Thursday, October 16, 2008

IGNORANCE AND LEARNED IGNORANCE AT PLAY: Citing and Believing Phony “Evidence,” Part Four

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FROM A SITE VISITOR: Why do you say that truth cannot be spoken? (I do not disagree--just do not understand.) thank you Patty


F.: The third of seven steps from identification with the false “I” to abiding as the Absolute is the religious or spiritual stage; however, that stage must be transitioned as well if one would Realize. Yet most will not advance any farther than that level on the "journey," mistaking the dawn for high noon.


Those types who are functioning under the influence of their religious or spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”)—along with the truly ignorant—cite and believe in the next piece of “evidence” to be discussed. It is another spoken lie that is taken to be truth, namely, their belief in “miracles.”


C. “MIRACLES”

The dictionary defines a “miracle” as “an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God” or “a mighty act of God that cannot be explained through the known laws of nature.”


(Examples offered before of such nonsensical labeling of natural events as supernatural events or as miracles included the notions that rain happens or not at the behest of a god; that the paths of hurricanes are determined by a god or by a force that uses hurricanes to destroy and punish; and that solar eclipses and rainbows are signs from a god.


Of note is the fact that what persons consider to be miracles can be explained through the known laws of nature, but not by those in ignorance. Their ignorance is two-fold: (1) being academically ignorant, believers in miracles do not understand basic scientific facts...facts which Maharaj predicted would one day become known and support the Advaita teachings, as they have).


(2) Their ignorance is also of the learned variety. As a result of programming and conditioning to believe in a personal god (or gods), believers in miracles will cite on a regular basis what they take to be "evidence."


(For example, a woman once reported that she had "experienced a miracle" when a man ran a red light and hit the front left fender of her car. She continued, “If I’d been two seconds sooner, he’s have hit me right in the driver’s door and killed me. God slowed me up by two seconds and saved my life.” The reply, “And if your god had sped you up by four seconds, you would not have been hit at all.”


Two weeks ago, when contracted by a company to use the enneagram results for its staff members to enhance staff development, one man told another during a break, "If two different people offer me a really smart piece of advice in the same day, I know it's god speaking." My question: "Might it also be possible that two different people might have simply and coincidentally both known and offered the same piece of sage advice?")


To understand the degree to which logic and reason must be put on hold in order to believe in miracles, note the words spoken by some persons who have assumed the posture of “experts” regarding miracles. You are invited to read what they have to say about miracles, being aware that, since truth cannot be spoken, their words by default are lies):


From a preacher: "a miracle is 'a discernibly supernatural event demonstrating God's controlling power over the terrestrial, intended to produce faith in His word'."


A person named Geisler wrote, “A miracle, then, is a divine intervention into, or an interruption of, the regular course of the world that produces a purposeful but unusual event that would not (or could not) have occurred otherwise.”


Another theorist wrote, “A miracle is a supernatural unleashing of divine power which is obvious to men by (1) observation, or (2) reflection, or (3) revelation.”


One named Powell, who seems to especially relish the role of “The Expert on Miracles” offered up the following on the subject: "Life itself can be seen as a miracle, yet you could explain it through the process of an organismic state characterized by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction. In this way you can understand how life is created on a logical level, but what does that mean? Why must we break everything down into a logical level of understanding? It is easy to see that YOU and I are a miracle, out of over several million sperms YOU are the ONLY one (unless you have a twin ETC...) that pushed yourself into the egg: out of several million! So the next time you arrive at your destination through driving and you were not consciously aware of doing so; be thankful that you are alive at that moment because you literally were unconscious while driving! If you do not see that as a miracle then chances are you may never experience a miracle in your lifetime."


Powell did hit upon one relative fact: persons have to be unconscious to believe as he does in miracles.


The level of ignorance (and the degree to which the use of logic and reason has been preempted by programming) cannot be overestimated on this planet. It is the same such ignorance that inspires people to find Christ or the Madonna or gods in food items:


Buck Wolf wrote, “When a partially-eaten grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary sold for $28,000.00, you knew it had to be a sign of something, although not necessarily divine.”


Indeed, it was a sign of ignorance. In preponderance on this planet is not a prevalence of miracles but a prevalence of ignorance combined with a lack of logic and reason, as revealed in other examples:


Maria Rubio displayed in a shrine in her backyard a “miraculous tortilla” that she claimed showed a likeness of Christ. Over 35,000 people have visited her shrine to view the tortilla/Christ icon.


The media covered Fred Whan’s “miraculous piece of burned fish stick” (or Whan's "heavenly cod with the image of Christ").


A woman in India has on display in a shrine in her home a “miraculous eggplant” that, when cut, revealed seeds that supposedly spelled out “Allah.” It is now considered a religious icon by thousands.


Nearby in Mumbai, up to seventy pilgrims per day visit an in-home shrine where a potato is supposedly shaped like Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god.


In Houston, a local news station showed the plight of a man whose lawn is constantly being damaged by the mobs showing up in his front yard to view “the face of Christ in the knot of a tree.”


Traffic was impeded in Illinois when the winter’s salt-and-water runoff from a street above left the supposed image of the Virgin Mary on the wall of an underpass below the street.


None of those are examples of miracles since they can all be explained "through the known laws of nature." Is it possible that to shout “It’s a miracle” is not as much evidence of faith and belief as it is a testament to just how widespread ignorance, and learned ignorance, are on the planet? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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