Posted by Pasti on Apr 21, 2002 at 23:46
(64.10.126.88)
Re: God on the Brain (DA Morgan)
I am still not convinced.I have no authority in he matter,so obviously this is only my personal oppinion.
"Many of the events people having "religious experiences" often report are exactly those same things now clearly defined as caused by mental illness. There is little doubt, for example, that Joan of Arc was psychotic."
With this I might agree.But the ideea in the article was somehow opposite: religious experiences are the direct cause of the mental illness, and not a mere byproduct.If people suffer from some mental illness of some sort (and the concept of mental illness is still debatable, even under US law, say)it is rather normal/believable for them if they are religious and have a vision, this vision to be of religious nature.
But the article left me with the impression that the correlation they made was that this illness has as result specifically religious visions.And with this version I do not agree.This very much seems like the kind of "studies" that show how the mold in the grandparents' house basement affects the physical abilities of the grandchildren when they go into space.Pretty much like a conclusion serving specifically for a purpose.
"A few hundred years ago, lacking our knowledge of mental illness those with such illness were classified as either inspired or evil depending on such vagaries as local custom, political implications, etc. Today we know most of them to just be from California or similar environs."
Well, as I said, the article left me with roughly the impression that religion is somehow a consequence of this illness. And in this case, a few hundreds of years ago,the illness must have been flourishing, given the fact that at the time the vast majority of people belonged to one religion or the other.
Which raises the question of how this illness cured itself, since today there are more non-religious people than several hundreds of years ago,so allegedly they do not suffer anymore of the mentioned illness.
"Why Christian visions rather than Moslem or Buddhist ... just as simple to answer as the checking the religious background of the study's subjects. The study was run in a Christian country".
In the context you talk about it makes sense, but it didn't in the context I was talking about.
As I said, I am not convinced of the correlation.Even if I am not a religious person, I would rather stick with religion as the product of overactive human imagination rather than mental illness.Otherwise my respect for the human race (or whatever is left of it) would go directly down the drain.
But it seems plausible that visions of any kind could be the result of something going wrong with the brain,and in this context the correlation between the illness and the religious visions is superfluous.This correlation supports with equal strength the ideea that if Hefner had visions, they would be of naked women.
Ergot: or her got, not? Amaranth Rose 24/4 14:43
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Re: God on the Brain DA Morgan 23/4 02:06
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Re: God on the Brain Clint 24/4 04:13
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