religious psychology

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

A basic philosophy…

If you learn to find happiness without sex and drugs, then you may have power over them so that they don’t bring addiction and distractions from real life.

This philosophy applies to greed, and how the pursuit of money can monopolize your time and relationships.

Work can monopolize your mind and demeanor toward life. Affecting the need for the first part.

Relationships teach us to give as much as we get (the most common mistake is to take relationships for granted). From business to marital love, these types teach us all levels of love.

All you are is what you do in life. Hobbies build character, relationships based on ideas, and self esteem from doing something you like, and eventually succeeding.

Self worth is the worth you have with life. Obtaining spiritual feelings toward life is maintaining relationships in a physically active world.

Depression is the lack of hope. Sometimes this comes from false expectations. Yet depression can make you give up the things you hope for. So maybe it’s a natural process.

God,… with the power of the Holy Spirit, has power over all of these…

…

When you build a tolerance to a drug, your body is physically adapting. Like the cigarette smoker who first feels the sedative of the smoke,… they adapt, and then need it to stop being edgy. Once you build a tolerance, you develop a chemical imbalance where your body subliminally tells you kneed the drug at all times to feel normal. The question is, can this adaptation be passed on.

If it were, people would feel more natural the first time they drink. They would have a higher tolerance the first time they drink. They would have a digestive system used to the abuse. They would have chemical imbalances in the brain mimicking mental disorders. For the most part they do,… too hard to prove though.

…

The difference between sex and lust is perception. God says keep this perception as an expression of love. For sex outside of love is only limited by what you are willing to try. For if you view sex as a part of love, you can look at things you consider sexy, but not lust after them. Then you open up ground of learning to look for a mate based on love, and not the love of sex. This is the most common mistake and is what causes child molesters. For a child molester learns to love certain things about a child, and uses this for sex. This causes an addiction of the mind that can only be changed by learning better things in place.

Every time you tell a child they shouldn’t do something. You need to tell them what they should do instead. I expect everyone for the most part is the same. Seldom does will power alone help people. In relationships, the most important thing is to not put up walls,… talk things out,… and forgive. You can only get out of a relationship what you put into it. This allows people to evolve past the bodily differences of male and female, and allows them to be something that is closer to the true essence of the soul.
…

I imagine that a new soul to life is the closest to perfection as we can get. After that we learn tricks to get what we want, and tricks to manipulate the body to change our perception of reality. Yet, the power of the Holy Spirit will change the soul, back to the perfect in once it came. You just have to be open minded enough to let go of worldly things. This is why God has power over pain. I think heaven is a perfect place because the Holy Spirit changes people before they enter. Yet heaven on earth is God’s promise to us.

2

I would posit that religion is, from a psychological perspective, no different than the drugs you are making a case against. Both propel you into fantasy and both provide escape routs from dealing with reality.
Have you ever noticed it is always the ex alcoholics and drug addicts that fall the hardest for the whole jesus shtick?
Just trading one psychologically damaging drug for another…

3

Well said Dr. S.

4

well in my opinion, I feel like religion is based on faith and moral to better yourself. While in the mean time drugs give feelings and emotions due to chemical reactions, such as intoxication. I really can’t be 100% due to my lack of drug use, but its my best assumption.

5

All feelings are due to chemical reactions of a sort. There is little difference between a ‘natural’ emotional high and an ‘artificial’ drug induced high, all things considered. Not that I am promoting drug use or anything, because I’m not. Drug addiction has some seriously ill effects, many of which happen to be shared with religous addiction.

6

Is it really wise to assume all feelings derive from the body?

Has anyone ever found the love hormone? The only logical conclusion to love is that is comes from the soul. For when you feel love it comes from outside your body, where the person who’s loving you, touches you. If it were a hormone it would come from with-in. Witch is also proof that the body cannot regulate what types of people you love. Also, you can be in the mood of not receiving love, and you can still feel it,… yet it may piss you off.

Depression is the lack of hope, and not the lack of a chemical in the brain. We can use chemicals to make people feel better, but it is a lie and has to be reinforced with psychological training to change how you think.

Have you ever seen a ghost? Well, you can assume that all physical evidence of a ghost is hoaxed. Or you can realize that the spirit charges the matter it flows through. Thus you see the side effects of cold spots, electromagnetic disturbances, and light. Thus soul originates from a parallel universe independent of matter, yet affects matter. The body is an organic machine in witch the soul sits, and the only affect the physical has on the soul is to affect how it perceives reality. Thus psychology is 9/10ths perception of reality.

7

Yes, based on all current information.

