Chapter on isms
Read Author Notes first, please.28 total reviews
Comment from Connie P
John,
I truly struggled with this review. My carnal instinct was to run with the herd, give it a 5, collect my 1.92 and move on, but considering the subject matter I simply could not do it. Having not read the previous chapters, I read this one twice. My conclusion was the same after both readings. I found it confusingly unorganized. It certainly didn't make a convincing point and it seems to contain conflicting thought processes, i.e.: 'Ego's gather in the same thought patterns of belief create Group Egos. The largest we call Society.' You go on to list subsets of society. I used these subsets to define the 'herds' you write of, but then you say Society withholds truth from the herds. So am I to deduce that these like minded egos are doling out "truth" on an as needed basis and based on your
conclusion that "Truth is" wouldn't it be less confusing to say Society withholds thought patterns from the herds.
Next: "We need to understand that ego is our personality. "Persona" is Greek for "mask." If we can discover enough of our truth to drop that mask, we will be living eternally in what call "heaven," or "other than where we already are, that's our ego talking." By logical deduction I could rephrase this to say: Ego is personality,
personality is our mask, if we discover enough of our truth we can drop our mask or become devoid of personality. Yikes!! I'll take the herds over the zombies any day.
My opinion: You attempt to remove societal absolutes and define them as illusion. The deception is grand scale and from a prevalent agenda much more complex than merely one writer attempting to explain "Imagine no religion."
Simply said, I think it needs a rewrite and I just didn't cotton to it.
Connie
reply by the author on 23-Apr-2014
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John,
I truly struggled with this review. My carnal instinct was to run with the herd, give it a 5, collect my 1.92 and move on, but considering the subject matter I simply could not do it. Having not read the previous chapters, I read this one twice. My conclusion was the same after both readings. I found it confusingly unorganized. It certainly didn't make a convincing point and it seems to contain conflicting thought processes, i.e.: 'Ego's gather in the same thought patterns of belief create Group Egos. The largest we call Society.' You go on to list subsets of society. I used these subsets to define the 'herds' you write of, but then you say Society withholds truth from the herds. So am I to deduce that these like minded egos are doling out "truth" on an as needed basis and based on your
conclusion that "Truth is" wouldn't it be less confusing to say Society withholds thought patterns from the herds.
Next: "We need to understand that ego is our personality. "Persona" is Greek for "mask." If we can discover enough of our truth to drop that mask, we will be living eternally in what call "heaven," or "other than where we already are, that's our ego talking." By logical deduction I could rephrase this to say: Ego is personality,
personality is our mask, if we discover enough of our truth we can drop our mask or become devoid of personality. Yikes!! I'll take the herds over the zombies any day.
My opinion: You attempt to remove societal absolutes and define them as illusion. The deception is grand scale and from a prevalent agenda much more complex than merely one writer attempting to explain "Imagine no religion."
Simply said, I think it needs a rewrite and I just didn't cotton to it.
Connie
Comment Written 23-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 23-Apr-2014
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Good input. This was written three years ago and I am trying to clarify. Thank you...John
Comment from Bill Schott
Wow! This dissertation is vast and complicated (when trying to assimilate it in one sitting). As you said, it is a construct of several essays rolled into this over-arching identification of the meaning of life. Broken down to parts, each is a mini-lesson in analyzing the world as malleable mass to which the individual or group gives meaning. Man's ego is especially present here where we assume we are significant at all. This is a masterful piece that seems well thought out and deftly presented.
reply by the author on 22-Apr-2014
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Wow! This dissertation is vast and complicated (when trying to assimilate it in one sitting). As you said, it is a construct of several essays rolled into this over-arching identification of the meaning of life. Broken down to parts, each is a mini-lesson in analyzing the world as malleable mass to which the individual or group gives meaning. Man's ego is especially present here where we assume we are significant at all. This is a masterful piece that seems well thought out and deftly presented.
Comment Written 22-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 22-Apr-2014
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Thank you...John
Comment from emrpoems
Religion is mere ritual. Spirituality is what brings us into a real relationship with God.
