Quote Originally Posted by boost
Ive talked with a few people about our consciousness and decision making capabilities, therefore our free will, is simply a very complex system of chemical reactions. Not only that, but everything is just a series of chemical reactions. Of course quantum physics gives "free will" hope again with its randomness, yada yada.. But anyways my point is that no one that Ive had this discussion with seemed privy to the idea nor did they seem open to it. They normally outright reject it as nonsense.

Why are people so dense? Most people readily accept some iteration of a man living up in the clouds who judges us and decides if we spend all of eternity in paradise or misery. Yet this pretty basic scientific concept is quickly dismissed by them as nonsense. All I can figure is that this reaction is a product of the ego, but then why am I accepting of this idea? Why does my ego not balk at this notion?
I would say you're right about it being the ego. It's also about having a sense of security. Consciousness leaves one very vulnerable, and a hefty method of not succumbing to vulnerability is the sense of understanding, whether it's right or wrong. Intelligence and introspection aren't all good. Studies have shown that dumb people and people who don't question themselves or mundane things or their problems are generally happier and less stressed. These egocentric and delusional beliefs lend themselves heavily to the survival of populations of higher intelligence and consciousness.

As to why you, and some like you, do not balk at some of these notions, I would suggest it lays in humanity's innate inquisitiveness. On the one hand, we are driven to not question, but on the other hand we are. You personally may come from a genetic line that is more inquisitive than others (not necessarily likely since the genetic differences from one human to another are super small), or you may have experienced life in a different manner than most which has provoked your inquisitiveness. I suspect the latter is most likely.

It could also be that we just feel like we have free will, and our brains have evolved to put most credence into how it feels, and thus we consider something that contradicts what we feel to be silly. This is actually an important point. We fool ourselves into anything based on how we feel. In fact, feeling is so powerful that reason is no match. I know that my reason has lost every battle against my emotions I've wielded.

Reality is a fucked thing. It's a bunch of contradictions and paradoxes. Things that are good are also bad, and vise versa. But even that's misleading, because good and bad are just products of our experience, and not objective reality.


Another factor is going to be one of memory, how it's gathered, and how it's stored. The science declares that the details of memories gets lost over time, but the focal point of that memory sticks around. Here's an example: we all know that George Washington was the first president of the US, but none of us remember where or when or how we learned that. Essentially, we have forgotten all the details of that memory, and have only retained the focal point.

This explains why people so readily believe stupid shit. Over time, we forget all the details, but just remember the focal point. So implanting into a child the details of Sky Daddy will instill into that child the idea of Sky Daddy, but the child will forget all the details as to how he came to know of Sky Daddy in the first place. His memory will essentially consider it a given fact since it remembers it.

These studies also show that explaining how something is wrong does not help people with those memories because the simple act of repeating the thing that their brain considers a fact re-engages the memory of the 'fact'. This could also explain why people reject notions that disagree with what they've 'learned' over their lifetimes.


Another interesting, but unrelated thing, I watched a portion of a lecture recently outlining studies done on instilling false memories into people. Basically, 25% of subjects were very easily convinced that they experienced a glaringly false memory (like accidentally setting a wedding dress on fire when they were 7), while another 25% were convinced of less outlandish falsehoods but still convinced of a false memory

Yes, humans are stupid, but what does that say about us since we're human....