You guys need to watch the movie Idiocracy. It explains everything.

Interbane said:

the collective IQ will plummet.

But....you know what?....bright kids come out of dense stock....and certainly incredibly dim kids come out of the aristrocracy.

What is it that triggers intelligence?

What is it that triggers compassion? Is it OK to be dim?

Many very clever/privilidged people are very depressed people.....

Many quite dim people, have a childlike exuberance....and love and appreciate life.

Where should our priorities lie?

What triggers or helps develop intelligence is well beyond me. I know that there are electrical pathways in the brain and that some people develop these quicker than others and have more of them which makes them more intelligent. The people who you consider witty or sharp - are truly smarter - because their brains do work quicker than others.

To answer how people are more intelligent than other people might be easier than answering what triggers compassion. To recognize your own vulnerabilities in others, placing yourself in the shoes of others, and doing unto others as you would hope others would do unto you, are ways to develop empathy and sympathy. Compassion to me seems more than the sum of empathy and sympathy. It's something closer to love and it can't be quantified like intelligence can, I don't believe.

To say it's OK to be dim is to accept another persons lot in life. It isn't praise but it doesn't take away their value as a human being either. It's sympathy. Ask a dim person if it's ok to be dim. They're the last person to tell you it's 'ok'. Most mentally handicapped people realize their life would be better if they were more intelligent. The janitorial staff at my job who are challenged: One knows his mental limitations and tells me how he can't do certain things and another one stares at a racing car video game and asks me about it every time we happen to meet there. Her Mom drives her to work - she wishes she could drive.

I've read many intelligent people are manic depressive. I think this is how they can get so much work done! lol

Ignorance is bliss argument? Maybe. Anyway, that should be your goal now that you're retired. Relax. Your work is done. No one is going to listen anyway...lol. Just smoke some ganj, pop open a bottle of Pino, and take in the scenery. You've done enough.

Camacho wrote:

Ignorance is bliss argument? Maybe. Anyway, that should be your goal now that you're retired. Relax. Your work is done. No one is going to listen anyway...lol. Just smoke some ganj, pop open a bottle of Pino, and take in the scenery. You've done enough.

I'll retire when I'm dead. I keep asking questions because the older I get, the more puzzling and the more intriguing. I'm not so frightened of asking, because I have less to lose, I suppose.

I have never smoked ganj. How common!!! Really! I drink my gin and tonic WITH ice and lemon!! If you don't mind.

Dear Camacho, I have always asked what life is about, and the best thing in life is when I get an answer. It is the thing that makes life worthwhile to me.

So, you see, I can't stop questioning. And...you are right....Compassion, is love, and not just sympathy.

Love is such a nuisance....because it makes me want the world to be full of 'different' people. Some clever and bright, and some loveable dimbos.

I think the trick is not to compare ourselves with others.

Do you think the human race will ever evolve enough, not to believe in God?

I hope it will evolve enough to see what is God and what is just man's labelling.

I hope it will always ask itself, 'why do I care?' Why can I not retire, just because the world says I am allowed to? Thank you for your permission to retire. I shall ignore it. You can ignore me.....you have my permission. xxxx

I think there's a happy medium for everyone out there to find. It's necessary sometimes to be tolerant and other times it's necessary not to be - this goes for comparing yourself to others as well. Comparing yourself to others can be motivating and educational. It can be helpful.

I don't think evolve is the best word when asking if man will progress beyond its belief in a supernatural entity. In my opinion, man will always be at risk of (either being forced, by their own accord, or a combination) believing in some form of ideology. We'll forever as a race be vulnerable to 'believing'.

I've never seen a nuclear reactor but I believe it exists. I believe I'll make it through the day alive. I believe my money will be worth something tomorrow. I believe if I don't drink alcohol while I'm supposed to be working I won't get fired for it.

Unlike the belief in god these are very accurate assumptions but show that the act of believing is used all the time.

We're forced to form beliefs and they can be altered. News stations and politicians try to do it all the time. Everyone does it to some extent - shaping the opinions of people around them for their own advantage.

God is a belief system people have managed to conjure up and form a power system around with its own mortal and immortal hierarchy. It gained quite a lot of momentum. There was a time you had to believe or you had to die. Believing in god might have even managed to become a learned survival technique... who knows

Camacho said:

I don't think evolve is the best word when asking if man will progress beyond its belief in a supernatural entity.

I think evolve is exactly the right word. It would mean that we would stop fighting about intangibles. It would mean that we had outgrown the need to be 'right'.

Camacho said:

I've never seen a nuclear reactor but I believe it exists. I believe I'll make it through the day alive. I believe my money will be worth something tomorrow. I believe if I don't drink alcohol while I'm supposed to be working I won't get fired for it.

