ego and religion

[Athena]

Someone reminded me of the relationship between ego and religion. It is really great believing we are more than worms and actually have a divine purpose to fulfil here on earth. However, this is a double edged sword. It can make us obnoxious ass holes, even when we are athiest and think our devine purpose is convincing everyone God does not exist and religion is the problem. Or religion can make us very humble and honorable people who contribute much to the betterment of mankind.

I have temporarily changed my avatar to Shiva. This symbol represents the need to overcome our egos, which are the source of our suffering and motivation for causing others to suffer. Our egos can get in the way of our own growth and be the cause of severely limited our lives- “I have always been this way and I have no intensions of change”. This kind of ego domination is hurtful to ourselves and others. It is a delusion because we are so much more than our limited ego, who is afraid change means death. “I don’t want to grow up”. Changing what we believe, can most definately cause us to feel threatened, as though we are will die, if we believe differently than we do today. Who am I if everything I believe is wrong?

Our egos are formed between the time we are born and age 8, when our brains literally change, and begin functioning differently. These egos are built on an indiscriminate assimulation of information, and our heads can be filled with my irrational and even false ideas. From age 8 to age 30 our egos remain flexable. Our brains are not fully developed until age 25, and for this reason, children should not be treated as adults in court, and legal restrictions should apply to young people. By age 30 our egos are consolidated and change very little. What we think may change. We can learn better coping skills, and therefore, be more successful in life. Life changes from childhood, to our parenting years, and past our parenting years, demand a change in archetypes and a change in how we understand our position in society. A female moves from Presphonie to Demeter to maybe Athena. But our basic ego is something we have to live with through all these changes.

I think Hinduism offers us the best lessons for living with our egos. Christianity teachers us to be humble, charitable, and forgiving. So does Islam. What are your thoughts about this?

[Ned_Flanders]

@Athena

Someone reminded me of the relationship between ego and religion. It is really great believing we are more than worms and actually have a divine purpose to fulfil here on earth. However, this is a double edged sword. It can make us obnoxious ass holes, even when we are athiest and think our devine purpose is convincing everyone God does not exist and religion is the problem. Or religion can make us very humble and honorable people who contribute much to the betterment of mankind.

I have temporarily changed my avatar to Shiva. This symbol represents the need to overcome our egos, which are the source of our suffering and motivation for causing others to suffer. Our egos can get in the way of our own growth and be the cause of severely limited our lives- “I have always been this way and I have no intensions of change”. This kind of ego domination is hurtful to ourselves and others. It is a delusion because we are so much more than our limited ego, who is afraid change means death. “I don’t want to grow up”. Changing what we believe, can most definately cause us to feel threatened, as though we are will die, if we believe differently than we do today. Who am I if everything I believe is wrong?

Our egos are formed between the time we are born and age 8, when our brains literally change, and begin functioning differently. These egos are built on an indiscriminate assimulation of information, and our heads can be filled with my irrational and even false ideas. From age 8 to age 30 our egos remain flexable. Our brains are not fully developed until age 25, and for this reason, children should not be treated as adults in court, and legal restrictions should apply to young people. By age 30 our egos are consolidated and change very little. What we think may change. We can learn better coping skills, and therefore, be more successful in life. Life changes from childhood, to our parenting years, and past our parenting years, demand a change in archetypes and a change in how we understand our position in society. A female moves from Presphonie to Demeter to maybe Athena. But our basic ego is something we have to live with through all these changes.

I think Hinduism offers us the best lessons for living with our egos. Christianity teachers us to be humble, charitable, and forgiving. So does Islam. What are your thoughts about this?

I think Christianity is a great antidote to ego and self-absorption. We are told that we are sinners who deserve death unless we receive God’s mercy. This should keep every Christian humble. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

[shotgun]

You do, of course, realize…that you have given us no reason at all to think that causing others to suffer is a bad thing.

[Nah]

@Athena

Or religion can make us very humble and honorable people who contribute much to the betterment of mankind.

I think it’s better to be honestly ego-centric than pretending to be humble and honorable for the fear of hell and/or the desire to get reward. Although pretending might be fun for some, and there is nothing absolutely wrong pretending to be smart, great, enlightened, asshole, whatever, I guess it does complicate the life and the sufferings.

But if someone prefer to live more complicated life/sufferings, then why not pretending, believing religion or atheism, communism, democracy US flag, whatever you like.

