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

Rod Meredith and the Manpower Papers

Here is something that was conveniently left out of Rod Meredith's recent film about himself.   Why didn't Rod Meredith discuss his participation in the Manpower group at Ambassador College where he maligned, disparaged and ridiculed students every week.  From sex to racist and homophobic comments, accusation of masturbation, students genetic make-up, sex, dating, sex, attitudes, sex, physique, and more sex. Why did the Living Church of God gloss over these qualities of Rod Meredith? Richard Ames knows better!

The Manpower Papers

In 1961 at the behest of the Armstrongs a "manpower committee" comprising 15 of the leading men of Ambassador College (AC) was formed. The noble purpose of this committee was to evaluate AC students-especially male students-and determine whether or not to employ them at AC or in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) upon graduation. The Manpower Committee, however, quickly degenerated into a high-level gossip session in which a group of corporate misfits combined to destroy the reputation of numerous students whose only offense may have been intellectual resistance to the doctrinal intimidation and personal prejudices of AC/WCG officials while attending to their formal education.

Before any discussion of a student began, his picture was projected onto a screen. Then, as the members of this "spiritual jury" stared at the student's image, each one of them divulged information - often given to them confidentially in private counseling sessions - gathered on the student. This information often included a student's background, racial and genetic heritage, sex and dating problems, attitudes, and physique, in addition to biased personal assessments of a student's potential worth to the organization.

Below Ambassador Report is reprinting a number of statements made in these manpower meetings that aptly illustrate the mentality of the Ambassador College administration in the 1960s. Little if any concrete evidence for the allegations, innuendos, or rumors in the following quotations was ever formally submitted, probably because it never existed. All students were tried in absentia and never given a chance to reply to the biased information disseminated in these meetings that sullied their reputations. Yet the essence of what was said in these meetings was carefully typed and distributed to several leading men at AC in Pasadena, the vice-chancellor of AC's Texas campus, and AC's Personnel Office. (In order to protect the identity and reputation of the students mentioned in the following statements, we will refer to all male students as "X" and to all females students as "Y." We have gone to great lengths to delete anything that we felt could lead to the identification of a student.)

Read the comments Rod Meredith and others made here: Manpower Papers

Allegory and the Prophetic Failure of Harold Camping and Rod Meredith

Prophet Thiel is picking apart Harold Camping today concerning his latest prophetic failure.  Jesus was supposed to be returning on Friday, October 21st. That is after Jesus failed to show up last year on May 21st.

Prophet Thiel is indignant that Camping fails to understand what allegory is.  Prophet Thiel is the LAST person on this earth that needs to be reminding Camping on what allegory is!

The Prophet writes the following as the reason Camping's predictions failed.  Camping did not understand allegory.

The short answer is that Harold Camping allegorized away too many key scriptures. In other words, he relied on his own private interpretations and imaginations more than looking at the prophetic sequence that Jesus Himself gave in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. It is that simple. He ignored the fact that required physical events in the Great Tribulation had not happened, nor did the signs in the heavens preceding Jesus’ return occur. Notice that Harold Camping and His followers ignored Jesus’ words which could not pass away:

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  If that's not the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is! Living Church of God's entire existence is based upon a failure to understand what parables, allegory, myths and legends have to do in scripture.

LCG/COG has used the private interpretations and the imaginations of Herbert Armstrong and Rod Meredith as a basis of doctrinal "truth" for decades.  Neither man has any seminary training and is ignorant of biblical hermeneutics, exegesis and eschatology.  Neither man has any understanding how Christian thought developed over the centuries from Plato, Aristotle, and other great thinkers.

Many of the Bible stories were never meant to be taken literally.  Armstrongism has never understood that fact.  While parables, allegories and legends may have great truths in them - just as Greek mythology does - it does not make them "true" in the sense that the event actually happened.

Armstrongism also fails to recognize that Revelation was a hotly disputed book that only made it in the Canon  by the skin of it's teeth.  Yet, Armstrongism looks at it as one of the greatest books ever written.  Literalism literally destroys the mind!

Prophet Thiel follows with a quote from the International Business Times:

Doomsday prophet Harold Camping gives bad name to Christianity, denounced by …

International Business Times – ‎ Self-proclaimed Doomsday prophet Harold Camping is nothing more than a charlatan, a fraud who has given a bad name to Christianity, according to Christian leaders.

On that we all can agree!  Thiel however goes on to write:

The iniquity of false prophets such as Harold Camping, Ronald Weinland (who still claims that Jesus will come on May 27, 2012), and others will turn various people off about prophecy.

Prophet Thiel calls Wienland and Camping false prophets and  men who turn people off towards prophecy.  What the hell does he think Rod Meredith has done?  Rod has made hundreds of false prophecies over the decades.  Meredith follows directly in the footprints of Herbert Armstrong who has an even longer list of failures. What about the tens of thousands who have been turned off to the church and God over the decades because of the lies of Meredith and Armstrong?  Why do their failed prophecies continue to  get glossed over?

Thiel continues on:

Those who follow Ronald Weinland of CGPFK may wish to ask themselves how they will feel on May 28, 2012 when Jesus does not return the day before as well (Ronald Weinland, like Harold Camping, also seems to excessively allegorize away prophetic scriptures).

False prophets result in an increase in scoffers, yet despite them, Jesus will return, but not in 2011 or 2012. Please do not allow false prophets to turn you aside from the prophetic and other truths in the Bible.

I would say that those who continue to follow Rod Meredith after his promotion of January 1972 as the date we were supposed to flee to Petra and a few years later for the return of Jesus, may wish to ask themselves why they follow such a failure!  How many lives were destroyed over that one?  Meredith had his golden gloves right in the middle of the mix!  What about his continued "we only have 3-5 more years left" mantra that he has been spitting out for decades?  How can you believe a liar who has been saying the same thing for 50 some years?

Meredith's false prophecies have certainly brought out the scoffers (including this one). We see right through the blatant lies of the man and know him as just one more in a long line of religious despots that seek to control the lives of COG members. Meredith, Weinland, Pack, Flurry, Cox, Steven's, are sick little men who are in deep need of psychiatric help.  How many more men, women and children need to die because of these guys?