Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

   Post 106.  February 16, 2020 continued  . . .

  The Lucifer Principle

   Faith Fends Off Evil

 Howard Bloom raises what he calls “the riddle of control”, and notes that individuals and groups are easily exploited by giving them a false sense of mastery over Nature and Culture. He asks, “why are humans drawn to ideas like filings to a magnet? Why do memes have the power to create, elevate, pacify, and kill?” It’s because, for many situations. the idea of a thing (faith, fantasy, symbol, sign) seems as good as the real thing. That’s the simple secret of Magic : appearances are deceiving. Mundane Memes are the medium of sublime Magic : false beliefs that are accepted as true, due to misdirection and misinformation. Bloom recounts a historical example of a special tribe of sorcerers in India, who, for their potions and spells, were paid by their farmer neighbors to give them a false sense of control over both good & evil forces . “They offered a fantasy that is more important to us than the reality of our daily bread, an illusion that actually can make the difference between life and death : the illusion of control.”

He goes on to illustrate the magical power of faith in “the modern medical shaman”. The orthodox doctor’s white coat and stethoscope are symbols of scientific authority, which tend to give patients a feeling of confidence that his ministrations will have some control over your afflictions. “He is selling the illusion of omnipotence”. Even though alternative medicine operates under different theories of disease and treatments from “allopathic” medicine, they also rely on the illusion of control over mysterious forces. Many studies over the years have concluded that most of the effectiveness of both systems is a result of the Placebo Effect7 : the healing power of faith. Placebos really make people feel better, but don’t actually cure disease. Often, a sugar pill is as effective as an aspirin. But, when the cause of disease is physical rather than metaphysical (beliefs), placebos miss the target, and real physical medicine is necessary to make a difference.

Religious and secular Authorities often rely on ignorance & fear & awe to impress their subjects with super-ordinary power over the evils of the world. “The keepers of the mysteries exude a certainty that through their contact with this invisible world, they are able to solve the problems that to us seem baffling.” And that applies to both Superstition and Science. “Newton established the absolute authority of science in the minds of Western men by implying that he could see into the very forces of the cosmos.” In fact many early religious systems relied on occasional astrological predictive successes (e.g. eclipses) to awe the natives. Bloom explains the power of their educated guesses over the minds of men this way : “Pictures of the invisible world can have wild inaccuracies, but every view that flourishes does so because it solves at least one major problem.” People tend to remember the hits and forget the misses.

Even modern Science has more  misses than hits. But as long as the hits seem to support the current paradigm, most people are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Physical scientists are able to make accurate measurements, and to express their understanding of reality in mathematical hiero-glyphics. “But, instead of employing math to construct models, our minds most often use metaphors. . . . A culture’s view of its world is generally a vast grid of metaphors.” +

                   Post 106 continued . . . click Next

Faith symbol
vanquishes
vampires

7. The Placebo Effect :

   “Your mind can be a powerful healing tool when given the chance. The idea that your brain can convince your body a fake treatment is the real thing — the so-called placebo effect — and thus stimulate healing has been around for millennia. Now science has found that under the right circumstances, a placebo can be just as effective as traditional treatments.
   Placebos won't lower your cholesterol or shrink a tumor. Instead, placebos work on symptoms modulated by the brain, like the perception of pain. "Placebos may make you feel better, but they will not cure you," says Kaptchuk. "They have been shown to be most effective for conditions like pain management, stress-related insomnia, and cancer treatment side effects like fatigue and nausea."
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect

The Lucifer Principle

A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History

Howard Bloom

Psychology; Sociology; Political Science

The Problem of Evil