Stole the words right out of my mouth

The great Jesus and god was trying to tell him what he had c;

I came here to find exactly that comment.

Its amazing how many things that are unknown to people are attributed to religion. Religion is mind control for the weak.

Please explain how it's mind control? We CHOOSE to believe. It's not like we have a giant black and white spiral in the back. Plus, 6/7 of the world is religious. Totally mind control.

Personally life is way too screwed up for me to believe in religion. If there is a form of higher being (god or otherwise depending on the religion) then they REALLY messed up. Plus most wars and conflict is started with religion. People claim to be peaceful and 'at one' with their god of choice, but if someone else believes different.... Uh oh. Yes I know not every religious person is the same. But generally that is the case.

It isn't quite mind-control. It's more brain-washing than anything.

This

You choose to believe because you are taught that you will go to hell if you don't. Where's the choice in that?

@38, Personally, I am religious. That doesn't necessarily mean I believe everything I hear when I go to church. Honestly, I am probably the most liberal Catholic you'll ever meet. I believe in pro choice, I believe in equal rights for everyone to marry who they love and I am always accepting of other's beliefs, or in some cases, lack of beliefs. But I love my religion and I like to believe God is a forgiving and loving being. I don't claim to know what is right or to even know if God truly exists. However, I do have Faith and I would much rather live my life with something to believe than not having anything. The way I see it, I'm not brainwashed by any means.

I'd be worried now... If the epilepsy hasn't been diagnosed for 10 years, a lot of damage might have taken place

Religion is a tool to control the masses from our history and no longer has a place in first world society. It was necessary to prevent masses uprising and to keep to their work in the past but for a longtime now it has just been a hindrance to our races advanent.

Well if you look into the Christain Faith, you can notice that alot of it is about bettering yourself and leading a joyful life. It's full of forgiviness and understanding of the fact that humans aren't perfect. People leave for years. Its really not brainwashing or mind control if you think about it.

Holy Shit!!

How is 56 getting thumbed up? They said that you cannot choose to "subscribe" to a belief. Since when can you not choose to believe? And then to say that majority belief= truth? Well I guess the world really was flat until the majority decided it wasn't. Must have been wild when the world morphed into a sphere.

#105, yes, but it also discriminates.

Let's stop pointing out our views on religion because sooner or later an argument may start and someone will get really offended.

It really bothers me that when the religion debate comes up, it gets blamed for all the worlds problems. Religion does not and has not started wars, people do. It is the win of the people. Everyone is a winner, no matter what someone else says. All religious people are winners, we make mistakes. But to say religion is brainwashing, is actually win telling you that to brainwash you. It saddens me to see how many people are so blind and don't want to see. I am sure it's the same sadness you may feel for me to have faith.

141- I speak only Catholic doctrine, not as Christians as a whole, but we aren't really judgmental. Just because we may not agree with homosexual relations and marriage doesn't mean homosexuals are bad. Just because sinning is bad doesn't mean God loves you any less. Also, side note, I have personally CHOSEN the Catholic life. I know it's doctrine and dogma, and study the Bible. And I do this with faith, not with evidence. Just because you can't study something scientifically mean that it isn't real. And since I'm an extreme history nut, we've known that the world is round since around 325 years before Christ was even born. Columbus is a joke, really. The Vikings discovered the Americas around 500 years before him. :)

325 years before Christ was born? Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that the events of the Old Testament spanned longer than that?

@155. They were saying we knew that in 365BC the world was round, not flat. Not saying I agree with that though.

So while everyone sits and argues over religion.. I hope OP is okay. My friend has dealt with the same thing his whole life (although they knew he had it.) I hope now that since you know, things for you will get much better. (:

140, I have honestly never seen "!=" before and assumed it to be a typo, so my apologies about that. But I still hold that you can choose to believe. If you want something bad enough you can make yourself believe it. When you read the bible, you have to decide whether or not you believe what you are reading as fact. You have to choose. Just like you can have a mountain of evidence against a religion and choose to ignore it and therefore choose to believe. If you hear a debate, you choose which one sound most logical or emotional or whatever and then you believe their argument. It's a choice even if your subconscious is making the decision or you actively decide to CHOOSE.

to be fair the poster was probably pretty young at the time and had his mother as a strong influence

I agree with #54, religion gives other hope for something better, and for others something worse in their life after death.

wow

exactly

Are as valid* Dunno how I didn't notice that.

Whoops! Religion strikes again!

Was working in the er one day and 3 black ladies came in with their 68 year old sister suffering from a septic infection causing her to be crazy, and literally look like the girl in the exorcist. The first thing they said was that she needed an exorcism.

I had several simple partial seizures per week (sometimes up to five or six per day), and one or two complex partial seizures a month. No one really talked to me, so no one ever figured anything was actually wrong. Everyone in school, including my teachers, thought I was just a frequently spaced-out chick who was probably a little nuts.

That's really crazy OP. I hope not much damage has been done. Did nothing ever happen to you when you saw strobe lights, etc?

That's crazy. I think I would've gone insane if that happened to me. Keep it up OP

im so sorry does it affect your walking? it does my bffs bro he can baraly talk and is super hard to take care of. its quite challanging. good luck

Some people can see the bright side to being holy. *Cough whichever Weasely twin it was cough cough* Excuse me, I need to go find some Robitussin.

The only way I could see how OP would have thought these were 'holy visions' is that the first time these fits started was in a church. Considering OP's mother is likely fanatically religious, OP probably spent a lot of her childhood or adolescence in church/religious settings, so this theory could prove plausible. Still, I'm sorry that you went in diagnosed for so long, if these fits were even kind of frequent, I think OP's mom should have figured out something of a biomedical nature was also going on.

That's actually another symptom though. Delusions of grandeur - they just feel 'different'. Her brain was distorted, can't put too much blame there for her believing it. The mom on the other hand...

Yes, the ignorance of some people believing their potentially fatal medical condition is actually a series of recurring "holy visions."

I'm not sure if you were trying to be sarcastic and failed, or if you're just explaining what didn't need to be explained...

This entire family should be sterilized to quarantine their genes.

@101 And you should be sterilized just for being an asshole. But life isn't fair sometimes.

I was trying to emphasize that "ignorance" is a severe understatement, lol.

possession is different from holy visions. possession ... bad holy visions ... good.

Yeah like they though she was possessed and tried to exorcise her rather than thinking it was a holy vision.