Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: ccicpg!keith@uunet.uu.net (Keith McIntyre) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Non-believers and atheists survey responses Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 91 03:51:57 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 50 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I found the survey results on demon possession to be interesting but also typical, especially the reactions and comments from non-believers. Just a few notes to those of you out there who believe that man has reached a new level of maturity and that beliefs in God and Satan are leftovers from the middle ages. Psychology as a science has been trying to validate itself for some time. A study was done in the 70's by an independent group on the patients of psychologists. The study was trying to determine the efficacy of treatment. One group received counseling, etc. The other group received nothing. The resultant cure rate was identical between the two groups. The professional association of psychologists in this country were incensed by the study and insisted that the methods used in the study were invalid. The psychologists repeated the study using methods modified to their liking. The result? The cure rate was the same between the treated and non-treated groups. The obvious conclusion? Psychologists and their treatment techniques are irrelevant to the mental health of anyone receiving treatment. Why then do non-believers base their beliefs on a field of "science" that is "fuzzy" at best and bogus at the extreme? As far as schizophrenics and their treatment goes, by the replies of most people they were exposing their own lack of knowledge in this area. The cure rate for schizophrenics is very, very, low. Whether treated by drugs or counseling or any combination of these things, the best that can be obtained in most cases is an alleviation of the symptoms. In a very large number of cases, schizophrenics spontaneously come out of it on their own after reaching a certain age. Contrary to what many want to believe, very little of this is even vaguely understood by the medical profession. There is one area where modern science has next to no understanding of what is going on and that is the human brain. Given the success rate of modern treatments for mental disorders and given the actual demonstrated understanding that medical practitioners actually have, Christianity posits just as likely an explanation as anything else. In a closing note to all the atheists, secularists, and humanists out there: I was once in the same camp as you. I also believed what I wanted to believe based on the flimsy and transparent theories of "quasi" science. Mankind knows so little it is pitiful. Each of us knows only a tiny fraction of the little that mankind knows. Yet we all like to puff ourselves up and parade around acting as if we do know something. Paul Simon said it so well. "All lies in jest 'til a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." God knows everything about you and still loves you. -Keith McIntyre