At least Doug is inspiring interesting replies, which partially accounts for
FFL having at least 3 times the number of posts as The Peak since about May 17.
The contrast of viewpoints is the driver of inspiration in some and displeasure
in others. In scientific discussions, people argue and eventually some headway
is made. In spiritual circles, people argue and little headway is ever made
because the arguments are over imaginary things instead of real things. If
spirituality ever really adopted evidence for its claims, progress could be
made in settling many points of dispute. There is a certain lack of honesty
that permeates spiritual discourse.
A note (published in 1794) by Thomas Paine, one of the instigators of the
American Revolution, regarding religious thinking (Paine was something of a
Deist by the way, not an atheist):
'All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish,
appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave
mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to
condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief
as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be
mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in
disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.'
'It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that
mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and
prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief
to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of
every other crime. He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and,
in order to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a perjury. Can we
conceive anything more destructive to morality than this?'
From: "TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: For those who don't believe in conspiracies
What Doug fails to understand -- yet again -- is that you don't protect
people from conspiracy theories by "moderating" (Buck's word for "banning")
those claims. You protect people by raising their awareness of how to think
without falling into the traps that conspiracy theorists prey on, and by
teaching them how to analyze ANY claim to see if it holds up when compared to
science, logic, and Occam's Razor.
To really do this, and protect people, this kind of education needs to start in
elementary school and then be carried forward throughout the remainder of one's
education. Students need to be taught how to analyze claims made by religion,
by cults, by politicians, and by those with an agenda who want them to buy into
their conspiracy theories/agenda.
Why I'm bothering to write this is that in reality the person who has been most
consistent in trying to sell conspiracy theories to people on FFL is *Doug
himself*. *He* is the one claims that there is a conspiracy of evil-intentioned
people to drive away the "real" spiritual people by creating an atmosphere in
which claims can actually BE examined in the way I suggest above. *He* is the
one trying to ban people like me and Sal and Michael, who are in fact trying to
present to those who tend to fall for claims without analyzing them thoroughly
ways in which they really could and should analyze such claims.
Buck wants a world in which *He* gets to decide what's "appropriate" to be said
and what isn't. None of the people he wants to ban from FFL want that. We want,
in fact,the opposite. We would like to see a forum in which everyone is free
to challenge and analyze ANY claim, whether it is made by TB TMers or people
who don't like TM and the TMO very much. Sal and Michael and I have been
advocating the very thing that Buck *claims* to support here, but that his
actual behavior has clearly shown that he hates, and is trying to prevent. He'd
like to "moderate away" the people who actually subject claims to analysis. We
would like to see more such analysis.
From: "dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
Yep,conspiracy theorizing is sort of like nicotine to an addiction toharder
things that become perniciously asocial like, “Themost unbalanced members of a
society, when exposed to these ideas,can be driven to commit terrible acts,
including assault and massmurder”. Conspiracy theorizing should be moderated by
everyone for everyone'sprotection. A strong protection against conspiracy
theorists is in avital and strong free public education for all citizens, at
the least, that starts early and is sustained in to adulthood providing the
critical skill-setsto have a more widely informed citizenry. -JaiGuruYou!
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
Re: Conspiracy theories as addiction, here's an article on the very subject.
Interestingly enough, the article -- sane and surprisingly sanely written until
you get to the last section -- appears on a class-A conspiracy site. Go figure.
That said, doesn't this quote sound familiar? How many times have we heard the
word "sheeple" used by conspiracy theory addicts here on FFL?
The obsession with conspiracy theories has been compared to anaddiction. Once
one has delved deeply into this mindset, recovery—areturn to balanced, sound
thinking—is rare. What motivates a person toimmerse himself in them in the
first place?
Conspiracy theories are a powerful source of pride and a wellspringof
intellectual vanity. The theorist comes to see himself as thinking ona higher
plane than the ignorant masses around him. He walks thefringes of society,
watching his surroundings with suspicion. No one realizes what’s going on, he
thinks.
If speaking his mind on conspiracies causes others to recoil, hesimply
dismisses them as “dumb sheep” who cannot see what he sees. Everyepisode like
this further reaffirms how special this inside informationmakes him.
Why Conspiracy Theories?
| |
| | | | | | | |
| Why Conspiracy Theories?A Magazine Restoring Plain Understanding |
| |
| View on realtruth.org | Preview by Yahoo |
| |
| |
From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: For those who don't believe in conspiracies
From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com>
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> wrote :
One big one announced today. You and I do this we go to jail. The
banksters get a light fine. Their CEOs should be in prison and banks
broken up.
There isn't anyone who doesn't believe there are conspiracies. If you were to
tell me this was a plot by a secret shadow government to help their reptilian
overlords gain more power in the world then I would say you were speculating
beyond what is required for a satisfactory explanation. That would be a
conspiracy theory. Though not a very good one as it involves things we don't
know anything about and have no knowledge of, like reptilian aliens and a
government competent enough to pull off complex projects.
Exactly. Conspiracies that stand the test of Occam's Razor have a chance of
having happened, because one does not have to invent irrational and unprovable
things to believe in them. Conspiracy theories require the person who believes
in them to invest in things that cannot meet the Occam's Razor test (because
there are simpler and more likely explanations) and require the believer to
invest in the existence of complex "add-ons" to reality that cannot be proven
to exist.
The worst part about conspiracy theories IMO is that they are addictive. There
have been many studies showing that the moment someone suspends belief in the
rational and invests in one conspiracy theories, they are much more likely to
believe the next conspiracy theory presented to them. Preferring irrational
beliefs that cannot pass the Occam's Razor test becomes a habit, so what you
wind up with is the people who flock to radio and TV shows that basically
present nothing *but* conspiracy theories. And the audiences, having now put on
the mindset of "believing the unbelievable" and "turning off their
discrimination," tune in every day to find out the next unlikely thing they're
supposed to feel all "elite" and "special" for "knowing."
In other words, conspiracy theories are a drug, those who believe in them are
junkies, and those who promote them are pushers.
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