I have temporarily changed my avatar to Shiva. This symbol represents the need to overcome our egos, which are the source of our suffering and motivation for causing others to suffer. Our egos can get in the way of our own growth and be the cause of severely limited our lives- “I have always been this way and I have no intensions of change”. This kind of ego domination is hurtful to ourselves and others. It is a delusion because we are so much more than our limited ego, who is afraid change means death. “I don’t want to grow up”. Changing what we believe, can most definitely cause us to feel threatened, as though we are will die, if we believe differently than we do today. Who am I if everything I believe is wrong?

I’m not sure if we can “overcome” the ego, as such intention itself arises from the ego and thus remain within the realm of ego, so to say.
Also, I think the cause of suffering to be the existence itself, rather than “human ego”, although it might contribute to make the suffering a little more complicated/intense/etc.

I guess you are talking about the rigid frozen beliefs as ego, but there can be different type/level of ego.

Our egos are formed between the time we are born and age 8, when our brains literally change, and begin functioning differently. These egos are built on an indiscriminate assimulation of information, and our heads can be filled with my irrational and even false ideas. From age 8 to age 30 our egos remain flexable. Our brains are not fully developed until age 25, and for this reason, children should not be treated as adults in court, and legal restrictions should apply to young people. By age 30 our egos are consolidated and change very little. What we think may change.

I think my basic ego was there when I became aware at the age of 3 and it remained basically the same, since then.
Maybe I’m a bit strange, but you may want to know that there are different kind of ego/human-mind in this world.

My view of the world, human, etc have changed. My state of awareness has been changing. My stupidities have changed. My abilities and inabilities have changed. But my basic ego, the consciousness seem to be the same.

Again, maybe you are talking about the memories/beliefs as ego, and not considering other elements that might be making up different levels of ego.

We can learn better coping skills, and therefore, be more successful in life. Life changes from childhood, to our parenting years, and past our parenting years, demand a change in archetypes and a change in how we understand our position in society. A female moves from Presphonie to Demeter to maybe Athena. But our basic ego is something we have to live with through all these changes.

I think Hinduism offers us the best lessons for living with our egos. Christianity teachers us to be humble, charitable, and forgiving. So does Islam. What are your thoughts about this?

As there are different types of people with different ego construction and different desire set, I don’t think one way fit everyone.
Generally, I consider the Communism to be the worst and very stupid religion, followed by teachings of Confucius, 3 stupid brothers of Monotheism (Islam, Jewish, Christianity) and cults/sects related to them, survivor/winner cult, feminism/gay-lesbian cult, capitalism/democracy, humanism/ecology, and so on.
In short, I think all organized movements/religion to be somewhat harmful for our egoistic satisfaction.

But again, if someone wants to live and suffer in a more complicated manner, probably religions (including Communism, atheism, etc) and especially organized religions/movements are the way to go.

Recap:

Ego may think about ovecoming “ego”, complicating the life even more, which can be fun for some, boring or more painful for others.

[anon]

I don’t know Nah, that was kind of a complicated answer.

[Nah]

@anon

I don’t know Nah, that was kind of a complicated answer.

I didn’t think it was complicated, but I provided the “recap” for you, in advance.

[Athena]

@Nah

@Athena

Or religion can make us very humble and honorable people who contribute much to the betterment of mankind.

I think it’s better to be honestly ego-centric than pretending to be humble and honorable for the fear of hell and/or the desire to get reward. Although pretending might be fun for some, and there is nothing absolutely wrong pretending to be smart, great, enlightened, asshole, whatever, I guess it does complicate the life and the sufferings.

But if someone prefer to live more complicated life/sufferings, then why not pretending, believing religion or atheism, communism, democracy US flag, whatever you like.

I have temporarily changed my avatar to Shiva. This symbol represents the need to overcome our egos, which are the source of our suffering and motivation for causing others to suffer. Our egos can get in the way of our own growth and be the cause of severely limited our lives- “I have always been this way and I have no intensions of change”. This kind of ego domination is hurtful to ourselves and others. It is a delusion because we are so much more than our limited ego, who is afraid change means death. “I don’t want to grow up”. Changing what we believe, can most definitely cause us to feel threatened, as though we are will die, if we believe differently than we do today. Who am I if everything I believe is wrong?

I’m not sure if we can “overcome” the ego, as such intention itself arises from the ego and thus remain within the realm of ego, so to say.
Also, I think the cause of suffering to be the existence itself, rather than “human ego”, although it might contribute to make the suffering a little more complicated/intense/etc.

I guess you are talking about the rigid frozen beliefs as ego, but there can be different type/level of ego.

