All Categories - THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION

WHY BOTHER

6/4/2018

The comments I often get when I explain why I am an unbeliever and a skeptic as far as the supernatural is concerned is: “Why do you write extensively explaining why, since there is no scientific evidence, the Supernatural is not proven to exist. Why not just let people believe what they want and be done with it”. Many also charge that I am attacking religion.
There are many more supernatural beliefs than just religion. Many non-religious people believe in Astrology, Aliens, UFOs, Numerology, Telepathy, Psychic Power, Ghosts and many more, relying on the unproven existence of a supernatural realm. They can do a lot of financial or mental damage to the individual. Individual beliefs, if they are unshakably strong, cannot be changed and can be classified as a mental disturbance called DD (Delusion Disorder, see my previous blogs), however most people are not totally deluded and can change their mind. Why bother to try to shake their beliefs? If I can convince only one person to seek legitimate medical help rather then rely on a quack selling “alternate”, often expensive, treatment, that could be fatal or if I can convince only one parent to seek help for their sick child and get medical attention rather than rely on prayer alone and save the child’s life, it’s all been worthwhile and I will feel justified in “attacking” faith in the “supernatural” beliefs in any form. I don’t want to sound narcissistic but I feel it is my mission and I hope that many of you, who feel the same way, will help me to spread the message by hitting the “Like” and “Share” buttons, when agreeing with my posts. Of course I am also interested in your comments and constructive criticisms since I have learned a lot from these in the past. Keep in touch!

Consciousness is a Mystery?

5/9/2018

Many scientists regard consciousness as a mystery that has not been solved. Theist use that excuse to proclaim that consciousness is part of a spirit or soul and that it is survivable after death to have an afterlife in Heaven or Hell, a man-made concept with no evidence. Neuroscience has established that consciousness is a function of, and depending on, a live, functional brain. Robert Epstein, senior research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, states “ There is nothing slightly mysterious about consciousness.”
https://medium.com/the-awl/the-simple-truth-about-consciousness-7b551473a171
Since Spirit and Soul are man-made concepts, (see: http://www.origin-of-religion.com/the-origin-of-spirit.html ). The theists assertion that consciousness and awareness, some how survive the death of the brain is wishful thinking. Brain death means consciousness and awareness gone. No afterlife.

WHAT DEMENTIA TELLS US

4/9/2018

The following is based on facts and observation and not speculation. We all have a sense of “self” based on awareness. When we wake up out of a deep sleep, i.e. slow-wave sleep (SWS) (1) we become aware of our environment through our senses and aware of “who we are” because of our memories, the two necessary components of establishing our identity. To recognize our “self” we need both. Problems arise when our senses or our memories are impaired. For example a person with total amnesia, would be aware of his/her environment but would have to accumulate new memories to establish a “self”.

Neuro–science is now advanced enough to be able to measure brain activity that is involved in our senses and memory. We now know, that awareness and consciousness are brain functions which slowly materialized in our early years when our brain developed. We all experienced that process and our first memories established our sense of “self”, our identity as a person. We can even locate the parts of the brain responsible for storing these memories and this knowledge is rapidly advancing. (2)

Dementia is a terrible curse. There are many different forms of dementia, and therefor the symptoms can be different. I want to discuss only one type, called Alzheimer’s disease, that can so far, only be diagnosed definitely by autopsy of the brain after death. (3). My mother and my grandmother suffered this fate. My mother, who was a very patient and loving person as well as very religious, went through all the stages mentioned in the literature and ended up as a vegetable. It was heartbreaking and very difficult to accept. What did we observe was that her awareness and self-identity slowly became more and more impaired as the brain deteriorated and her memories were slowly destroyed.

There are other forms of dementia were we cannot be sure whether it is destruction of the brain cells our impairment of access to memory is the cause but in Alzheimer’s, because of autopsies, we can establish that as a fact.

The only conclusion based on the scientific method of fact and observation of Alzheimer’s patients is, that although we do not know yet how the brain produces awareness and consciousness, they are totally depended on the material brain and that when the brain dies there is no awareness and memory possible, that we know as a fact, therefor an afterlife is a moot point.

