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This is the
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PLEASE MAKE
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This is the
Kill Em
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PLEASE MAKE
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This is the
Kill Em
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PLEASE MAKE
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There's some speculation among evolutionary psychologists that the tendency to seek and obey authority is adaptive. In some situations (hunting parties, when a group is under threat from a rival group, when there's a need for efficient resource gathering/distribution) having a single authority figure coordinate cooperation is more efficient than free-for-all or consensus styles.
If it's adaptive, then that would explain why it is apparently hard-wired into human behavior (as exhibited by the classic Milgram and Stanford Prisoner experiments).
Not that the fact that it's hard wired means that we should still do it. I mean, nowadays there are certainly many times when obedience to authority is maladaptive. But it helps explain the undercurrent of human behavior that longs for strong authority figures, particularly in threatened situations (e.g. Guliani being a viable presidential candidate in the era of the "War on Terror"
.
"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert
I think alot of it has to do with being conditioned to not question authority and that you need this authority in order to be good. Many people,imo, think that without authority that we would fall in to an abyss of chaos where people murder,rape,steal and other "evil" things. I do not think this is true. Not doing these things ,imo, follows logically from the ability to be empathic.
Recommended Reading:
The Authoritarian Specter, by Robert Altmeyer.
Seriously. Read it. Seriously. I'm not kidding. You will understand so much about politics, religion, war, group dynamics, cult of personality... It's simply one of the best sociology books out there.
READ IT!!!!
It's FREAKING AWESOME
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
You must be laking about the god of Christianity. My brand of theism does not invoke such an authoritarian deity.
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I will read the book. Thanks for the suggested reading. I love recommendations. Especially those with such glowing endorsment.
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Yes I speak of the christian God. How does your God not hold a posistion of authority over you? I can only assume you recieve no instructions/guidlines/rules from him? No punishment or rewards for obiedience?
I suck at signatures.
More like the law of gravity than edicts from above. I can choose to step off a cliff but gravity will invoke itself and and I'll go squish. If I murder someone, I believe there are consequences, not based on some higher power condemning me for the act, but rather based on that it diminishes me in a fundamental way. If there is any judgement, I have judged myself.
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Yep, wave. The Authoritarian Specter deals with the idea of a personality type, known as RWA (Right Wing Authoritarian) that is basically hard-wired to gravitate into one of three categories, based on aggressive or passive tendencies, each of which has a predisposition towards systems like the Big 3 Religions, fascism, and amorality. It doesn't really deal with people who believe in a more pantheistic or deistic religion.
By the way, did you ever figure out a name for yourself? I think of you as a deist, but only because you don't seem quite pantheist.
Oh, and yes, I did just equate amorality with fundamentalism. You should read the book.
When you're done with that, read Conservatives Without Conscience, by John Dean, which is, of course a play on the book Conscience of a Conservative, by Barry Goldwater. (Also a great read, if only to discover how Un-Conservative the Republican party is...)
Anyway, Dean's book draws heavily on Altmeyer's work, and gives biographies of some of the leading figures in American politics today, drawing clear parallels and demonstrating the dangerous amorality prevalent in Washington at this time.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Hamby -
Thanks. Another book to read. My list is getting long.
Haven't come up with a label. Freaktheist is the best I can muster. I'm not sure about so many things that I come off as sounding evasive.
I actually had somebody ask me if I was going to start a religion once. I wonder if freaktheism would catch on. Seriously. I've had more than one person suggest the new religion thing. I always tell them there's too many religions already. I'm more interested in truth than religion.
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Before this thread gets derailed, that sounds like a whole new thread over in General Conversation, Introductions and Humor.
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I'm curious - what part of your life did "God" control..?
What activities did you not engage in because "God" told you not to do them..?
And now that you're an atheist, what are you now free to do that you couldn't do before..??
I was a deist. I never held to any God telling me anything. That's how this question came about in my head. I was curious as to how others thought about the main reason I always rejected a personal God(authority.)
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