Searching for GOD...

[Alan Burns]

Our sense of shame, of guilt, our inner conscience, these things are evolutionary adaptations that help to keep our behaviours within certain tolerances. They are highly refined mechanisms in humans because we are an intensely social species, depending on mutual cooperation for survival so we have evolved an instinctive aversion for antisocial behaviours.  This speaks nothing to the free will debate; it is par for the course that nature operates this way, imbuing us over time with instinctive tendencies based on emotional responses that optimise our chances for survival.  Following birth of a child for instance, mother and baby bond forming intense loving attachments, not just because mother acts out of cold reasoned logic that the child needs care, but because both mother and child are flooded with the neuropeptide oxytocin creating intense instinctive feelings of love.  When hunters go out for a kill, they do so not merely out of reason, to find food, in fact most modern day hunters do not eat their kill anyway, they do so out of excitement, these feelings we have come courtesy of neurotransmitters dopamine and adrenalin, and again this is how behaviours evolve.  During the hundreds of millenia of the palaeolithic when humankind was refining its behavioural phenotype, noone would have stopped to argue about neurotransmitters or philosophical questions about will; all that mattered was that our behaviours were efficiently optimised for a social hominen group survival strategy, and we are still living with the dispositions fashioned in those long ago millenia.  Shall I go and beat up the old lady next door and take her life savings ?  Well, no, despite understanding the ultimately deterministic nature of mind, I won't do it because I will feel bad about it nonetheless, I would be miserable and I don't want that. We are emotional creatures acting on feelings more than logic, feelings that were millions of years in the making are not going to go away any time soon.

So love is explained as just an intense dose of neuropeptide oxytocin. 

I prefer St Paul's definition:

Love is always patient and kind.
It is never jealous.
Love is never boastful or conceited.
It is never rude or selfish.
It does not take offense and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people’s faults, but delights in the truth.
It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Love does not come to an end

[Walt Zingmatilder]

So love is explained as just an intense dose of neuropeptide. 

I prefer St Paul's definition:

Love is always patient and kind.
It is never jealous.
Love is never boastful or conceited.
It is never rude or selfish.
It does not take offense and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth.
It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Love does not come to an end

Yes that is a bit reductionist isn't it.

The reductionist explanation of anything patently more complicated reminds me of whichever X man could transform himself into water and thence escape down the drain.

[Leonard James]

So love is explained as just an intense dose of neuropeptide oxytocin. 

I prefer St Paul's definition:

Love is always patient and kind.
It is never jealous.
Love is never boastful or conceited.
It is never rude or selfish.
It does not take offense and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people’s faults, but delights in the truth.
It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Love does not come to an end

Yes, you and Paul are incurable romantics, Alan.

But I'm afraid the phenomenon of life is far from romantic.

[Alan Burns]

Yes, you and Paul are incurable romantics, Alan.

But I'm afraid the phenomenon of life is far from romantic.

And I am sure we all have a romantic side, including you Len, so where does it come from?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I am not sure I have ever done romantic. My husband and I were pretty matter of fact in the run up to our marriage 4 years after we first met.

That is the kind of opening line that leaves one hooked and dangling in the expectation of a great read.

Please tell on.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Vlad,

Yes I am an old romantic

The next line.

"But over the years as we struggled with life's up and downs"

Your turn.

Gonnagle.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Dear Vlad,

Yes I am an old romantic

The next line.

"But over the years as we struggled with life's up and downs"

Your turn.

Gonnagle.

Mr G

I was rather thinking along the lines of ''after some time though our exchange of antichristian literature through the post became somehow more urgent''.....................

[Gonnagle]

Dear Vlad,

Keep doing what you are doing, your sense of humour is beacon, a wonderful shining light

Gonnagle.

[floo]

That is the kind of opening line that leaves one hooked and dangling in the expectation of a great read.

Please tell on.

What do you mean?

[Leonard James]

And I am sure we all have a romantic side, including you Len, so where does it come from?

I think it stems from when evolution produced social species, thus introducing the instinct to put the group before the individual and immediate family. Caring for others spawned romance.

Just my opinion, of course.

[torridon]

So love is explained as just an intense dose of neuropeptide oxytocin. 