Epilogue: There is no need to argue whether there is an intelligent designer, perhaps there is, although I doubt it. One can call energy or nature a “god”, it doesn’t change the above conclusion. The great need to overcome the avoidance of reality of death has spurred many ancient and current philosophers, to conjure up some method of avoiding death’s finality by invoking a supernatural realm where everything is possible. Some will argue that we posses a non-material soul or spirit, that is independent from our material brain. This is a pure speculative idea which developed from the historical fact that “breath” was considered a spirit that entered the baby when it took it’s first breath and the last breath, when dying, would leave the body to re-join the Great Spirit. The word “spirit” is actually derived from the Latin “spiritus”, meaning “breath”. One can find many mentions of breath being a spirit in other religions. The Bible has at least 8 references (see “origin of the spirit” on my website) to that effect.

Another speculation is, that your memories, which you need to be aware of yourself, could somehow be transferred to a supernatural medium or in the future to a mechanical device. Imagine that after transferring your total memory to such a device you discover that the machine, when becoming aware, absolutely believes it is you, but you know that can’t be the case. A duplicate cannot be “you”. There are many other problems with the idea of an afterlife in heaven, such as when babies die, do they grow up in heaven? What about mentally retarded people?

There are many supposition. None of them having evidence. They are philosophical constructions or pure fantasy. Notions such as “we are part of a supernatural universal awareness, were our consciousness came from and will return to” or the suggestions that quantum physics somehow indicates that we are part of a universal consciousness, by people who misunderstand or misrepresent the underlying physical processes, are wishful thinking. Extra ordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.

References:
1-(Schulz, Hartmut (2008). "Rethinking sleep analysis. Comment on the AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events". J Clin Sleep Med. American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
2-Consciousness and the brain, by Stanislaw Dehaene, Viking Press)
3-Ballard C, Gauthier S, Corbett A, Brayne C, Aarsland D, Jones E (March 2011). "Alzheimer's disease". Lancet.

Imagination & Delusion

3/21/2018

Humans have an unlimited imagination, which we inherited through our genes. It has been very important in our evolutionary success. We marvel at Science Fiction stories, Harry Potter, Superman and other fiction. Nature was bewildering, harsh and unpredictable and instead of feeling helpless our ancestors' imagination conjured up entities which could influence nature and could be approached through rituals and offerings.

We all have inherited, some to a higher degree than others, cognitive dissonance, the mental discomfort and psychological stress experienced by a person who simultaneously is facing two or more contradictory values, ideas or beliefs. To offset these feelings, we also all have, to some degree, the mental capacity for delusions, a mistaken belief that is held with strong conviction even when presented with superior evidence to the contrary. This also was probably a helpful trait during evolution since it is so widely spread. If a delusion, however is very strong it becomes a problem (see the symptoms as published by the APA)

Before science, a very, very recent development in our history, gradually showed us the reality of nature step by step, the need for believing in these fictional entities and the delusions that convinced people of their authenticity gradually decreased but the resistance to give up these comfortable myths is still very strong because of our genetic make-up, which changes at a slow evolutionary speed rather than the exponential speed that science is developing.

Science was developing at a slow speed before writing was invented and communication between generations was often by story-telling and very inaccurate. When writing was developed it became easier to transmit information from generation to the next one, but so were mistaken ideas. It must be remembered that writing was limited only to a few elites, and that even a couple of hundred years ago over 90% of the population was illiterate. Christian Church services in the middle ages were in Latin, a language that most people did not understand, and thus had to rely on the clergy for explanations, which could be consisting of very personal opinions. This gave the clergy, total unquestionable authority which was often cruelly enforced.

Only in the last few generations has general literacy been established. Science has now become available for the masses and flies in the face of our inherited delusional beliefs. Cognitive dissonance also is playing a big role. Depending on how strong these traits are in a person, science is often difficult to accept and replace beliefs, therefor pseudo-science is rampant, to counteract the mental discomfort of many people, when real science confronts their illogical beliefs.

