Religion/Beliefs/God/Atheism Debate Thread

This is fascinating:


"But I believe I’ve seen the real thing. Assaults upon individuals are classified either as “demonic possessions” or as the slightly more common but less intense attacks usually called “oppressions.” A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various foreign languages previously unknown to them. The subject might also exhibit enormous strength or even the extraordinarily rare phenomenon of levitation. (I have not witnessed a levitation myself, but half a dozen people I work with vow that they’ve seen it in the course of their exorcisms.) He or she might demonstrate “hidden knowledge” of all sorts of things — like how a stranger’s loved ones died, what secret sins she has committed, even where people are at a given moment. These are skills that cannot be explained except by special psychic or preternatural ability."

As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. Also, I help spot demonic possession.

 

Yeah, possession/oppression is a topic that really intrigues me. The knowing things you couldn't possibly know by conventional means thing is something i'd like to see studied with "hard" science....but I get why almost every scientist won't touch the topic.

Edit: The western religious world sees knowing the unknowable as demonic, but in many other cultures those same talents are revered.

 

I've always found occultism pretty interesting. My brother knows a ton about it and we talk about it fairly often. I don't personally believe in ghosts/demons/god(s), but I think there is some value in exploring the field. I think neuroscience will go far in explaining a lot of things that we would traditionally attribute to the paranormal. Still have a long ways to go.

 

Food for the mind.

Alaska Native religion - Wikipedia

 

The supernatural will be explained with quantum physics, or maybe something a few layers deeper then that.

 

Quantum physics had opened up arguably more questions than explanations, so I think its a leap to assume quantum physics will explain supernatural experiences.

 

I mean by definition no branch of science will deal with anything that is supernatural. Unless it is being implied that supernatural phenomena are actually just natural phenomena that we are unable to perceive whether partially or completely. To be certain science will continue to explain more and more of the universe and will continue to try and impose explanation when it really doesn't have one. Not knocking it for the latter; I love hearing explanations from psychoanalysts, metaphysicists, philosophers, and spiritualists alike. I think the real question is "are there things that exist dimensionally beyond our ability to perceive?" I make the distinction for dimensions because I do think that we have the ability to expand our consciousness in some capacity, but for example, a human will never perceive and experience their entire life independent of time.

 

I don't know where to put this. I have nowhere else to talk about it.

Yesterday my cousin made a Facebook message group thing for my extended family to pray for her best friend's son, who was having surgery for a mass in his nose. No one knows I'm an atheist, and I don't feel like telling them. I don't consider myself some super enlightened person, but it fucking drives me batty when people thank god for a good outcome and not the doctors that did the damn work. Why'd god put that suspicious mass in a baby's sinuses in the first place? It's benign thankfully. I've seen a few "Praise God!" and "God rocks!" responses and I just want to yell "praise the surgeons/doctors/nurses who studied/worked their asses off to be at the top of their game! Praise modern fucking medicine! Science rocks"

/rant

 

Ah, but don't ya see? God helped guide those people into their professions, made modern medicine a possibility, created the universe so it could be understood on a scientific level, and is merely testing your faith when bad stuff happens to innocent children.

...what i'm sure the response would be if you brought all that up....and I'd like to believe it with all my heart, but my faith is about as deep as an inflatable kiddy pool lately.

 

This is why the supernatural label is less than worthless. Something either is, or it is not. Labeling it as supernatural does nothing to address that question.

 

I don't know about the last line ("testing your faith when bad stuff happens to innocent children"), but the prior explanations are perfectly valid. As Einstein said, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's comprehensible. That makes perfect sense if Mind is at the root of existence, and no sense if anything other than Mind is at the root of existence.

 

This, but unironically.