PREFACE
The book “Psychology of Belief, Man in the Triangle of Spirit, Brain and Mind” contains the issues that I have cared and interpreted for three years actually but thirty years mentally. We can call this book as the story of seeking the truth through an honest scientific skepticism.
Although there are many books written on religion and psychology, the topic of belief and psychology is one of the topics that have been ignored up to now. The psychological interpretation of religion that can be based on sound belief will not have the same power of effect as the psychological interpretation of religion that is not based on dialectic causality.
In ancient times, questions related to creation and necessity of religion generally originated from lack of information and insufficient education. However, today necessity of religion has come to the forefront more based on the level of development. The most thought provoking and didactic questions come from educated people in this sense.
Man started a new quest of civilization in the 20th century, when materialism was dominant. Materialism could not determine its own ethical standards. It could not create the conditions in which conscience was protected that can be defined as conscientious law; that is ethical responsibility. The following thought formed: “Since inorganic materials have created me and since they cannot call me to account for, my priority is more important than laws and the community.” When materialism and humanist philosophy sought goodness, truth and beauty, they did not take religious values into consideration. However, they acted egoistically and appropriated the heavenly inheritance that had accumulated since ancient ages for themselves. However, as the second and third generations turned out to be more egoistic, disrespectful and irresponsible, it was seen that genes and social doctrine could not form secular ethics. People were richer but the richness did not make them happy. They were rich but they were not altruistic. Behind this attitude, we can see the disposition of man who thinks that he will disappear after that. A person having this mentality will not see why he should sacrifice his comfort and wealth for the society and will think that a statue that will be put up for him will be of no use for him.
To live humanely, to realize oneself and to rebuild one’s life are the attempts of the quest for a new civilization. It is necessary to regard that the issue of belief as follows: mind and critical approach are in the forefront; denominations and religions are evaluated through a superior attitude and viewpoint. When belief is mentioned, it will not be enough to understand the belief that is dogmatic, more mythological and that cannot be questioned. No belief that cannot be questioned, cannot be tested through scientific methods, that has not been researched and that cannot be studied through reasoning is sound. A religion that is based on a foundation of belief that is not sound cannot have a permanent effect on the psychological health of man and cannot be a good guide.
Beliefs that are open to questioning and need to be interpreted again in the course of time are psychological paradigms. Placing the relationship between religion and science on a sound foundation depends upon questioning. religion and positive science can cooperate by showing respect to the fields of each other. For instance, understanding of meaning is common in science but religion presents meanings. A science that does not take religious values as a phenomenon into consideration in the understanding of meaning is regarded to have denied itself.
Evidence is necessary in order to describe a table to a blind person. Touching, which is the first deed of man, is evidence. However, evidence is not necessary for a man who can see. Similarly, if experiment and observation are not sufficient, reasoning is sufficient; if reasoning is not sufficient, intuitive thought is sufficient; if intuitive thought is not sufficient, religious thought is sufficient as a method for man’s understanding of meaning and pursuit of finding the truth.
When you examine this book carefully you will often see the computer metaphor and analogies relating to it. It seems to be the most reasonable explanation regarding existence to think spirit as information files, power as electrophysiological energy, will as free consciousness, the universe as infinite software, God as absolute consciousness, His thought and love as RF (Radio Frequency) waves as a model.
It is obvious how small man is in the universe compared to the fact that the nearest star is 4 thousand light years away. However, the universe exists with an “examination dialectic” for man, whose brain is excellent hardware, whose servitude enables his integration to the system, whose life cannot be estimated in terms of value, whose mind is the most artistic, skilled and extraordinary software. Man becomes mature like that, develops and returns to etrnity.
It is a reasonable view to say that revelation is a transfer of knowledge and to say that spirit can have a speed equal to 50 thousand times light speed by analogy. The mind tells man that there has to be a Creator worthy of worshipping; DNA shows man’s destiny program.
Religions need to contain scientific rationalism. Wherever there was a community, there was religion throughout history of man. If a community wants to survive, it depends on the formation of the institution of religion. However, religions do not meet man’s necessity of religion on their own today. Besides, the power obtained by science can be useful by evaluating the necessity of religion correctly. religion needs to use science as a method in order to realize individual happiness and social peace properly.
Modern man, who thinks freely and wants to produce healthy ideas, should not be deprived of sound belief and beauties brought by religion. Religious man should benefit from the new understanding of civilization, imagination, methodology and means of individual happiness brought by positive science. It can be regarded as a god method for man to revive the spiritual values that we abandoned by maintaining the acquisitions of modernism.
It is an interesting coincidence that the last sentences of this book was written in Boston, USA, at the end of the year 2008 and that the first spiritual reality observation and experiment through brain electrophysiology was carried out in the same city in 1975. I deliberately included many books in the Bibliography section; I wanted to emphasize the bibliography whether I showed it in the topic or not because it has a reference value. I am aware of the difficulty of writing in a wide-ranging field from religious to the science of physics. Therefore, I would like to state that I am open to criticism that includes suggestions.
In this book, we tried to present dialectic examination of sound belief and religious tradition this belief formed and its connections with mental health. The sea is big but our ladle is small. We hope it will contribute to the accumulation of knowledge of humanity.
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