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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Fundamentalist Christians- Mentally Ill?

I like baseball- played the game for fourteen years. I like to go to the 'burgh a few times each year to catch a game or two, and yes, I do like a double header. For the sake of the argument, say that stadium has fifty thousand seats (it doesn't but close enough- sports stadium size.) Last time I was there, (with a carload of kids that like baseball) it dawned on me that the findings of science would insert at least thirty five books into each seat in that stadium, probably many more, and there would be one seat upon which would rest a copy of an old dusty book of myths called, "The Bible."
Then, pile on all of the great works of literature apart from science of all the writings before and after the "bible," you would end up with the stadium full of books written by women and men, packed to the eaves, and there is that one seat with the dusty book on it. That may be construed as a point of strength for a fundy, but the sillyness of it it is not lost on me.

The reason for the sillyness? Mental illness?
Probably not, yet a person with the propensity for ignoring the obvious and wanting to believe in irrational systems that include supernatural entities that they cannot show any evidence for outside of their anecdotal and highly charged emotional experiences, does have some "ISSUES."

Early Cognitive dysfunction affets this type of flawed reasoning. There is a lot of work being done on this as I type. And it gets more interesting by the minute.

If you want to read more, go to the "Edge." http.www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bloom07/bloom07_index.html.

Just now though, I want to adress Erikloza.
You said,
"erikloza said...
"It is clear that the hypothesis of evolution can easily be used as justification for lust, fornication, pornography, rape, incest, homosexuality, etc. Because if we are merely animals, then what the Bible calls the sinful nature devolves into "the way we naturally are," and sin becomes acceptable."

You only present one half of the proposition, and that is that religious people also do all those things you mentioned. You, yourself have commented that you "saved ones" continue to "sin." That is why we call it "Human Nature." K?

You made it plain that you hate the teachings of Joel Osteen. You Hate. I rest my case. What say you? You won't say a thing because you are a phoney and a fraud.

Returning to the question of "Mentally Ill?' No, but definitely impaired by early cognitive experiences.

23 comments:

  1. Dale, I think your 'edge' link is broken.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Edge.org

    BUT THAT'S JUST THE HOMEPAGE!!!

    Other than that, I enjoyed reading your post.

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  5. Dale, hook me up with what you were linking to. In the meantime, I had never been to TheEdge.org before. This is VERY interesting stuff they have over there. Thanks for pointing out this site to me.

    Not only do fundys have 'issues', as Dale pointed out, they are so damn credulous it's unbelievable.

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  6. I think a lot of it in the fundie case is they don't want to give up the idea that they are special. Maybe it's a self-esteem issue or maybe some other part of there life is lacking. But in this one area of life they are 'somebody'. They're in tight with the biggest player in the universe and they hold on to that fantasy with a death grip.

    All that 'we're just lowly sinners deserving of hell, too' is the biggest load of faux-humility bullshit. They love the feeling of superiority they get from the idea of being part of the elected. They probaly fantasize about pissing on our heads from heaven.

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  7. They probaly fantasize about pissing on our heads from heaven.



    Oh, the difference between being here and still at "Atheist Central"!

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  8. You can actually hold a dialog if you need to...

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  9. There were two comments deleted. What's going on with that?

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  10. Another difference...

    No Christian Porno.

    After clicking on some living waters links... I arrived at the "divine interventions" website.

    Warning, the name is misleading while truthful.
    Take my word for it.

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  11. Sorry, those were my bad.
    I fucked up twice.

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  12. No christian porno?

    That is enough to reject the philosophy of chrisianity on it's own merit. sarcasm/ off.

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  13. It seems like a dream world, something that they want to be true so bad. Who doesn't want to see loved ones again? Who doesn't want to live after death..especially in paradise? Mix this with two cups of childhood indoctrination leading one to think this is how the universe works, and you have a serious delusion. Tough to break.

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  14. Ranting,

    The whole den is a bunch of sadomasochists. They fantasize about being raped by Jesus in heaven (or a dildo likeness of him).

    They get a hard-on when they tell us about how we are going to burn.

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  15. Perhaps that's why I was lead to divine interventions from Living Waters Website....

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  16. The cognitive dissonance that affects (afflicts?) believers is amazing. Look at the pretzel logic that Vera's heroes at Reasons to Believe have to bend themselves to. The first three days of Genesis weren't 24 hour days, but starting with day four they were 24 hour days... And in their way, I think RTB is more messed up than Ken Ham or Kent Hovind. Superficially, RTB sounds so reasonable and rational.

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  17. I fixed the lonk to the Bloom/Weisberg article.

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  18. Rufus,

    I totally agree with your sentiments about the RTB type creationists.

    It's easy for anyone with half a brain to spot the bullshit in people like Ham, but the RTB and Behe type crowd are actual trained PhD scientist. They're using a much more sophisticated con and it might not be so easy for the average non-scientist or non-scientifically literate layman to spot their bullshit.

    And it is bullshit none-the-less. They still do no actual research to back up their claims, just contort the knowledge gathered by others to fit into a 'Biblical Worldview'. (and I'm really get sick of that fucking buzz word 'worldview')

    If people feel the need to validate their own beliefs via scientist I don't know why they just can't use credible scientist like Ken Miller. I guess he's not a True Christian.

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  19. So RTB is where Verifiedung gets her dis-information. Well, I will have to wander over there and see if I can keep my brain from exploding long enough to see what she has been looking at.

    Nafa, I'm glad I'm not the only one that is absolutely sick to death of the word 'worldview' ....ugh!!!

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  20. FD

    Look up some info on Hugh Ross too when you get a chance. He's not nearly as impressive as he makes himself out to be.

    @Dale

    Oh yeah, I love baseball, too. It brings back great memories - it seems like football & baseball is about all I did in my pre-teen years.
    I'm a Phillies fan, BTW.
    You like Pirates I'm guessing.

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  21. Nafa,

    I am definitely a Pirates fan.
    Started watching Pirates in 1957 in Forbes field. Then moved to three Rivers Stadium, and now to PNC Park. I love the new Park-
    Also go to Erie and watch the Seawolves play at Jerry Ute Stadium- great place!

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  22. dale,

    I don't go quite that far back, but the Pirates definitely had some greats during my time...Stargell, Parker, Bonilla, Bonds, Kent Tekulve the sidearmer!

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  23. Na Fa:

    According Ray, Ken Miller has two strike against him; not only does he accept evolution, he's Catholic. There's no way he's a "true" Christian. And the producers of Expelled didn't interview Miller because it would have "confused" the issue. I guess they mean it would have confused the type of moron that posts at Ray Comfort's blog.

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Unlike Ray we don't censor our comments, so as long as it's on topic and not spam, fire away.

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