Saturday, June 24, 2006
Conversion Experience
"Most of us, though, have a critical reality monitoring function so that we are able to distinguish well enough between what is real and what is imagined and our imagination does not have too great an impact on our lives - unless the reality check system breaks down such as after stroke or in cases of schizophrenia," says Dr Paul Burgess who recently published a study demonstrating that in a fifth of cases, people wrongly remembered whether they actually witnessed an event or just imagined it.
To stroke and schizophrenia, RSR would add the life-altering experience commonly associated with a conversion to intelligent design theory.
In most cases, this involves an attorney who took some geology courses in college and later goes through a divorce or other painful personal crisis.
Invariably, in the cases when the attorney in question doesn't buy a Porsche, join the Hair Club for Men, or find a younger girlfriend, this leads to the adoption of some form of born-again Evangelism -- usually under the auspices of a singles group meeting in some church basement.
Eventually, the syndrome leads to the adoption of some form of creationism, quite often intelligent design, and a divorce from reality.
We suspect it's easier to adopt intelligent design than to grapple with the personal failing that led to the crisis in the first place.
To stroke and schizophrenia, RSR would add the life-altering experience commonly associated with a conversion to intelligent design theory.
In most cases, this involves an attorney who took some geology courses in college and later goes through a divorce or other painful personal crisis.
Invariably, in the cases when the attorney in question doesn't buy a Porsche, join the Hair Club for Men, or find a younger girlfriend, this leads to the adoption of some form of born-again Evangelism -- usually under the auspices of a singles group meeting in some church basement.
Eventually, the syndrome leads to the adoption of some form of creationism, quite often intelligent design, and a divorce from reality.
We suspect it's easier to adopt intelligent design than to grapple with the personal failing that led to the crisis in the first place.
