A question for an anti-Evolutionist

you're are correct I was referring mainly to depression and ADD and a few others since they are the largest group of mental patients. There are always those that are beyond their own care and need medication and other treatments.

Well, hooray for you, I guess. In a perfect world, everyone would be as capable.

Some might need a pharmacological boost to get them to the point where you started from. Why you dissin' on them?

because its artificial happiness, not true happiness. Anybody can take a pill and be happy, in order to be really happy and beat the depression you need to find happiness in whats around you, like family and friends. I think counseling is the best way to beat depression. There isn't a dependency that results from beating it without drugs.

No, I've only seen the previews/trailers for it. And I'd like to throttle any scientist who says things like "Life is energy, and that energy has to go somewhere when we die ..." Urgh. Yes, it goes into the environment and bacteria. The equivocation of energy with information/order bugs me no end.

Much respect for not flaming me back.

Billy, love ya, but you're starting to piss me off.

A year ago I was severely depressed. I, like you, didn't want to use antidepressants for the same reasons you list here. But I did when my husband got so alarmed he started making phone calls to get me the care I needed.

Know what? That medical boost gave me what I needed to get to the point where I could take a good hard look at my situation, what I was doing wrong and what I needed to start doing right.

If you want a gold star to being able to do it all by yourself, consider yourself starred. But I got to where I needed to be, and in the end, that's really all that matters.

eta: Counseling absolutely rocks. Yeah, I know y'all will say "takes one to know one," but I'm now in a master's program in counseling because I believe in it so much. That said, there's nothing wrong with using all the tools at one's disposal. Especially when using them could make the difference between life and death.

Thanks, Almarea. It's been a pleasure, and I loved that poem!

trying on your own and failing is not the same thing as not trying and relying on drugs. That is where the laziness comes into play.

How about trying on your own, failing, and then using drugs to get you onto an even keel?

If drugs help break a cycle of behavior that is causing depression, what's wrong with that?

There are also people whose chemistry is out of whack. Insane or not, they may be able to live better lives with medical 'adjustment', I certainly won't fault them that.

The partt I have trouble with is when people rely on these 'helpers' as a crutch, so they can get by in lives that are making them depressed.

I think 'happy pills' are far too common in the US as a result of an inherently toxic environment. Many folks drive everywhere instead of walk, sit all day in offices at computers in buildings with artificial light and filtered air.

TV/Broadcast media has been babbling in the background for years, influencing what we think, telling us what we should want, trying to shape us into better consumers ready to run up credit card debt to buy-buy-buy because we can't possibly be happy or safe without... (whatever product).

I think too many in the US are living lives that lack sufficient purpose and action... it's bound to take it's toll.

When was the last time you saved the day with a MacGyverian stunt?
Or made a difficult decision that would vote someone off the island?

I think most Americans would be happier if they just shut out all the marketing nonsense, Iraqi body-count stats, fear-mongering infotainment crap, found a way to bike to work and actually did something purposeful for themselves.

If that doesn't help... then sure... give the drugs a try.

I won't disagree with your point that we live in an inherently toxic (and ultimately doomed, however much people always say, "Aw, they'll think of something" before going back to their Harry Potter and reality TV) environment, but I think it's much likelier, given the considerable data gathered over time from a variety of sources supporting it, that this points to the biggest reason so many "happy pills" keep popping up:

http://www.csun.edu/CommunicationStudies/ben/news/cia/

Amazingly, even a lot of mainstream media has seen fit to talk about the CIA's involvement in the drug trade from time to time. That says a lot.

thats what I just said

TV definitely has some of the most damaging messages to a sane mind. Demographics, product placement, news entertainment media, actions without consequences, bad things happening to people is "funny" and it sells things, canned laughter (telling us what is funny), step into a slim jim, a part of this nutritious breakfast, buy now, only $19.95, your kids will love you, save on diamonds, buy buy buy, don't forget the 5 year warranty, tivo, dvr's, don't miss your favorite show that you cancelled plans with your friends to see...

Then there's things like

Houses getting torn down to be replaced with strip malls.

Billboard advertising on every block.

Owners of buildings filled with independent businesses selling out to large corporations.

Work for either this large corporation or this one, make sure you pass the personality test, are you clean cut enough?

