Why many prefer lies to the truth

While out for a drive today I noticed a bolt of lightning strike a few miles away (it's been a stormy several weeks with many isolated thunder storms roaming around.) This was one of those bolts that lingered a bit, and since I was looking in that direction from a place higher above the ground (driving on the crest of a bridge) I got a good look at it. That made me think of an analogy to help you to understand why so many people actually prefer lies to the truth! Here it is.

Anyone who has seen a lightning bolt, either in reality or in a cool photograph, knows that lightning usually is long and curved. Sometimes it forks, but usually (especially ground to cloud lightning), it is like a rough rope that is slightly curved.

Yet, if anyone were asked to draw lightning, what would they draw? They would draw the cartoon symbol for lightning, which is the straight zigzag. Even knowing what lightning looks like in reality, if someone were asked to draw it, most would do the zigzag.

(I'd embed images here but I remain a total tyro at using the computer and really don't know how to get it to consistently work on this blog...I almost always get error messages when I try.)

Now, if you asked the person, "Why did you draw the cartoon symbol for lightning, the vertical zigzag, rather than how it actually looks?" the person would reply, "Well, you might not be sure what it was I was drawing if I drew how it actually looks, but if I use the symbol there is no mistaking it."

This is the irony of not only how the human brain is wired, but the conventional societal attitude in communications. Often we make ourselves clearer in conveying an idea by simplifying it into total or near artificiality!

This is both a brain thing and a society thing. Brains want to work "fast" and "get to the point." Hence they are wired to "fill in the blanks" and also to respond to key stimuli. Thus a cartoon of lightning gets the point across faster, more uniformly and clearer rather than even a talented artist drawing a rough line that is slightly curved.

You can see exactly what I mean about what a "bolt" of lightning really looks like by the many fine pictures at this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning

At this lightning safety page, you can see great photos of actual lightning plus small yellow vertical zigzag symbols of lightning, so you can compare what I mean side by side, the reality and the very helpful symbol.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/?n=lightning_safety

But if a person extracted just one lightning bolt and drew it on a piece of paper, it would not be obvious what it is. The person would probably have to explain, or draw scenery to show the context.

Yet, if a person draws a vertical zigzag, nearly everyone recognizes instantly, without context, that it is a depiction of a lightning bolt. If the zigzag is drawn horizontally, it usually indicates electricity symbolically.

So the "survival trait" part of the brain favors pithy, quick, simplified, cartoonish depictions of "reality" so that it can "get the message" and the "bottom line" in a hurry. This is true whether people are in actual danger situations or not. Why? Because the second half of the brain influence is that brains become lazy, just like their human owners. Truth requires more detail, discernment, and thought, while untruth or overly simplified reality does not require much effort to think about.

This, then, is also a societal problem. A consumer oriented society (or, to be blunt, a greedy worship the dollar and instant gratification society) favors fast pitches of their product that provide rapid stimulation. Thus, again, a consumer oriented society favors the lazy brain, one that does not think about the reality, the truth, or the implications of what is being displayed.

So this, then, is where a survival trait that is good in the brain (make great and quick leaps in understanding based on simplified information) turns into an addiction (I don't want to think about anything difficult or complicated, so I'd rather believe something easy to believe rather than something difficult to comprehend).

What is an example? Well, of course a loving, all powerful and demanding God is a complicated, mysterious, "work is required" concept to think about, to believe and to obey. Mindless entertainment and worse, many cult beliefs, such as an "evil alien invader," satisfy the over stimulated but lazy brain demand. Faith is work and even a simple symbol, such as the cross, the Star of David, or the crescent are symbols of a complicated reality. Unfortunately, modern humans have taken their God given great brains, which can process very complicated concepts, but also make great conclusions based on little information, and have turned those two abilities into an addictive thought process whereby the brain craves not reality or truth, even if they are happier and more pleasant options, and instead prefer whatever is simpler and non-thought stimulating, even if that is the sadder and more depressive option.

So you can see by my analogy that this is another example of where a "good" capability of the brain has been increasingly used for the wrong purposes, and has therefore become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

That's why I like my analogy because there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a symbol for clarity, such as the vertical zigzag for a lightning bolt, drawn with a simple stroke of the pen or pencil, rather than a person having to laboriously draw what lightning actually looks like, put it in a landscape for clarity (as in the Wikipedia photographs) and probably label it too. The problem is when the brain grows to prefer intaking only simplified symbols, including ones that are simply NOT real at all, rather than intaking reality, the truth, as it actually is.

