BEING CONSCIOUS means...

In my opinion, being conscious means being awake and aware of many things about ourselves, each other and our world and universe. Especially, being conscious means being aware of the contents of our mind, which are the beliefs we hold about what is true and not true, what is right and not right, what is good and what is bad, and especially aware of where these beliefs came from. And these beliefs do come from somewhere!

When we are born, we enter this world with none of these beliefs, knowledge, information or misinformation we possess as adults. So along the way from birth to childhood to adulthood we either 1. acquire or 2. create all of our beliefs along the way.

There are many sources for these beliefs that we hold, including our parents and other family relatives. Also authority figures, real or imagined experts or people we pay attention to in society, especially those we idolize, whether in the wider cultural milieu or from our own culture or sub-culture, these people all influence and teach us, to varying degrees. 

Religious texts and cultural traditions that have been passed down for generations or millennia are taught and assumed to be correct. There are many teachings and schools of thought on many subjects that influence us. This type of transmittal of beliefs from one individual or group to another is called Conditioning, Programming, Indoctrination or Brainwashing.

In addition to accepting the beliefs transmitted to us from these and other sources, we also form our own beliefs and reach our own conclusions about ourselves, each other and the world. We have many different experiences and we interpret those experiences and what happens to us by attributing meaning. As a result of our interpretations, we attribute to ourselves, each other and the world certain characteristics that we hold to be true, such as “I am a good/bad person” or “People are dangerous and can’t be trusted” or “all taxi drivers are inconsiderate”. This type of learning can be called Interpretation or Generalization.

Some other beliefs we might hold include “honesty is the best policy” or “it’s OK to lie or cheat sometimes” or “it’s never OK to be unkind” or “sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind” or “there is no doubt that Jesus is the son of God” or “Jesus died for your sins” or “Allah really said 'kill and terrorize your enemies’ there is no doubt about that” or “I am, or we are ___________ (insert whatever label or identity you want here, such as: a man, a woman, a Canadian, an American, French, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, a lawyer, a teacher, a doctor, a construction worker, etc.) I am right, we are right, we are superior to others, you are wrong, they are wrong” etc.

These beliefs that are the contents of our minds are frequently not even noticed by the individuals that hold them, but when they are noticed these beliefs are usually just accepted as being true, good and right. Our beliefs are rarely, if ever, questioned by ourselves or by each other. We hold our beliefs to be sacred and unchallengeable.

Challenge to our beliefs is seen as a threat to our identity and to our very existence. And even this belief that challenge is threat is often not even noticed, it is only reacted to—or overreacted to.

Whatever we are taught by others, whatever beliefs they have passed onto us and instilled in our minds, or whatever conclusions we reach on our own, becomes our operating system for seeing and acting in the world. Knowing this is the first step to liberation from conditioning, programming, indoctrination, brainwashing and interpretation. It is the first step towards awakening, consciousness and spiritual and psychological maturity.

Being conscious is being aware of what we believe to be true, good and right, and aware of where or who those beliefs came from, that is, the origin of those beliefs, whether it be family, tribe, nation, religion or whatever source.

Being conscious also is questioning and challenging the validity of those beliefs and putting those beliefs to strict tests to see if they are really true, good and right---or not. And if not, then admitting and speaking out about that discovery.

There are many religious teachings, religious people and their actions, for example, that I find quite troubling, dangerous and even insane. There was a Muslim man on TV recently who outside a mosque quoting the Koran saying “Allah said terrorize them.” The Koran and other older religious texts also state that God said “Kill your enemies”.  

There are at least 17 passages of vengeance in the Koran.

It is extremely doubtful that God really said that, which should be obvious to any sane, rational and mature person. Yet the brainwashed, psychologically immature, spiritually blind and extremely unconscious religious people disagree—they are right and those who disagree or disobey their doctrine are wrong!

