ALL OF US ARE IRRATIONAL even in some small way

by Terry 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Terry

  My personal opinion is we all harbor some irrational ideas. Even the most careful of us have some small thing totally at odds with logical thinking.

  I'll grant you, few people care about being rational! And that in itself is a bigger problem.

  But, I do make an heroic effort to avoid mindless beliefs, attitudes and thoughts. I fail.

  Here is a recent one. I've been thinking about DEATH. Do I want to be cremated, buried, made into dogfood, mailed to the U.S. Embassy in Finland?

  This is the irrational thought which had a big EMOTIONAL core: I wanted to be buried someplace where all my children and I can be together.

  Do you realize how silly this is? I don't mean it is silly to have deep emotional bonds. No, that is quite normal. . .

  but, silly to think that "togetherness" amounts to any real thing at all.

  Once you are dead, you are dead. Nothingness together with other nothingness?

  Headstones in a row?

  I may as well carve all our initials on a big oak someplace!

  I realize where emotions find origin.

  ****Emotions serve as a beacon to our values reminding us of their significance in our lives.***

  So, that is my big irrational confession.

  WHAT IS YOURS?
• 

  TD

  --Sad fact about humans is that our big brains are mostly rationalization machines for feelings that really originate in more primal areas of the mind. Most poeple can't honestly tell you and are apparently unaware of it.

  I'm finding myself increasingly sentimental about death as I get older.
• 

  Watkins

  Good point, Terry - it's a good thing to at least recognise when we're thinking irrationally... what we do about it is another mind exercise.

  I'm still spooked a little about the dark, I'm kind of ashamed to admit. After all, I'm a grown-assed woman! (; I don't believe in ghosts, but there are still things that 'go bump in the night'. We live out in the country where there are freaky little beasties in the dark - scary raccoons, wailing coyotes and such, lol. There are rational explanations, I keep telling myself. So my brain knows, but my body seems not so convinced and the hairs on my neck stand up and my spine tingles... I walk faster, my heart be-bops until I'm bathed again in blessed light. I HATE that! It makes me feel absolutely stupid - what am I, 6 years old?! I don't understand...

  PS - don't tell anyone - my irrational fear is a secret. Hubby thinks all the nightlights are for safe night time navigation, haha.

  W
• 

  Terry

  You know what? I use to be scared of demons also. Now--absolutely nothing scares me any longer.

  Now that I have become aware I was lied to and put into a mental state of fear I get angry about it.

  It took years to get there--but, once you let go of all that supernatural nonsense it is EXTREMELY FREEING!
• 

  LostGeneration

  I sometimes think that by yelling at the TV my sports teams will play better.
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  Terry

  I sometimes think that by yelling at the TV my sports teams will play better.

  Something similar:

  When I was teaching my 18 yr old daughter to drive I was under the delusion I had an invisible brake pedal on the passenger side of the car and that

  if I stomped on it I could make the car come to a sudden halt. I knew better, too! It is sort of like scratching a dog behind the ear and his hind leg

  starts to kick!
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  Phizzy

  I think the person who claims to be totally rational is as suspect as the person who claims to have absolute truth.

  But, as you rightly say, to have the built in "control" to recognise when our fears, or our ideas or even our hopes, are irrational is a good thing.

  Recognising our condition may not prevent us from holding to it, but at least we will not be tempted to try to persuade others that our ideas have value for them.
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  Terry

  The most irrational thing of all is when I got into Starbucks (to leech Wi-Fi) and pay for coffee!
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  garyneal

  I may as well carve all our initials on a big oak someplace!

  http://youtu.be/7NCZ4l8FCFc

  I think about what will happen to me when I die too. Both physically and what happens next (if anything), where will I be buried? Do I prefer to be cremated? My wife wants to be cremated if she goes first and put on our fireplace mantel. Otherwise, we wish to be buried together. Funny, just a pile of bones laying in the dirt next to each other.
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  Vidiot

  Terry - "All of us are irrational even in some small way."

  Gosh, I should hope so.

  Life would be far less interesting otherwise.