Here's a silly example. It's like modern humans think that if they are going to get hit by a lightning bolt, that someone is going to take a piece of paper with a vertical zigzag on it and rub it on them, rather than being hit by the reality of a lightning bolt. That is how modern brains have been warped. They have taken the "talent" that the brain has and made it cross wired, so that the simplified and even the totally wrong has replaced the complicated truthful reality in many situations.

It's like the slogan problem, where people get excited over a nifty chant or slogan to express their beliefs, rather than plumb the more complicated reality that underlies the issue. It is an instinct, a helpful instinct, of the brain that has been transformed into a harmful addiction.

So I hope that this is a helpful analogy for you. This is a very serious problem and those of you who are either rediscovering your genuine faith and/or those who are leaving cults must understand why the temptation to believe the "strong but wrong" is so persistent. Modern brains in the context of an increasingly consumer oriented and very artificial society have come to favor-and even become addicted to-strong but over simplified and often totally wrong lies over truthful but more nuanced and complicated reality that takes time, effort, and some sacrifice in order to actually understand.

Cultist cliches

I thought I'd share with you two cliches of life that the cultists who have stalked me engage in. They are such boring cliches that I almost vomit when I encounter the latest to act out these scripts.

1. They pretend to not know much about computers or the Internet to hide their access to sophisticated computer based stalking. Each stalker I've encountered keeps funnily out of date computers in their public home that they wave their hands at and explain that they "hardly ever use the computer" and being poor have "really old equipment."

In reality, of course, through their cult contacts (they organize themselves like Communist cells) they have access to tremendous computer capability, all used for ungodly stalking and manipulation of others. This has become such a boring canard that it's not even laughable anymore. I first encountered it in 2003 and even today I have cultists around me flapping their hands claiming "Gosh, I don't know nothing about computers!" Then they get their stalking information based on sophisticated secret computer use when they are in their private cell space.

Yuck.

2. They pretend to be poor. They dress shabby and are often assigned a home or apartment that they keep very modest. They complain about costs and act thrifty, even cheap. By doing this they feel that they are "covered" in that the rich have a hard time getting to heaven, so they think they can "tech" being part time poor, and thus be "covered" for being saved.

I mean, that is so ridiculous it's hard to not puke over how far off the message of what Jesus Christ exhorts this cynical manipulation and totally stupid misunderstanding of scripture is.

In 2002 and 2003 I noticed this cliche for the first time. I was supposed to be astonished to see two different people who whined about how poor they are (one of whom took a lot of money from me as a so-called highly recommended carpenter and fixer upper) later appear wearing fashionable leathers and expensive clothes. What I was supposed to think is that through hard work or luck they have "made good." But I realized on the spot that they had this duality of thinking that results in, well, nothing good will come of it, and certainly not salvation.

So many people live this dual life (poor on the outside and hidden wealth) that they can't believe how obvious they are to people like me who are old enough and sane, who remember how people actually do live. I can spot a mile away one of those "poor on the outside" faux home bases and also the people's "costumes" who go with that role.

Question: God, who knows what one will do even before one does it, thinks what about this?

The answer is not that he is "fooled" into thinking that these phonies were "poor" "enough" to "balance out" the wealth they secretly control and thus will "be saved" because they teched their way into heaven. Trust me, I'm telling you this because I'd like to see at least a few people repent and avoid hell, and worship God and respect him and his true Biblical messengers as they should.

Instead, this is what I see every day around me. Watch the falling stone of the lie:

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While you are reading Exodus

Exodus 23: 1-3

"You shall not repeat a false report. Do not join the wicked in putting your hand, as an unjust witness, upon anyone."

[The Lord God is explicitly stating that not only is it a sin to lie for the first person to tell the lie, but it is an explicit sin to repeat the lie. God states this twice in order to be perfectly clear: people are not to repeat the hearing of a lie, and they are not to join groups of people telling lies against someone. How much clearer can that be?]

"Neither shall you allege the example of the many as an excuse for doing wrong..."

[God explicitly warns against the "but everyone else is doing it" excuse for doing wrong. Everyone else sinning is not a reason for a given person to justify doing the same sin.]

"...nor shall you, when testifying in a lawsuit, side with the many in perverting justice."

[God anticipates and spells out the many places of temptation to join in with a group doing wrong, such as in a lawsuit and court setting, and warns not to join in with those who have agreed among themselves to pervert justice.]

"You shall not favor a poor man in his lawsuit."

[God in his all knowing of human nature anticipates the "Robin Hood" mindset of some people to "rob from the rich to give to the poor." God explicitly states that a poor man should not be favored in a lawsuit just to take from the wealthier party. Oh my God, how many times is that broken in this society? Read the Bible people. Integrity and truth must not be meddled without, despite rationales such as "joining the crowd" or "sticking it to the rich man."]