Scam or Schizophrenia?

By Father Thyme ~

"I felt God calling me."

Messages covering the windows of a house from a patient with schizophrenia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I smell Christians writing such nonsense all the time. *chuckle*

What's up with such preposterous language? Feel somebody calling you? I think this absurdity is a way to weasel-out of direct, honest language that may be too revealing. If one goes around saying that he can "hear God calling me," then the believer is admitting to a common symptom of schizophrenia.

"A common report from those with schizophrenia is some type of a religious delusion - that is...God is talking to them..." -- Wikipedia, Schizophrenia and religious delusions

By attributing divine communication to "feelings," Christians make their emotional whims the Lord of their life. And if anybody questions their whims, the whimster gets to claim it was God. Can't question that! My dearly beloved whims have the power of the Almighty!

These whims are, quite literally, non-sense. Nothing is actually sensed. Even the Bible admits these whims are abject nonsense that are not accepted by intelligent people.

1 Corinthians 1:18-26 (ISV) For the message about the cross is nonsense...the nonsense of our preaching...Not many of you were wise by human standards...

What type of person wants you to believe nonsense? A confidence man. Tellingly enough, the Bible admits that faith in religious nonsense is a confidence game.

• Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

• Ephesians 3:12 confidence through faith

• 1 Timothy 3:13 increased confidence in their faith

God-talkers are either pushing a confidence (faith) trick on you, or they are pushing their schizophrenia on you. I think most religious people are the former, but do keep in mind the informed opinion of the following neurologist:

"Religion is organized schizophrenia." -- Dr. Robert Sapolsky, The Biological Origins of Religion, Bio 150/250 Lecture, Stanford University, Spring 2002

The fun with God-talkers is deciding which way they roll, (a) scam or (B) schizophrenia?

If they use scammy talk placing their emotional whims on the level of empirical evidence, it's likely a scam. If they earnestly believe they hear divine voices in their head, it's possibly schizophrenia.

Have fun deciding! Either way, you don't need what they're pushing.

Comments

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