Philosophy Now Forum

old people talk to me

drunk old people tell me all sorts of things - personal things - weird things

this one old drunk guy told me about how god talks to him

not that that is especially weird in my neck of the woods. in the american bible belt and in the appalachians mentioning that you talked to god - or even talk to god regularly - will not have you labelled as a nutcase

anyway - this guy told me that god talks to him a lot, and always has

he said that the first time he remembers god talking to him was when he was about six and he punched his four year old little sister because she was annoying him

god told him that he was an older brother and should know better, and to apologize to her - which he did - and to give her one of his toys as a token of his apology

god told him to not steal money from his parents, not to hit younger kids, not to cheat in school - and later in life not to hit his wife, not to spend the grocery money on booze and strippers - and so forth

one interesting thing here - god has never threatened him with hell or any sort of divine punishment - just reminded him that certain things are wrong

now some people might think that this sort of constant exposure to god's presence is a blessing


but there are atheists who can do (or not do) all those things without reminders from god - could it be that it is they who are especially blessed by having natures that do not need god hovering over them and reminding them of shit that they should not do

not sure if i am making any sense here

i have a major headache that refuses to go away despite every relevant medication in the house being thrown at it

by the way it is not true that sex makes headaches go away

it makes you not care about the headache for a while but when you are done it comes back with a vengeance



on a related note - one of my neighbors is a new yorker who moved here after retiring - after living all his life in manhattan

and god started talking to him

he says that when he goes back to manhattan god goes silent

he comes back to teh appalachian backwoods and god starts talking again

not sure what the theological implications are

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I guess it's OK, and quite good actually, that he perceives his conscience as god. Better that than his anger and vengefulness, like some have done in the past. I'm thinking, schizophrenic, or Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder).
As long as it keeps one in their own lane, they can drive that way all they want.

But I do agree that one can see evidence of the creator much more readily in the country, than in a concrete jungle, and that also one is more prone to see such, with so much time and silence at hand. Sounds beautiful to me!

i dont know if big coastal city diagnostic categories really apply here - things do not work the same in here flyover country especially in the countryside

mental illness is rarely something that stays the same across a lifetime

schizophrenia in particular has a tendency to get worse and worse if untreated

but if someone talks to god from childhood until old age without otherwise exhibiting any symptoms of mental illness - there is no mental illness

Kayla wrote:i dont know if big coastal city diagnostic categories really apply here - things do not work the same in here flyover country especially in the countryside

mental illness is rarely something that stays the same across a lifetime

schizophrenia in particular has a tendency to get worse and worse if untreated

but if someone talks to god from childhood until old age without otherwise exhibiting any symptoms of mental illness - there is no mental illness

I don't agree with this last statement, as it assumes that we know of all the manifestations of mental illness. His could be right around the corner, as to being understood and defined, that is.

SpheresOfBalance wrote:I don't agree with this last statement, as it assumes that we know of all the manifestations of mental illness. His could be right around the corner, as to being understood and defined, that is.

as i understand it - and my knowledge of psychology mostly comes from my big brother's psych 101 textbook - mental illness, by definition, substantially interferes with a person's life.

so if you hear voices purporting to be from god, and they make it difficult for you to concentrate on your work, or sleep, or whatever - or they tell you to kill people and you actually do it - that interferes with your life

but in the case i describe - there is no problem that the voices actually cause

yes a sudden onset of voices may warrant an MRI or two of your head just to make sure nothing funny is going on near your hearing centers

but otherwise - there simply is no problem