|
Big D So the meaning
and the significance it has is artificial; it’s arbitrary; it’s made up.
It’s not inherent in the movement of the football, itself.
It’s made up of the individual beliefs, the collective beliefs, and the
agreements made between all the people involved with, or watching, the movement
of that leather covered balloon. The
significance is in the people, not in the football.
Likewise,
a wide variety of meanings can be applied to anything and everything
humans experience in life. The
meaning of any experience has much more to do with the person having the
experience than it has to do with the external experience itself.
Its meaning is the meaning that the person chooses to give to it.
Everyone chooses their own meaning based upon their past experiences, and based
upon their own belief system and by focusing
on particular aspects of the experience and by ignoring other aspects.
Let
me give you an absurd example of an event having more than one meaning.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, more than 3,000 humans were
wantonly murdered simply because they happened to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time. While hundreds of
million of people were shocked and appalled by that event, a large number of
Palestinians were shouting with joy, dancing in the street, and passing out
candy.
Why?
Because their religious and social structure gives power and prestige to
religious fanatics who have a very dysfunctional view of reality.
The people dancing and shouting were taught that they were victims and
that Americans were the villains. The
significance they placed on that event was a product of their misguided training
and conditioning and obviously, not inherent in the event itself.
T.L.C. But that was an
exception.
Big D Was it?
It’s an extreme example, yes, but it is far from an exception.
They were celebrating because their equally
ignorant, religious leaders had taught them that such an
event was a good thing. Violent
religious extremists, regardless of what religion they're peddling, are a global curse on humanity.
You
have anti-abortion zealots in this country that think murder and arson are OK.
Catholics and Protestants are killing each other in Ireland.
Moslems and Christians are still killing each other in Bosnia. Moslems and Jews are killing each other in the Middle
East. And in Afghanistan,
until recently, you had Moslem extremists enslaving their women and killing anybody who is not a
fanatic Moslem extremist.
T.L.C. How does that
relate to the abortion controversy?
Big D
The same
principles apply to abortion.
The
religious beliefs and mental conditioning within the observer determine what the
event means..
By their very nature, religious beliefs are based on assumptions, not on factual
evidence..
What
abortion means has everything to do with the assumptions people make based on
their religious beliefs. And,
for most people, their beliefs are a product of the religious and cultural
environment in which they spent their first seven years of life.
T.L.C. Why do people
believe in the religion they believe in?
Big D For most
people, the answer is “For one reason and one reason only -- because that's
the belief they learned as a very young child.”
Their beliefs are a product of their conditioning and have nothing to do
with the religion itself. Why is it
that most people believe in the same religion that their parents believed
in?
T.L.C.
OK, Why?
Big D
Because
the belief doesn't come from the religion. It comes from the
people.
T.L.C. And now relate
that to abortion.
Big D Each
side sees abortion from its own point of view.
Each side believes the story on their side and gives their perspective
great meaning. At the same time, they disbelieve or ignore the
perspective of the other side.
Abortion
has the same problem as any other religious controversy.
There are those who are so adamant in their religious beliefs that they
attempt to force their beliefs into others.
Some religious fanatics are so far out of touch with reality that they
are literally insane. For them, the end justifies the means. -- any means
including mayhem, arson, and murder.
But,
regardless of how emotional one get over the abortion issue, the significance of
terminating a pregnancy is still only the significance each person brings to it.
That significance is arbitrary; it’s made up, and it stems from the
personal and religious beliefs of the person who made it up. You might also note that the anti-abortion leaders are being
very successful at programming their beliefs into the minds of the public..
T.L.C. So religion
plays a major role in the abortion controversy.
Big D Not just a
major role. Religious belief
plays the major role.
Just observing the people on both sides of this issue ought to make that
abundantly clear.
T.L.C. What do you
mean?
Big D The
anti-abortion side is made up almost exclusively of conservative Christians with
behind-the-scene support from the Roman Catholic Hierarchy.
People on the pro-choice side come from a vide variety of religious and
philosophical backgrounds.
T.L.C. So it’s
conservative Christians against everyone else.
Big D That’s an
oversimplification, but it’s also reasonably accurate.
T.L.C. Can we get
specific? What religious
assumptions are you talking about?
Big D I’m about to
get into those assumptions; however, there is one other topic we need to look at
first, and that is the way humans perceive their earthly experiences.
T.L.C. Is this another
of the keys you mentioned?
Big D Yes,
it's called Selective
Perception..
.
Continued on Page Two:
Selective
Perception
|
.