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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hmm.  My thoughts on this are evolving.  But I'm not convinced that the part of our brain that experiences this "non-word" fully is capable of translating the "thing" - "thought" - "knowledge" (see, none of these feels right to me) into language.  Or, perhaps it's that the language forming part of the brain is muddying the waters with all of it's attempts at categorizing and symbolism.  It know no other way. [/quote]

Sam Harris, of all atheists I know, is a lot more spiritual than the rest, or at least the most vocal about it. Some of his writings or talks deal with the subject of enlightenment, spirituality, the sense of self, and how to explore your own consciousness. He may have described what you are attempting to describe. Between raising a family and running a business, I have no time for enlightenment presently. Perhaps when I retire and have a lot more time while fishing to contemplate the meaning of my existence. ;)

[quote=Anonymous]
I listened to an old Radiolab podcast the other day -- maybe you've listened to it -- it was the story of this man who was deaf and who had never been taught to communicate and at age 27 he still didn't have language.  He'd never been taught that there was a word or a symbol for everything.  The woman telling the story said it took her months to finally teach him that "Cat" represented a cat.  And then, once that light bulb turned on, of course his entire world opened.

She went back to interview him years later and asked him about his life before that time -- he made some statement to the fact that he couldn't recall what his thoughts were before that moment.  There was no way for him to describe, or even remember, what was going on in his head.  It was a bank spot in his memory to an extent.

It's just had me thinking a lot about words lately, how they are a communal and fluid thing.  And when you think about religion and combine language with the evolved human brain that is constantly trying to infer meaning into things, I think this may be why religion captures so many people in an irrefutable way.   I don't deny it serves those basic human needs: moral code, unity, etc. but I think there's something else at work.  It's like, the 5 year olds in Sunday school didn't know what they were missing, they didn't know "God" was a symbol they needed until they were taught it, and once the symbol is there, it's sort of unbreakable.  There's no reference point to take you back to before.  Like our deaf friend and the word cat.  Henceforth, it's a cat, just because it's a cat.

Is this making any sense?[/quote]

Yea, you are making sense. Again I think you are giving too much credit to religion. Yes religion has the profoundly philosophical side. Many theologians are certifiable geniuses. But I think in this regard, religion is purely context, and not the substance. Also, this level of religious study is highly exclusive. Your average Sunday church goer does not relate to religion in this fashion. Their involvement is much more mundane as I listed out previously. Another important element I left out earlier is that religion gives an answer to death. This is one of the most powerful tools that religion has, which is universally comforting since we all go through that moment of realization that we will eventually die. I remember when I was 12 or 13, laying awake in bed thinking about this and almost crying because I couldn't deal with dying and just becoming nothing. I tried to imagine becoming nothing and it was very depressing. Religion solves that problem with a snap of a finger and you don't have to think about it any more. You don't die, in fact you get to live forever. Who doesn't want to live for ever?[/quote]

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