We cannot wait for slow evolution to override the inherited tendencies, but education can do the trick and overcome our primitive instincts, as we have done with other ones, to some extent, although not completely erased, such as rape and murder.

Since different religions in the world often create great conflicts, even between factions of the same religion, it is imperative that we built a secular world society, governed in a democratic way without the influence of non-elected religious leaders or other ideological rulers who influence current governments in many parts of the world today.

Misuse of Quantum Physics

2/26/2018

In a book called “Breaking the habit of being yourself” by Joe Dispenza he mentioned that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle would make Telekinesis a possibility. This is again an example of the misuse of quantum physics by people who do not understand the principle involved and twist it to “prove” their pet theories. Since it has been theorized that an electron may be in every place at once, but once observed, our very act of observation fixes its position, Dispenza argues that conscious minds than have the ability to influence the objective universe as we view it, i.e. mind over matter.

Alex the Younger in Hackers Noon, has a clear description which explains what the Uncertainty Principle means and shows how Dispenza misuses the theory. Alex writes “Physicists use this observed effect to describe the problem that humans have to see what they are experimenting on and that visible light can influence those experiments. Light itself interacts with electrons, so to shine a light on an electron in hope of measuring it, will actually disturb it by changing its momentum”. He then goes on to explain that there is also an Uncertainty analog in sound waves. So much for Dispenza’s idea that the Uncertainty Principal shows that Telekinesis is possible.

There are others who misuse Quantum Physics to further their pet theories such as the Master of Theoretical nonsense Deepak Chopra, the famous snake-oil salesman, who argues that “Quantum Healing” cures many ailments. Ricard Dawkins once said “Copra uses Quantum Jargon as plausible Hocus Pocus"

The Origin of Life

2/14/2018

Many have argued that the odds of life forming by chance are so great that it is impossible for the laws of nature to accomplish it and that therefore it constitutes proof that an intelligent designer must exist.
I just found this website, which opens the possibility of actually testing whether, rather than chance, life is an inevitable outcome of the natural laws of thermodynamics and not a result of chance at all. Science will find that out, like many other theories in the past have been proven, through experiment and observation (the earth is not flat after all). If we find that is the case, life should be ubiquitous throughout the universe. The conclusion that “God did it” is a little premature. Go to:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122/

Delusion Disorder Debate Continued

2/9/2018

I received the following long comment. I appreciate comments as always. I hope many of you are interested as well and read this long reply, after all it is a very important subject. Here is the rebuttal of my response and my reply to each statement.

Comment: I have claimed that when one applies the American Psychiatric Association's symptoms for Delusion Disorder it applies to religious beliefs. Here is a reaction I received and my answer to that rebuttal. It is it long, but I hope you read it to the end. I love to hear your reaction."

Here is my opinion to your rebuttal. I hope you read it to the end as well since it is very lengthy and I think it might actually be longer than your OP. Respectfully submitted. Even though your post can't be responded to (I just tried) I figured/assumed/hoped that my response would still be permissible. Thanks.

I’m taking the time to read the article and respond as I read it and reading it all the way through so I want to put that out there.

1-“Take the simple case of belief in Santa Claus, "He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when you awake, he knows when you are bad or good, so be good for goodness sake". This parody on the Christian god, historically invented to control behavior, based on the actual mixture of several cultures is an example of a delusion believed by many children.” First, Santa Claus is not the Christian God, he’s an acknowledged fairy tale that millions see no harm in believing in. So you’re assertion that Santa Claus is the Christian God is unfounded. If you DO assert that, where is Santa in the bible? The bible doesn’t speak of a Santa, but a Savior and Redeemer, big difference.

My reply: Santa is partially based on St Nicholas, a Catholic Bishop who is still “Sinterklaas” in the Netherlands. I also did not state or assert that he is the Christian God but the parallel is unmistakable and I only used him as an example of a child’s delusion and nothing else. There are other child delusions in Germany, an invisible friend is also often a child delusion and I only used it as an example that the child outgrows delusions at the approx. age of 8. Of course Santa has nothing to do with Christianity, even Muslims children I know believe in Santa.