Our egos are formed between the time we are born and age 8, when our brains literally change, and begin functioning differently. These egos are built on an indiscriminate assimulation of information, and our heads can be filled with my irrational and even false ideas. From age 8 to age 30 our egos remain flexable. Our brains are not fully developed until age 25, and for this reason, children should not be treated as adults in court, and legal restrictions should apply to young people. By age 30 our egos are consolidated and change very little. What we think may change.

I think my basic ego was there when I became aware at the age of 3 and it remained basically the same, since then.
Maybe I’m a bit strange, but you may want to know that there are different kind of ego/human-mind in this world.

My view of the world, human, etc have changed. My state of awareness has been changing. My stupidities have changed. My abilities and inabilities have changed. But my basic ego, the consciousness seem to be the same.

Again, maybe you are talking about the memories/beliefs as ego, and not considering other elements that might be making up different levels of ego.

We can learn better coping skills, and therefore, be more successful in life. Life changes from childhood, to our parenting years, and past our parenting years, demand a change in archetypes and a change in how we understand our position in society. A female moves from Presphonie to Demeter to maybe Athena. But our basic ego is something we have to live with through all these changes.

I think Hinduism offers us the best lessons for living with our egos. Christianity teachers us to be humble, charitable, and forgiving. So does Islam. What are your thoughts about this?

As there are different types of people with different ego construction and different desire set, I don’t think one way fit everyone.
Generally, I consider the Communism to be the worst and very stupid religion, followed by teachings of Confucius, 3 stupid brothers of Monotheism (Islam, Jewish, Christianity) and cults/sects related to them, survivor/winner cult, feminism/gay-lesbian cult, capitalism/democracy, humanism/ecology, and so on.
In short, I think all organized movements/religion to be somewhat harmful for our egoistic satisfaction.

But again, if someone wants to live and suffer in a more complicated manner, probably religions (including Communism, atheism, etc) and especially organized religions/movements are the way to go.

Recap:

Ego may think about ovecoming “ego”, complicating the life even more, which can be fun for some, boring or more painful for others.

You seem extremely knowledgeable. I look forward to you continuing your arguement with knowledge of the religions and philosophies of which you speak. I assume, what you have said so far is just an introduction to your vast knowledge.

What I said of brain development comes from science. Yes, you would be unusual if your organic brain, did not follow the normal stages of development. That might be supernatural and I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I am open minded. Hum, we are so complex. We have reasons for wanting to believe in the supernatural, and also reasons for wanting assurance that everything follows the laws of nature and the supernatural is not possible.

[Athena]

@Ned Flanders

I think Christianity is a great antidote to ego and self-absorption. We are told that we are sinners who deserve death unless we receive God’s mercy. This should keep every Christian humble. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

Perhaps we can reason through this idea that we are sinners and deserve death unless we over come our faults. Are you aware of all the mythology that came to this same conclusion? This is a great subject for philosophers to ponder, and I am out of time, so have to leave you with the question, and one more thing- who can explane the Sumarian explanation of wrong doing, and what Socrates thinks about why we do wrong?

[Nah]

@Athena

You seem extremely knowledgeable. I look forward to you continuing your arguement with knowledge of the religions and philosophies of which you speak. I assume, what you have said so far is just an introduction to your vast knowledge.

I don’t consider myself to be knowledgeable.
I only learn what I need or what I want to know. So, I don’t have vast systematic/academic type of knowledge.
And I do hate most religions and never practiced any of them knowingly, thus I’m not really an expert in religion, either.
But I think I do understand the basic mechanism behind many types of beliefs, religious or not.

What I said of brain development comes from science. Yes, you would be unusual if your organic brain, did not follow the normal stages of development. That might be supernatural and I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I am open minded. Hum, we are so complex. We have reasons for wanting to believe in the supernatural, and also reasons for wanting assurance that everything follows the laws of nature and the supernatural is not possible.

I have experiences that can be classified as “supernatural”. But I consider everything to be “natural”, and I don’t know how to distinguish “supernatural” from “natural”.
Law of physics currently known are just bunch of “useful” theories that seem to be valid within certain parameters/conditions.
When we throw in other parameters/conditions or relatively unknown factors that can affect things come into the action, we may see things that may appear as “supernatural”. But I think they are simply rare phenomenas.
As almost any knowledge is limited and partial, I don’t limit myself within the boundary/imagination of current science.

As for my awareness bing same since 3 years old, I don’t think it’s something very special.
The brain function and knowledge may change, but the basic awareness or its nature may not.
At least for me, personally, it seems that the awayness and the core nature are somewhat “timeless” and thus always the same, while everything surrounding has been changing all the time.