<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:12.8px;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">And most adults don't have hallucinations but some do and they will tell their children about them and they will believe what they hear, and as adults they will go on to tell their children about it and they will believe it too. And so it goes. </font></div><div><font size="4">John</font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">Now there is a fascinating but unanswerable question: just what was the role of hallucinations in religions? I do know of certain African tribes where the shaman's qualifications must include hallucinations. The assumption is that he is in touch with the spirit world and perhaps can communicate with it and pray for sick people or crops or whatever.</font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">How may paranoid schizos have been raised to the top in society as a result of their disease? In this case 'disease' is not the operable word. "Gift" would be. </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">Back to God. He is just not a very interesting character. But Jesus' older brother is: Satan. Satan appears everywhere but my favorite is Loki, the mischievous Scandanavian god and trickster - and Coyote in the Navajo religion. </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">bill w</font></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 12:27 PM, John Clark <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:johnkclark@gmail.com" target="_blank">johnkclark@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><span class=""><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 11:24 AM, Keith Henson </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:hkeithhenson@gmail.com" target="_blank">hkeithhenson@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div></span><div class="gmail_extra"><span class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"></blockquote><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>More fundamental than the particular local set of myths is why people<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div></span><span style="font-size:12.8px">have myths at all.</span></blockquote><div><br></div></span><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">Because their mommy and daddy told them those myths were real. Genes that make children believe what adults tell them will do better than genes that tell them to ignore adults because adults do have a lot of wisdom to impart on their children. And most adults don't have hallucinations but some do and they will tell their children about them and they will believe what they hear, and as adults they will go on to tell their children about it and they will believe it too. And so it goes. </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><font size="4">Scientology may be a bit different as many became converts as adults, but I don't think Scientology will ever become a major religion that way because there aren't <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">a </div>sufficient number adults that retain enough juvenile characteristics to seek a father figure. If a religion wants to get big it has to snag people when their young, very young, preferably learning to talk young<div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> and before their critical thinking skills are developed. </font></div><br><br> John K Clark<br></font></div><div><font size="4"> </font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div></div></div>
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