2-“because the child starts questioning such thing as flying reindeer and bringing gifts to every child in one day, so they shed their delusional beliefs. A person who cannot do that and keeps believing in Santa would indeed suffer from a clinical case of DD. The parallel with religious beliefs is astonishing.” I agree that “A person who cannot do that and keeps believing in Santa would indeed suffer from a clinical case of DD”, but will only stipulate it’s possible since I’m not a clinical psychiatrist. My only background in psychiatry is weak (at best) relating from helping veterans with PTSD as a medically retired Marine. Unless you’re a clinical psychiatrist as well, you can’t factually assert that without the proper training, but you can state an opinion, which is different than a clinical fact.

My reply: Any child that keeps believing in their child hood fantasies would be suffering of a Delusional Disorder, Check with a psychiatrist

3-Dogma can be defined as – “a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.”
Delusional – “characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.”
In order for Christianity (or other religions) to be confirmed and concluded as factually wrong would mean that everyone (over a million) people that eye witnessed the events of Jesus, his life, death, resurrection would have ALL the same delusions about the SAME person. Continuing….

My Reply: Many biblical scholars, religious as well as non-religious ones have stated that none of the people who wrote the new testament were eyewitnesses but wrote “eyewitness reports”. “Over a million people ”witnessed the event of Jesus? You might not be aware that many scholars question that he is an actual historical figure but a compilation of older myths such as the “Horus” myth of Egypt and also that the resurrection is a repeat of older tales. The whole New Testament is a “hear-say” report, and is a compilations of mythical older stories. Believing those as being actually true could also be called a delusion.

4-Idiosyncratic - relating to idiosyncrasy; peculiar or individual.
Idiosyncracy – “a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual.” Again, millions of people exhibit that same behavior and usually it refers to a negate behavior, but I DO concede the general blanked of ANY behavior, good or bad.

My reply: There is indeed reason to believe that we have the capability of creating delusions in our genes and that it was an advantage in the evolution of small tribes to counter the uncertainty of the not- understood happenings by having a God in charge and that humans, by making rituals and offerings could influence nature in some way. (again I cannot write book here but you can find a lot of information if you seriously want to question your belief) so indeed we are all prone to delusions, some slightly, some greatly.

5-“Christianity does not burn witches any more”. Christianity never did burn witches. A serious lack of interpreting of scriptures prompted a devastating belief that witches HAD to be burned at the stake (i.e Salem witch trials). There are GROSS atrocities carried out by Christians and while I’m not proud to admit that, I refuse to insult anyone’s intelligence (including my own) in arguing against it when there’s clear documentation (regardless of how old it is) that the witch trials DID indeed occur. That should show my objectivity and at least a bit of my lack of bias.

My reply:Have you studied the Christian inquisition of the Middle Ages in Europe? You mentioned a “serious lack of interpreting of the scriptures”, thanks for admitting that it has happened at least once. It has happened many times and is still happening, that’s why there are so many divisions and denomination in Christianity.

6_….the rest of the above quote continues, “benign, compared to Islamic extremists, but still is delusional.”
Benign - gentle; kindly.
Delusional – “characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.” I mention it again since it’s used. In order to assert/conclude that Christianity is delusional, you’d have to provide evidence (scholarly) that Christianity is indeed holding to the idiosyncratic beliefs contradicted by reality. Since this is your assertion, you would have to prove that the events in the bible did not take place. Jesus did not exist, minister, die and rise on the 3d day. If your assertion could possibly be proven, then you might be able to assert a delusional conclusion, but ONLY if you’re qualified clinically to do so. A mere rejection of events or words spoken is nowhere NEAR a clinically proven diagnosis. If you were to prove that in one person, you would have to prove that for the remaining population that also witnessed the events and documented their eye witness accounts for hand.

