St. Patrick's Eve

[H2O Man]

12. That's a fascinating topic.

I've been thinking about it, since I first read your post. I could probably write a long response (!), but I'll attempt to keep it relatively brief and boring. (grin)

There is plenty of evidence that, as the brain was growing, our early ancestors attempted to identify the meaning of life. Because of the influence of the brain stem, we are prone to ritual, which generally goes hand in hand with superstition. Modern humans are by definition a superstitious group, often in ways that we are not fully aware of.

Next, in terms of religious, spiritual, and esoteric concepts, human beings too often apply what I'll refer to as "higher learning" to lower levels of understanding. We see this in cults -- members believe that they have special insight, when in fact they are confused. Thus, in the gospels, Jesus tells Peter that he is confusing the levels when Peter says that Jesus will not be killed. People who are thus confused tend to either experience a compulsive need to "tell others," or else mistakenly believe that they are "the choosen people" ..... always a recipe for suffering.