Оглавление
Ph.D. Ph.D. Anonymous. Bang! You're Alive
Introduction
You
The truth means the way things really are in nature
Section 1: Starting Points. 1. The Supernatural
Stayin’ alive
René rocks Europe
The brain on autopilot
Believing in fate
Too busy to do anything better
Descartes’ supernatural departure from Earth
The supernatural is always fiction
2. People
Identity
Flip-floppers and hard heads
Temperaments
Conservative utopia or liberal utopia?
Pushing and shoving
Life in the zoo
Noble purple
Conformity required
3. Ideology
This is scary stuff!
Are you easily hypnotized?
When people are hypnotized in different groups
Cerebral sclerosis (hardening of the brain)
Dead believers in a cause and more coming
Religious entrepreneurs vs. Reality
Ideologies find a home in our heads and start remodeling
“Sacred murder”
Hidden, hypnotic commands
Assimilators are everywhere
Learning to believe the irrational
Supernatural explanations for weather
Believing in Our Lady of Road Salt
Believing gravity can be turned off for religious leaders
Believing in evil
Believing that there’s relief in heaven gets expensive
Proud to be a pessimist
Feeling threatened by new discoveries
Nukes
Perspective
4. It’s a Guy Thing
Not one of us
Ours, not yours!
Population for religion
Sexual confessions & punishments
The father’s kingdom
The father & the son
Male-against-male religious violence
The top male exempts himself from the rules
A better game
Limited field of vision
The F-word, teen gangsters & perpetual poverty
Moving up to a better group
Limited language
Specialized language
Left behind
Aware?
The four states of competence
Trying to win the lottery
Heaven Hold’em Poker
Opps again
A god does not protect us from annihilation
Section 2: The Method That Works. 5. How to Figure Things Out
The method
The betterment of all people
A social miracle of the first order
6. Big Perspective
Starry eyed
7. Discovery
The Mexican & the Moon
Shortcomings
Where did all matter & energy come from?
Beyond god
A cave, space aliens, a shape shifter & breast milk
Black holes suck
Yet here we are scoping it out!
Night vision
“Heads? God wants it that way. Tails? God wants it that way.”
God as a man?
The goal
Dust to dust
The spiritual experience
What do people need?
What's missing for many people?
8. Star Chemistry Gone Wild
Star chemistry becomes sexy
Recent ancestors
Generations
Tool time
A new tool
More smart people made from star dust
9. A Stellar Understanding
That’s deep!
Un-cool was actually very cool
You have a right from birth to be taught physics
Everything is physics (literally)
Only science takes us to the heavens
Resetting the calendar
“Is that all there is?”
10. Bodies & More Bodies
Survival
Do you really know what you are?
The parents
Superior armament
Why do people grow old and die?
Get it?
A sudden awakening to the true nature of life
Variations on the norm
Changing of the guard
For young, fertile people
11. Evolution Confirmed
What theory?
“Ain’t no such thing as evil-ution!” said an elderly churchgoer
Left standing
Perfect design
Design flaws in humans & our corrections for them
Vegetarian Jurassic Park
Teaching wars
The pocket watch that assembled itself in a tumbler
Totally depressed?
Stacy’s mom?
Counter-intuitive
It all started where?
The toughest survivor & replicator
Is God choosing our DNA?” asked a New Age woman
Natural selection
Pastor Thomas Condon & Cardinal Paul Poupard
Jesus without religion
“There ain’t no monkeys in my family tree! Sorry ‘bout yours.”
Self esteem after understanding evolution
12. Inside Nature
Precious information
Mass
Electric Charge
The Elements
Water
Cosmic Principle
The Problem of Consciousness
Beyond atheism
More perfect conditions
Section 3: Cultures Can Kill. 13. Theogenesis
—Harry Browne
Theogenesis (the creation of god)
Gods, gods & more gods
Religious enterprises & the hostile takeover
The Wailing Wall
Competing confusions
Dot com opportunity
Political opportunity
14. Christians or Egyptians?
Protected by polytheism
The earliest monotheist
Fundamental theme in the second coming of Jesus
Worship day
God money
15. Beyond Belief Systems
Martin Luther opens the cage
Business
Brain circuitry
Imagining a vengeful god
Ancient progressives & conservatives
Splinter Groups
Hindus & Buddhists
Trying to get moral behavior from the masses
Karma runs over dogma
Hope — The Daily Need
The formula for hope & happiness
16. Fire and Brimstone
Faith
Disagreement
Here’s a really painful example of “faith-based (inner) knowing”
Wine
All belief is pure grief
The Apostle Paul on the International Space Station
An analysis of Hell
The history of the word Hell
Old, old words
HOLY SMOKE! Human sacrifice in Jerusalem
Marketing Christ to Moloch worshipers & Roman gladiator fans
Irrational, presidential belief
New Age religion
What about the estimated 30% of scientists who claim to believe in god?
17. For Recovering Believers
The Sergeant
American folk religion
Wars & genes
Nuclear war for religion
Anarchy & mayhem?
Dominionism = Domination
Intelligent design
Taxpayers are paying for the religions
“We just want to live a Christ-centered life,” said Jenny
18. Meaning
Suicide bombers & rattlesnakes
Big Religion = Big Business
Each religion claims to have the absolute truth
Verifiable
Contagious ideas (scary stuff continued)
Pyramid scheme
Moral-ethical living without scriptures or belief in an afterlife
Three flavors of monotheism – Three contagious ideas
Contagious ideas of science?
Fishing for dominance
19. Political Religion
Elections in the U.S
The U.S.A. was meant to be a Christian nation?
Arabs
Section 4: The Best Life. 20. Love
Heterosexual love
Real men love Jesus
I love my Yorkie
Eros amplified to distortion
Eros for money
Alternative reproduction strategies
Success formula for parents
Genetic agape love
God’s love
Unconditional love
21. Optimal Living
Happiness science
Sick minds
Healthy minds
First step to the good life
Second step to the good life
Benefits
“But I need a group to belong to”
There are far better groups to belong to
22. Win-Win
The four games
Beware of people programmed for Lose-Lose
23. Human Potential
Genius
Knowledge is strength
What could you do?
Is this likely?
Back to school
Escape & gain speed
But what if you can’t learn or remember easily?
Demand change!
Church colleges
A bad trend & how to fix it
Hook yourself up
24. Kindness
Temperament
Under intense psychological pressure?
A sense of belonging to a good group
The Unembellished Jesus
Your character
The formula for optimal character
Kindness
25. The Future
The end of religious delusions & god wars
26. Debriefing
The Big Three Questions
Where did we come from?
Why are we here?
Where are we going after death?
The real revelation
Somebody ought to do something
Appendices. A. Personal Responsibility
B. Internet resources
C. Amateur Preacher
D. How Groupthink Works
Symptoms of groupthink
E. Changing One’s Mind
F. If Stars Were Druggies
G. Huge Population Growth