My reply: I see you do not follow the research by prominent biblical scholars who indeed question the whole reality of the Jesus story and that the writers are not witness of any of the story and that the story resembles many older myth from other past religions. You dismiss that kind of scholarship because of cognitive dissonance. Start you research in Wikipedia, not that ‘Wiki” is always correct but it has a marvelous list of references at the end of each article, It takes a lot of time but if you’re really want to separate facts from fiction and delusions, it is worth it

7-“however the existence of a spirit or soul is also a man-made delusion, which can be traced back in antiquity.” This assertion, again, requires a professional/clinical psychiatrist to assess/conclude that everyone that has this believe is clinically delusional.

“The spirit which enters the baby on it's first breath and leaves the body on it's last breath to rejoin the Great Spirit (the atmosphere) has mistakenly become a delusional entity.” In order to assert/conclude this, you have to acknowledge not only that the ‘great spirit’ existed, but that you have actually assessed ANY ‘great spirit’ or read the scholarly conclusions of another clinical professional to conclude that ANY ‘great spirit’ has mistakenly become a delusional entity. You have to have a clinical conclusion of what a ‘delusional entity’ is as a control to compare my ‘delusion’ to.

My reply: Again I cannot write a book here but spirit is derived from the Latin “Spiritus” is not a coincidence. It means “breath”. Not only the bible is full of statements that “breath” means “Spirit”, God blows his breath in Adams nose, but it is found in many other religions, Native lores even in the Majan culture, an indication of its historical meaning (you can check my website for more explanation. Spirits as “ghost” or other entities are indeed also delusional.

8-“The word "Spiritual" has no real meaning.”
Spiritual – relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. This is the meaning found on google. I can quote a meaning from Webster’s dictionary if you like (Webster, named after Daniel Webster, a founding forefather who wrote the very first one that obviously bares his name). So to conclude that ‘spiritual’ has no real meaning would actually show an assertion of bias into the rebuttal, making the rebuttal lose credibility since there shouldn’t be ANY bias in a rebuttal that is supposed to be based on facts.

My reply: I explained before that spirit means breath and gradually got distorted in meaning and understanding that “spirituality” not really has any meaning except of what we think it means, including a vague meaning of reality (you are not going to accept this but I explain that much farther, with references, on my website). The word indeed is so ingrained that of course it is in any dictionary. So is “Telekinesis” and other concepts that don’t exist.

9-“Hallucinations, visual and auditory experience are indeed not symptoms of DD but when one believes that they are real manifestations of a Deity, it is.” So you’re saying that hallucinations are only resulting from manifestations of a deity, THAT is where hallucinations ARE symptoms of DD?? Is that a professional/clinical conclusion??

Hallucinations - an experience involving the apparent perception of something not present. I know many Marines who are NOT Christians and who have NO real manifestations of a deity and that ARE INDEED CLINICALLY concluded to be hallucinating. Example, a Marine hallucinates about a Marine that was killed in Iraq and believes that he actually sees that dead Marine in front of him when he was actually there when that dead Marine was killed, but is convinced that this dead Marine is standing front of him. There is absolutely no reference to ANY deity, but a clinical response has been given thousands of times concluding that this is a hallucination. Nothing Divine about a dead Marine standing in front of a Marine that’s convinced he’s standing there.

My reply: No, you are deliberate distorting my point. Any hallucination is not a DD unless you believe it to be real. There are people who believe they are Napoleon or Hitler. When you recognize that your hallucination is just that, you do not suffer from DD. Yes, a professional/ clinical conclusion. Look it up.

10-“The recent case of a judge who interfered in a jury's deliberation because God told him the accused was not guilty, is a prime example of DD”. Again, without an official/professional/clinical diagnosis from a credentialed professional, this is again, a display of bias because of a disagreement about what the judge said. I’m NOT saying the judge was right, I’m saying you have no grounds to offer a professional/clinical opinion on this specific judge.

“the holding of beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument".” Again, you assert this, so you have to personally conclude or provide scholarly/professional documentation that every single Christian that holds this belief is ‘delusional’.