Persons who do not belong to any religion or who do not believe in God can be god persons, doing what is required by God of his believers. I think that we are born with an innate knowledge of what is good and what is not
reply by the author on 21-Apr-2014
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Religion is mere ritual. Spirituality is what brings us into a real relationship with God.
Persons who do not belong to any religion or who do not believe in God can be god persons, doing what is required by God of his believers. I think that we are born with an innate knowledge of what is good and what is not
Comment Written 21-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 21-Apr-2014
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Thank you...John
Comment from mfowler
I'm not sure that I can do your work much justice here C. You make some compelling points about how the mind shrinking, and imprisonment of thought that 'isms' such as those found in religions, manages to impose on us. I enjoyed your analysis of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity etc, and agree that it is in the personalisation of God into one form or another, and the associated religious and social codifying, that we limit God and truth. Your deconstruction of 'ego' is powerful and logically explains why we need to get past its deleterious effects by learning to shed lies, one at a time. This isa long, complex, and challenging piece of writing which will stay with me for some time.
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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I'm not sure that I can do your work much justice here C. You make some compelling points about how the mind shrinking, and imprisonment of thought that 'isms' such as those found in religions, manages to impose on us. I enjoyed your analysis of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity etc, and agree that it is in the personalisation of God into one form or another, and the associated religious and social codifying, that we limit God and truth. Your deconstruction of 'ego' is powerful and logically explains why we need to get past its deleterious effects by learning to shed lies, one at a time. This isa long, complex, and challenging piece of writing which will stay with me for some time.
Comment Written 20-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Thank you. You give me a lift...John
Comment from Gloria ....
Religion is not the only basis for being considerate of others, being faithful, unprejudiced, and living in harmony. These values are simply reasonable and beneficial. That's a great point that is far too often overlooked, when Christians particularly assume that if a good thing was done, or a kind heart shown, they must be Christian. Not!
Ah, so you are a Rosicrucian. I am most interested in the scientific explanation of how our thoughts communicate with the Supreme Being. The Freemasons have always been mysterious to me.
Excellent comments on group egos being the primary cause of all strife and conflict on earth. I call it tribalism which by definition is a hate group because there must be outsiders and insiders.
I still have some trouble grasping the concept that God is Supreme being as a verb not a noun, simply because of the commonality of the physical forms manifested in our minds. I guess that's my ego's continued need to assign value to evanescence.
LOL, like the joke about Nirvana being a famous rock band. Maybe grunge though.
Another great write here cogitator but in my humble opinion it should be about three chapters.
Keep going, I find this subject most interesting. I'm most curious to learn your resolutions to these "ideas'.
Gloria
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Religion is not the only basis for being considerate of others, being faithful, unprejudiced, and living in harmony. These values are simply reasonable and beneficial. That's a great point that is far too often overlooked, when Christians particularly assume that if a good thing was done, or a kind heart shown, they must be Christian. Not!
Ah, so you are a Rosicrucian. I am most interested in the scientific explanation of how our thoughts communicate with the Supreme Being. The Freemasons have always been mysterious to me.
Excellent comments on group egos being the primary cause of all strife and conflict on earth. I call it tribalism which by definition is a hate group because there must be outsiders and insiders.
I still have some trouble grasping the concept that God is Supreme being as a verb not a noun, simply because of the commonality of the physical forms manifested in our minds. I guess that's my ego's continued need to assign value to evanescence.
LOL, like the joke about Nirvana being a famous rock band. Maybe grunge though.
Another great write here cogitator but in my humble opinion it should be about three chapters.
Keep going, I find this subject most interesting. I'm most curious to learn your resolutions to these "ideas'.
Gloria
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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There are other writes in my portfolio that answer some of your questions. "Recognition" and "Awareness of Self" could help. Thank you for the review...John
Comment from EelanLogthorn
Not an easy subject to tackle. I enjoyed the text as much as your previous works. It is well written and well researched. There so much here that you need to read it more than once to grasp everything. I enjoyed it.
