Sapolsky - Religion is a Mental Illness

By Wayne Brown
Interesting Saponlsky lecture here

Strong ties between Obsessive Compulsive Disease (OCD) and religious ritual.

Schizophrenia and magical thinking.

Superstition as a sign of brain damage. Verified in rats.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (fun example - St Paul)

  • Serious 
  • Neophobia - dislike of new things
  • Hypergraphia - obsessive writing
  • Obsessive interest in religion
More here

- a bit too much weight on pseudo - evolutionary theories. The idea that whatever we see in nature must have an adaptive value. Sets up for asking "what is a mild version of schizophrenia"? Schyzotypalism 
  • social withdrawal
  • metamagical thinking 
  • frenzied new age ideas
  • concrete religious belief 
  • 1/2 crazy shamans 

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