Untenable Takes on Intelligence

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift" ~ Albert Einstein ... or as Nietzsche infamously put it, "God is dead.".

Ernest Hemingway spouted, "All thinking men are atheists". Although that may put off some religious "thinkers", there is definitely a strong inverse correlation between critical thinking (logic, reason), and belief (faith) ... typically, the more you have of one the less you have of the other.

I would add: A brave man of integrity fully considers the evidence.

It needs stating at the outset that when attributing thinking and behaviors to the word religion, or a religious group the rule of degrees needs to be applied.  Categorization will most often miss the blend of diversity and degree.  When considering what is written here please keep in mind this principle of degrees and diversity, not all people within a religion "fit" neatly into the ideology proscribed by the general body, and there are religions which are less dogmatic about their beliefs, and less defiant of information external to their cannon.

Intelligence and education poses a problem to religious faith, specifically when that education involves coursework requiring logic, critical thinking, and questioning ideas, and that most threatening when it comes from sources outside the cannon of faith.  

Since my religious background is LDS, I can best speak to that experience.  Currently and in its past, the LDS faith is situated in a strange and somewhat untenable position on the subject of intelligence. It is a love-hate relationship, and thus laden with contradiction and hypocrisy.

On one hand intelligence is lauded and prized as the ultimate goal, the road to be traveled toward the glory of God. As such, much emphasis is placed on seeking intelligence via lifelong learning, and higher education. Education is a grand goal put before every member. Seeking knowledge and intelligence out of the best books and through seeking formal education is highly encouraged and reinforced among Mormons and their (Joseph's) doctrines.

Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-19
Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.


And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

Doctrine and Covenants 93:36
The glory of god is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth.

This elevated concept of intelligence, placed high in the doctrinal hierarchy, is what you'd think would make the LDS religion one which is most amenable to truth (facts). Praising and extolling intelligence is a salient part of LDS doctrine which sets it somewhat apart from other fundamentalist religions.  As man and woman are made in the image of God, and the glory of god is intelligence, it becomes merely an exercise of gaining the intelligence of such in order to perfect this corporeal gift - filling the computer with correct and pure data you might say.

But lauding intelligence is a risky position, since intelligence has another edge, namely those facts and findings which do not agree with your claims.  Claiming to embrace intelligence while dismissing scientific or scholarly facts which do not suit your narrative makes you a hypocrite on intelligence, and one of the worst kind - an intransigent truth bigot.

This brings us to the other hand in which the LDS religion holds intelligence ... Many a lesson on seeking knowledge and understanding is also served with a strong caveat about being too smart... to clever for your own britches. And the LDS church has a long tradition of castigating these types of people - the intellectuals, the skeptics, those who don't readily swallow everything that issues forth from the mouths of god's mouthpieces, especially that moronic and ignorant.
In LDS culture and within the power hierarchy of information and just who can say what, when, and to whom, information contrary to the narrative and doctrines of the church are summarily rejected, and members are constantly warned about coloring outside the lines, consulting or placing precedence on information contrary to church teachings, and in general placing intelligence and logic over faith, especially when the pieces don't fit, or do fit to make an entirely different picture.  In these cases, members are told to trust the unseen picture using the glue and magic marker overlays to create the image as it "Should be."

There are a few stories in the Book of Mormon that serve as a warning about being too smart for your own good, and having the added nerve to go against the ideas of your (LDS) culture and church (god's people), each story of warning ending with the promise of destruction for those who "think" more than they "believe", using reasoning over faith, or against those who believe differently.

2 Nephi 9:28-29 (compare Proverbs 1:5)
O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.


But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.

Our first story example of Bad guys who think too much is found with Nehor

1. Nehor (Alma Chapter 1)

Nehor's story is a blatant swipe at Universalists teachings, of which Joseph Smith's father and grandfather were adherents.  Universalism basically teaches that all people will be saved, no judgment, no punishment, just like Nehor taught. Notice how much Nehor is vilified for teaching an idea which is more kind, open, and inclusive.  He is a bad influence of course to the homogeneity that cult like systems seek to enforce. OF course the story of Nehor is a mechanism used by Smith to enforce conformity to his ideas and to paint anyone who dares say otherwise as an evil influence to be punished and destroyed - much like he attacked his accusers.

Now on to Bad Influence #2 - Korihor (Alma Chapter 30)

This story is an obvious swipe at secularism, another popular movement in Joseph Smith's time, and today. Interesting that the sign to Korihor that god existed was for god to shut him up and bind his tongue ... not exactly fair play in the exchange of ideas and information now, is it God? But this is actually the mechanism of this story, as my parents would often counsel. If you don't have anything good to say, keep your mouth shut."

So the God who loves you wants you to keep all the annoying questions to yourself - as do the people in your society - interesting ...

Now to Sherem, my last example of stories that exert the truth of Mormonism - "If you don't agree STFU! ... or horrible things will befall you."

#3 Sherem (Jacob Chapter 7)

This one is a swipe at dissenters from within, and against Judaism (past beliefs and traditions).  The Book of Mormon people were said to be of Jewish descent. Sherem was a man of the community who held to the law of Moses over the claims of Christ as the messiah.  The story unfolds much like the others.  Moral:  Don't get stuck on past ideas or traditions; don't have or teach ideas contrary to the group today... a modern equivalent could be, "Don't dig into church history for flaws or problems to get stuck on; live the church as it is taught today."  I have been told this, that the past is in the past, and is not relevant to my faith in a modern living church.

