An excellent video presentation on what it really means to be “open-minded.”
SUNDAY FUN WITH AL-NOT-SO-SHARP!
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Dudes and dudettes…thought I’d toss this in the mix for a little humor
today. SNL opened their show last night featuring good ol’ Al Sharpton…the
impersona...
53 minutes ago
7 Opinion(s):
An excellent video. Well worth watching and absorbing.
You will always encounter belief in the paranormal in an unpredictable world. In fact, the more unpredictable the world seems to be, the greater the belief in the occult. To be an atheist is quite difficult to maintain, especially during trying times, because theism is built into human beings as an anxiety coping mechanism.
For narrow minded people occultism becomes a way of life. It's easy to suggest to an inflexible person that they are under the influence of a curse, for example, if they have had a constant run of bad luck for which there are rational explanations but for which there is no correlation between the causes. The emotional impact and anxiety experienced from "bad luck" coming from all different directions can cause a susceptible person to opt out of examining what really happened.
It's not unusual for people who are too lazy or indoctrinated to find logical reasons for things going wrong, to join churches which prey on the particularly gullible. These churches are even worse than fortune tellers, because you do sometimes get "psychics" who are good profilers and even telepaths, who prod the memory of the subject to reveal what really happened, in much the same way as a psychotherapist.
Religious institutions that are financially independent usually do so through teaching and/or making school clothes, etc. If you are well of because of your own hard work and persistence, are you really going to throw one tenth of your hard earned money or a monthly pledge at an organisation that can't run its own finances? Of course not. Gambling - where you at least have some chance of getting your money back - becomes a sin but throwing money at some ex-bouncer heading the Rhema Bible Church with a "promise" of a 7-fold bounce-back becomes an act of "faith" which is impossible to argue with.
This quickly turns into serious gambling. Actually, it's even worse than gambling or heroin addiction. The deeper in shit the person is, the more they will cling onto the belief that they are going to get some real money soon. These people will steal from their parents, pinch rings and other jewellery from their friends, to feed their habit. The addict gets so hooked that they will only associate with other "born again Christians" but are quick to phone someone outside their circle for gifts of money and favours with the story, "God will bless you". There is a good reply to that one, "So tell me, why has God not blessed YOU yet?"
Do you remember Linda McCauley, Ray McCauley's second wife? Well I know a pawnbroker she used to visit. Most of the gold jewellery thrown into buckets by hysterical devotees was melted down and sold for scrap, and probably still is. Linda always kept any emeralds though, she was mad about emeralds.
One suspects that a fair amount of Rhema's proceeds of melted gold will find their way into Zuma's pockets for business favours. Yet another example of the gullible giving more and getting less.
Well put Dachshund!
Thanks Dobe. Have been reading Edgar Allan Poe lately. His stories fade into gothic pale compared to what goes on in SA.
I would have thought in my naivety that the video is common knowledge. The closed mind is a protective mechanism - who wants to know that Obama is a fraud, the ANC can't deliver, 9/11 was an inside job, farm murders are genocide, Ray Macauley is a pr*ck, Afganistan produces opium for the CIA, your child is a drug addict, your spouse is cheating on you, police are the criminals, no-one cares for white SA's, bad guys don't wear black.
An open mind is a HUGE responsibility - and one that many people can't or refuse to cope with. Emotion is the enemy of an open mind. For beginners, Keep your mind open and your mouth shut! Work from there. Always check your facts. Freedom and the truth are not the same thing, but the truth without a doubt sets you free!!!
A good book to read is the God Delusion by one of my favourites, Richard Dawkins.
I've read all Dawkin's genetics books, and he has a great ability to explain things clearly- but once he started thinking he knew everything about everything, I gave up on the arrogant prick! now, there is a closed-minded academic if there ever was one..
sorry, VI :)
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