Unlike the belief in god these are very accurate assumptions but show that the act of believing is used all the time.

A nuclear reactor is a corporal 'thing'. It is not part of the intangible. Radio waves and vibrations, are better as allegories in the 'idea' of God. We can know that the vibrations of radio waves are there, because we can tune into them. The Hadron Collider is an excellent metaphore. It is searching for a particle - Higgs Boson - the 'God' particle. I half want them to find it, and I half don't.

Camacho said:

God is a belief system people have managed to conjure up

No....wrong there. People have managed to conjur up a belief system and persuade or dictate to people that they follow that system. But that is not God. Just as the menu in a restaurant isn't the meal. We don't eat the menu do we?

So we don't swallow the Bible, the Prayer Book, the Koran, The Gita.

But we can use our feelings and emotions to guide us, rather than our intellect.

That way it is fair to the dim people, like me...dim, but honest.

When I think of evolve, I think of genetic traits developed by a species for their survival but the word does have other meanings which include: to give off, as odors or vapors. When talking about human progress - using the word evolve for anything but evolution is confusing because I don't know if you're talking about a change in ideas or a biological change.

If you're talking about evolution - then I disagree with you completely.

My analogies, not allegories, maybe weren't the best - I admit (they usually are pretty bad). I never claimed to be a genius but I just wanted to illustrate that people have a need to believe. It's a necessary part of living and so much a part of us that the likelihood of our ever progressing beyond being in constant jeopardy of being brain washed by other people is highly unlikely.

That's why I think that people will never progress past being vulnerable to a belief system such as god (christianity, catholicism, mormon, you name 'em - I group them under god)

People have... menu... eat the menu. What?

god is a figment of group think that people shape into their own special little image. My god thinks this and no that's not what god is about he's more like this. No, if he were truly righteous he'd be like this. Oh well, god isn't a he but no one but me knows that. We do this in the name of god today and tomorrow we do that.

The menu thing... It's confusing because menus represent what the meal will be in words. There should be little wiggle room in describing something like a god. How you can compare god to a meal in a restaurant that can be altered to suit individual tastes only makes perfect sense when religion is practically applied. People form their own wild opinions about god - they accept the menu and alter it to their own liking. Something tells me you do a lot of this - accepting what some say about god and denying other things. Forming an abstract image in your own mind about the perfect god for you. It's absurd.

How can you say that some people don't eat the menu? They surely do.

Using feelings and emotions to guide us - children do that all the time.

Dim people like you? I'll call your bluff and say I'm pleased you're so self aware.

Camacho has trampled on my toes,

What do they say, 'If you can't stand the heat'?
Get out of the kitchen
Where the fat lady has just ended her song.

I love mixed metaphores.

I was a little upset that you referred to yourself as dim and perhaps I went overboard. I don't mean to come off as someone without an open mind but my stance is firm on most issues - doesn't mean I can't be persuaded partly or wholy by an argument.

I apologize. I never meant to trample... I've been hanging around bleachededen too much. I blame her and so can you. lol.

Awe, Camacho - take a kiss from Grandma!



Camacho said:

my stance is firm on most issues - doesn't mean I can't be persuaded partly or wholy by an argument.

Well, at least you are firm on what matters.....many of my acquaintance are very adamant...about the most superfluous issues.

I'm not really out to persuade anyone, but it is good to exercise the mind and to give reasons for thinking what I think.

The only time I feel as though I've lost is when I go off in the huff....when I can't reach a state of normal human affection.

I'm a great admirer of Richard Dawkins. I read a lot of his books and listen to his broadcasts on our TV. But just as I won't nod in agreement with the Church's teachings, neither will I just roll over and accept what Mr Dawkins says.....

There has been enough in my life to convince me that there are worlds within worlds........but I will be honest enough to admit that there is a lot we misinterpret and misunderstand....and that has caused untold trouble throughout history.

So, I'm not claiming anything as absolute truth.......but it is not a good idea to stifle our spirituality either. I can only know what it feels like to be me, you see: I have made the mistake of thinking that everyone experiences the same feelings of lack, of something missing in themselves, as I do. I know now, that many people don't feel that, and can just accept Richard Dawkins', very admirable, arguments. There seems to be another dimension to my psyche.....but, I am still dim. Otherwise, I would be able to describe it, and explain it to you. It is a feeling of lack.....it is a feeling of not enough.....it is not a feeling of fear....

It is just an instinct.....but when I follow it, that is where the joy in being alive lies. What is, just is.

OK - I'll shuttup now.