Of course, the oppositional Sherem is put out of the way as well, even though just one section earlier in the book we are told that, "It must needs be that there is an opposition in all things ..."

These are each stories made to illustrate the central theme of Mormonism:  It's great seek intelligence and learning as long as such stays in bounds.  Also note that empirical evidence for the disbeliever, when given, came in the form of a curse and/or destruction.  A lesson for believers against seeking evidence for belief, and instead promoting pure faith and following without questioning. Promoting a culture of credulity.

These three stories soundly teach that to question outside the boundaries is bad, very bad, full of terrible consequences.  Yet questioning, and testing boundaries and claims is the cornerstone of learning and critical thinking. 

On a very basic level, intelligence, logic, and critical thinking is contrary to belief based and intuitive thinking.  

Intuitive thinking is oft aligned with motivated reasoning, which simply put is considering things primarily from the perspective of what you want to be the case.  Generally, as faith and logic go, the more emphasis and influence you have from one, the less you have from the other.  (This may be a matter of basic brain structure; physical dichotomies of both lateral and horizontal hierarchies. And a person's tendency toward one or the other modes may be a brain based example of the scientific principle of symmetry breaking).  Most people are mentally biased in their innate abilities to one side.  

So in order to protect faith, in a faith based, absolute circle of truth worldview mindset, you get the other side - a knee-jerk dismissal and disparagement of facts and ideas that counter faith.  A backhanded slap to science and scientists (The 'Them' who are against 'Us').  It is a nasty backhanded blow to book learnin' which counters their loving fore handed caress of intelligence.  It is a cake and eat it too environment, where facts get buried to tell a better, more appetizing story that is easily consumed.

This causes a somewhat paranoid, conspiratorial, and untrusting atmosphere within the realm of intelligence and facts (truth) as viewed by an LDS person, or basically any religious person's ideology countered by science.  Science and scientists become another 'Us vs Them' conclusion of many religious groups, added to an already bulging list of "thems", and it is foolhardy to your faith join or quote this side of truth. 

Us vs Them is the mainstay (and the mistake) of most religions, particularly those Abrahamic. It is a major facet of group thinking which coheres the group. It is tribal, the cause of war and fighting, and a key component of any cult or paranoia of outside groups (xenophobia).  Perceived external threat and persecution pushes group cohesion. This is why it's to the benefit of group leaders to establish and emphasize oppositional forces real, inflated, or imagined.  Oppositional forces like those portrayed in the concocted stories of dissent, which are easily shot down and put in their place to show the folly of challenging the ideas and assertions made by the men in charge.

Sadly, in some religious groups, science is one of these opponents, when in my opinion it need not be.

Some scientists and scientific findings are seen as an evil scheming conspiratorial plot set up and pursued to destroy faith; not pursued by a simple desire and curiosity to discover or gather facts. The rationale is as such, "If science were sincere and genuine, its findings would agree with us because we have God, the author of all truth and the ultimate scientist, in our pocket. The truth in our scriptures is absolute (perfect written utterances of God through our prophets).  We have the ultimate truth, therefore all information must conform to it or it is wrong."

This is the definition of dogma.

Scientists (people practicing verifiable forms of intellectual inquiry) are seen as godless, devising, and out to persecute or deceive people of faith when their findings cause frictions. This vilification is a defense mechanism, merely because their findings may counter faith, history, an ancient idea, narrative, or ontology. 

In this sense, LDS doctrine is somewhat anti-intelligence. Facts which don't fit faith are false fabricated fiction fast flushed ... manufactured, even "Designedly Evil" (evil with a capital D that is).  This anti stance on secular intelligence has its root in scripture, mostly biblical, but also LDS scripture. 

A point that makes me foolishly hopeful that the church will at some point adopt into its truth set those things proven by science, is the support and praise of knowledge and intelligence within LDS church doctrine. However, the church is mysteriously silent on some scientific facts which may trouble members and cause some bums to leave seats.
Take for example, their official stance on Evolution, a well supported and proven FACT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_views_on_evolution

When studied, the LDS "official" stance on evolution appears absolutely non-committal and waffled, full of weasel-words, and reeks of equivocation.  

It must be observed that the core of their temple ceremony depends on the story of Adam and Eve as being absolutely literal.  Evolution and paleoanthropology show quite soundly that there is no such thing as a "first" of any species and that it is all gradual change.  They don't dare deny the repeatedly and overwhelmingly established FACT of evolution, and they don't dare get behind it.  Members would be lost either way - so they ignore it and say nothing.  
It's a hard nut they can never quite crack (or back).

Presently I can think of, nor find, any scriptural passage within the Bible that lauds or praises secular intelligence. It's predominantly pejorative.  I may be wrong, but the point is that LDS scripture while slapping it with one hand, praises it overtly with the other, and ties it to the glory of god and the attainment of personal advancement and progress. In LDS theology the ultimate goal is to become like God, an omniscient being, and eternal progression is the linear growth of intelligence and understanding (line upon line).  But this two-sided approach to information and intelligence actually lends itself more easily to mind-fuck manipulations, where questions and information leading one away from a solid and unquestioning testimony of the church, its leaders, and its doctrines are seen as evil and the designs of Satan upon you to lead you astray.

Now counter this approach, with the openess of that scientific. In science, there's nothing wrong with questioning or challenging scientific information in a scientific manner.  Science does this all the time; it's built right into the system.  A healthy skepticism of science and intellectual inquiry is a valid and necessary position. Scientist are human too, and thus prone to bias or holding ideas that seem correct, but which may prove incorrect, or become better refined. This 'go with what you know' can lead to false positives and negatives if adhered to stridently, and certain venues of science are more prone to error.  Science invites other scientists to check and even wreck their hypotheses ... 