Another example is from the recent trial of the “Toronto 18” Islamist terrorists who were on trial for the planned bombing of downtown Toronto. The court heard that one of the Islamic terrorists of this group received religious approval for the bombing from his father, who is a so-called cleric and is the head of an Islamic “school” in Mississauga.

Many religions state either overtly or covertly that those who adhere to and believe the religious doctrine enjoy special relationship and special favor with God. Many religious people view themselves as superior to those who do not believe as they do, and see themselves as separate from other non-believers.

If there is a God, how could he play favourites like that with his creations? That is extreme pettiness that is way beyond the mind of God, in my view.

Being conscious also is questioning and challenging the function of those beliefs. What functions in the self, in others and in society are served or fulfilled by our believing what we believe?

Others who instill their beliefs in us do so because that is what they were taught, that is what they believe, and they think their beliefs are true, good and right and they believe that others should believe as they do, too.

What do those who teach us what we believe want or need or get in return for us believing exactly as they believe, for us believing what they want us to believe? What rewards or payoffs do they get from getting others to believe as they do? What are their motives for indoctrinating us? 

When those who are able to convince others to believe as they do and that they are right, they get a payoff of approval which rewards and reinforces their sense of rightness, and reinforces their sense of identity which is based on their doctrine, such as those religious people who identify themselves with their particular creed or sect.

Those who are able to convince others to believe as they do also get the payoff of controlling others' minds and behaviour via their indoctrination. With control of others’ thoughts and behaviours, they can allay the threat to their own insecurities and threat to their identity that free people with free and mature minds pose to them.

Your ideas and feedback is welcome.

Alternatives to Conditioning, Indoctrination, Brainwashing and Interpretation

Seeking unifying Ultimate SPIRITUAL Truth, which includes believing that if there is a God who created us, we are all equal in the eyes of God, which is independent of whether we believe any specific religious doctrine_or not.

Questioning the pre-modern and absurd conjectures that proclaim "unquestionable" Absolute RELIGIOUS Truths about the mystery of life and of our existence, about what constitutes acceptable morality, and about the mystery of God. Many of these pre-modern writings are really a blend of hero stories, myths, and superstitions.

Being dedicated to unifying, Ultimate Spiritual Truth; acceptance of one's own personal responsibility; delay of gratification; saying and doing the right thing; humility; compassion; sincerity.

The world really needs to wake up from its perennial nightmare of religion and all of its divisive, insane and invidious teachings of Absolute Religious Truth if the world is going to survive. It appears to me the world and its people are on the brink of self-destruction due to the prevalence of religion and insane traditions that goes unchallenged.

Does this concern you?

It is now time to end the silence about the insanity of religion, insane religious teachings and insane religious people due to dangerous political correctness and not wanting to hurt feelings or ruffle anyone’s feathers.

It is time to stand up and speak out. If not you, who? If not now, when?

Geert Wilders article, from National Post, May 09/11

Jonathan Kay, National Post · May 9, 2011 | Last Updated: May 9, 2011 2:02 AM ET

As an editor at the National Post, I often rely on three letters to protect my columnists from human-rights tribunals: I-S-M -these being the difference between spelling Islam and Islamism.
The former is a religion -like Christianity or Judaism. The latter is an ideology, which seeks to impose an intolerant fundamentalist version of Islam on all Muslims, and spread the faith throughout the world. Declaring Islamism a menace isn't controversial. Declaring Islam a menace is considered hate speech.

Geert Wilders' refusal to deploy those three letters is the reason that the 47-year-old Dutch politician travels with bodyguards, and cannot sleep in the same house two nights in a row. For Mr. Wilders, the problem plaguing Western societies is Islam, full stop. Terrorism, tyranny, the subjugation of women -these are not perversions of Islam, as he sees it, but rather its very essence.