My reply: Do you believe God spoke to the judge? I guess you did not read the case although it was all over facebook. Again, ask any professional that if the Judge believed it was really God who spoke to him, whether that qualifies as a delusion.

11-So my assessment of your rebuttal to the article or whatever it was is completely unfounded based not only on bias, but on a lack of understanding of who my Christian God is (with the assertion of Santa being my god) and the lack of professional/clinical evidence to support your ‘conclusion’ which is actually only an opinion because of the bias and lack of understanding of who my God actually is because you apparently think it is Santa, when it’s actually Jesus Christ. You wanted opinions and this is my respectful opinion. No tone inserted, just calmly stated observations. Thank you for your time IF you took the time to read through my post as you requested that others did with yours.

My reply:I appreciate your assessment but before you declare it unfounded and based on bias (which I claim your rebuttal is) you need to do some more reading before you state your Christians beliefs as facts. I was brought up in the Calvinistic Dutch Reformed Church and when I grew up I first questioned “Sinterklaas” and later Jesus. I have put over 60 years in learning about religion, archeology, neuro-science, DNA research and many other disciplines related to religion, and published a book about it. I am not going to advertise it here, you can find it if you want to. My full name is Benjamin Vande Weerdhof Andrews. Google it.

Creationism vs Evolution

2/4/2018

Creationist love to argue that the odds of forming the first self-replicable molecules are so enormous, more than the numbers of atoms in the universe, that it must have been designed by intelligence, (never mind the fact that it doesn’t address where this intelligence came from. “it always existed, or we cannot know God’s way, or God is energy”, all pure speculation with no basis in reality). I have heard it all. Well I studied Probability Theory and Chaos Theory. No matter how large. the odds a winner could show up tomorrow. A lottery with a 1,000,000 :1 odds does not have to draw a million times to be won. You can witness that every day. The Creationist confuse the number of odds, although it a prediction, how many times one wins, with the fact that luck (randomness) can throw a surprise at you anytime.

Chaos theory must also be taken into account. It is an interdisciplinary theory stating that “within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals and self-organization” that also is a factor, it ignores odds. It doesn’t matter if the odds are bigger than atoms in the universe, (there are many more particles, neutron, dark matter particles than atoms in the universe). Not proof of anything.

The other part of randomness and not design is that the universe is 99.9% hostile to life, with thousands of different objects colliding randomly and ignoring other bodies. Earth could be wiped out in random collision with another object. Earth life has gone over 90 % extinct because it could not adapt to a changing environment. The ones that survive today are full of flaws, many deformed, mental deficiencies, illnesses, not only in animals but all life forms, not showing intelligence, but indicate random combinations, very few ones which are viable for a while. The complex eye, has many counterparts, from simple light detector to a myriad of different designs which were sufficient for that particular species to survive. For some species, not needing eye sight, the remnants of an eye, used by a previous version still remains. Our eyes are not perfect either,

Nature is a mighty force but it is obviously not intelligent, It keeps trying all possible combinations, 99.99999……..% unsuccessful and the survivors are not perfect by any means. The partly successful ones are bound to go extinct sometime in the future. Evolution does not stop, all life on earth is constantly evolving and not always in an improving way. It can go both ways.

Life forms’ survival depends on consuming and destroying of other life forms. Randomness, or bad luck as well as good luck, reigns supreme. Nothing points to an intelligent design.

Religion is a Delusion, revisited

1/29/2018

I have claimed that when one applies the American Psychiatric Association’s symptoms for Delusion Disorder it applies to religious beliefs. Here is a reaction I received and my answer to that rebuttal. It is long, but I hope you read it to the end. I love to hear your reaction

Rebuttal:
Religious faith is not a delusional disorder in the same way that strawberries are not a delusional disorder. It does not meet the criteria. Delusions are a very specific set of symptoms, indicative of a psychosis. Postulating a divine creator, or any form of philosophical thinking, does not indicate delusional symptoms. And particularly delusional disorder, which is an atypical and uncommon condition. In order to make the correlation you have, you would have to assume that the religious person is experiencing hallucinations. Now obviously, this is not the case for most people, regardless of their religious affiliations. Hallucinations, visual or auditory, would rule out delusional disorder since the condition itself does not require a person to be psychotic. Such a diagnosis would be made via process of elimination. I don't see how you got from what you falsely believe to be a psychotic symptom to delusional disorder, without first taking into consideration any other psychotic symptoms the patient may be exhibiting. Most people on this planet are either religious or spiritual. Delusional disorder accounts for a tiny percentage of first admissions.