As with religion and belief, science and scientists can be fixed in ideas which may be in error.  Scientists can be motiveated reasoners as well, to the degree that they violate the scientific method and structure the potential for bias into their investigations. They to can start from a conclusion and reason (experiment) backwards. They can fail to eliminate or consider other causal factors.  Both sides of a scientific idea can be, and usually are, strident in their ideas.   The key is that science strives to prove itself wrong (peers in science review each other) and is based on testable, repeatable,  provable empiricism.  Religion strives to prove itself right (confirmation bias), and is based on ideas and concepts outside anything observable.  And you as a religious person gain esteem in the ranks to the degree that you can exercise faith and credulity in things that either have no answers, and in your ability to shun or explain away any answers undesirable.

The problem with this approach, is the concession that an honest person must be forced to make within its rule set:

"Each imagination of a faith based reality made doctrine or "truth" is just as valid as any other belief system so devised from the same approach, and since ultimately and over time the tenets of any faith will schism and divide (as creativity and imagination tend to do), with each new tenet independently contradicting another, they become collectively invalid as a source of truth."
Within faith it is OK to postulate on the unknown, and receive 'revelation' or inspiration as to what is real, and this even blatantly stated as "things hoped for".  Faith as an epistemology (way of obtaining knowledge) is severely flawed and unreliable.  Since anyone can speculate on the unknown and unknowable, basically anyone can claim their speculations to be right.  Faith is highly divergent, as demonstrated by the estimated 43,000 sects of Christianity alone.  This divergent property of faith is empirical evidence enough to show that faith is a terrible method of gaining accurate information, and a pretty good one for retaining inaccurate speculations, and remaining stuck (and largely a pawn in the system). Logic demands that knowledge is based on non contradiction and convergence (agreement).

Therefore, given the choice, I choose science's conclusions, over those of religion's, but never with the hubris that I now know it all definitively, or that science can know everything.  Science never claims anything in absolute. There is always the possibly for redefinition, correction, or refinement.  Science readily, even eagerly, admits that there are things it does not yet know, or understand completely.  Religion's answer to the unknown is a statement of knowing, "God did it", the utmost stagnating statement of certainty; case closed, inquiry over.

Reality is a hard nut to crack, at its core irrational, ironic, and insane. Many close examinations reveal paradoxes.  As humans we have basic wired-in deficiencies in our logic circuits. We have the arrogance of ego that makes us think our judgment, memories, and cognition are very sound when in truth they are full of flaws, holes, and thinking traps.  Hopefully evolution and the information age can help root out those deficiencies. Education makes great progress in doing so, especially what we've learned in the cognitive sciences.  Science is a work in progress. <-- With much emphasis on, and evidence of, that last word. 

There are weak points and shortcomings as well on WHAT we can observe and measure scientifically, and HOW we can observe and measure those that we can. Some things, such as humans, are hard to study directly without their flawed filters, biases, or perceptions, and they cannot (as of yet) be theoretically described using mathematics, or emulated using computers. Humans, and their brains, like the universe, are unimaginably complex.  Imagine a brain trying to dissecting and understand itself. The usual destructive poking and prodding of inanimate objects that science best needs to do is considered unethical in some cases when applied to studying humans ... but not so much other life (Another blog entirely).  

Sometimes in order to measure and prod while still remaining ethical, science is downgraded to perform correlation studies (among other methods), studies which rely on people's perception, objectivity, and grasp of reality...their ability to accurately encode and decode those perceptions (I'm sure you can see the problem already). We are the most limited in the study of the very thing we would best be served to understand, ourselves.  

These are by necessity the soft sciences - soft because of the need for kid gloves, and reliance on accurate reporting of experience - eyewitness testimony, untested outside interactions that the practice of limiting and isolating variables entails.  This isolation of variables for the simplification of interpreting the results also leads to a mode of ascribing singular causation to a phenomenon - something we as humans are already heavily mis-wired to do.   Much of the observable is multi-causal and inter related, and does not easily reduce to simple isolated explanations of cause and effect, as we would prefer.

Of all observation and evidences, eyewitness testimony is the worst, most unreliable, form. People lie or err even when they don't realize it, let alone when they do.  Despite these obstacles, the sciences dealing with thinking and behavior, notably cognitive science and social psychology, have made great strides in understanding our thinking and behavior. Many of the findings reveal some pretty troubling and unflattering things about ourselves and our flawed minds. 

These soft sciences are the realm wherein most people get frustrated with science, and find the most room to disparage it. One day its this way, another day it's that. One day all fat is bad, the next only certain types. Butter vs Margarine (butter is better!), Palm oil vs Coconut ... Carbs, empty carbs, natural carbs, animal protein vs vegetable ... on and on.  I think we're circling in on it - Yay food science!

There's a lesson in this - an observable principle scripturified by LDS theology, which itself drew from the dualism of the day, which drew from Greek Philosophy, which drew from Eastern Pilosophy, which drew from ..... - It's called Opposition in All Things (OIAT).  There are good proteins and bad ones, as well for carbs and fats. Nothing is categorically or absolutely bad, nor good.  There are no absolutes and no isolations. As expressed earlier on the futility of isolating causation, things exist and are expressed due to interactions and relations to other things.  The underlying principle of OIAT, when extended out and thus becoming non-binary, creates a spectrum of diversity and degrees.

