In
the late 1980s I created the Primary Guideline.
My Belief System will
be large enough to include all facts,
open enough to be
examined and questioned,
and flexible enough to
change if errors or new facts are discovered.
Over
the years, I have used it and seen it used in discussions that involved people
with conflicting belief systems -- Christians, Jews, Muslims, other
religions, atheists and agnostics. However, one thing almost always happens
in these discussions. It is easy to agree to use the Guideline in a group that
agrees to use it. However, even then, when one of their beliefs are questioned,
things change. I didn’t understand why that happens until 2015. It is a
biological process that takes place in our brains. I will use the example of “a
rider on an elephant” to explain it.
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The rider represents the conscious level at which the brain functions.
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The elephant represents the subconscious level at which the brain functions.
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The conscious level processes about 40 nerve impulses per second. We
are consciously aware of this process.
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The subconscious level interprets and responds to over 40 million nerve impulses per second. We ARE NOT consciously aware of this process
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As an information processor the subconscious
function is one million times more
powerful than the conscious.
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95% of cognitive activity takes place at
the subconscious level, which means the elephant is running the show most of
the time.
The
brain’s most important mission is survival and most of this
activity takes place at the subconscious
level. The elephant devotes lots of time and energy to predicting what will happen next,
so that the body will be ready for any contingency. Every second it
is issuing thousands of predictions at a time -- based on its past experiences.
For
the first five years of life, the elephant runs most of the show. The elephant
creates belief models that allow it to process information very fast. When it
receives new information it uses those belief models to identify information
that agrees or disagrees with its most trusted belief models. Some of the most
powerful belief models in our brains were created before we were six years old.
Now let’s apply this information to the use of the Primary Guideline
discussion.
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It is the rider that agrees to follow the Primary Guideline.
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It is the elephant that goes into defense mode when its belief models are questioned.
The rider goes wherever
the elephant wants to go,
until the rider learns
how to coax and guide it.
Training
My Elephant
My
elephant created some of my earliest belief models before I was old enough to
go to school.
While I was hearing about God, Jesus and “being saved” from
my parents, family members, friends, preachers, Sunday School teachers,
playmates, etc. – my elephant was creating those belief models.
By the time I graduated from high school, my elephant had created some
very powerful belief models about “being saved.”
Saved people spend eternity
in Heaven with God.
For
my elephant, the key word was “eternity” because its most
important function is “survival.” A group of key belief models combined
to play a major role:
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A “saved by grace through faith alone belief model” – meaning
good works do not save people.
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A “once saved always saved belief model” – 100% guaranteed
salvation.
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A “the Bible is the inerrant infallible Word of God belief model”
– beliefs based on the Bible are true because every word in the Bible came directly
from God.
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A “monotheism belief model” – only one God exists and
it is mine.
Those
belief models sealed the deal. No matter what I did or what anyone else did to
me -- the death problem was a thing of the past and my future was set.
At least, that’s the way it was until the Primary Guideline and facts
showed up. Matthew 25:31-46 created a big challenge for my elephant.
Only the
righteous enter into eternal life.
The problem arose when I learned that “the
righteous” were people that fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, took
the stranger into their homes, clothed the naked, visited the sick, and came to
those in prison. They were not saved according to my elephant’s belief models. My elephant wanted to ignore, attack,
or just get me away from the beliefs that do not support its beliefs -- and do
it ASAP!
So I know what it feels like to have my most trusted
belief models challenged and to have to confront “uncertainty”
again. It is not comfortable and definitely not fun (at
first), but there is too much at stake to ignore facts. I
will share more how my elephant dealt with this experience in my next email.
Shalom,
Jim Myers
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