Beggaring belief - part II

Part 1 here

Why would they go to such lengths to deny reality?

It is simply because a belief is held and when it is called in to question, the belief is defended through this lie of self. It is a self reinforcing system. If a model of reality is threatened, an organism conditioned to a belief structure, will always try and seek out evidence to maintain the belief structure, to the point where we actually become blind to reality.

We know this because the brain filters the incoming sense data through its subjective map of reality. Only once its model is updated, can an old belief no longer be held. On an evolutionary level this makes perfect sense, as the brain needs to form a working model of reality, in order for it to be able to judge the appropriate action to be taken.

This ties in to the pattern matching nature of the brain, it is simply by pattern matching and mirror neurons that pattern matches are translated in to action and cognition.

Take a look at this picture:

Do you see a six of spades?

Look again

It is actually a red six of spades. As we know the six of spades is black, it does not exist. As you have never seen a red six of spades before, the brain filtered the incoming sense data in terms of its model of reality. Our beliefs alter the perception of the environment. 
Our beliefs literally blind us to reality. This is literally what is happening through this lie of self. It warps reality in terms of an illusory entity being responsible for thought, an illusory entity that suffers when things don't go its way, that worries about what people think of it and strives and strives for things formed by attachments.

To put it simply, the false construct of self, is always driven to try and be superior in some way simply because the brain believes it be real. Our evolutionary psychology is driven by the need to increase our value in the social strata, as it is perceived as taking us towards to survival.

Of course there is nothing wrong with this in itself however, through this base level socio - biological drive and the anomaly of self, we have this mechanism created where thought is feeding back in to an illusory idea of self. 
Why is it that we do not like being proved wrong? Why is it that we desire to make other people subscribe to our model of reality?

Of course evolutionary psychology made us so that we follow people who are sure of themselves and we have this desire to lead people. The point is, when we are proved wrong or ridiculed, this is perceived as taking us further from survival. Hence, we often associate this with some negativity. Even now being liberated, this holds true because it is witnessed simply as evolutionary function.

Our problem arises when this is tied in to our false construct of self. The belief is actually warping reality to fit the subjective model and through this illusory construct, we become identified with it. 
These things, rather than being viewed as a natural biological mechanism, it becomes what defines us as a person, it is our self image that is actually tied on to these beliefs. The beliefs form the attachments of the self, along with our desires and our empty labels that we impose over reality.

We can span out from religion here and we can see how peoples belief structure ties in to their identity. Look at politicians, animal rights activists, whatever the identity it always based on beliefs which form the basis of this imaginary construct of self. 
When this belief is threatened, not only is it a perceived threat to our survival in terms of our evolutionary psychology, it is also seen as a threat to the actual entity of self.

So not only are we naturally wired in this way, the lie thrives off this and self perpetuates its own existence. The end result of which, we see day in day out as people try to defend ideas such as religion in the face of insurmountable evidence. 
It is insurmountable but rather than look at it with honesty, religious people will always focus on any perceived fault in science and literally warp reality to fit their belief structure. It is not their choice to believe, it is simply this mechanism at work and is the construct of subjective thought.

Hence why religious people often insulate themselves from non believers, have a reinforcing circular logic for their belief and rather than actually embrace science, try and seek out every loop hole they can and exploit it to maintain their belief. 
You don't really get christian physicists or research biologists. What you do get is people masquerading under the science banner, trying to defend their belief.

It is tragic really, we see the gaps in the fossil record getting filled in, only for another set of goal posts in between the time frame of these new discoveries. 
We know how rare fossils are anyway, only forming in rare instances, so for us to have a full picture is never going to be possible. We only have to look at the overall picture to see what is going on and the evidence is simply overwhelming.

Yes there are holes in the theory but as our understanding increases, these gaps get filled in and as our friend Dawkins put it “religious people fear the advancement of science, like a witch fears the encroaching light”. 

All it really needs is some honest looking in reality to see what IS real.

Belief can be so strong, that some people devote their lives to reinforcing this collective religious delusion. I am anti - religious in that respect but I would not devote my life to the cause of proving it for the escapism that it is. 
As our understanding increases, we will eventually view it as some silliness that played a useful role in the advancement of the socio - biological beginnings, of the structuring of a large scale human society. 

Dawkins advocated the fact that there is a propensity to believe in god and this would tie in nicely as a result of this “I” function and the desire of the self to avoid the perceived threat of its non existence. That is for another topic though.

When we look at the self, it is nothing more than a core belief. That is literally all the conditioning of the self is, a subjective map that was accepted as reality since no other alternative model was presented. 
You simply believe that you exist, it is nothing more than a core belief, which forms the basis for the map of your reality. That is why the only way to break out of the conditioning is looking in reality, then the brain can no longer hold a belief that is not cogent with reality. That is the whole idea of looking to find liberation, simply to break the conditioning of the brain.

At what point did you ever question your own existence? Your core belief is that you exist.

When you were younger did you actually turn around and decide that you actually existed or rather, did the brain just fill in the blanks? This demonstrates exactly what control you have over your beliefs, there is no conscious control of beliefs. Beliefs are literally these givens of experience. 
Now people who choose not to look at this no self idea, are simply subject to this mechanism that we have outlined. The brain is driven to protect its model of reality by the self identifying with it and it is little wonder that many people are too cowardly to look. 

Even during the looking process, people need repeatedly kicking up the ass. That is why people do not look, they are trying to understand no self. A little understanding to start with is very useful but there is no substitution for the actual act of looking in real life for this fictional reference.

We need to take a look at something more personal to cement our understanding regarding belief structures but religion is always a good starting point to illustrate how a collective self reinforcing delusion works. 
We need to look on an individual organisms level, to try and quantify how this illusion of self causes problems on a day to level. The thing is with religion it is collective and it has the illusory nature of free will behind the decision making progress. The process is also diluted by a peer group. On an individual level, there is no holds barred as far as far as flawed self reinforcing logic is concerned.

Part III Here