Isolationist thinking avoids the problem of complexity. Science is very isolating, categorical, reductionist, convergent, and linear. It conducts experiments wherein a single variable (if at all possible) is isolated and studied.  This approach typically neglects complex interactions, and multi-variable influences.  It treats the problem as an exclusive OR rather than an AND, seeking one isolated solution to a complex problem. We are still seeking a grand unification in a reality of diversity and opposition.  I wonder if this is not folly, as most phenomena are a composite of multiple causes and contingencies.

Unfortunately isolation is not how reality is constructed, in fact it is just the opposite of how most things occur and manifest. As Kant said, our reality is constructed from the manifold. By employing such an exclusive focus, other factors are necessarily ignored, factors which may contribute to the result, maybe even act synergistically or in cancellation with each other. We may even be looking at an effect of hidden elements, not a cause of the observable.  

There are no absolutes and nothing occurs in isolation. Everything is a complexity of combinations and interactions and relationships.  Opposition in ALL things creates this breadth and depth of diversity and degrees from the beginnings of a basic opposition; just as the binary language of 1s and 0s can create the most complex of representative languages and computational diversity and power.  Our vast and powerful technological world has grown from, and is based on, the opposition of  one and zero - on and off.  At the heart of every digital device is this bipolar relationship, happening 5 billion times in a typical cpu, each changing state a gadzillion times per second, creating a very diverse and varied state of on and off at any infinitesimally small divided moment. This is diversity from unity, wherein unity is composed of a basic oppositional force/element.  

Life itself is based on the most simple of elements (hydrogen) and the gravitational pull that mass expresses toward each other, gathering and growing toward a critical mass.  Complexity thus arises from simplicity and opposition.  Stars are an example of oppositional misentropic forces, the universe is misentropic, creating order from chaos ... but I digress.

Most religious ideologies favor intuitive, feeling directed, exploration; faith, feelings of peace, comfort, love, happiness, calmness, positive emotions and overall the spiritual nature of things. This just right of center thinking is, in my experience, most conducive to happiness and a holistic big picture understanding. It injects meaning and purpose into a seemingly and possibly pointless existence ... and it can be experienced in degree, the utmost degree being mental illness when you fall down the rabbit hole of the infinite as this extreme state of mind has completely overridden and annihilated logic and rational thought circuitry making it a slave.  A manic mind state becomes an open and unchecked ocean of possibilities over which attempted navigation with logic becomes delusion and illusion. It is a world of symbolisms and metaphors that soon escape words.   When I am manic I certainly become more religious and usually revert to some warped concoction of religious concepts and ideas inculcated in my youth.

Maybe mine is a unique situation, as most people I've encountered who are predominantly intuitive faith thinkers become pretty fundamentalist and certain in their ideology.   They mistake faith for certainty and "knowledge".  My extreme mental experiences have caused me to be more open and to question everything in the realm of imagination. Feeling so profoundly and deeply has also caused me to think that our normal perception is limited, and by this limitation our science is limited.  This manic "religious" mind, although so fallible when measured against the confines of our reality and the constructs of our brain within that reality, is so much bigger and expansive than any one set of ideas.   Experiencing this has broken the chains of confined prescribed and proscribed thought.

Breaking free from the mind control of Mormonism has taught me that there is no idea or thought, or line of reasoning that is off the table.  Anything is worthy of exploration.  Any idea can be pursued and questioned, even entertained.

As said earlier, LDS ideology pays homage to secular intelligence, but this is the side they also discourage if pursued too far. Intelligence and verifiable knowledge feeds on evidence. Evidence in some cases can be very damning to religions. There is such a thing as being too intelligent IF that pursuit diverges from, or counters LDS doctrine or its official (whitewashed) history.  It is very possible to think and investigate your way out of any religion, especially the LDS religion, since it is a relatively new religion, and as such, it arose in a literate age of paper, pen, and print.  Its beginnings, growth, and overall history were fairly well documented.  Also advantageous was the hubris of having the truth and revering revelation, and self adulation of being such a divine movement caused them to keep copious notes.  Church members were counseled to keep journals. 

Some of this evidence can be seen as highly detrimental to its claims. The churches respect for truth coupled with the hubris that they alone, or by majority, had it, shows both integrity and foolishness by their great efforts at recording and retaining their history in such a full manner, and being open and advancing true scholarship into that history (which has seen many an internal struggle), is an effort I can only praise and admire (although here too is evidence of subversion and suppression by those seeking to hide the inconvenient not ready for prime time truths).

Logic and critical thinking also occurs in degrees, the utmost degree being nihilism, materialism, atheism, and a general disbelief in anything supernatural or metaphysical.   Yet these kinds of thinking can balance and lend insight and correction to overly spiritual/emotional directed thinking.

In my opinion, LDS ideology on intelligence errs on too much reliance on spiritual emotional directed thinking to gather 'knowledge' and intelligence.  Emotions are repeatedly and consistently touted as the final arbiter of truth.  The following scriptures actually outline how confirmation bias works.

Doctrine and Covenants 9:8 
But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. 

Moroni's Promise;  Moroni 10:4-5
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the holy ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Alma's rigged seed experiment; Alma 32 (too large to quote) Basically all these good feelings will be yours as you nurture the seed of faith (a good seed), if this same seed does not grow and give you joy it's not a bad seed, but your fault for being infertile ground.

How the Holy Ghost tells truth; Doctrine and Covenants 8:2
Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.


