METAPHYSICALLY ABSURD, MAN! HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT YOU THINK? (OR HEAR?)

27. August 2009 by Frank.

(I’ll give you 1000 Brownie  Points if you can identify where I got the title of this post.  On the other hand, maybe not.  I just checked BING and GOOGLE.  (Would you believe I actually forgot all about BING and GOOGLE?)  BING actually has it but the last word is hear instead of think.  The mighty GOOGLE doesn’t have it at all (at least on the first two pages of results.)  My brain is not working tonight.)

That quote is the answer to the question, “Do you know what I think?”  or “hear?” as the case may be.  It works either way but not the same way in either circumstance.

Do you know what I hear?  The only correct answer would have to be no.  Two people could go to a town hall meeting about health care.  One could hear a reasoned set of ideas being discussed and the other could hear, “Let’s kill grandma!” just as clearly.  I remember back when the original STAR WARS came out in ‘77 that it was one of the first films to really use surround sound to great effect.  I remember clearly a famous science fiction writer utterly denouncing the movie because of the godawful noise it made.  All us fanboys loved the sound but this woman found it so offensive and distracting and loud that she wanted to leave the theater.  Hearing is a totally subjective experience.

The bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god.  That seems to be a simple enough statement, “faith comes by hearing the word of god.”  I have listened to faith preachers who focused on the words “hearing and hearing” to the exclusion of everything else in the verse.  Their bizarre conclusion was that the verse meant faith comes by hearing the same verses over and over and over again.  Then they made the leap to since you pay the most attention to the sound of your own voice what it really meant was for you to recite the verse over and over and over again to yourself hundreds, thousands, or even more times until you convinced yourself it was true out of sheer repetition, then faith would come.  Maybe that isn’t so bizarre, look how churches cover the same stories repeatedly throughout the year.  Think I’m making this up?  Check out Kenneth Copeland and others like him.

Essentially faith comes by hearing yourself chanting magic words.

I bought into this teaching for awhile until I gradually realized that the faith I had had never arisen from nor depended upon any kind of repetition.  Indeed it came naturally just by believing something.  The easiest thing for me to believe was that I was hearing god telling me what to teach.  It was not until after I lost my faith entirely that I realized that god was answering my prayers for teaching guidance simply because of the amount of studying I was doing.  I could come up with a multi-point sermon or lecture with no effort because of the work I was putting into studying, I was immersed in it.  Not because of anything supernatural.  The proof of that was the fact that none of my prayer endeavors in other areas ever produced any results.  But what to teach always got an instant response.  I rationalized this discrepancy away by telling myself god gave me the lessons because they were for the benefit of others, nothing selfish in my desires to do that.

I heard what I wanted to hear.

It may not be obvious but that was not what I intended this post to be about.  After I couldn’t find the quote the way I remembered it (using think instead of hear) I began doubting my memory.  I am quite sure the original word was think.  At least I think it was think.  I can’t verify it.  Oh, well,  you can have the Brownie Points if you can tell me who the quote is from.

But if the word was (and is) think then what is the proper and only answer to the question?  Again, it has to be no.  How can I know what you think?  I can only know what you tell me you think.  If there’s anything that sets people apart it’s how they think.  Or don’t think.

Getting back to politics, I can’t comprehend the thinking process that allows people to buy into the birther movement.  How is it that there are more than just a few fringe lunatics promoting this crap?  What kind of mindset do you have to have to think Obama is a Nazi?  Granted the health care reform bill is deeply flawed how is it that so many are resorting to anger and violence over it instead of actually debating the real issues involved?  What kind of thought process leads to all this uncontrolled rage and anger?

Oh noes!  Whitebread America is gone!  It’s not the America I know and love anymore!  The people I hate have taken over.  We’re doomed unless we take it back.

How in the world did so many people get so small minded?  Don’t they teach critical thinking skills in schools anymore?  Are human beings no more than huge lemmings, following the biggest loudmouths?  There was a Tea Party rally here back on the 4th of July (I missed it unfortunately) that their signs asked people to be civilized and polite so that their message could be heard.  Do the yelling, screaming, violence provoking rubes not know they are being fed lies and deceptions by shills for corporate interests?

Are we hearing what people are actually thinking?

In my way of thinking all this links together quite nicely.  My memory of a quote may or may not be accurate.  I may or may not have heard it correctly to begin with or else my memory is far more faulty than I think it is.  Current events clearly indicate people are hearing completely different things regarding major issues.  And thinking or the lack thereof is being influenced by all sorts of people all too eager to tell other people what to think.  And ultimately, all too many people are willing to be told what to think instead of actually thinking for themselves.  Religion, politics, old comedy routines, everything except the kitchen sink.

So how can I know what you think/hear?

Only what you tell me and then that’s colored by how well or how much I know about you.  And vice versa.

So, yes, it is metaphysically absurd.  And so are my Brownie Points.

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