Are people of religious conviction stupid? Not at all! They are experiencing a “dumb drop.” A dumb drop is the opposite mind phenomenon of the intelligence spike that idiot savants display. An idiot savant is an imbecile individual (or mentally challenged to be politically correct) of well below normal intelligence level who displays a talent, such as for music or mathematics, that is at a normal or above normal level. This spike above the imbecile level has to be provided by genetics and is what is seen in reverse in religious adherents. It is one of two ways that the VMAT2 gene (please Google) works. First it provides impetus to develop religious feelings and then it provides the stamina for perpetuation of these feelings. The first trait of impetus for acquisition works just like language. We as humans are epigenetically programmed to speak a language and the language we speak we acquire from our parents. We similarly satisfy the genetic need for religion by acquiring it from our parents. Religious teachings are what would now be called memes that are supported by genetic propensities.

 

You say your religion is about having faith! GOOD BOY! GOOD BOY! You are a good little animal blindly following instinct from your old animal brain and and like a good little doggie doing exactly what your gene master is telling you to do! Once imprinted at a deep unconscious level there is no questioning of that imprint for most people, it is true old brain animal thinking. Your falling back on that old chestnut is a completely emotional response that you cannot find any rational or intelligent support for – in other words old animal brain thinking. The genetic old animal brain lord moves in mysterious ways.

 

The second genetic trait of push of perpetuation is of course also found in other traits than just religion. Modern research is finding more and more that we are not “independent, free thinking individuals” but unconscious slaves to older animal brain thoughts where we don’t apply our human higher brain thinking. A very revealing example is the Incest Taboo. We know a lot about this taboo because of the history of the Israeli kibbutzim. In a kibbutz a common element is that everything is held in common, even child raising. This means that while the members of any kibbutz can include families fron across the planet, the children were raised as members of one family; any child can be attended to, and even breast fed, by any female. It is very telling that the children so raised always went outside their own kibbutz (their family) to find mates. The Incest Taboo is Mother Nature’s way to avoid the negative effects of inbreading. The way this “to close family” takes place (a gene is not very geneology astute) is that people you grow up with (as a family) are your “too close family” for the gene. Once imprinted, “family” just like religion, becomes a lifelong perpetuation and is automatically followed from subconscious forces without thinking.

 

An imprint can be changed but as Jesus said this is a major effort of “being born again.” The Incest Taboo is religiously applied even if the factual diversity doesn’t require it. This is following your old animal brain directives. In the case of incest it is mostly productive as there is no tangible way for many people to know to avoid relationships with people who might create inbreading problems. In the case of religion it is an abrogation of our human higher brain thinking. In primitive societies religion is useful but in civilized ones it is often outdated. Using Christianity as an example, we have evolved 2000 years since its creation and away from the rural mideast society of its origins, it is not in step with a modern mindset or life. The genetic driven tendency of perpetuation is what keeps otherwise intelligent people from thinking intelligently about, or questioning, the underpinnings and tenants of their religion, hence a dumb drop. Instead of being a Christian, be “born again” into the truth.

 

 THE CHRISTIANITY EXAMPLE

An example of the nonsense that can be is that most Christians don’t realize that the Jesus story of the Gospels is a rather direct plagiarism of the concurrent neighboring Egyptian god Horus story. Both are just cycles of the prehistoric man-god myth that can be found first recorded as much as 5000 years ago in the writings of the Egyptian mystery school’s documents, such as the Pyramid Texts of Egypt (c. 3000 B.C.E.)

 

Like many cult leaders of his day Jesus can be assumed to have been a charismatic orator, but one who lead an otherwise humdrum undramatic life except for being strung up as a common criminal. This ignoble death must have given the early cult leaders a Herculean headache with gaining new converts. Fortunately neighboring Egypt provided a similar death scenario for their god Horus with a positive spin by proclaiming that Horus died as a self-sacrifice to save the followers from sin. (Most often it is held that Horus died by scorpion bite while tied to a tree. Horus is however closely pictured and associated with the cruciform figure, a nice similarity that possibly originally drew and inspired cult leaders who were looking for rationalization and justification for the crucifixion.) Some of the early cult leaders were no sluggards in co-opting this salvation meme myth and then it was a short step to copycat other elements of the Horus myth to dress up the Jesus story with needed drama.

 

The Council of Nicaea chose the retold Horus story for the Bible they cobbled together from among the thirty two Jesus stories that were available to it. Committees are notorious for getting things wrong but the rise of Christianity in this case proves the saying that the end (a successful religion) justifies the means (choosing a dramatic man-god story also found in the Horus religion). It is unlikely they were not aware of the success of the retold Horus narrative in gaining converts and moving people, after all, the story was successful enough to appear in four retellings, the four Gospels. The man-god story would also have appealed to the Emperor Constantine, the originating patron benefactor of the Council, as suitable for his newly adopted religion.

 

The Gospel Jesus story with exciting copycat sales pitch details is a composite story for the very practical reason of expediency in convert drawing power. The word “marketing” may not have been invented yet but that doesn’t mean the precepts cannot be followed intuitively. The world’s most populous religion is no different than any other and is the product of myth memes.

 

EXTERNAL RESOURCES

I am not alone in my thoughts here. A no less illustrious thinker than Freud found that the Horus/Christ and other similarities showed that the Bible was a total lifting from the meme myths of Ancient Egypt, Sumer and Babylon. You can also Google “Jesus Horus” (for pro and con: the adherents just won’t let go of their imprinted memes) or ‘man gods” and find a plethora of information supporting wide spread dispersion of the meme man-god myth. (Check out the Krishna myth for man-god similarities to Jesus.) A very good analysis of the myths that shape our culture can be found in the DVD lectures of Joseph Campbell, and pay especial attention to what he says in the first lecture of the Mythos 1 series about the Shadow self. (it supports the religious imprinting discussed above.)

 

CHECK IT OUT!

You can print out a PDF version for further lucubration. Better still take this to your friendly neighborhood priest and see what religious orthodoxy he has to counter these analyses. His dumb drop should be strong and deep. Watch for an emotional answer that doesn’t say anything except to admonish you to blindly (old animal brain thinking) believe. In effect saying: This is all wrong, Trust Me! HE JUST FLUNKED THE INTELLIGENCE TEST!

 

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This entry was posted by AwenMan on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.