This stance of putting feeling over thinking as the best way of knowing is an antagonistic stance against the rational critical inquiry that would potentially cause a religion its destruction. At very least questioning, testing, skeptical inquiry unrestrained and undenigrated would cause a serious subjugation of spirituality if allowed to become the dominate mind state for finding truth - which it has been soundly demonstrated to be the superior mode of knowing what is real, and achieving convergent thought - oneness and agreement.  

As such rational skeptical inquiry must be subjugated and scorned if faithful thinking is to live.  If you look at any religion through the spectacles of science and logic, much of what they claim materially comes off looking rather silly, and ignorant. That which they claim philosophically as they quote the wisdom of humanity oft recorded sits well with the human mind, and does teach well lubricated ways of living together as a species.  No thing is ALL bad, nor all good and as a simplified view on opposition tends to polarize a mind - it is not the thing; it is how it is used.

Religion vs Science, the ultimate dichotomy. Pitted against the other they both seek to oppress and rule. They are in opposition.  When logical thinking is allowed be dominant it deconstructs and tends to oppress the belief-intuitive based thinking toward annihilation.   Its logic circuits gang up on spirituality and mystical thinking, rationally tearing it apart piece by piece into to reductionist explanations.  

This happens too when faith-intuitive based thinking is allowed to dominate and direct thinking, in the opposite direction toward delusion and irrationality.  The church too discourages too much seeking of personal revelation, or spiritual inquiry if any of that exploration falls outside the established doctrine.  Logic is made the slave and reason employed to interpret and evaluate things according to what supports belief.  Faith directed thinking is divergent, parallel, creative and oft times delusional. If a person allows faith to trump facts, and dismisses a need to investigate information, then logical thinking is by default relegated to the dustbin, and delusion necessarily ensues.

"Delusions are fixed and false beliefs that aren't responsive to evidence" - Elyn Saks  

Much of religious thought can be described as just this - delusions.  Faith based, mystical, magical thinking doesn't need evidence. It is intuitive and feeling, mostly centered on wish fulfillment.

There is a strident and primal opposition encapsulated in your head.   Fence sitting while these two forces battle it out for dominance over your mind state is uncomfortable to put it mildly. Naturally we avoid discomfort and the uncertainty caused by indecision and choose a side to direct us.  Most people naturally choose (are wired to) the side which speaks to and calms their fears the most.  The biggest, most obvious fear being that grand-daddy death who we know comes knockin' to all of life.   Despite this fear which almost always leads one to consider perpetuity stories (belief in immortality, a higher power, or another realm of existence), some people are wired to find the other path, the one that speaks to and honors their intelligence; the one which is firmly planted in the here and now, terra firma.  There is much security and safety in evidence and proof as well. 

Although admittedly I fear death as an ultimate end, currently my life experiences have taught me to fear being fooled more.   I would prefer an ugly truth over a beautiful lie, and the truth owes me no comfort or special place.  I want to know and believe what is "real", while at the same time reality at its core is a mystery, and if I hold to my notion of opposition there must be an unseen realm, an alternate reality opposed to reality - call this the spiritual if we must.  It is matter in the form of energy.  As in many science equations, things become inverted when carried to the other side of the equals sign.  It is the anti neutrino opposing the neutrino ... Maybe I am more than the sum of my parts.  My wish fulfillment drive for perpetuity and purpose is strong too.

As we head down our chosen path, we construct our minds accordingly. We actually build a connected structure of thinking and perception based on our previous thinking and perception...things we have stored in the fact-bin.   As such, we become a bit incapable of processing information which challenges our 'facts' from either directed side of thinking.  This is confirmation bias - we seek things which agree with our ideas of how the world is, and avoid things which counter those ideas.  In the world of opposing forces we chose a side, and thus doing break symmetry.   The middle of any conflict is the worst place to be, due to the uncertainty, but it can give the best perspective to the truth of the whole situation. Just as judges must remain neutral and listen to both sides to get at the truth, before handing down their judgement, so must we if our judgment is to be fair.

Almost always this one sided directed structure is flawed, no matter which side is pursued.  "The human mind tends to see and only accept that which supports its constructs."  I formulated this sentence years ago when criticizing my own ideas, and later realized there is a name for it.  It is called confirmation bias.  This bias is tied tightly to the flawed heuristic that the truth needs to be edifying, comforting, and reassuring, when in actuality Intellectual integrity = truth > comfort.  The truth does not owe you comfort or acceptable answers.

Everyone is biased.  Some people will claim that they are not, but they are again a victim of bias - the bias blind spot, an inability to see your own biases.  Bias is a somewhat pejorative word, as it implies error. We hate error.   We hate being wrong.  We love to be "right" (religion more than science since it is heavily based in confirmation bias, while science is designed to prove itself wrong).  Religion seeks to correct more than be corrected.  Because it deals in a realm that cannot be challenged (known about in a demonstrable way) religious thought can claim anything it wants with a sort of impunity.  Because of this, religious thought is divergent and divisive.  It is why we have so many divergent and contradictory religions.

It is nearly impossible to take any position or perspective without by doing so being biased, especially when a person is rigid, strident, and inflexible.  This is why I do not like people who take their thinking to extremes - fundamentalists, right wing conservatives, left wing hyper liberals, conspiracy theorists, paranoids, depressives, and especially bi-polars .  