I prefer St Paul's definition:

Love is always patient and kind.
It is never jealous.
Love is never boastful or conceited.
It is never rude or selfish.
It does not take offense and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people’s faults, but delights in the truth.
It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Love does not come to an end

St Pauls description is moving, granted.  I am always moved by Psalm 23, it is such powerful writing. I think we are all capable of two fundamental ways of thinking, the mythical/romantic/poetic on one hand, and the analytic on the other, this polar opposite tension is in each one of us; central to the human condition, it derives from the fact that we are all split brained, anatomically, and given that we all have essentially a brain that is really an amalgam of two separate brains I find it a thing of wonder that we have a feeling of a single point of focus and selfhood at all.   Our analytical side has been in the ascendent in the Western world now for three hundred years as science has gradually been undermining the enchantment and replacing it wth matter of fact insights that are not flattering or comforting in nature, but these insights have improved our healthcare in particular, so gradually we come to endorse the value of methodical approaches. As individuals, we negotiate this compromise, which in its simplest form comes down to this - do we enjoy this life we have, or do we try to understand it; these two do not make for easy bedfellows.

[Alan Burns]

As individuals, we negotiate this compromise, which in its simplest form comes down to this - do we enjoy this life we have, or do we try to understand it; these two do not make for easy bedfellows.

It seems to me that the more we try to understand our existence, the more complexity and mystery we uncover.  I am sure God made our lives to be loved and enjoyed rather than understood.

[Leonard James]

I don't see why we can't do both ... enjoy life and try to understand it too. In fact I'm sure that is what most of us do.

The split seems to come between people who are able to understand and enjoy life without the necessity of a god, and those who are unable to do so.

[SusanDoris]

It seems to me that the more we try to understand our existence, the more complexity and mystery we uncover.  I am sure God made our lives to be loved and enjoyed rather than understood.

I listened to a short part of Sunday on R4 this morning and the Pope has apparently told people in Africa that God doesn't want war. At which point I turned off!

[Gonnagle]

Dear Susan,

I listened to a short part of Sunday on R4 this morning and the Pope has apparently told people in Africa that God doesn't want war. At which point I turned off!

God hates war but his children seem to be obsessed with it.

Gonnagle.

[floo]

Dear Susan,

God hates war but his children seem to be obsessed with it.

Gonnagle.

How do you know it hates war? It seems to have a lot of violence attributed to it in the Bible!

[Leonard James]

Dear Susan,

God hates war but his children seem to be obsessed with it.

Gonnagle.

I don't think so, Gonners, the majority of people just want to live at peace. It's mostly the fantical god-followers that want war.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Floo,

Very true, and in your opinion, who wrote the Bible?

Gonnagle.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Leonard,

I don't think so, Gonners, the majority of people just want to live at peace. It's mostly the fantical god-followers that want war.

God hates war but some of his psychopathic children seem to be obsessed with it.

Hows that.

Gonnagle.

[floo]

Dear Floo,

Very true, and in your opinion, who wrote the Bible?

Gonnagle.

The documents which make up the Bible are very human productions, imo.

[SusanDoris]

Dear Floo,

Very true, and in your opinion, who wrote the Bible?

Gonnagle

One doesn't have to have an opinion on this, the only species which has language and can write is the human one.

[Leonard James]

Dear Leonard,

Hows that.

Gonnagle.

Better! Maybe you could put in a word asking him to help them when you are next in touch. 

[Gonnagle]

Dear Susan,

One doesn't, does one, anyway hows yourself on this wet and wild Sunday afternoon.

Dear Leonard,

Better! Maybe you could put in a word asking him to help them when you are next in touch.

In touch with him all the time at the moment, a real God botherer.

Gonnagle.

[Ricky Spanish]

Really, you're in touch with your God all the time?

What is it telling you right now and where is it touching you?

[Alan Burns]

I listened to a short part of Sunday on R4 this morning and the Pope has apparently told people in Africa that God doesn't want war. At which point I turned off!

How did the early Christians overcome the mighty Roman Empire?  They did not use violence or war.  They did it by living out the profound message of the gospels:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and strength, and your neighbour as yourself. Sadly we seem to have lost the faith, courage and conviction of these early Christians which unleashed God's amazing power.  Many Christians today keep God on the side lines and allow other causes to prioritise their lives.  The sad irony is that the needs of these other causes would be met so much easier if we put God at the centre of our lives.

It is explained well in the words of this hymn:

Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And His righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia

Ask and it shall be given unto you
Seek and ye shall find
Knock and the door shall be opened unto you
Allelu, alleluia

Man shall not live by bread alone
But by every word
That proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu, alleluia