I think I’ll just go with ‘no comment’ this time.
Glad tidings of great joy: there could be a straightforward medical explanation for at least three of the world’s major religions.
Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus all experienced revelations on mountains, but they were probably just suffering a form of altitude sickness, say a group of Swiss and Israeli neurologists, casting doubt in the process on the very existence of God.
All three felt, heard or saw a presence, experienced lights and felt afraid, say the brain scientists from Lausanne, Geneva and Jerusalem. But so have contemporary mountaineers who are more interested in ice picks and thermal undies than anything mystical – suggesting the dizzy heights may have the effect of turning ordinary mortals into prophets.
Nice try, guys. Can you spell “charismatic”? I’d like to think that it’s some sort of simple atmospheric condition that gets these folks going on their little crusades, but it seems more attributable to an old fashioned down-to-earth personality behavior or disorder or whatever.
Did Pat Robertson ever go up on a mountaintop to receive his so-called divine guidance? (Maybe he did, but I for one never heard about it. That also goes for Muhammad and the wife-chuckers Buddha and Werner Erhard [Jack Rosenberg!], too).
Go back and do some homework.
except that the mountains that they (at least Jesus and Moses, don’t know much about muhammed) aren’t all that high, and people climb them without trouble….
Oops… sorry, I didn’t mean to include Mohammed, but those others are perhaps interesting. (ah, so maybe they all did ‘go up there’ in a way, so to speak…)
Anyone who is interested in this post should check out some of the earlier articles (and collected/edited) works of Charles Tart. He got way into alternative psychology (ghosts and mind-reading and that sort of thing) as time passed…but he had a LOT to say about state specific information and peak experience and all that…it isn’t anything as new as this article…check it out…it is pretty interesting.
Give me a freakin’ break, man. The lengths people go to explain away God are laughable. If you have no faith, and I know this is real cold of me but, just shut up and dig your own life. Personal experience is what teaches an individual about faith, so if you keep building these little boxes to stand on and proclaim your disbelief, then these are your personal experiences. Forming these negative thoughts builds a lack of faith. “Seek and ye shall find.” Seek excuses to not believe and you will find those too.
So were those stone tablets imaginary too?
“except that the mountains that they (at least Jesus and Moses, don’t know much about muhammed) aren’t all that high, and people climb them without trouble….”
I get sick everytime I go to the second floor of a department store. I feel light headed and see everything blurry.
For some of us, it doesn’t have to be that high.
Can I take a look at those tablets? No? I didn’t think so.
People grasp at any straw to deny GOD and they show there colors by allowing this type of stupidity.
Beren was right Moses and Jesus went up mountains that were not very high at all, Mohammad visited by “Gabriel” while in a cave, kinda fitting with Osoma Ben Lauden hidding in caves while in Afghan.
On the other Joseph Smith was visited by “Gabriel” while on some farm land, I believe it was hilly. Satan must really hate “Gabriel”. I wonder if it was him that threw Satan out of heaven?
I never write about religon on a Sunday.
Pat Roberts didn’t need to go to a mountain because he ain’t a profet. He is just full of shit!
To all those who talk negatively about skeptics trying to ‘explain’ away God:
Faith can be a very constructive thing, if it isn’t taken to extreme ends. When it brings out goodness and moral responsibility in people, It provides a useful counterpoint to the brittle yes/no logic of straight scientific thinking.
The problem seems to start when you sound like you think that just because this experience happened to you, the same thing should happen to everyone else as well, and anyone that it doesn’t happen to is somehow ‘resisting’ it. It shows a group-think blindness to how individuals can simply be diverse in the way they look at the world we all live in.
I think that a religious awakening does indeed happen to certain people, and if it facilitates a more stable and rewarding experience in his/her life, that’s great. But I doubt if you can make yourself have one… anymore than you can make yourself fall in love.
An amusing take on this was in Robert Crumb’s “Meatball” story in underground comix. A mysterious meatball would fly out of nowhere to hit certain people on the head, causing them to become suddenly enlightened. Nobody could figure out where it came from, and the world ended up divided between those who had experienced it and those who waited anxiously for it to happen to them. The last panel was a grinning meatball, with a caption: “But alas, the Meatball doesn’t work that way!”.
Perhaps I too should be waiting for the Meatball. Then again, maybe not. Things are interestingly strange enough as they are.
“pat robertson, benny hin, the farting preacher, jerry falwell, and on and on and on and on are obvious charlatans, because the divinity of christ doesn’t need someone to interpret it for you for a fee”
Since when does Jerry Falwell “interpet the divinity of Christ for a fee?”
Everytime I’ve heard him speak there has never even been an offering taken for him or his school. I think it’s really unfair that he always gets lumped together with Pat Robertson and Benny Hinn.. those guys are definately crooks, but Jerry Falwell is just controversial.
I think it’s really unfair that he always gets lumped together with Pat Robertson and Benny Hinn.. those guys are definately crooks, but Jerry Falwell is just controversial.
Well, if you sleep with thieves, you get painted a thief.
The ancient greeks believed in the Oracle and the temple priests would give them visions from the Gods. Later, it was realized that there was a natural gas leak from underground that the temple sat on. Basically, the priests were getting high and having seizures because they were poisoning themselves. I can totally buy that happening in other religions.
anyone who has climed high peaks can tell you: the higher you go the closer to god you get. the alps.. they are the true cathedrals and the the himalayas… the thrown room of god… (quick pass the oxygen bottle!!)
“a great many primitive religions are founded on visions, and the means of reaching those visions is immaterial, so peyote, pot, mushrooms, etc, have all played a significant part in the structure of human belief in divinity.”
Hard to think of a better foundation, eh? As to the rest of your post, I find myself, one of the few times, in agreement with you. Although I have to admit I have never heard of “the farting preacher”.
Cripes. Can we get a “religion filter” for this blog?
Re: #8
“People grasp at any straw to deny GOD and they show there colors by allowing this type of stupidity.”
That’s funny, another way to look at it is that people grasp at any straw to support their belief in a higher power for which there is no credible evidence whatsoever. I mean, I have no evidence for the Flying Spagetti Monster, but I know he exists because a book tells me he does.
“Beren was right Moses and Jesus went up mountains that were not very high at all, Mohammad visited by “Gabriel” while in a cave, kinda fitting with Osoma Ben Lauden hidding in caves while in Afghan.”
Hmmm, do you know the exact hight of the mountains that these fictional characters climbed? And if you do, then do you know the exact height at which someone might halluciate due to the thin ar?
As for Joseph Smith, don’t make me laugh. Here’s a guy who founded a religion based on men telling 12 year old girls that they had to marry or God would strike them down.
Uh, Paul — while I personally don’t doubt there may have been an Essene visionary named Jesus of Nazareth — tertiary sources at best do not make “well-documented”.
Paul, where are your so-called “well documented” sources? There exists very little to no evidence of the Jesus character (as described in the Bible), outside of the Bible.
Must be something to the mountain thing. Everytime I hike up into the mountains in Arizona, I get a really strong urge to get naked and lay out in the sun.
I would really like to have a link to the flying meatball comix…..sounds cool!!