How We’re Wired
How are we wired? By coffee and too much stress. No, that’s not the direction I had wanted to go. I’m talking about how we’re hooked up on the inside of our noggin’.
You know, our perspectives, our view of our world around us. Or, more specifically how we’re wired and how that affects our thinking and output – for instance, The Rain Man – I never saw the movie – but the guy could do complicated math while not so hot in other areas. Or how about this – ever see the intern on Jay Leno’s show? He’s more feminine than some women I’ve been with – and they were very glad to be women.
Do you get what I’m getting at? Here’s something I’ll never forget. (Isn’t that a horrible way to put something? I mean, to be more honest – I should just come right out and tell you that when I got up this morning, I FORGOT the Alamo. Yes, I confess….) It was around 1985 – I was riding the train to work, the Amtrak local. On this day, there were two fellows talking very loudly and gaily. They were obviously retarded. When it came to their stop, not as a rib or in jest, but sincerely – they turned around to the whole car waving and yelling, “Goodbye; goodbye!!”
This is how I’m going to tie this into “how we’re wired”:
And, let me preface this – this is by no means an original thought, you’ve probably thought it before yourself – but consider this – let’s say these “retards,” that we think are in their own little world – what if in fact they ARE in their own world – and their world is the REAL world while WE’RE the ones living in a false one (as we think it’s the other way around, don’t we?!). Of course, you and I know that’s not true – but hold the phone – what if you and I are deluded and those two are living in the “real” world?!
Then again – and here’s where it starts to get complicated – let’s say we’re BOTH in our “own” real worlds. Co-existing.
And now I’ll bring in religious beliefs. Judaism and Christianity both embrace the Scriptures (though Christians have a view of looking at the Scriptures as the “old” testament – the “old” covenant. But here we DO have a case – two groups of people looking at the same thing – walking away with a totally different viewpoint. How can this be?
Pretty easy, actually. But in the matter of belief and mindset – it gets VERY complicated. In the matter of how we’re wired – you can give arbitrary arguments for why one likes this music and not this – this art and not that – cherry and not vanilla, yada, yada. While tastes vary from person to person, and I’m getting lost. I told you this was complicated (I thought I was going to make more sense of it – not more of a mess!!)
Every person’s taste is valid. It’s YOUR taste. Religious experience is largely empirical. It has a little to do with taste – but more to do with experience. And that’s where – how can you tell so and so that they shouldn’t believe in so and so when they’ve prayed to that saint/person/diety/being/whatever – and their prayers were answered.
How can you argue with that?
I’ve come to have a problem with prayer in the Christians community: If your prayer is answered – praise God, thank you Jesus! If your prayer isn’t answered, well, it just wasn’t God’s will – or he’s waiting………..
Or here’s the worst – pray for so and so that they be healed. The next day they’re dead and we get the “good news,” they’re at home with the Lord!
That gets me wired.
Now, as for “how we’re wired,” I can get into some specifics – you must have heard of some of them, like, dyslexia, for instance. One of my favorite authors is dyslexic. Many great people are/were dyslexic. When I was working for a friend of mine – he had a girl who came in on the weekends to “marbleize.” It was a way of painting to make something look as if it were marble. Anyway, she’s dyslexic. As she described it to me – perhaps she’d put a stamp on the back of an envelope on the bottom – thinking that was the proper spot because of her dyslexia. I asked her, “Well can’t you just do it slow and make sure you get it right?” She said that no, that didn’t matter. She would see it the way she saw it. I then asked her about crossing the street at a red light – what kind of peril comes with that? I forget what she said – but the fact is – they see things different than you and I (I’m assuming you, dear reader are NOT dyslexic – but if you are – then you can identify with her…) because of how they’re wired.
There’s another case – and I never heard of it till I saw a show on it this year. I never realized – there are people who see letters in different colors! Because of how they’re wired. On a more sensitive subject – I forget what this is called too, but sometimes a child is born with sex organs that are hard to distinguish. Inevitably, most often the child is formed to be a girl. But was the child a girl? I have seen shows on that and devastated lives. Some people aren’t born a boy or a girl – someone made that decision for them.
How we’re wired. It’s controversial, but I think a homosexual is born that way. Are you heterosexual? Okay, if it’s a decision, when was it YOU decided to be heterosexual – huh? I remember in first grade noticing Tammy’s pretty legs. Because of how I’m wired. Do you get more of what I’m getting at about “how we’re wired”?
So, to sum for now – I tend to agree with Bill Mahr’s assessment:
“Religion is a neurological disorder.”