Don't do anything dangerous, just watch TV instead--be afraid of life, be very afraid, except to work for your local large corporate umbrella for just above minimum wage with no benefits so you can pay for all the things they advertise on TV.

Hurry hurry hurry, relax on your couch. Hurry! Relax, go nuts.

And don't forget the Techron and Retsin.

Are you having trouble with Xvhtzvhtz? Then talk to your doctor about fargiliozolinone, live the life you always dreamed of. (Song: Living my life!) In some circumstances, side effects include explosive diarrhea, vomiting, heart attack, and certain death. Don't use fargiliozolinone if you are breathing, urinate at least once a day, or eat more than 2 meals a day as it could cause serious problems with Xyzzy. Talk to your doctor. Live the life you always dreamed of (Song: Living my life!) with fargiliozolinone.

It's no wonder why antidepressants are so popular. Imagine what people 80 years ago would think about the way people live now.

*laughing*

Stop it! I'm in a LIBRARY here! People are looking at me!

"Hey Bob, hows it going?"

"oh fine Ted, just a little anal leakage"

"mind getting out of the pool, Bob?"

Robin Williams

Live on Broadway

You say that as if snake oil is something new?

This is insensitive and ignorant.

or neither

It's neither.

Medication should HELP the results of counselling along, not replace it, as it does now.


If a cerain monks can learn to vocalize with the second set of vocal cords that most of us do not use, will a small wound not to bleed, and slow their brain functions to the point they slip into an almost comatose state (measurably so) during a trance....

...I have no doubt that casual chemical imbalances can be controlled. The issue with clinical depression is you can't be sure which came first, the imbalance or the sadness.

It's not TV's fault. It's the dependence on corporate brainwashing techniques, I mean advertising that made all of the above possible. Television has a tremendous potential to teach and enrich. But, like most good things, the Almighty Dollar corrupts it....

I've only just come back to this thread, sorry didn't realise you'd replied. This is all only in my opinion of course:



I think the problem is that most people's concept of God is from a 2000 year old book, which doesn't mean much to me. A lot of people still believe in King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail... even though it's only an old French story that a lot of people seem to have missed the point of.

Another group of religious people, who have put more thought into it, come to the conclusion that God must be some omnipotent force... but to me, they're similar to Star Wars/Trek fans who crave for a back story at every angle to plug any holes in their logic. I used to go to Sunday School when I was a kid, and through my own introspection, I stopped going. I realised at a young age that a lot of people in this world seem to like the comfort of thinking there's a God. As long as they're belief doesn't affect me or my way of life, they can believe what they want to. I personally worry that a lot of us are not taking enough responsibility for our own actions and are relying on a God to sort it out... which will never happen.



Frankly, yes I do think it was waaay over the heads of the people who wrote Genesis. Remember, it was written a very long time ago. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, scientists couldn't explain in detail how humans are conceived. Think about how basic science was back then. Jesus's ideological attack on the Roman way of life wasn't long after people were praying to the sun to make it come up again in the morning. In my view, the bible is primitive, and has been proved wrong many many times. Adam and Eve could not have been the first humans, it's scientifically impossible (Genetics, Hereditorism, DNA etc..).

Why should the rest of Genesis be correct?



The christian bible implies God is a super-being rather than an enitity. A lot of Christians think of God as a being. More meditative ones (like yourself) think he's a spiritual force in everything, which is close to my belief. I just don't like the word God, it's a non-descriptive way of describing the incredible natural processes of the universe, and a lot of people get the wrong idea from it.

I don't think God is a big dude with a beard, I never have. God is just a word that a lot of people use to justify wars, and explain plagues and famines.



Quite right. Neither am I. There's very few religious people I'd ever bother explaining my view to.

Alien: a person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country

hey your right! they do walk amongst us

The ones of which I speak are just farther away than most.

One night dream long ago had god creating the universe accidently at the 'god college' and his punishment was having to deal with us.

I love how these threads reach 20+ pages.



There will always be a battle I suppose.


And that says a lot.

Random thought.

It's not creation and evoltion are both wrong.

Time really flows backwards,
reality and memory are boiling away into chaos,
which is why we can't see past the present.

The past is just lying there passively,
fuel that hasn't yet started to burn.

--
Or something like that.