Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
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The late psychiatrist Eric Berne talked about the Position. The Position is a sort of unconscious, existential statement of "This is who I am, and this is how I fit into the world." Positions are learned by osmosis, and tend to be set in broad outline in early childhood. The become part of a person's "sense of self".
The key point is that once we have adopted a Position, our primary goal is to defend it. We happily clutch to our chest evidence that supports it, and ignore or discard evidence to the contrary. Questions of our Position can provoke extreme and even violent reactions, because they will be seen not only as attacks on our beliefs but on our selves.
Religious expression and political viewpoints tend to stem from Positions. We adopt those that complement what we believe and how we feel, and cherry pick as needed to get things to come out as we desire. Do you think the religious types who rail against homosexuality do so because their religion says it's wrong? I don't. I think they are starting from a point of hatred, fear, and loathing, and quoting scripture to justify what they already feel. If it requires rather selective quoting, and taking stuff out of context, no matter.
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Dennis
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There is a book by James P. Hogan - "Kicking the Sacred Cow" (available at
www.baen.com) that some here may find interesting. It relates to the comment above by DMcCunney. It is not a "story book" in that it doesn't present a plot with fictitious characters. It could be considered a factual book or a presentation of Hogan's opinions but it does present some interesting "
facts" that relate to
religiously held
scientific beliefs. I highly recommend it.