My answer to that rebuttal: I agree with your assessment if one looks at it from a clinical point of view. “Postulating a divine creator or any form of philosophical thinking” is not a symptom but believing it, as a certainty, is. There are many levels of delusion and only when that delusion become extreme, it will be clinically accepted it and treated. A slight cold is not the flu.

Delusion starts with indoctrination, mostly in childhood, and the type of indoctrination highly depend on the culture and environment you were brought up in. Take the simple case of belief in Santa Claus, “He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when you awake, he knows when you are bad or good, so be good for goodness sake”. This parody on the Christian god, historically invented to control behavior, based on the actual mixture of several cultures is an example of a delusion believed by many children. (love to further in detail on this but not here at this time). This doesn’t qualify in your terms as a clinical delusion, but it is in fact a delusion, it is real for the child. This delusion, if not interfered with, will eventually be resolved at about 6 to 7 years of age, according to some studies, because the child starts questioning such thing as flying reindeer and bringing gifts to every child in one day, so they shed their delusional beliefs. A person who cannot do that and keeps believing in Santa would indeed suffer from a clinical case of DD. The parallel with religious beliefs is astonishing.

Many religious indoctrinated children, including myself, start questioning the delusional dogma of religion and grow out of it. Many “fence sitters” are also questioning the validity of the delusion but the stigma of being an unbeliever is still very evident and can be a negative influence in your position in society and even family and friends. Then there are multi levels of delusion, from feeling assured that a god must exist and don’t understand that there are people who cannot accept that, to extreme case such as people who will murder others (an abortion doctor, for example) and are a danger to society. Christianity does not burn witches any more and is relatively benign, compared to Islamic extremists, but still is delusional. This all points to an instinct we inherited because it was useful in the maintenance of the tribe but is now creating havoc in the world were we essentially have become one tribe.

You stated “most people on this planet are either religiously or spiritual” true, however the existence of a spirit or soul is also a man-made delusion, which can be traced back in antiquity. If you are interested, go to my Blog on “The origin of the spirit”, I can’t write a book here. The spirit which enters the baby on it’s first breath and leaves the body on it’s last breath to rejoin the Great Spirit (the atmosphere) has mistakenly become a delusional entity (“Spiritus” is Latin for Breath). The word “Spiritual” has no real meaning.

Hallucinations, visual and auditory experience are indeed not symptoms of DD but when one believes that they are real manifestations of a Deity, it is. The recent case of a judge who interfered in a jury’s deliberation because god told him the accused was not guilty, is a prime example of DD. The only reasonableconclusion is that Religion is indeed delusional, “the holding of beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument”.

January 18th, 2018

1/18/2018

The research in the field of neuro-science is getting more exiting every day. Nature.com’s news feature, dated Jan 10,’18 explains that researchers are starting to find out how to see a memory.

Janice Chen, a cognitive neuro scientist, at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is among many others, using brain imagining to identify what kind of patterns are involved when a specific memory is created and recalled. This kind of research could help reveal someday why memories fails through disease, old age or how false memories are formed.

I would urge people to read the whole article before making off-hand comments. This research gives more and more credence to the conclusion that memory, which determines who you are (your “self”), is strictly a brain function which means a material brain is needed to make us aware of ourselves. This reinforces the conclusion that brain-death means death of your self-awareness, making an aware afterlife a moot point.

If you are knowledgeable in the field and can point out flaws in the research you are welcome to voice it. Plain denial and proposing non-evidenced suppositions are not acceptable as debating points.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-00107-4?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits