Dennis on: The Evolution of the Religious Mind

Hearing the Voice of God

Reading the Voice of God

Questioning the Voice of God

 

The Evolution of the Religious Mind

 

 

It is easy to recoil at the amazingly cold and cruel stories we find in the Bible of the behaviors of men in the name of their God.  We see that most of it was done because these men were told to by "God."  They never saw God, or if they did it was from behind, or in a cloud or burning bush...but they did hear the voice in their head.

 

As a kid, I wondered what kind of father was this character called Abraham, who when told by the voice in his head to go offer his son up to the god in a human sacrifice, simply said, "oh, Ok."   There is no emotion expressed by this man. He has the mind of a zombie.

 

The Old Testament is like that. Many of the players, especially the people under the leadership figures in the Bible, simply do what they are told without any introspection or personal thinking.  As a result, we have men who sacrifice their daughters because they said whatever comes thru the door goes to the god.  We have armies hacking and wacking their way to glory hearing the voices in their head of the leaders urging them on by the voices in their heads too.  We have a Moses who gets pissed off when gone on a mission to pick up the Big Ten, one of which forbids murder, and then orders "each man to kill his neighbor. And in that day about 3000 died," no biggy.  No one seems to tell Moses, "what are you nuts?" They just do it. 

 

The prophets, both major and minor are god haunted by the voices of the god in their heads.  They conduct their entire lives obeying what others cannot hear and do not experience.  Their quirkiness, rather than seen as a mental illness or malfunction, is seen as a special calling and people fear them. And while often wrong in their prophecies, we forgive them and project it ahead a few more years to another time to cover up their errors. 

 

This is a huge topic but one I always wondered about. Why is the OT so violent and the stories full of examples of people doing things that would never be tolerated today?  What's going on here?

 

Julian Jaynes, author of The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, may have an answer.

 

"At one time human nature was split in two, and executive part called a god, and a follower called a man. Neither part was conscious."

 

And what changed this man who heard the voice, much like a schizophrenic would, in his head telling him what to do either by the King or by the god? 

 

 Writing.

 

Writing came to humans about 3000 years ago. At first they were pictures such as hieroglyphs as in Egypt but in time letter were formed and books were written.  This allowed humans to save their thoughts and examine them.  This broke the cycle of the Bicameral mind and people, slowly began to wake up and hear their own thoughts and question others over them.  They also started to hear the voice of the gods less and less, which was a very disturbing turn for the worse.

 

Jaynes shows that the Illiad, written about 1260 BC is almost devoid of human emotion and introspective characters.  They just do what the voices or the gods dictate. However, in the Odyssey, written in the 900's BC, we see much more introspection and awakening of the individual.  This was a transitional time for human thought.  This is story time and when the Old Testament story comes on the scene. 

 

To me it explains most of the seeming inhuman characteristics of many OT characters. 

 

For example, we have the little boy Samuel, hearing his name called by God, but only in his head. He goes on to be a rather weirdly respected prophet who makes a career out of hearing the voices in his head. Saul on the other hand, is vilified in the OT for his independent thinking and "disobedience" to God and the men who hear the voices. Actually, Saul was more awake in his personal consciousness. He introspected where Samuel did not.  Samuel was god haunted.  Saul was not and it confused him.  Saul was told to do things by Samuel he did not understand. He was derided for things that today we would say, "well, I'd wonder about that too."  When Samuel doesn't show up, as he said he would and at the time he said he would, Saul takes charge, makes decisions and of course, gets nailed by Samuel and the voices in Samuel's head for doing so.  One man was unconscious and one was more conscious, and it wasn't the prophet of God.

 

This theory of human consciousness also explains why we see God fading from the picture in the OT.  We start out with God practically being everyone's best friend, accessible (in the mind) and ever present.  As the story unfolds, God has to be seen in symbols such as snakes and idols, clouds and pillars of fire.  He's still there and most can still hear the voice in their heads telling them what to do or how to be, but fading. 

 

Soon God drops out of the picture and now needs other humans like kings and priests to tell everyone what the voice of God in their heads says to do.  Most obey and hear the voice of the Kings and Priests as they once heard the voice of God.

 

In time, around 1000 BC we have even the Kings and Priests losing touch with the voice.  The Psalms are full of "why art thou so far off?"  "Why have you forsaken us?" and "Why do you not speak with us anymore?"  Over the next 3000 years humans seek a hundred different ways to recontact God.  Necromancy, idols, lots, oracles, smoke and prayers.  Whatever the Urim and Thummin was, it was a way to figure out what the silent God in the head wanted Israel to do.  Today we have oija boards, crystal ball gazers, ministers and priests to tell us what God wants from us as we question it all having become more conscious and scientific of thought.

 

Ministers and Priests today don't hear the voices either, well most don't, but they have the book and supposed records of those that still did.

 

From this period of time, those who still hear the voice become the prophets and conclude it must be "Sin" that has separated them from the voice and so the concept of sin was born, both national and personal.   And so all the stops are pulled to get back on track, to no avail.  Those who are not as conscious go to war with those that are more conscious. Religion is born big time and people end up on one side or the other and the rest is history as most humans now have awakened in their introspection, question asking and individuality.  

 

 

 

While I suggest a long read of Jaynes view, the short of it is that the human brain is two brains.  The right hemisphere can see and think but cannot speak. However, to this day, hallucinations and voices come from the right brain.  The left hemisphere can both see and speak because of the Broca and Wernike's areas of speech.  Whatever the right side sees, it must connect to the left to speak it. 

 

For example.  The right brain and eye sees things on the left.  The left brain and eye sees things on the right.  Together they see it all.  When the bridge between the two is cut or damaged we have a fascinating reality.  When shown slides the right sees the left one and the left sees the right one.  When the left slide injects a bit of Porn to the right eye, the person sees it but can't talk about it.  Talking is left brain and the bridge is cut.  The left eye see right slides with no porn so has no reaction.   The person starts to giggle or get red because the right eye sees the porn the left eye cannot. When asked why are you giggling.  The left side which can speak says,  "I have no idea!"

 

In the past, the right brain heard to voice of the gods, king or priests in their heads on the right side as do modern schizophrenics.  The left side talks about it. 

 

This may explain why Egypt could build such a civilization. Pyramids weren't built by slaves.  They were built by unconscious zombies of sorts who did not think for themselves.  A nation would need to be at peace for the most part to build such things and the vast number of humans would need to be easily told what needed to be done and why.  They said, "Ok" just as Abraham did. 

 

All this change in human consciousness because writing allowed humans to think more introspectively and as they did, the voice of the gods, prophets and Kings could be challenged and the rest is history.

 

Religion is the remnant of the unconscious bicameral mind struggling to reconnect itself and all who can be affected by it back to the voice and will of the gods.  It is why we have the division today between science well done and religion badly explained.  It is why we have critical thinking today and ten thousand denominations.  We both want to keep and let go of religion and the voice in our heads has now been replaced by the old old old written word about the time when the voice was heard.  We now are expect, "by faith," to hear the old voice and  obey it because most don't hear it and don't trust those who say they do.  "God says," is the now the same as "The Bible says."  Of course it is not.  We are smarter than that now because most have woken up and are more conscious than in "Bible Times."

 

Those who will not see the flaws, mistakes, errors, contradictions and so on in the Bible may be less conscious, not by intent, but by the meme that we buy into that the book is the old voice of God, now not heard, written down so we can still hear it.  However when you write something down, you are now able to examine the whole thing and see the mistakes, errors, contradictions and such in the text.  The only choice then is to either find and apologetic for them or realize that perhaps it is not what we were always told.

 

It explains why most can see the contradiction but the loudly rabid cannot and won't.

 

It explains all the craziness of religion and those in the COGs who still lead by declaring them more in touch with the voice, through the book, than others.

 

It explains the Hagees, Parsleys, Swaggerts, Hinns, Weinlands, Flurrys, Packs and you pick literalists of this present world. 

 

It explains the sincere who also don't hear the voice but are willing to trust the Book and those men who say they still hear it and should be followed. 

 

Big story. Fascinating.  This can get too long.  

 

The Origin of Consciousness and the Break Down of the Bicameral Mind

Julian Jaynes.

 

It is not rebellion on our part.  It is not scoffing.  It is awakening from the old unconsciousness of the Old Testament views and behaviors, laws and control to individual thinking and decision making. 

 

While individual waking up and consciousness causes its own problem at times, staying asleep and unconscious is not its cure. 

 

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com