If one was to trace the line of Abraham back to Adam and Eve as estimated in the lifetimes and information depicted in the bible then I believe this is estimation of the age of the universe to those who believe the bible is the word of God.
I picture a future where mental illness is measured by the amount of beliefs one admits to and how drastically or not those beliefs differ from empirical facts. Maybe itâs already measured like that but right now, one can be religious and considered ânormal.â Itâs as if we can arrive at truth democratically. Most doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists I know are spiritual and say they âbelieve in science firstâ as if facts are to be believed. And I think much of the âmental illnessâ we see in the world is due to the human organism not being able to reconcile their factual lived experience with what theyâve learned and have been told is true.
Being a feeling being is a mental illness and itâs a spectrum.
Back to your friend, if you actually believe God impregnated a woman without clapping those cheeks himself, then youâll believe anything. Thatâs mental illness and itâs incredibly hard to talk to a person like that. That belief is a matter of life-and-death to them. Any pastor worth their salt knows this and the successful ones are con-men exploiting that fact.
You can scrutinize a persons beliefs and ask them questions but it will likely take years or a traumatic experience or both for this nonsense to be dropped. They will scream and kick the entire way with an endless list of âbut what aboutâ and âhow do you knows.â Any belief is an investment and a person wants to get an ROI.
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Thatâs a good line, any belief is an investment. That is true.
An investment that we believe will result in feeling less bad (I was going to say feeling good, but less bad is more accurate)
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