This is what my bipolar illness has taught me.  Extreme, categorical, compartmental, exclusionary thinking is errant at its core.  Faith dominated emotional thinking filtered through rational categorization and logic becomes delusional and errant. Logical critical thinking with its contrarian bent can dismiss the and downplay the mystery, and the positive aspects of existence, becoming depressing and nihilistic.  Holistic thinking and drawing from all strengths of the mind and human experience seems to be the ticket. Intelligence coupled with curiosity, exploration, and questioning is the key to engagement, flow state, and happiness.  Skepticism coupled with an ability to praise and appreciate.  Critical thinking that is not critical being. 

It is my impression that the ability to inhabit one state in extreme, and allowing it to dominate unmitigated is what causes me to be bipolar, especially when I lose context.  It may be a sort of epileptic under/overstimulated brain fit, like a drug trip on mescaline or DMT, or a severe deficit or imbalance of neurotransmitters.  When my logical thinking swings too far it hits the wall of depression and nihilism which after some time is countered by an increasing pull toward the intuitive, imaginative, and hope filled world of wish fulfillment.  As I stretch toward the extremes I tend to slingshot toward the other, maybe even sucked out the extreme depressed side in an inverted warped worm-hole of space time. A black hole that converts matter(left) to energy (right).  When severely logic dominant I am depressed and atheistic. When intuitive I am glorious and connected and very theistic.  There is very deep meaning and purpose.  All things are profound, spiritual and divine.  I AM Divine. I am the sum of my parts and my parts are the sum of the cosmos.  I approach the infinite, and infinity is twisted and warped, especially without the mediating rational influence of my left brain capabilities. It is an extreme delusional madness, yet full of meaning and truth. This is as best as I can lay words to it.  I experience god. I am ecstatic and full of joy.  I am high. I am everything, everything is god. I am god.  Delusions of grandeur to the max!  There are drug states that mimic this brain state.

Admittedly, a lot of my thinking about brain states is influenced by the very popular Left Brain vs Right Brain concept, which is shown to be severely flawed by neuroscience when taken literally, and all too often inaccurately portrayed within many presentations (like this one).  Although the brain can be shown to have asymmetric functions, most of states of cognition and activity show activity that is bilateral, both left to right and inner and outer.  Some researchers have even posited that the better analogy point of separation is top brain (outer cortex) vs bottom brain (Inner limbic system), rather than left vs right.    It is known and shown that different parts of you brain specialize in different functionality and modes of thought, for example how your hippocampus is involved in memories, learning, and emotion, yet like everything, brain states for any activity involve multidimensional interactions across all divisions of the brain.  Much of the left right idea came from studying people who had their lobes surgically divided, which doesn't apply to a normal functioning brain.

This Left vs Right is a somewhat simplistic view of my bipolar illness, and therefore inaccurate, as I'm sure there are other conspiring elements at work, possibly those described in my blog on shyness, particularly HSP and LLI 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_sensitive_person  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_inhibition#Low_latent_inhibition.

Until recently, science only viewed intelligence according to traits ascribed to left brain thinking skills, which is only natural.  Lately, the theory of multiple intelligences has been put forward, one which I agree with, starting with the basic two dichotomies I've been describing.  I know spiritual intelligence will sound like an oxymoron to those of a scientific mindset, but I assert that it exists.  Maybe spiritual is a loaded word that I'm using to fill in for things that we cannot observe or account for, things for which an epistemology based on empiricism cannot grok ... even science practices a degree of faith - evidence of things not seen.   The electromagnetic spectrum is a good model for things that exist, that we were unable to examine, and the discovery of which leaped us light years ahead in our understanding and technology.

When LDS people disparage the facts discovered via left brained intelligence they are fighting truth, at least the truth in this context of reality.  They are claiming precedence and preference over ways of knowing. This is where religion goes awry, when it seeks to deny reality and facts. Religion left to its self directed thoughts is divisive divergent and delusional. It should be heavily informed by rational thought. Rational thought is unified and convergent. 

Conversely, science goes awry when it claims to know ultimate reality, or claims reality, as we are able to sense it, is all that is real. The basic building blocks of reality are comprised of infinite things (Space-time, Energy-matter) which science openly admits at this point we don't really understand.  Reality has an impenetrable edge or boundary. Reality is a material manifestation of energy, inverted, warped and twisted. It is first spiritual (energy) then physical (matter). You were first spiritual, then material - you are both now. Honor both toward your own betterment.  Now is the time of the physical - let the physical teach you body and soul (mind).  Use and strengthen your brain.  Let science inform you about the physical reality your are in.  I believe that it is a mirror to the spiritual, just as matter holds energy and energy can create matter.

In essence all things are first spiritual (energy), but each side corrects and contains the other, while at the same time each resists the other, because nothing nor no one likes correction or being constrained. We now exist in the realm of matter as spiritual energy. We should embrace our matter and learn from it - it is refining us via opposition. There is opposition in our current form of existence, along with the opposition in our brains.   This opposition is the fuel of growth and change.  Life is change, growth, evolving.  Time is change and change is merely motion - space and time are tied together.  Love seeks correction.

Most higher animals have this 'emotional' side. Reason: Judgment and evaluation directed by logic and observation are left brain activities. Our defining factor toward our intelligence becoming god-like is our left brain mind being added to meet the right in the middle. Either side sought in isolation is incomplete and extreme. The mind can also become tangled in as many ways as there are permutations within OIAT and the facets of thinking.

When logic is applied to spiritually directed and dominated thought it becomes delusional.  When spirituality is applied to logic directed thought, logic becomes better informed and able to step out from the details and see the big picture, to see how things are connected and interrelated. This is the preferred locus of control in daily life if given a choice - and I believe it is a choice one can make. Especially if we wish to accurately evaluate ourselves and our surroundings.  Ironically it is logic not belief that will cause the human race to become one as wished for by Christ. Remember that logic is convergent thinking, it tends to unify, correct, and organize.  Spirituality is divergent, it tends to spread out, disagree, diversify. It is boundless, imaginative and creative.  Both need become one as we strive for balance and symmetry.

How ironic is it then, the wish of the Christian savior that his followers be one when considering the thinking and behavior of his followers which has led to an extreme splintering. A look at all religions will show that they splinter (Christianity in all likelihood has more factions and schisms than any other religion in all recorded history of humankind on this planet). Of course it is my personal belief that Jesus never intended to establish a religion. Religious directed thought is extremely divergent and separatist.   

Science is convergent and unifying.  Science (logical rational intelligence) coupled with Spirituality is the force that will unify humanity and secure peace on Earth.  Recall that a fundamental facet of most religions, other than being divergent and divisive, is that they polarize the human race into 'us vs them' dichotomies.  It is right brain dominance filtered through left brain categorization. THIS is the cause of fighting, enmity, and WAR.  The world will never attain peace and togetherness while humans continue to live predominantly employing spiritually directed emotional thinking fed through logic, with its attendant delusions and divisiveness. 

This is highly ironic since the personal experience of peace, calm, euphoria, joy, connectedness, empathy and compassion also comes via the right brain.  The right brain should never be put in charge to direct and lead the left on a long term basis.  It is employed best as a counselor, an adviser, an informer.  The ultimate goal in thinking and utilizing our intelligence to its best potential is using the strengths of both sides with a center directed mediator.   To achieve an inner balance and symmetry of the two is the goal.

My hope in writing this is to encourage exploration ... exploration of either side of knowledge to the degree you lack it. Knowing what you lack is the first step. Pursuing what you lack is the one usually avoided because first lacking is denied and dismissed, and second it feels awkward and uncomfortable to think outside your comfort zone. Rationalization of your current state is a preferred state of being – it is a state of stagnation, it is a state of fear. If you despise or fear either side - explore it.   Nothing is intrinsically bad or good, its your perception and approach to it (your relation to it) which makes it so.  All facets of human experience and existence can be explored and enjoyed toward happiness and betterment. It is all in the approach. Good and evil is within you, not externally held in inanimate objects or theoretical categories.  No external force is tempting or driving you to make mistakes.  As long as you think this you will not address the cause of your behavior.  As such the only good and evil in reality is within people and the way they approach and perceive and interact with their reality.

Science is compatible with God and belief, but belief must bend to science.  Science in its current state will never bend to belief. Never is a strong word I usually avoid, but transition from this side is quite rare.  Most scientists are atheists.  Their powerful highly developed left brain intellects and logic circuits have killed the magic and revealed its tricks (I say magic somewhat facetiously). They reject the mystical.  Maybe rightly so, but I sense that there is something there, something hidden, something mystical.

In bending, honor both sides of your brain and both modes of epistemology equally.  You will come to know god, because in all reality that is what we are looking at in the material now, where we came from in both senses, materially and spiritually, and what we are moving toward eternally. If you want to achieve the power of nuclear fusion inside your brain, and experience synergy you must mediate and meditate the oppositional forces within you bent on annihilating each other – without jumping to either side for comfort. This balance of forces is what happens to create synergy in our brains, in the cosmos, and most saliently in our sun, the source of life and a prime opposition to entropy. It is a reconciliation of opposing forces. A predilection for balance, equity and fairness.  

A study of the sun and nuclear fusion can be a spiritual inquiry.  To understand our sun scientifically is meaningful and informative, and a useful endeavor.  To understand it spiritually is powerful and reveals the nature of the universe, and the nature of opposition which creates life. This same life can be achieved within the oppositions inside you.

Christ is a SUN god, a symbol of life, the middle, and balance. Even if metaphorically, as an idea he exists. The story of Christ is written in the stars, and told by astronomy.  The early gnostics believed that Christ existed as an idea, not a material man.  I can find him metaphorically in all creation, even though he seems physically erased. He is the middle man, born in the meridian of time (man time and earth time, maybe even universe time) to mediate between god (right) and man (left). He is the son of man (left) the child(son) of woman (middle), and the son of God (right). To become as Christ as a human you must embrace your inner child to find the middle, and be teachable from both sides of your brain, from both sides of your parentage (male-female). You must honor both sides and pay attention, and submit to facts, especially facts which oppose. Christ is at the center of your brain to mediate between your god-man (right) and your man-man (left), he can only do so if you become pliant, flexible, tractable, teachable, open to correction, humble, admitting your error and extreme fallibility.   

Adults become so set in their ways, rigid, sometimes strident.  As they age they become inflexible and unyielding to correction.  A sad fact is that most adults are wrong and errant within some facet(s) of their thinking and constructs, and even sadder is that they become intransigent within those errors and practice complacent thinking that they have all the answers they need. 

A nice example of this is the story of the trapped housefly. One day a fly is wistfully winging by an open door. In the air she smells a sweet and sour bouquet of lovely enticing smells wafting from the opening.  Curiously she follows her titillated senses adventuring in through the open door.   Once inside she is overwhelmed with all the wonderful and new sensations.  It is a veritable smorgasbord of smells.  All of this stimulation has overwhelmed the poor fly.   After a long time exploring all of these wonderful distractions she forgets how she got into this strange place.  She starts to panic and becomes agitated and afraid.  To her great relief she sees the light - and open view of green grass and trees.  She flies fast toward her escape suddenly smashing her head against an invisible barrier.  Smash!  Smash!  Smash!  Rest.  Rub my legs.  Flick my wings.  Hey! There it is again! - Smash!  This sorry scene goes on and on, until weak and toasted she becomes a crusty little thing dead and dry on the window sill.  The End.

