More on Humanism

 A bit more reading about humanism and I have concluded that we have specific characteristics:

Individuals: We are a group of individuals who do not follow others, but think independently, and all have coalesced around some central themes. We are not blind followers.  

Independent: (free?) We are all equal, no one has the right to dictate to others. Yes, no, well what about social contract and criminal activity. The rights of the many should be considered as law; that is society protection from the criminals, we gave up the right of self defense to live together in groups, and have protection. Well we have really no protection - only a mild deterrent to criminals - and occasionally prosecution.  If you do not want us to take back our self protection and ignore the law, then the government had better start providing better protection. But we are free living people, dependent on civilization, but independent thinking.

Reason: We use reason and logic, not superstition or supernatural causes. There are no authorities except in science, and they have the collections of facts. We require questioning, unlike religions. We have no holy books to give direction.

• Buddhism uses mediation and self searching as founding criteria, it encourages questioning.
• Christianity, Islam use authority and holy books as founding criteria, and oppose questioning.
• Science and Humanism use evidence, logic, truth as founding criteria. and require questioning. 

Truth: We try to get to the truth, often placing statements on the nine point truth scale: Absolutely true, probably true, likely true, unable to demonstrate false, neutral or unknown, unable to demonstrate true, likely false, probably false, absolutely false. This combines our confidence and the truth of a statement.

Evidence: If it is not suitable for court, then it is not evidence. Holy books are stories, not evidence. These are tests of how to explain something to a child, not true but not false either, although the underlying thoughts may be false or just wrong. Physical evidence often has more than one explanation; but somehow it must be explained.

Virtue: It seems that Humanism drags in beliefs from all over: the Stoic believed that living a virtues life was the only good, virtue is always right so a virtues life was always right. There cardinal virtues were wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance. Compassion and duty were just expected as part of life. Some add mental pleasure or joy. This also mates with positive psychology behavior; positive emotions, meaning, engagement, effort, accomplishment, satisfaction, joy, and that feeds back into positive emotions.

Knowledge: Wisdom is knowledge applied rightly. Humanism requires questioning of many things. Self seeking through meditation is just a place to start when there is no science, but also much mesh with science. We need to adjust ourselves to what is, not what we would like to happen. It is our expectations, delusions, aversions, desires, that cause us grief. Letting go of the unreasonable and unattainable is the first step to freedom. Also sorting knowledge by truth in detail verses general truths or simplifications.

And yet life and humanism is so much more.   

Human Nature - collection of research, thoughts

A work in progress...possible.

Wikipedia:  Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—which humans tend to have naturally, independently of the influence of culture.

Ya sure. No...

I am interested in relationship between people at this stage. Well, it must includes the culture in which people are trained into for it is the total person as they present to the public. It does not matter whether it is born in or trained in, but the negatives can be sometimes trained out. Frequency of occurrence of each characteristic, and severity of characteristics also vary. Whether each is aware of the characteristics is not in considered. When we are trying to change our behavior or thinking, we must become aware of it before we can change it. Much of our nature needs to be trained down to be social.

• Selfish - Self centered, we need to take care of what we can... nobody else will. Our need before others wants. This is the foundation characteristic at the gene level. Without it, we would not survive. But this needs to be trained down.
• Attachment and sense of self / to life, self, our thoughts, people, things, places. Foundation for tribal behavior, foundation of mine, but also requires selfish characteristic. But this needs to be trained down.
• Opportunistic, Desire for easy life, Watching for opportunities and eager want or desire to fulfill those chances.   
• Aggressive, protective of what we have, sense of ownership. But this needs to be trained down.
• Communications / social conventions. A desire/utility in adherence to social conventions, and to social groups (better survival rates) But this needs to be trained up or trained in.
• Sociopathic behavior, not taking responsibility for our own actions, not caring much about others, even less if they are outside of our family/clan/tribe/community/nation/language/ group/race/history.
• Ignorant - in need of education, learning, understanding - minus wrong learning, what we learned was wrong (religious learning has many wrongs within it, separation of story explanations from facts, logic, reason, science.). Some have a desire to know, and to sort truth from story.
• Philosophy. Some things are under our control (opinions, ascent, delusion, beliefs, values, virtues, motive) most is not. We try to behave, to act, but sometimes it does not happen)
• Desire for life, food, sex, shelter/warmth, protection, fame, fortune, power, control of others, our own way, But this needs to be trained down.
• Attention span/fixation/ repetition/ interests/memory/sound identity/ smell identity/ sight identity/ physical feeling/ mental feeling/intuition/ expectation/ delusions/ illusions. ( Learned or natural)
• six things we all do; skills, knowledge, group behavior rules, communications, feeding, sex

Oh, the training we need, in the social skill. Oh, the things we shall see, and the place we will go.

There is a multitude of disinformation on this subject. some have nice diagrams, but do not match with my reality. https://physicalspace.wordpress.com/huma-nature/https:  and thus are not useful. Some are clinical as.

  

Secular Humanism

Secular Humanism is a god free movement, a world view, that is occurring in a slow and erratic fashion here and there. It is a positive movement, having found ways of saying there is no god, no life after death, in positive ways. We believe in science and there is no room for any supernatural beliefs in this system. It does not or has not yet dealt with personal philosophy, like the Stoics do, with there multitude of thinking exercises, so both Stoic and Humanism is possible. One is world view, the other inward looking. In the areas these two overlap, ethics v virtues, there is much compatibility. The language is only a dull pointer to the meanings, required actions and beliefs.

Secular humanism looks at the positives of moving forward after we have cleared the garbage thinking. It may be necessary to pass through freethinking and atheism to come out the other side and start to look forward again. Freethinkers bash religion, and atheist say there is no god, which is correct, but we (I) cannot stop there. Religion bashing is pointless. I need to move on, having deeply realized that there is no point in trying to change old fixed minds, they will soon die off. It is the youth that we need to influence, and that can be accomplished by others. There is an need for understanding, and statement of the belief system in a clearer manner than has occurred so far. It is a vast expanse of material, and differing opinions, not of the materials, but of the priority.

The first (1932) Manifesto was called religious humanism, but eliminated god and conscious existence after death. It outlined 15 or 17 points - depending on the version, translation from Dutch or whatever. Other versions have as few as 10, and with some of those points there is disagreement, or no clear direction as how to achieve the desired effect. Non violence cannot work in the police/criminal element not in the military. and both are needed in the foreseeable future. The insurance industry is dependent on the criminals also. Tribalism is the larger application of attachment, which holds families together, yet is the foundation of Nationalism, which in turn, is the cause of tension in the world. It all needs a bit of work to rationalize all the components.

We all have our strong suits, and areas that we just are not interested in. Stay out of our areas of disinterest. Those are just problem areas that we do not need to be involved in. We do not need to care about may people, places, things. Religious idiots can rot in their hells. The Prime Directive applies.

Some Humanists are endeavoring to provide rituals like commemoration of birth, weddings, funerals. Well, for ritual I do not care. It is just not important to me. But we are all free to choose. It is up to the individual.  Other Alternatives Thursday Night group can rise again.

On human variation: (copied from the net) By the 1970s, it had become clear that
1) most human differences were cultural;
(2) what was not cultural was principally polymorphic – that is to say, found in diverse groups of people at different frequencies;
(3) what was not cultural or polymorphic was principally clinal – that is to say, gradually variable over geography; and
(4) what was left – the component of human diversity that was not cultural, polymorphic, or clinal – was very small.

So as a species, we are similar. And in the end we all die anyway.        

living at odds with our nature

Once I accept that an epigenetic switch has been thrown, and I am now an overeater; it is my nature to overeat; how do I come to live, first in a weight loss level of food intake, and secondly during the maintenance stage?  ERROR ERROR... Learn maintenance stage first, as it will be a lesser cut that weight loss stage. No, they are exactly the same. Eat as little as I can get by on.

Now there is a big assumption, that overeating is epigenetically encoded. In an earlier post  I put the case forward and went looking for solutions. What I found was a bunch of god pushers promoting religion as a solution, and it may be if one can learn to live that delusion and follow that delusion exactly. There is also a suggestion the developing a kind of OCD that insists on following a weighted and measured diet may also work. It is the rigid definition and following that is necessary. The definition is easy, the following also requires alternative activities, and that is the difficult part. We need activities that we can force ourselves to follow.

Overeating as a child or youth, regardless of the cause set the epigenetic switch. Eating as a relief for emotional stress, the like of food, food addiction, lack of food knowledge, lack of food choice, out of compulsion, what ever the cause, sets the switch, and as adult, searching for relief, there are no answers. I now understand the how and why, and also that the drive to overeat is part of me, and that is for life. The only solution is to not overeat, and deal with the urge, which is there for life as well. It has become part of my nature. Those who say the urge will go away are just talking through ignorance.

Rigid adherence to the plan, OCD like behavior is the only solution I have found. If you have any other, please advise.    

What we (I) gained by declaring myself an atheist.

What we (I) gained by declaring myself an atheist.  Last day I list a few thing that I lost. Today I will elaborate on the much larger list of the gains. This is not only number of things but the size of some of those things.

First cutting down to reality, and building up from first principals allows a great deal of clarity. People can believe whatever they like but if it is not real, they are simply living a delusion. There is no point in entering their delusion to debate them; that is simply a waste of time. The bad part is that they are educating their children into the delusion, and teaching children delusional thinking is just child abuse. I was raised in such a delusion, and my parents died in such a delusion/illusion. When we are just learning it is a delusion taught by others. When we become adults and take responsibility for our lives, it becomes an illusion we do to ourselves.

Until we recognize that belief systems are false, we do not see them as delusions. That is the sad part of religions. Religions are about control of people and money for the 1%, the overlords. It is not about helping the poor, for if it was there would be jobs with training, that could lead to a lifetime of profitable work. Instead we buy cheaper imports, and stop producing more expensive local products. Countries that it are cheap to live in, produce labor rich products, while countries with resources sell those resources. Oh well, in the end we all just die off anyway. This country need to control our economy and set some tariffs on imports and exports. Softwood lumber should have a export tariff to protect US industry by a Canadian tax, not an American tariff.

Clarity, truth, ethics, virtues, values, beliefs in general become much clearer. Now more philosophy readings make sense, and some of that is not true for current times yet. It is not to say they are untrue, but our values may be somewhat different. The world is overpopulated, and population moves from overpopulated to less overpopulated. But when we are overpopulated we need to say stop, regardless of the conditions those others are living in. There are too many people, that is the root of the problem. It is self destroying to allow more influx when we are already overpopulated, and that must take presidency over the conditions they are fleeing. A big cull is coming. Where and how will it be? That is for others to decide, but we need to take a stand, just as the English have with Brexit. Political starts at the grass roots, not with the 1%. Enough is enough. Religion is bullshit. God free is the way to go forward with reason as our guide. Charity must start at home. This includes not taking on unmanageable debts by governments at all levels.

Confidence, not that I am necessarily right, but that two groups with exclusive positions cannot both be right. Numbers of believers does not mean right either. Often both groups are just wrong. Eg: Christians, Muslims, Buddhist, Confucianism. Many of there views cannot be rationalized, and that which cannot be rationalized is likely wrong. That alone is the strongest argument against religions. That which is similar may be correct, and that leaves sound ethics, social relationship between pleasant and positive people, and little else. All the supernatural stuff is just guff. Oh well.

It all leaves me not concerned about those who are not rational. They live as they do, think as they do, and it does not matter to me anymore. The prime directive applies. Do not metal in the affairs of alien civilizations. 

Are we individually making the decision or is it being sold down the line by the 1%? We atheist are likely correct and independent. The religious are under the control of the 1%. Which are you?  

What do we give up when we declare ourselves atheists?

What do we give up when we declare ourselves atheists?

As I am in this process, I can only state the early things that I have given up.

First I will state what I now believe, just to be clear. I have not given up my morals, I still believe that fraud, theft, killing of other humans is wrong. Morals and belief in a supernatural god are totally disconnected. If anything my morals have become more truthful as I no longer hide behind any sort of god. I am responsible for all that I have control over, and not for those things which I have no direct and absolute control over. It is up to me to correct my thinking.

I now "worship" logic and reason, science, facts, truth. although perhaps from a different point of view. The system must work for most (not all, criminals, bureaucracy, control freaks). Some things that I disagree with that the government wishes to enforce are worth just doing and dealing with the aftermath (self euthanasia). Police are thugs with clubs and guns. Avoid as much as possible.

I do not believe in any supernatural deity, anything like life after death, rebirth, any surviving soul, or the like. Death is final. I also recognize that much of what I know is learned from others and some is wrong, but on examination, much of what is wrong is just opinion, and has no value.

My self, as an identity, is a reflection of others, and is not real. I think of self as self because his is how all people I know think, yet I know that self is not a real identity, but a collection of actions and internal belief systems that have developed over this life time. Epigenetics is a big portion of this, which drive many actions. Over these, I have no complete control, only influence.

These beliefs set me aside extended family. Coming out as an atheist, a god free person has caused or resulting in all family essentially cutting of contact. Oh well. How can one condone irrational belief in myself?  Diconnection demonstrates the intolerance of those with religious belief. It was that intolerance of questions that drove my exploration of reality that resulting in the realization that gods are all pigshit smokescreen, and there is nothing there.

Being totally god free has forced me to explore other social groups. Some are possible useful for extended social contact, and others are just as bigoted as the religions. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. Just a reminder of the end value of our life; we are valued by what we leave behind in the minds of others.

Peace is only possible among those who follow the laws. Criminals, and police will always be at each other; Police and drivers in traffic also. Police are now feared, perhaps even hated, certainly not trusted, but trusted to be aggressive, and cause issue that we citizens must deal with correctly else be fined. Entrapment likely. This is one area that society need a bit of improvement.

If the god free wish to become more popular, perhaps we need to replace social institutions with similar institutions. What would a god free church look like? Social club, building community within cities. Provide a safe environment for youth community and team building. Space for recovery programs, and development of non religious, god free recovery programs. The study of human problems and development of workable solutions, not just abandoning the "non-compliant" on top a life of suffering with no hope of parole. There are solutions to most human problems, and most human problems are not a moral failing, although that could be part. Religions have done a poor job, are we, the god free doing likewise? We are responsible to solve all the problems religions solved and more if we are to consider ourselves successes. So becoming god free, we take on responsibility, and lack the methods of dealing with this new responsibility. We give up that carefree attitude that others lives are god's problem.

We learn how bigoted the religious really are. When we see reality for the first time, and later continuously, we see all human problems as fixable, and we see how religion is holding society back from accepting reality. Society is creating some of it's own problems by false beliefs and insisting those beliefs are correct. Oh well, we all die in the end.  

In summary, I have given up the previous extended family connections, some social connections, and taken on a bit more responsibility for my own recovery and that of others. It is still up to them to pick up the hoe and do there part in this garden of life. But in the end, we all just die anyway.  

   

Developing specific OCD like behavior

This post follows http://philosophyofweightmanagement.blogspot.ca/2016/07/learning-to-overcome-epigenetic.html

Developing specific OCD like behavior is a potential solution to epigenetically encoded overeating. The proof of concept is in the doing, but first I need to figure out how to develop in myself those specific behaviors necessary for recovery.

Rigidity, appropriate for offset of overeating, consistency, getting stuck on a specific and light diet may be the solution. It is the rigidity that becomes the essence of OCD, and that may be the key component needed for normalcy of weight. Intolerance of change, intolerance of uncertainty as to suitable food availability, may also be required. These are typical all issues of OCD. 

It it a learned behavior? "Some parents have reported that OCD symptoms occurred almost overnight, as if a switch were flipped; their child went to bed as the child they knew and woke up a stranger. " (http://www.ocdeducationstation.org/ocd-facts/what-causes-ocd) ... or a life decision made for unknown reasons. ... perhaps as the original conscious decision to overeat was made... or is it all just a firm decision... perhaps unconscious decision... made for unconscious reasons...of the reasons are forgotten or move to the unconscious or can all this be done consciously and with reason.... to self induce limited OCD.

Now that I have always had a touch of stubbornness as part of my personality, or is it just persistence... there is another characteristic that can be named negatively or positively and be the same thing... polish the apple or poison the well.    

references http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/2015021313150027.html