a real post - intuition vs logic

Hmm…like the others were less real.  Basically, and more thoughtful and hopefully thought provoking post.  I’ve been chatting with people more lately, which means I forget to rant about things here.  Once it’s out of me, it’s usually not needed to write about again.  Hence the lack of anything but basic life posts.  But this one is still intriguing to me.  As is often the case it comes from my good blogging friend Omni. (regarding this article at discover magazine)
The premise is a study into decision making, and trying to determine whether logic or intuition is more effective.  You can read Omni’s post for the details, but what they found was; “Conscious thinkers were better able to make the best choice among simple products, whereas unconscious thinkers were better able to make the best choice among complex products.”
She goes on to raise some interesting questions.  Throughout history, people have prayed in one way or another to their gods for answers to questions.  What if those answers didn’t come from a god, but from their own subconscious?  Religions have been built on this premise of waiting for an answer, and then assuming it is a diety that gave it to you.  Here’s an excerpt:

Interacting with the physical world with precision is a skill with obvious survival value, and is reasonable to expect a successful species of animal like humans to be able to do, but why would our unconscious minds need to be able to analyze “non-sensory” information (like gas mileage and crash test results) such as was required in the above experiment, much less be able to do it better than our conscious minds? What kinds of complex intellectual decisions did primitive humans have to make, that they needed this ability? “Here’s a bunch of facts about antelope species X, and a bunch of facts about antelope species Y; which one should we try to hunt today?”… and then, what, they’d focus on sharpening their spears for 4 minutes and then announce their decisions? Or; did they use those minutes to pray for “the god of the hunt” to tell them the right thing to do, attribute whatever their subconscious minds came up with to divine intervention, and act accordingly, because those types of decisions had been better in the past than the ones they came up with themselves? Is THAT the survival connection, that those who instinctively DIDN’T consciously think things through, and whose unconscious minds were able to handle increasingly complex theoretical scenarios, did better than their compatriots who tried to figure things out directly?

Is this part of why we do NOT (as a rule) want “heavy thinkers” to be our leaders, or even our friends or lovers… because people who try too hard to consciously sort things out tend to be less “successful” than those who go with whatever percolates up from the depths of their subconscious minds?

And; how much impetus was given to the success of religion in every human tribe by the realization that praying over difficult problems generally produced better solutions than thinking about them?

AND; how many times have you heard a religious person say that they prayed about a problem, or gave up on it and asked their deity of choice to handle it, and the answer “just came to them,” which they believe means that the deity helped them? I’m unwilling to totally discount the idea of there being a deity, as I can’t prove there isn’t one (or several), but isn’t it reasonable to assume that at least SOME of these cases are intervention by the subconscious rather than by the divine?

I think her point is quite valid.  This may be why religion has such a level of importance in society.  There was a connection between praying and success, especially when it came to crucial survival areas.

So that’s one side of the coin (how many sides does this coin have, by the way?).  I have another thought.  One equally unknowable, which makes it fun.  I believe we are all god, and all directly connected to that divinity via our subconscious.  While yes, we are human, we are also god, expressed in physical form.  When we go to our subconscious for answers, many things could be occuring, some of which amuse me.  What if our subconscious is conversing with friends on the other side, who can then research the subject and come to a group conclusion?  This is based on the Sylvia Browne vision of the other side.

Or, what if your subconscious is taking the time to search forward through time (which does not exist, hence the ability to go forward) and see which option would work out best in this situation.  The more ‘time’ you give your subconscious to work, and then the more open you are to a response later, the better things work.  If you interfere with your logic, things may work out less well.

And there is, of course, the possibility that there is a ‘diety’ of sorts, giving you advice.  Since these are all unknowable anyway, we certainly can’t count this option out.  Though, I’m more partial to the above options.  As our subconscious can see things from the larger perspective of the soul, aka god, then it makes sense that it would be best suited for more complicated decision making.  This doesn’t, however, take into account why it wouldn’t be as useful for simple decisions.

In the study, the people were all looking at cars, and one group simply had a lot more information.   So there, the situation is theoretically the same.  Perhaps it is because our logic is especially suited for that type of situation, a few variables.  Thus, it performs better.  I’ll explain it another way.  In the study, we’re comparing two different methods, logic and intuition.  (Since I don’t have the study, I’ll have to assume this next is true.)  Intuition is not compared to intuition between both.  It would make sense to me that they would be about equal in both cases.  Intuition is pretty consistent.  It is the logic that doesn’t hold up.  So let’s just call intuition the zero point.  Relative to intution’s zero point, logic is positive when dealing with fewer variables, and negative when dealing with more.  Thus, intuition is always a valid option, but it may not be the best option.

In any case, I don’t know that this is knowable until we move on to the other side.  And by then, I’ll probably have forgotten I even wondered about this.  :-)  Please share your thoughts, because it’s been interesting to discuss with people over the past week.