Thank you for sharing, Gregg.  I like what Martin had to say about people
needing to "flock" together towards an image, even if that image were to
lead to a dead end.

I would be curious to know more about the success religions like Belief
Science these days, as, right or wrong, I am hit with negative emotional
reactions from three directions.  The first is organized religion itself,
which I have an aversive reaction towards due to being raised in a
conservative Christian environment (this aversive reaction has matured into
a healthy defensiveness rather than the hot antagonism I felt as a younger
person, but nonetheless the gut response remains).  Secondly, Scientology
is the prominent example of how manufactured religions can go awry, and so
"Belief *Science*" triggers that association.  Thirdly, there is the
ingrained concern about being drawn into small cults, and Belief Science
gives me that feeling as well.

Again, these are emotional reactions from my own personal web of
experiences and associations.  On a descriptive level, the religion looks
reasonable on paper.  The organization seems self aware and transparent
that Belief Science is there to meet a basic human need for belonging and
community, and that Belief Science has been mindful about constructing
itself in such a way that an in-group is achieved without creating a
hostile relationship with the resulting out-group, and does so with a
meta-awareness that beliefs are culturally contextual.  It reminded me of a
more secular Bahai.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Bah-25C3-25A1-2527-25C3-25AD-5FFaith&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=WHzD-_dBTq077iXFuqtPUd-4ARONlIkWP5zbFKpjfsc&s=p5QOi66CCDWHRRXnrivHeFTbM6biBt0rPbwdtPuzsyU&e=




On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 7:32 AM martin johnson <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I would say "it is meaningful to have a  belief in what is 'true'," in he
> comtext of saying that animals also function by images, imagives appear as
> imagination, animals traveling as a group to a destination where there is
> food, water, have an an image of where they are going, and a belief they
> will get they. It is crucial to survival. Having images and beliefs is
> crucial to human survival -- even though sometimes a group belief leads to
> a dead end. It is in nature and an essential to human functioning to have
> beliefs, and meaningfull. When a new truth arrises and displaces the old
> truth, that is part of the process of culture. This view depends on the
> assertion that reality only exists in contexts, that there is no objective
> truth, object in the sense of existing without context. It is hubris to say
> one has the TRUTH, which scientist sometimes say (as in physical scientist
> claiming a corner on how science has to be performed.) Martin Johnson
>
> On Dec 4, 2018 10:21 AM, "Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx" <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi List,
> >
> >   I stumbled across this site, the Church of Belief Science and found it
> interesting. It adopts a postmodern, social constructivist view of religion
> and belief in general, meaning that the focus and meaning of truth is found
> in what people consensually agree to be true. The founder is a
> psychologist/counselor whom I had heard of, but I was not aware that he
> started this group.
> >
> >
> >
> > Best,
> > Gregg
> >
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