You should be an olympic longjumper for the leaps you make…
There is a ton of hard data proving emotions are caused by chemical reactions in the brain. Simply prodding the brain in certain ways can make the recipiant experience just about anything, from intense sadness to intense happiness to smelling watermellon. It’s all very interesting…
As for the ‘love hormone’ …well…'I really don’t know. But to assume that particular emotion must be somehow supernatural is introducing unneeded complexities, and the complexities themselves (the soul) is as of yet undefined.
What do you mean by ‘soul’?
What does ‘soul’ explain that biology can’t?
What indication or evidence is there for the existance of ‘soul’?

What evidence do you have for this? From where outside the body, exiactly? How does the emotion pass from this place outside the body, to inside the body?
To say it comes from another person is absurd. Just because someone loves you, doesn’t mean you love them.

Then why do you supose it can be aleviated with chemicals? Your whole case is etheral and fairly ridiculous.

You are a non-sequiter machine! rock on!
I bet you are also very good at dungeons and dragons.

8

"Yes, based on all current information. "

So all proof that love doesn’t come from the body leads you to believe what??? Is it magnetic interfearances??? so what is the magnetic signature of love??? Do you rely on the unkown to defy spirituality? Or are you just spiritually dead.

9

"You should be an olympic longjumper for the leaps you make…
There is a ton of hard data proving emotions are caused by chemical reactions in the brain. Simply prodding the brain in certain ways can make the recipiant experience just about anything, from intense sadness to intense happiness to smelling watermellon. It’s all very interesting…
As for the ‘love hormone’ …well…'I really don’t know. But to assume that particular emotion must be somehow supernatural is introducing unneeded complexities, and the complexities themselves (the soul) is as of yet undefined.
What do you mean by ‘soul’?
What does ‘soul’ explain that biology can’t?
What indication or evidence is there for the existance of ‘soul’? "

The leaps I make is,… “one rule that defys conventional thinking is possiably because you are ignoring some root factors that control life.” IE the soul… How can you not take into consideration the cause and effect of something that defys your reality if you cannot see it exactly. Just because I define this phanominom as a soul, doesn’t mean we have to ignore it.

If the soul can exsist without the body, why would we depend on the body to exsist. Before the body the soul was simple, and heaven was natural. With a physical body comes physical pain. People then learn to apply spiritual feelings to physical ones. Yet I believe the Human body is conditioned to sence the human soul in bizare ways. All I can do is compare us to animals and see why they will never be able to evolve to our level. They may be able to be programed to mimic us, but they will never be us. Have you ever felt the warmth of love from an animal? Why couldn’t their magnetic transferances be able to reach us??? Or are you saying that their is a certain section of the brain dedicated to love, and this chemical is release to trick your skin into feeling love? How complex could magnetic waves be?

10

“What evidence do you have for this? From where outside the body, exiactly? How does the emotion pass from this place outside the body, to inside the body?” From where worlds colide.

"To say it comes from another person is absurd. Just because someone loves you, doesn’t mean you love them. "

I say that there are many types of love. The love I have for my wife is much deeper then the love I have for my children. Do you think their is only one type of love but at different strengths? I say that the deepest love teaches us to be people at the deepest level. Do you say the opposite???

11

“Then why do you supose it can be aleviated with chemicals? Your whole case is etheral and fairly ridiculous.”

I’ve showed this many times now, and once in the first one. It just goes to show that you come to prejudge the facts. Or maybe you don’t want to take into consideration what I have to say.

12

“You are a non-sequiter machine! rock on!
I bet you are also very good at dungeons and dragons.”

What does it mean to be non-sequiter? Why do you think it means something against me? Or is it, you just do it to label me in order to ignore me?

13

not at all, beloved, it’s just what I do…
And I’ve no proof that it does not squarely fit
within some kind of unknown “physicality” the means of which
we currently, indeed possibly eternally, lack the means of discovery…
There is no need to discover it anyhow, you know that in your heart, anyhow.
We’re here for the sheer thrill of discourse, right?
What I say really shouldn’t matter when somehow it does!
That, my friend is physical!!!
God love it!

14

Phil27of79, you need to get a real education and fast. Depression as a clinical condition is caused by a lack of serotonin in the frontal lobes. Zoloft and Prozac are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that prevent serotonin from being reabsorbed by the synaptic button, increasing serotonin’s effect and counteracting the shortage.

Jesus, reading your posts is like stepping into the twilight zone…I hope your ignorance is an isolated phenomenon…“magnetic transferances”? do you even know what you are saying? do you even know what magnetism is? (if you’re stumped, the correct answer is NO). Information does not travel in our bodies in “magnetic waves”, it propagates through chemical signals. In the case of nerves, this signal is a travelling “pulse” of ions which triggers synapeses to release neurotransmitters. Emerging science suggests that chemicals passed by glia in the brain also have an effect, though it’s not well researched.

