Of course, one of the tricks and the challenges for modern medicine

(in the absence of a cure)

is to be able to stabilise the mood

(and given that all of the good stuff for mood stabilisation is contra-indicated that is something easier said than done)

for that goes to make "Dark Hallucinations" into warm and fuzzy ones, which is far more tolerable.

So dear DavidF,

if Ibrahim was only hallucinating, then maybe he did, through force of his own mind and personality, overcome the cultural norms and in the finality, say no.

And maybe that's the point, or at least, an alternative interpretation.

Hi there DAVID F...

You have this singular ability to reduce the most complex elements of biblical scholarship into an elementary, easily understood template by which we should all try to live by ? Whether we're religious, agnostic, or atheist it doesn't seem relevant, it's about doing the right thing(s) for other people, as you would have them do for you.

Another good illustration you gave - the abject stupidity of looking for 'revenge' ? Regrettably I've subjected myself to seeking revenge against many a ne'er do well over the years. Particularly whenever I've felt I've been seriously spurned, physically assaulted or allegations that I've perjured myself, either in Court or during interrogatories etc.

And I'm here to freely admit to you DAVID F, despite what many may say to the contrary, 'revenge', provides one with precisely, a nought amount of gratification. In fact over time some instances of having exacted revenge, leaves you with some serious doubts concerning your own moral code ?

Thank you DAVID F.

mhaze, AJ Phillips

'"The default position is for man to believe in something."

No, the default is no belief or a position of scepticism.'

Expressions of the cognitive state we choose to call 'belief' are pretty much paradigmatic with being a normally functioning human. We have thousands of them.

Believing plausibly evolved for survival rather than for the later esoteric cultural practice of seeking truth, and it would be hard not to see it as a cognitive default.

Its variant 'believing in ...' contributes to our individual psychological homeostasis, the operational range within which we function and tell ourselves we have some control over the randomness and confusion of living, and from this functional point of view a distinction between religious and other beliefs may not be particularly significant in informing action. There's ample empirical evidence for that.

AJ, I thoroughly endorse your sceptical, critical thinking goal. I only caution that we who adopt it are as as subject as anyone to the errors and biases attributable to the evolutionary functions of believing, but I'm sure you're aware of that.

//There is no world - existence is an illusion.//

Nonsense: existence definitely exists. It's tautological, dude: no amount of your mystical mumbo-jumbo can get around that.

Even if we accept that we're all living in the Matrix and most what we perceive to be real is illusory, you still run up against the cogito ergo sum problem. If I don't exist, then just who is it that is considering the illusory nature of existence? Here's a clue: it isn't God. So I, at least, exist - even if everything else in the universe is false and I'm really hooked in to a massive computer system built by highly advanced machines who have somehow still managed to completely fail to comprehend the Laws of Thermodynamics. This seems unlikely.

DreamOn, My point was that observable dysfunction in human behaviour was in the Greek world view attributed to spirit beings / demons. As my example of drunkenness was attributed to spirits. The person was drunk but nnot under the influence of spirits or demons as they believed.

Dysfunction in human behaviour has chemical, mental or physical causes.