If you believe in a flat earth then you don't need to have an authority to create fear and superstition.
They are both natural because people want to understand how things work. If there is no obvious explanation then people use their minds to create explanations.
The most obvious of explanations coming from where the mind sits in belief and experience.
The explanations that are created just have to have some minimal plausibility to be accepted. If the Earth is flat then there must be an edge, so bad things can happen at that edge. From that the tendency to embroider stories to make them more exciting can be depended on to create full fledged superstitions.
Bill Gill
Yep. And as long as the senses are trained to go outward giving dependence to what can be seen heard or touched, coupled with the tendency to embroider and add excitement to what is seen or not seen, heard or not heard, touched or not touched, we as human beings allow ourselves to see, hear and experience anything we wish to make our personal truth, regardless of any truth bigger than the embellished belief.
Science likes to use peer review as a safety mechanism, but then scientists are just as human as non-scientists with their own prejudices, beliefs and fears, which are taught to them by their parents, peers and the educational systems that are in place during their development. All systems of public opinion and education rely on the outward driven senses. Morality is a matter of democratic process given to the social mores of the individuals country, religious backgrounds and government influence.
Individuality is seemingly practiced by the young to express uniqueness in a world where everyone seems to fall into a system that absorbs the individual. Every generation has its examples, both in testimony to individuality and to the system. The younger generations complain about the system and the older generations complain about the young, who
"buck the system" created by those who feel their understanding and wisdom concerning reality is superior.
Some of those older folks just love to go on and on about the past because their future doesn't look like it stretches very far, so all the focus is on their memories and cherished self defined glories.. Like the reverend
Not much has changed in this out-picturing of the herd mentality over human history. Belief, once it becomes set into place steers the mind towards the past impressions and experiences, whereas those less influenced by the past have a much more open mind and a vision with less impressions of fear and superstition.
There are more inventions/discoveries to be realized and brought into view, but if the minds of men are closed by the walls of belief they (those new discoveries) will wait until someone gives a bit to allow the inner senses to re-cognize that which has always been but hasen't yet been acknowledged for the fear of the unknown or unnatural and/or the belief systems which feel threatened by change and the opposing thought in definition of personal reality.
The ego has a great testimony to self definition: "I am the sum total of my experience." It leaves no room for any other possibility of being than what it builds from memory. Pretty much the prescription of life being taught to our children, is derived from this belief. We might as well tell them from the start that we believe they are nothing, until they accumulate enough experience to define themselves, or.. they are nothing until defined by their peers who have defined themselves and reality.
The reverend is a great example of that rule.
If every atom is 99.99% empty space, what exactly is it that we see, hear and feel?
