My admission of my own irrational beliefs

[Goblinmonger]

I was playing raquetball with my wife last night and got to thinking about the discussions in here about saying religious beliefs = Santa.

Every time before I serve I tap my racquet on the floor twice. If I don't, it freaks me out. Is it rational for me to think that I need to do this in order for me to serve well? Absolutely. Do I still do it anyway? Yep. Would I be insulted if someone told me it was silly? Nope. My wife actually said something about it last night. Does my "belief" that it helps me indicate anything else about my intelligence or personality? Nope.

In fairness to the religious, I did think that there is probably a benefit to it. In order to do that, I have to be solidly planted in the server's box and be steady. That clearly helps to make my serve better. Also, it gives me a couple seconds to think about what I am going to do. Also clearly a benefit. So there may actually be real, beneficial outcomes to my irrational belief.

Just thought I'd share a related thought. YMMV

[RufusTFirefly]

1. Do you persecute those who don't tap twice?

Have you tried to change the rules of racquetball to require everyone to tap his or her racquet twice before serving, with strong penalties for those who don't?

Didn't think so.

[cosmik debris]

3. OK, I laughed

That was a wonderful response, thank you.:thumbsup:

[Goblinmonger]

5. Very nice.

I like your line of thinking. My attempt with the OP was not to advocate religion, but to indicate that the holding of irrational beliefs is not a reflection on my entire self. My tapping the racquet twice is silly with the added bonus of pissing my wife off and possibly throwing her off her game because she focuses on it. That silliness is limited to that belief and nothing else about me. OK, maybe I'm a little OCD.

[cyborg_jim]

13. We are all a little OCD

It's a consequence of the way our cognitive faculties work.

[unpossibles]

2. when I used to play volleyball, I rotated the ball in my hands before serving

and I guess in some ways it was like a ritual or superstition, but the reality of it is that it helps me get centered for the serve and/or to put spin on the ball. I also don't try to force everyone on the court and every kid in America to do so.

[Lerkfish]

4. A theory of religion as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

:shrug:

running out of ways to call religious people irrational and delusional?

I'll give you points for creativity.

:rofl:

[Goblinmonger]

6. The irony is that

I was typing my OCD comment as you were.

I guess my post didn't do what I intended. Let's say it is OCD. Does that mean that I am useless as a person as a whole because I am a little OCD on the racquetball court? No. It doesn't. Does that make my point clear?

[Lerkfish]

8. more clear, thanks.

[MistressOverdone]

7. Great point

I may come to the judgment day (nor non-judgment day) and discover it was all a hoax. Or probably I'll never know.

Be that as it may, there are many, many elements of what I call my faith that have helped me through life. In fact, without it, I probably would have already faced the above JD (or nonJD, whatever).

There's something to be said for placebos.

Not saying I believe it is, but I'm willing for it to be so. My mind is open in that regard.

All I can look at, really, is my own life because I don't know what others actually feel. What they say and what they feel are often two different things.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. "Religion is the placebo of the masses"

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? :D

[MistressOverdone]

10. No, actually it is not nearly

as exotic.

But never having been into opium, that's as far as I can go!

[Evoman]

11. My irrational beliefs:

I'm REALLY afraid of puke (and some other body fluids). I often avoid good parties just because I'm afraid someone might puke on me. When my girlfriend gets sick, I cuddle her to make her feel better...but if she just puked, I will stand about 5 feet away. I COULD NEVER hold someones hair. I haven't thrown up in almost 16 or 17 years, and even when I'm sick, I'll "hold it in".

Benefits: maybe it keeps me away from people who may be sick with stomach flu (and I really don't get that very often). Buts its completely irrational, and I should get the fuck over it. But I don't think I can....why the hell would I be afraid of food that been combined with some stomach acid and bile? Who the hell knows.

On edit: I'm not a germphobe, so thats not it.

[cosmik debris]

12. Out of the mouths of babes...

Seriously, when you have children you get over a lot of that. Kids leak. A lot. You have to clean it up. And then they leak some more. And more. And pretty soon, leakage is just smelly stuff to get rid of. Parenthood cures a lot of social problems.

[Orrex]

14. Great subject line, and you're right

I've never been particularly squeamish, but I wouldn't have thought that I'd ever be so blasé about poop, pee, and snot on my hands as I've become in the wake of my two little miracles.

I've already been lying on my back, "flying" my delighted baby prone above my face, only to have him drool into my happily goo-gooing mouth. And I have a friend who experienced the same thing but with different form of mouth-based output.

It's weird, what you get yourself used to.

[Evoman]

16. Oh god.

You don't get it...that is LITERALLY a nightmare for me. I would rather be held up at knife point.

[Evoman]

15. But first you have to have them.

And do you think that people telling me kids puke a lot makes me want to be a parent? At this point, unless my gf and I had an accident......

[MistressOverdone]

18. Have you ever watched

America's funniest videos where they show men changing diapers and gagging?

Some of them are wearing goggles, respirators, etc. It appears they have a serious aversion to bodily fluids as well!

[Evoman]

19. THAT WOULD BE ME.

First of all, I have an extremely sensitive nose. I'm not kidding, its almost supernatural. My sister, and niece, were down for the weekend...at one point, my sister changed her IN ANOTHER ROOM far from where I was.

I gagged. Had to cover my nose. Couldn't STAND it.

I am SEVERELY scared of having children. I like them, I really do...but I fear holding them, especially when they need me the most (when they are sick, when they peed or pooped themselves, when they are eating, etc).

[MistressOverdone]

22. Apparently you are not alone in this!

I promise if you ever have your own, it will ease up.

Here's something that always grosses me out. I take a school bus once a week and there is a box that says "bodily fluid clean up kit."

Yuk.

[MistressOverdone]

17. I've known people who have a

puke phobia, but they are afraid that they, themselves, will do it and embarrass themselves.

It is not easy to watch a person unload.

When it happens in my classroom, I often have two or three others who throw up in response.

I call this the "domino hurl" effect and it is to be greatly dreaded.

[Evoman]

23. I think a lot of people don't GET my phobia.

Especially since they always tell me I'll "get used to it when I have kids". Its more than that.

Suppose someone was scared of spiders (or snakes). Now imagine that everytime you picked up your kid, there was a possiblity that 1000 spiders would crawl out of his diapers and walk all over you.

And then they told you...oh you will get used to the spiders. And then they tell you a story about how their friend was holding a baby, and a spider fell into his mouth.

Actually, I'm an entomologist of sorts, so I would be a lot less uncomfortable with the spiders.

[WhollyHeretic]

20. Stop your violently obscene hate speech!

HELP! HELP! I'm being repressed!!

[cyborg_jim]

21. I have an appaling self-image

It's entirely irrational given that I cannot really complain about my life - as a whole I am extremely lucky.

So now the regulars here on the opposite side of the fence can know - don't think I don't understand you, I do. Once an idea is lodged in the brain it can be incredibly difficult to remove - even when you know it is stupid.

[Random_Australian]

24. Well, saving that one to my set of useful anecdotes, 3,2,1 thankyou

Goblinmonger, you may be used as an example for many future conversations; unless of course you post saying you mind that that is so. :)

[PassingFair]

25. I pick up pennies I find in the street and on the sidewalk.

I am hopeful that it means I am coming into more money.

I KNOW it is irrational. I KNOW it is not REAL.

But it gives me a THRILL, none the less.

:)