Humans have a desire for a sense of personal control or security. Men tend to even be more ambitious skill and want a sense of efficacy. Men need to be good at something. I doubt there is really much dividing men and women in this respect other than the values which shape women from childhood. Certainly women should be encouraged to be efficacious in some field if that is what they want.
The problem with a search for self-control or self-assurance is that its not a pursuit of values, its a search for self-assurance. Its not an endeavour that is going to lead you into fresh ideas, but rather a path which will find you rationalising that your existing ideas are right. This is actually the origin of self-righteousness and arrogance. Call it entrenched thinking as opposed to a thought process which is always open to new ideas. Of course, open to the extent that listening does not detract from your focus of achieving goals.
Christians of course come in all shapes and sizes. There are people for whom Christianity is something they don't give much mind; who might well think, aahh Yeh I can love God if it gets me to heaven. I can be kind to others, no problem since its consistent with practicality anyway. Yeh I can give money to a needy person every Xmas. Its nothing to me. But herein lies the rationalisation....its nothing to these people. They are essentially self-interested people rationalising that they profess certain values, but in reality they act selfishly. But its not selfishnes with any integrity. Its an indulgent or subjective sense of value. In fact, by objective standards, its self sacrifice. Mind you such Christians tend to have a strong ego, are intelligent, efficacious in some compartmentalised area of life, they are independent and doing quite well, thank you very much! But the extent to which they are religious is the extent to which they are undermining their thought process or insightfulness.
The greater concern is the deluded Christian (or child of a Christian) in search of answers. The problem as I see it is that they have been raised with dogma, self-sacrifice as moral values. They don't have a well-developed thought process, and they direct their search towards the familiar rather than the disparities. They are basically trying to shore up their existing premises rather than challenge them. A critical thinker does both. Logic demands differentiation and synthesis.
For this reason, they join these cults and other weird religious groups, of which there are too many to name. It is no accident that there are so many in the USA.
Of course you don't need to be a Christian to be insecure or vulnerable, but you do need to be to end up in a cult. Another expression of collectivist values might drift into socialist organisations or join a hippie commune. That is where you get your Christian chasing the REDS under the bed. The moral crusader - and in the USA - they have guns. The lynch mobs branded the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) being a case in point.
It is therefore not surprising that Christians and
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com
