Sunday, August 30, 1998

Mental illness and the soul

Scientists everywhere are mentally conditioned to seek a

    a scientific explanation of all phenomena, They  routinely put aside

    superstitious , supernatural, metaphysical explanations  and seek a

    " simple " -  MATERIALISTIC - explanations, even for the baffling

    social problem of mental illness. Epilepsy, for example, was once thought

    to be a form of demonic possession. A famous ancient Greek physician

    figured out what it really was - a brain disease .

            Our society takes stock in the  quasi-theological idea of

    FREE WILL. It is our most respectable LIE. We routinely clamor for

    death penalty for the criminally insane killer. If a man has a diseased

    heart or a diseased liver, we usually do not see this as absolute proof

    of an evil soul. But the human brain is an ORGAN just like the heart or

    liver.  Being more complex it is all the more likely to malfunction.

         A diseased brain deserves as much medical attention as a diseased

    heart or liver.  As far as science is concerned the product of the

    brain - thoughts, ideas, consciousness -  this product is inseparable

    from the physical organ.

          But when we put the deranged criminal on trial, we judge his SOUL

    to be wicked. And where in the physical brain resides the soul ?

           All our babble about EVIL in an individual - like psychopath

    Craig Price for example  - just ignorantly IGNORES an everyday fact

    of medical science : ANY body organ can malfunction !

         On the brink of 2000, we still think DARK AGE thoughts !

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Ron