You are assuming rather presumptously that love is one single emotion. You yourself said that there are many different kinds of love, which might hint to you that the varieties are just varying amounts of component emotions. What do i mean? say for a second that love is a combination of respect for another person, familiarity with them, giving and receiving emotional support, etc. different relationships have different amounts of each of these, so the result is a unique experience. This is NOT to say that the way I described it is exactly how it happens, but merely to show how logically it could be broken down into simpler emotions that we can isolate physically, which would indicate a physical basis for love, rather than a spritual one.

15

A clinical depression that is caused by the brain. The way you feel is merely a freak accident in the brain??? Then why do they say changeing the way you think will effect this very thing??? Can it be that the soul charges the brain. Or is that too abserd. Or maybe it too convient to have it as a bodily mishap.

16

I thought I said biology is chemical actions. Yet the claims they make for how the body controls thought processes would mean a different level of energy trade I made fun of by saying magnetic transferances. For love is felt from where the person touches me. How could this be caused by chemical actions. I think It’s me feeling their soul? Am I ignorant for thinking so? Or maybe it’s easier to think this way for your goals.

please tell me how you think chemical actions will cause me to feel love. It will be so incredibly easy to shoot down. Pathetically easy.

17

“one rule that defys conventional scientific thinking is possiably because you are ignoring some root factors that control life.” IE the soul… How can you not take into consideration the cause and effect of something that defys your reality if only because you cannot see it exactly. It’s abstract effect on our body and life shows us it’s cause and effect is so deep, that it must be a cause and effect on a level pre-effecting most all other effects. The very abstract nature of the soul is what gives us artistic interpitation. And abstract effect means an abstract cause. Just because I define this phanominom as a soul, doesn’t mean we have to ignore it.

18

There are meny types of love. For the love I have for my wife is much different then the love I have for my child.

The thing is respect doesn’t cause love. I can respect power, and that would be the biblical term of fearing God. Trust isn’t love. In fact I can love someone I dispize. In fact if I hate someone, and they decide to hug me with love,… I will still feel it, but hate it at the same time. In fact all emotions have spiritual meaning. The most biblical ones are contentness, faith, hope, trust, love. Now people that do the opposite of these are people that limit life to an abstract view of disregard.

19

All proof…hmmm…perhaps you can give me an example of this proof?

It comes down to this…you are assuming the ‘soul’ exists, and are further assuming this ‘soul’ can provide us with emotional experience. I am asking for some sort of proof for ‘soul’, and futher proof of ‘souls’ capabilities.
Without that, you are building a house of cards on a whisp of air.
There is already plenty of proof physical chemicals can cause emotional stimulation and experience. You are making an extrodinary claim that requires extrodinary evidence, yet you seem unable to produce even the mundane.

Of being spiritually dead…what does that mean exactly? What is ‘spirit’.
I have no reason to think any such thing exists. The only difference I see between you and I on this is you hold a faith based belief, while I hold a rational opinion. I don’t see how holding this faith based belief makes you any more ‘alive’. Do explain the dynamics of this?

20

Dude, you’re bringing a knife to a gunfight…

First of all, the body can control thought processes through basic sensations like hunger or thirst. When your stomach is empty, or your body becomes too depleted of fluids, your thoughts become increasingly dominated by the need to satisfy these urges. Want to see this in action right now? Hold your breath for about 30 seconds, and try to think about anything else but your increasingly urgent need for air.

If you feel love only when a person touches you, then you are not feeling love at all…lust, physical comfort, maybe, but not love. In any case, when they touch you, you feel that touch through nerve endings in your skin, which transmit the message to your occipital cortex. In fact, computer imaging of the brain has generated a rough correspondence between brain and skin, such that a stimulus on a certain section of the motor cortex can be felt by the patient as a tingle or pinch or something in a certain part of the body. Your brain recognizes these signals if you are touched in a special, familiar way, and you associate that feeling with the person you love. None of this requires a supernatural or extraphysical effect to explain.

As for love, if I could completely explain how it functions in the brain, then I’d be showered with Nobel prizes. My point is simply that emotions are often caused by the chemical state of the brain…one can see this in cases of psychological disorder (the extremes): depression and anxiety are caused by a lack of serotonin, psychosis and mania by an excess of dopamine, etc. Experiments have also shown that emotional state can be linked to chemical levels in the brain…i.e. endorphin levels are elevated when a person is happy. There is little reason not to believe that more complex emotions can be triggered by some combination of physical brain effects. As far as I know, there is yet no proof that love is a purely physical phenomenon, yet it is a perfectly logical hypothesis.

Notice that I say love is most likely a physical phenomenon…it doesn’t have to originate from purely chemical influence. Many factors in the brain could contribute (see a neuropsychology text for details).

Your claim on the other hand, that a soul outside of the physical world controls our emotions, has no scientific precedent at all…as Dr. S so aptly quoted, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. In fact, there isn’t even a debate, really. You loose the argument by default, because your hypothesis is totally unfalsifiable. Wait, you want a rematch? haha, I win again…another? I win again. This can go on as long as you like.