"The word 'Islamism' suggests that there is a moderate Islam and a non-moderate Islam," he told me during an interview in Toronto on Sunday. "And I believe that this is a distinction that doesn't exist. It's like the Prime Minister of Turkey [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan said, 'There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that's it.' This is the Islam of the Koran."
"Now, you can certainly make a distinction among the people," he adds. "There are moderate Muslims -who are the majority in our Western societies -and non-moderate Muslims."
"But Islam itself has only one form. The totalitarian ideology contained in the Koran has no room for moderation. If you really look at what the Koran says, in fact, you could argue that 'moderate' Muslims are not Muslims at all. It tells us that if you do not act on even one verse, then you are an apostate."

Unlike most critics of Islam, who tend to shy away from the explosive subject of Mohammed himself, Mr. Wilders forthrightly describes the Muslim Prophet as a dictator, a pedophile and a warmonger. "If you study the life of Mohammed himself," Mr. Wilders told me, "you can see that he was a worse terrorist than Osama bin Laden ever was."
It is an understatement to call Mr. Wilders a divisive figure in the Netherlands. On the one hand, he is the leader of the PVV, the country's third-most popular political party -which currently is propping up the ruling minority government. And Mr. Wilders has been declared "politician of the year" by a popular Dutch radio station, and come in second in a variety of other mainstream polls. On the other hand, the Muslim Council of Britain has called him "an open and relentless preacher of hate." For a time, Mr. Wilders even was banned from entering the U.K. A popular Dutch rapper wrote a song about killing Mr. Wilders ("This is no joke. Last night I dreamed I chopped your head off").

Before meeting Mr. Wilders on Sunday, I knew him mostly from his most inflammatory slogans -such as his comparison of the Koran to Mein Kampf -which his detractors fling around as proof of his narrow-minded bigotry.


Yet the real Geert Wilders speaks softly and thoughtfully. It turns out that he's travelled to dozens of Muslim nations. He knows more about the Islamic faith and what it means to ordinary people than do most of Islam's most ardent Western defenders. Nor do I believe that Mr. Wilders is a bigot -a least, not in the sense that the word usually is understood.
"I don't hate Muslims. I hate their book and their ideology," is what he told Britain's Guardian newspaper in 2008.

Mr. Wilders sees Islam as akin to communism or fascism, a cage that traps its suffering adherents in a hateful, phobic frame of mind. Mr. Wilders describes Muslim as victims of bad ideas, in other words. In this way, his attitude is entirely different from classic anti-Semites and racists, who treat Jews and blacks as debased on the level of biology.
Of course, in the modern, politically correct Western tradition, hatred expressed toward a religion typically is held on the same level of humanrights opprobrium as hatred expressed toward a race or an ethnicity. But Islam is not really a religion at all, as Mr. Wilders sees it, but rather a retrograde political ideology with religious trappings.
He notes that while other religions draw a distinction between God and Caesar, between the secular and the spiritual, Islam demands submission in every aspect of human existence, both through the wording of the Koran itself and the Shariah law that has developed in its shadow. The faith also supplies a justification for aggressive war, vilifies non-believers and pronounces death upon its enemies. In short, Mr. Wilders argues, it has all the ingredient of what students of 20th-century history would recognize as a fully formed totalitarian ideology. "I see Islam as 95% ideology, 5% religionthe 5% being the temples and the imams," he tells me. "If you would strip the Koran of all the negative, hateful, anti-Semitic material, you would wind up with a tiny [booklet]."

It's easy to see why many Europeans casually jump to the conclusion that Mr. Wilders is a hatemonger. He wants to halt non-Western immigration to the Netherlands until existing immigrants can be integrated, and he wants to deport any foreigner who commits a crime -the same sort of policies as those advocated by genuine xenophobes.
But even so, his insistence on the proper distinction between faith and ideology is an idea that deserves to be taken seriously. For it invites the question: If we permit, and even encourage, the excoriation of totalitarian cults created by modern dictators, why do we stigmatize, and even criminalize, such excoriation in the case of arguably similar notions attributed to a 7th-century Bedouin taking what is claimed to be divine dictation?

It's a good question. And as far as I know, Geert Wilders is the only Western politician taking it seriously.

jkay@nationalpost.com