WhatFinger


The amygdala, the greatest innate enemy of democracy.

The Judeo-Christian ethic versus the Instinctual Amygdala



Freud wrote in 1928 that if not for religion there would be mayhem: “If one imagined its prohibitions removed, then one could choose any woman who took one’s fancy as one’s sexual object, one could kill without hesitation one’s rival or whoever interfered with one in any other way, and one could seize what one wanted of another man’s goods without asking his leave.” Freud was not religious, but he knew the importance of the ethical teachings. “If you want to expel religion from our European civilization, you can only do it by means of another system of doctrines.”
American writer, historian, and philosopher Will Durant wrote “Organized societies require moral order because “there is no altruism among nations.” I recently watched '12 Years a Slave', for the second time, and saw it through a different lens than my first viewing. This time I saw the white overlords inflamed with lust and blood-lust, revenge and vengeance, unleashed by the blood hounds of hell residing in the deep recesses of the amygdala, the place of action without thought, which is supposed to be controlled by the more recently evolved prefrontal cortex; the moral decision maker in the brain. I witnessed the joy in their eyes, a fever that took over them as they lashed their slaves, over and over. It was intoxicating and contagious capturing others in the hate. And this, coming from Christians, who were well versed in the Judeo/Christian ethic of caring for the other: an ethic that taught that all people are born with equal value. So how did this happen? It was not all that difficult. They turned “the other,” black people, from a different tribe, into animals. They treated them as property, like any beast of burden. A horse, a cow, a donkey. and were then able to treat them as less than human. And that is how it is done. And yet, the Bible teaches us to care for all of God’s creatures; great and small. We are taught to give the animals a day of rest.

Support Canada Free Press


That so many failed at honouring this moral obligation speaks to the human failure to implement the ethic of compassion, not the failure of the ethic. It speaks to an unfettered amygdala-the instinctual part of the brain that acts without thinking. The amygdala, the greatest innate enemy of democracy. We have seen these actions in modern times with the Armenian genocide, the Belgian treatment of the people in the Congo, the Shoah and Rwanda. And now we are witnessing these behaviours in Muslim countries around the world. Islam teaches that not all people are equal. That Muslims are superior to all others. That women are not equal to men. That gays should be murdered. And compares Jews to pigs. And calls for their wanton murder. And we have seen in the eyes of far too many Muslims that same fever, that intoxicating embrace of the lustful amygdala. Stoning, lashing, amputating limbs, calls for revenge for honour. Is it any wonder that the Bible is full of the call: “Vengeance is mine” sayeth the Lord? Yet here we are throwing Canadians under a politically correct bus for having the audacity to call on us to hold on to our values; values so difficult to maintain because we are always being enticed by our amygdala, the home of our primal instincts, to turn to the dark side, to let go of the repression and suppression of fear of the other that too often turns to hate if we are not taught to care for the other. It is in the gap between the arousal of the instinct and our behaviour that our values play their role. Our behaviour depends on the ethic that we taught as we grow up, often through story-telling. Terry Glavin wrote in the Ottawa Citizen
"Kelly Leitch has been rightly admonished by several of her fellow Conservatives for employing “dog whistle politics” in the way she proposes to profit from the commonly held and not otherwise unsavory notions about immigrants “fitting in.” Leitch proposes some sort of test for “Canadian values” to be added to Canada’s points system for immigrants."

Yet we have immutable values in our Constitution. Our documents are firmly rooted in the Judeo/Christian ethic and those values speak to how we expect others to behave. Sadly, we do not teach this in history class-or any class for that matter. If we cannot speak of these values then how can we defend and protect our way of life? How can we be sure that people coming to this country will be aware of them, let alone willing to live by them? Democracy is fragile. The latest survey by Freedom House 2016 shows that we are losing more democracies each year than gaining them and this has been going on for at least ten years.
  • The number of countries showing a decline in freedom for the year—72—was the largest since the 10-year slide began. Just 43 countries made gains.
  • Over the past 10 years, 105 countries have seen a net decline, and only 61 have experienced a net improvement.
  • Ratings for the Middle East and North Africa region were the worst in the world in 2015, followed closely by Eurasia.
We cannot afford to welcome people into our culture who will not refute an ethic, Sharia Law, that is a throwback to pre-Hammurabi times, let alone Jewish and Christian. In Turkey, the moderate Muslim country, “the Justice and Development Party (AKP) supported a motion, which was brought to the floor of the General Assembly on Thursday night, that would allow the immediate release of more than 4,000 convicted rapists from Turkish prisons if they marry their victim. Ahhhh the call of the amygdala! I leave you with this story about Eid in Quebec. It is enacted in all Muslim countries and now in the west. By Amelie St-Yves | Journal de Montreal | h/t Alex Parent Hundreds of sheep were slaughtered in the open air by thousands of Muslims gathered on a farm in the Centre-du-Québec for the most important festival in their religious calendar, Monday. The spirit was festive for Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sheep, a celebration where a lamb is sacrificed as an offering. After cutting the throat of a thousand sheep in a field in the municipality of L’Avenir, near Drummondville, Muslims prepared meat, burning the head and legs with a torch, while they were still alive. The men fraternized, children were playing ball and the women were having discussions amongst themselves. Michel Cloutier, the sheep livestock owner who lives on Ployard way, has however been very discreet. “This allows them to keep their traditions, I’m just here to sell them their sheep,” he said briefly. Chouiter Abdelkader, who practiced veterinary medicine in Algeria for a decade, killed his sheep in the early afternoon. “Our goal is to get the maximum amount of blood,” because it makes the best meat, he said, while watching the sheep die slowly.


View Comments

Diane Weber Bederman -- Bio and Archives

Diane Weber Bederman is a blogger for ‘Times of Israel’, a contributor to Convivium, a national magazine about faith in our community, and also writes about family issues and mental illness. She is a multi-faith endorsed hospital trained chaplain.


Sponsored