Truth vs Happiness pt1(of2)

Hey everyone this article will be a little off the standard I seem to be using and talk about a clash all of us have to deal with in our life. I am talking about the clash between Happiness and Truth.

Throughout my life I have been highly skeptical of everything I am told that tends to be in any way superstition, such as religion, luck, and now karma. I was born in the politically far right Alabama. I have had to struggle to develop my own opinion of things. For instance you could say I was a closet case liberal atheist for nineteen years. (I am nineteen now.) Until a few months ago I had no real name to give my opinions no label. Before then, I would have classified myself as an agnostic republican. This was before when I couldn’t really verbalize my political beliefs. Now it seems everyone is born an atheist, raised Christian, then born again atheist.

I like to ask friends what it is exactly they believe in and the more educated the more inquisitive the individual the harder it is for them to conform to the natural or what use to be natural ideologies. I doubt I could walk into an American senior classroom today and ask is anyone one hundred percent certain there is a god, he’s the Christian one and not Thor, Allah, or Zeus, and you are republican. It seemed more like what is everyone else, where is the group at. I don’t want to be left out from the norm. They never took the issues and said “Well I think that there is nothing wrong with stem cell research” and realize they aren’t republican. They never look at the stories in the bible or the sheer number of religions and develop the opinion well “I cannot prove there is no god but I would say the probability is between zero and one.” So it seems more like in the absence of an opinion it is easier to just go with the group or family.

You should do this, take the list of issues. Pick out which stance you agree with. Tally it all up with Republican on the right and liberal on the left and moderate the middle and see which one has the most issues and that tends to be what you really are. You would be shocked or I should say you might be shocked, of what you really are. Not to mention the question is there a god? You should really research this. Watch Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennet, and Sam Harris. Then watch and read some of the mythologies of the other cultures and decide for yourself with a non-bias approach what you really are. I was literally shocked at myself what I really am.

One thing you should know is that when you are choosing between well should I just settle for the “Ignorance is bliss” and be happy where I am, or should I really just push for the truth. Should you reach deep into the depths of your personality to bring up what makes you who you are. When I discovered the size of the universe, how insignificant I was, at first of course I was sad. Then I finally was happy with that. I say this thinking of the Christian argument that well look how depressing non religion is. Most respond that we don’t use that in our decisions which one I am happy with.

If you don’t believe me, that the less questions people ask the more they just conform to the group there in, just look at the people around you ask them what they are and decide for yourself. I would actually prefer you to question everything I say.

I realize this week’s article is only a page. That’s because I am doing a two part of this, expect another one on Wednesday. I am going to be gone all weekend visiting a college.

A Brilliant Mind

Well, it's been about a week, time for my newest article. Per request of some of my readers, this article will be about the human brain, personality, and everything you should know about that noggin of yours.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.” -William Shakespeare

The Human brain is by far one of the most astounding, repulsive, and mysterious of all the things to emerge from nature. It's hard to imagine amino acids would later result in the occurrence of such an incredible machine. Three times the average mammal's brain with an equivalent body size, using about thirty percent of your oxygen. If the brain is deprived of oxygen even ten seconds, you become unconscious, in four, brain damage occurs.

Brain damage changes everything about a person, taste, speech, hearing, personality, and everything that makes you who you are. Ninety billion neurons firing from synapses at near or at the speed of light (about 186,282 a second). In other words, information and commands are sent and processed very quickly.

The modern human brain over the past 28,000 years is shrinking, as found out by the Cro Magnom theory. This can be a bad thing because recent experiments show that a larger brain, helps prevent Alzheimer's disease. In adults, the average brain weight in men is about 11-12% more than the average brain weight in women. Men's heads are also about 2% bigger than women's. This is due to the larger physical stature of men. Male’s larger muscle mass, and larger body size require more neurons to control them.

Your brain is the control center of all your bodily functions. It continuously receives sensory information, such as sight, feel, taste, sound, and rapidly analyzes these data and then responds. The brain stem controls your breathing, heart rate, and other processes. The Neocortex is the center of "higher-order" thinking, learning, and memory, allowing us to have creativity, remember faces and names. The cerebellum is responsible for the body's hand-eye coordination, balance, and posture, allowing us to walk, sit, and play sports like football.

Recent study done by Professor of Biological Sciences Douglas McMahon, graduate student Chris Ciarleglio, post-doctoral fellow Karen Gamble and two undergraduate students at Vanderbilt University, have concluded that the season of your birth has vast effects on your personality and your body's internal clock. A huge step in explaining why we have the traits that we do and disorders some develop. If we are ever to get out of low earth orbit, we have to learn more about birth and how it affects the newborn. In the future births might have a simulated indoor season, chosen by the parent to help eliminate unwanted disorders.

Scientist have discovered that what you think about other people, also has a large impact on your persona. It has even been determined that "beautiful" people, convey first impressions better. Personality even effects individual fertility. There have been large studies on controlling these functions.

Tibetan monks have been controlling their body temperature, heart rate, and pain intake for hundreds of years. Further study has resulted in treatment for patients who have brain damage. Some conditions like constant pain from a car accident or oxygen deprivation.

Our brain is responsible for placebos working, people dying before they hit the ground from a fall, and whether you achieve the goal you set out to do. Generally if you think it's going to happen both consciously and unconsciously, the brain has a tendency to make the fear or desire real. Just remember that this question might start with scientist but it ends with you and whether you as an individual are willing to improve your personality.

If scientists solve many of the questions that we have with personalities & the brain, we will be able to replicate or even improve our brain. Making A.I. more intelligent than us, then downloading biologically, everything they know into our brains, selectively or not. Making robots that are sentient, sapient, and capable of creativity, reasoning, & solving problems. This could potentially, cure Alzheimer's, dementia, or other diseases and disorders. Replacing or adding synapses, nerve endings, and neurons in patients who suffer from Down syndrome, cancer, dyslexia, and many other modern plagues. It could even improve the way brain surgery is operated.

In the past one hundred years we have learned a lot about the mind, but the more we learned the more we found out how little we knew. The human brain will continue to astonish and baffle scientist for many years to come. Just don't be afraid to do things yourself, to improve your situation.