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Not an easy subject to tackle. I enjoyed the text as much as your previous works. It is well written and well researched. There so much here that you need to read it more than once to grasp everything. I enjoyed it.
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Many thanks...John
Comment from Ekim777
Our writers extensive erudition leaves my head spinning. In such cases I resort to simplicity of thought. Those four tenets of reason do little more than relate the individual to society with the expectation of social rewards. Anyway those tenets were preempted by the advent of the Ten Commandments rendered to man by He Who Has No Name.
Social rewards depend on the things inherited, things gleaned from the past and past civilizations, no matter what their heritage is, tend to crumble with time. The grandest civilizations disappear but fortunately people remain and prevail. Then there is the delicate issue of belief in God. I say 'delicate' because there is little place left for organized religion in a modern world. To me, belief is analogous to blind optimism. "God's in his heaven. All is right with the world. What we really crave from our belief in God, is an answer to the question that cannot be answered; the question about death. Of course there are moral issues but as Dostoyevsky says through his character Ivan Karamazov; "It's not that I don't believe in God. But when I see the death of one innocent child, I most respectfully hand God back his entry ticket.
I know I do not have the gift of our author's lucidity but I am reminded of the time when Miamodes was asked to encapsulate all of Judaic wisdom while standing on one leg and he said: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." -Ekim777
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Our writers extensive erudition leaves my head spinning. In such cases I resort to simplicity of thought. Those four tenets of reason do little more than relate the individual to society with the expectation of social rewards. Anyway those tenets were preempted by the advent of the Ten Commandments rendered to man by He Who Has No Name.
Social rewards depend on the things inherited, things gleaned from the past and past civilizations, no matter what their heritage is, tend to crumble with time. The grandest civilizations disappear but fortunately people remain and prevail. Then there is the delicate issue of belief in God. I say 'delicate' because there is little place left for organized religion in a modern world. To me, belief is analogous to blind optimism. "God's in his heaven. All is right with the world. What we really crave from our belief in God, is an answer to the question that cannot be answered; the question about death. Of course there are moral issues but as Dostoyevsky says through his character Ivan Karamazov; "It's not that I don't believe in God. But when I see the death of one innocent child, I most respectfully hand God back his entry ticket.
I know I do not have the gift of our author's lucidity but I am reminded of the time when Miamodes was asked to encapsulate all of Judaic wisdom while standing on one leg and he said: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." -Ekim777
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Thank you so much. I am compiling my essays into a book...John
Comment from c_lucas
The essence of God is the denial of religion. God is spirituality and religion is ritualism. Your post would better serve the populaces by spoon feeding. It should be broken up into ten to twelve essays. Very good job.
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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The essence of God is the denial of religion. God is spirituality and religion is ritualism. Your post would better serve the populaces by spoon feeding. It should be broken up into ten to twelve essays. Very good job.
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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I am compiling my essays into a book at this very moment. Thanks for taking the time to tell me what I need to know...John
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An observation is just that; an observation. As the author, the final product is your creation. You're welcome, John. Charlie
Comment from dejohnsrld (Debbie)
I always enjoy your writings which are so very difficult without seejig ourselves, at least partially so to each and every one of use. I an glad you are back writing with us again and stimulating our often ill and preconceived notions, Thanks for sharing this, my friend~Debbie
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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I always enjoy your writings which are so very difficult without seejig ourselves, at least partially so to each and every one of use. I an glad you are back writing with us again and stimulating our often ill and preconceived notions, Thanks for sharing this, my friend~Debbie
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Thank you. I am making a final effort to compile these essays into a book that MAKES SENSE...John
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I think you are doing a fine job~Debbie
Comment from Sandra Stoner-Mitchell
You have certainly put a lot into this chapter. You raise some interesting points on Religious issues, and other areas. I think this piece need to be read a few times to take them all in. Very interesting. Sandra
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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You have certainly put a lot into this chapter. You raise some interesting points on Religious issues, and other areas. I think this piece need to be read a few times to take them all in. Very interesting. Sandra
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Thank you...John