hiding something."

 

--des

everyone always hides something :-)

 

 

Fred, being a trekker (if you are one), maybe you know about the Chinese menu "Geordi LaForge speak".

Yes, I am... Not too actively anymore though. That's really funny, and sadly quite accurate! The Troi-speak generator would be far simpler, but about as predictable. "I feel... [pain|anguish|loneliness|joy|gratitude|love]."

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