Jul
31
Am I an introvert?
Filed Under Life, Psychology | Leave a Comment
I had one of those rare moments of enlightenment today. Stumble had stopped me accesing atheist sites, so I stumbled instead on psychology sites. It talked about introversion, and how it is so often misunderstood.
There were two concepts that the article discussed. One, that shyness and introversion are not the same. And two, that introverts are often very happy to chat.
You see, I had assumed that my daily habit of visiting coffee shops to chat meant I was at least partially extroverted. Apparently, introverts are not all shy, and often do engage in good conversation. It is just that they need to spend a larger time on their own, ruminating on matters, or engrossing themselves - too much chat overloads them.
An extrovert needs human contact to get energised, needing little or no time to recover. They despair of the dullness of being on their own.
Additionally, the article describes how extroverts misunderstand introverts, thinking them ignorantly quiet. And because they are indeed often quiet, the extroverts never get to learn that the introverts dislike the in-your-face attitude of extroverts. But the key frustration for introverts is that the extroverts rarely ever want or try to get to understand how introverts feel.
I do try to understand how others feel, so I guess I am indeed more of an introvert than I thought.
Extroverts tend to get on and get involved in exciting things that would overwhelm introverts.
Introverts often get their kicks from computers, books, and other non-people things.
They tend to misunderstand each other.
But neither behaviour is right. Just different ways of living. Where it becomes a problem is when the natural behaviour of one type simply does not fit a situation.
Jul
10
In the name of atheism
Filed Under Atheism, Religion | Leave a Comment
With the enormous power of thousands of years of indoctrination, with massive churches and cathedrals legitimising their activities, religions can carry out otherwise criminal acts. We appear to be morally obliged to accede to all requests made in the name of religion.
Islamists butcher the genitals of young females. Americans ostracise non-believers.
But religion, like atheism, is a belief system. You act according to what you believe to be true in the absence of form corroborating truth.
I would like to claim that my belief that the World was not created by an almighty power be respected in the same way that a religious view claims the converse. But more importantly, I want to claim freedom for those oppressed in the name of religion. And have the weight of numbers of atheists as my support - atheism is hardly a fringe, eletist belief system.