This is what is meant by intelligence.
We are also able to indulge in abstract thoughts.
Abstract thought may or may not be related to reality. It is at this point that imagination kicks in. We see examples of this in paintings that are imaginative creations that may or may not be related to reality.
Dante's Inferno is an example of pure imagination.
Crucifixion, by Nabil Kanso, relates to a historical reality.
We use imagination to amuse ourselves and that is why we have "Father Xmas" and the "Tooth Fairy".
We also use imagination to fill gaps in our knowledge and in this mode we spent a very long time imagining that the earth was flat and the center of the universe.
The good thing is that we are pathologically curious and throughout history we have been on a journey of discovery.
As we made discoveries our understanding of reality improved and we were able to progressively replace imagi
Absolutely critical to this progression to better and better understanding has been our discovery of more and more FACTS, i.e, objectively observable and provable reality. So telescopes opened up the sky and we soon learned that we were not the center of the universe.
It is the understanding of reality that has ensured that we have progressed as a species to this point and ensured our dominance on this planet.
All of the above is good, very good indeed.
The problem is that the imagination component of these attributes can and does go wrong.
Imagination is but a hairs breath aware from hallucination.
So regrettably it is often the case that in trying to fill the gaps of that which we do not understand by imagination we slip into hallucination.
Hallucination is often a failure of our attempt to understand. Because of a limitation in our power of reason we struggle imaginatively and start to hallucinate.
The limitation in our power of reason is often driven by ignorance, i.e, a failure to appreciate the reality of whatever issue or circumstance is confronting
The bigger the limitation in intelligence, the more likely it is that we will have our appreciation of reality distorted to the point of hallucination.
The same result is ensured when we miss-appreciate perhaps just one fact in a compendium of facts that make up a whole.
In each case we start to imagine things ... and when we imagine things we may well slip into hallucination.
This hallucination can then become a pandemic when it is propagated by a dominant group. In any grouping of our planetary species there are those who are dominant and who seek to maintain that dominance by embedding their reason, imagination or hallucinations. Because we are also imbued with a herd instinct we tend to succumb to, connive at and collude with the machinations of the dominant groups. In this way we have experienced mass hallucin
Mass hallucination induced by a dominant group was witnessed by the whole world as regards the apartheid saga.
It is very important to note that apartheid was not conceived and propagated by evil wicked human beings that got up one morning and decided that they needed t
NO, No, NO ... the fathers of apartheid were otherwise "normal good human beings", just like you and me.
What went wrong was that there was a failure in which intelligence and understanding was replaced by imagination to the point of hallucination.
This was, in part, triggered by a miss-appreciation of just one fact, i.e., that ethnic difference could never render one human a lesser human.
That miss-appreciation was induced by acceptance of a statement in perhaps the greatest product of human imagination, i.e, the Bible.
That statement was to the effect that some humans were predestined to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Joshua 9:21
Another good example is that we used to imagine that natural misfortune, such as falling ill, was on account of "witchcraft" perpetrated by hu
The apartheid founders were not bad humans. Just ignorant.
We were not bad humans. Just ignorant.
We need to guard against ignorance by understanding that hallucination may well overtake us when we are not diligent about using our intelligence to deal in FACTS and not imagination.
Newton was able to conclude that gravity existed because the apple falling from the tree was an observable provable fact.
We also use imagination to fill gaps in our knowledge and in this mode we spent a very long time imagining that the earth was flat and the center of the universe.
The good thing is that we are pathologically curious and throughout history we have been on a journey of discovery.
As we made discoveries our understanding of reality improved and we were able to progressively replace imagi
Absolutely critical to this progression to better and better understanding has been our discovery of more and more FACTS, i.e, objectively observable and provable reality. So telescopes opened up the sky and we soon learned that we were not the center of the universe.
It is the understanding of reality that has ensured that we have progressed as a species to this point and ensured our dominance on this planet.
All of the above is good, very good indeed.
The problem is that the imagination component of these attributes can and does go wrong.
Imagination is but a hairs breath aware from hallucination.
So regrettably it is often the case that in trying to fill the gaps of that which we do not understand by imagination we slip into hallucination.
Hallucination is often a failure of our attempt to understand. Because of a limitation in our power of reason we struggle imaginatively and start to hallucinate.
The limitation in our power of reason is often driven by ignorance, i.e, a failure to appreciate the reality of whatever issue or circumstance is confronting
The bigger the limitation in intelligence, the more likely it is that we will have our appreciation of reality distorted to the point of hallucination.
The same result is ensured when we miss-appreciate perhaps just one fact in a compendium of facts that make up a whole.
In each case we start to imagine things ... and when we imagine things we may well slip into hallucination.
This hallucination can then become a pandemic when it is propagated by a dominant group. In any grouping of our planetary species there are those who are dominant and who seek to maintain that dominance by embedding their reason, imagination or hallucinations. Because we are also imbued with a herd instinct we tend to succumb to, connive at and collude with the machinations of the dominant groups. In this way we have experienced mass hallucin
Mass hallucination induced by a dominant group was witnessed by the whole world as regards the apartheid saga.
It is very important to note that apartheid was not conceived and propagated by evil wicked human beings that got up one morning and decided that they needed t
NO, No, NO ... the fathers of apartheid were otherwise "normal good human beings", just like you and me.
What went wrong was that there was a failure in which intelligence and understanding was replaced by imagination to the point of hallucination.
This was, in part, triggered by a miss-appreciation of just one fact, i.e., that ethnic difference could never render one human a lesser human.
That miss-appreciation was induced by acceptance of a statement in perhaps the greatest product of human imagination, i.e, the Bible.
That statement was to the effect that some humans were predestined to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Joshua 9:21
Another good example is that we used to imagine that natural misfortune, such as falling ill, was on account of "witchcraft" perpetrated by hu
The apartheid founders were not bad humans. Just ignorant.
We were not bad humans. Just ignorant.
We need to guard against ignorance by understanding that hallucination may well overtake us when we are not diligent about using our intelligence to deal in FACTS and not imagination.
Newton was able to conclude that gravity existed because the apple falling from the tree was an observable provable fact.
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