The irony is that the fly thought she was viewing reality and kept bashing her head against it.  Sensorily she is no slouch, equipped with deft sensory skills and lightening reflexes ... so quick that she almost experiences time on a shorter scale than you or I.  So many eyes, yet still she can't see that the window view is not reality.  Once in the new environment her senses became so overwhelmed that she was confused and could not again smell her way out.  Relying on her powerful mega-eyes she kept fighting the glass that she could not comprehend.  She thought it was the route to freedom - a window, when all along what she really needed to find was a door.  So in ignorance she doggedly kept beating her little head against it, hoping that persistence would pay out. Like humans usually do, she doubled down. The answer was back behind her, in her past, where she came in.  I was open all along, but she was lost to it because she became so fixated on her window view thinking it was the path to her freedom.  

As an adult, the answer lies back where you came in.  It is within you as well.  Except a person humble themselves and become as a little child they cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:3).  The trick is to be able to invert your adult mind back upon the qualities of your child mind that helped you be teachable, brave, curious, imaginative and exploratory...the adventurous spirit that brought you excitement and fun.  Engage in play.  Treat life as a game. Above all dare to be wrong and learn from your mistakes.  Dare to break it.  Dare to open it up for inspection, without the fear that you may not be able to put it back together again, or that you'll get in trouble.

Your man-man is the glory of god - intelligence, your god-man is the spirit of god. Your child-man is your center of questioning and being open - vulnerable. With a Christ mediated center you can freely assimilate and draw from both sides, from all sides, from anything - without fear, and without sin (error or inefficiency).  With exploration and curiosity comes fun and happiness, true engagement and flow, a state of joy. Do not fear intelligence, nor disparage it - balance it. Engage your mind, body, and soul. Be curious to know the hidden things obscured by your limited solidified viewpoint. Acknowledge your limitations and weaknesses. Take them to god and sincerely ask to be taught and learn from your position of weakness and inferiority. There is strength in weakness, and weakness in strength (OIAT again). The void that defines, the space between lines – the Taoist concept of empty space, negative space. Negative space has value too.  I know I may sound like I'm rambling but in my mind it is all connected.

At a point in my young adult maturation I became very aware of the idea that 'truth' was not contained within any confined ideology, or within any approach to reality.  This was despite my having been told on a constant and consistent basis that my religion contained "all" of the truth, which I too believed.  It just never fit, as I saw inconsistencies and truth not approached by my religion, and worse dismissed.  The concept of truth unconfined became a mind worm. Thinking such I have explored many other venues; philosophy, mythology, science, music, art, mechanics, mathematics, biology, anthropology, cosmology, psychology, the brain, geography, words, writing, poetry, and religions.   All somewhat shallowly I admit.  But exploration of these things are my bliss and I follow it and focus to my pleasure, and at the direction of my interest (curiosity).

On religion, I have a soft spot for the eastern religions.  They seem to be more gentle and passive in their approach, more global and less individual.  I have adopted some of their views and synthesized it with ones I already held.  My point is that I believe that truth is not confined or contained within any one category.   All human endeavors and experience are encounters with truth. Truth is synergistic and ironic in many cases. Exercise your body strengthen your mind is a good example, one backed by science.  Excersize you mind strengthen your body, again a proven fact of science.  Mind-Body is an opposition.   There is irony within opposition.  Find the irony, find the opposition. Stand in the middle find the truth.  Absolute truth is ironic.

Any side of an opposition taken to an extreme inverts into the other - this is why empty space is impossible and is unstable, just as extreme thinking and action is unstable. This is the twist in infinity, the inversion of symmetry. One is a mirror of the other - each is a reflection. Creation is a flowing gown when complete turned inside out, and upside down.  I've written much about this in my poetry.  My poetic writing is creatively based in an attempt to piece together the puzzle of our existence, an effort to try and answer the riddle imaginatively and creatively.  To paint my experiences using words. Reality is a riddle told to a child.  It is full of clues and hints, and connectivity.

I know these views can appear very threatening and weird to people on either side of the knowledge fence. Time to replace the fence with a bridge - "Christ" the mediator is that bridge - his is the power of fusion, of light, of life.  I would encourage you to exercise both sides of your brain, and never badmouth or abandon either side, even though both sides have their flaws and imperfections. This is synergy of mind - this is a creative force of fusion.  This is honoring your whole mind and self.

Caveat: I realize that all this right brain left brain jargon is simplistic.  In function the brain is very complex and interwoven.  It is a simple explanation to help establish a highly viable thinking center based on logic and rational thought for religious peoples of all religions.  I have focused on the LDS religion because that is what I know best, but everything I've said can be applied to any human being - religious or not.  In many cases I am speaking poetically and metaphorically. If all the Jesus-Bible stuff bugs you out - try to find the pearl by placing them in the story metaphorically.  There are pearls of wisdom in them even if you think them fictional.

Dismiss this post or call me crazy at your loss - these are pearls...don't be swine ;)  If you are swine, eat up anyway, as time for the slaughter may be nigh...and God, like most men, loves bacon. Hopefully, for your sake if you are swine, these pearls may magically transform you, a mind worm that works its magic while you sleep, like a fairy tale told to a child.