Brainwashed?
I think so at some extent, but if people read and understand the bible it will be a persons choice of their conviction, whatever its about the mark of the beast which is a complex subject requires a whole thread to discuss about, I did not fully understand this until recently, or day of the week they worship.
We shouldn't be afraid of the mark of the beast, as long you follow with the instructions in the bibe your be safe, the answers about the mark of the beast is in Revelation, peoples beware of the mark of the beast it is not to be messed with, people who have obtained this mark will get the wrath of God and thrown in the lake of fire it is that simple.
What day they chose to worship, their personal relationship with Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. Or if they want to believe that Jesus has done for him / her when he died on the cross.
We're all raised to a certain way of life and way of thinking, if that's what you mean. And people who make a conscious decision to change either of those often never lose the underlying mindset of the original one.
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leejosepho
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So-called "brainwashing" is far from being the only reason people "adhere to religious/cultic views". Some of us get there by way of our own free-and-clear thinking ... and even if then or later mocked by others.
Influenced by what? Mere words or actual experience?
My own life experience is what ultimately "influenced" me to believe and to learn to act as I now do.
As children, we each receive some initial indoctrination of one kind or another, then we later are either taken advantage of by someone with a personal agenda of some kind -- think "Jim Jones" there -- or else we are instead (or later) simply helped along in life by way of hearing, considering and learning from a combination of our own experience and the experience of others.
The challenge? Discerning the actual witness from the mere preacher.
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I think you have a real point. I was even discussing this with a friend last night before I saw your post. The issue is that we are trained to approach the world in certain ways, and these ways are not neutral. Sometimes this is an ok thing that won't matter for most circumstances. Other times this has a blinding and distracting effect, as we can have difficulty seeing legitimate dissent or entirely engaging positions we disagree with. I know that I have a small paranoia on the matter as well, and recently I have felt especially aware of my tendency to kind of jump the gun on my claims.
Theism 'brainwashed' people to the point where atheism is now allowed to similarly "brainwash" people, especially considering its indoctrination of school children?
Interesting, that one.
You believe what you believe, it's that simple. People challenge your beliefs, they either strengthen or wither into a capitulative nothingness that leaves the challenged and destroyed floating in a vat of otherworldly non-cognisance until someone 'gives' them something in which to believe.
I forget. Which one of us was brainwashed, again?
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leejosepho
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I think that is a very important point, yet we also need to discern mere experiences from actual experience ... and then even still remain slow in our drawings of conclusions ...
"And Yahushua said, 'For judgment I have come into this world, that those not seeing might see, and those seeing might become blind.' And those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, 'Are we blind, too?' Yahushua said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no sin, but now you say, "We see," therefore your sin remains.'"
(John 9:39-41)
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techstepgenr8tion
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There's a big difference.
For people to put the world around them into context they need a certain amount of a priori to start with - which for the most part is in fact given to them rather than of their own thoughts. From there they also hear things on the news or from authority figures that they literally can't humanly verify as they'd never have the time, money, nor energy to reinvent every wheel they heard about. So, they try to discern character, figure out who they can trust, tend to go with the word of those who make sense to them and, when that word doesn't add up they try to find out why.
As for brainwashing, that's a need that puts group over everything - over science, over interpersonal reality, it also includes the blacklisting of rational examination. People who aren't brainwashed do carry many claims they can't verify but they're trying to approximate reality as much as they can, for those who've been brainwashed that process has capsized, either via their own need for family or by their own need for blind obedience.
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techstepgenr8tion
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Philologos: I think he's taking a stab at brainwashing people .
Seems like brow-beating and being able to come off like the bigger self-righteous a***hole of any conversation is quite a convincing and powerful tool toward controlling people (and no doubt he's joking but - somewhat right at the same time). Brow-beating and self-exaltation is strong stuff toward convincing people that your superior to them and that they should lift you up.
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“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin
For people to put the world around them into context they need a certain amount of a priori to start with - which for the most part is in fact given to them rather than of their own thoughts. From there they also hear things on the news or from authority figures that they literally can't humanly verify as they'd never have the time, money, nor energy to reinvent every wheel they heard about. So, they try to discern character, figure out who they can trust, tend to go with the word of those who make sense to them and, when that word doesn't add up they try to find out why.
As for brainwashing, that's a need that puts group over everything - over science, over interpersonal reality, it also includes the blacklisting of rational examination. People who aren't brainwashed do carry many claims they can't verify but they're trying to approximate reality as much as they can, for those who've been brainwashed that process has capsized, either via their own need for family or by their own need for blind obedience.
I think I'll have to agree with your point here. It makes a lot of sense.
"the bigger self-righteous a***hole of any conversation is quite a convincing and powerful tool toward controlling people "
Dear me.
Language!
I will temporarily assume the colon implies you are describing me, not addressing?
I will further assume your smiling thingy is meant to be disarming, marking humor rather than a hard-hitting critique?
But I am known to misread these things.
But, really! Self-righteous?
I happen to be - izibongo zami, did I say this? - a lifelong teacher focussed on language, son of teachers focussed on language, grandson of two lawyers, great grandson of a preacher. I care about clarity of language and thought and have a lot of old fire horse syndrome correcting papers and classroom performance.
So I bring the stuff out. As others bring out their stuff.
Controlling people? Well, when I had the Professor nameplate on the door I could excercise some control over those actually enrolled in my courses. These days? My wife controls me. I give advice to her and Number 1 Son.
Anyone else feel resisting me is futile?
I see little sign I have controlled certain people into independent thought and checking their facts.