(no subject)
Dec. 24th, 2017 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyI think about this sort of thing often - a study which found that: "Participants who lacked control were more likely to perceive a variety of illusory patterns, including seeing images in noise, forming illusory correlations in stock market information, perceiving conspiracies, and developing superstitions." I'll have to look up the study to find out what "lacked control" means exactly, but I wondered if, outside the lab, having incurable chronic illnesses counts as "lacking control", and if that's related to my religious beliefs, which have a fair bit to say about sickness.
One of the main gods I worship is Sekhmet, the Ancient Egyptian goddess of plagues, whose priests were doctors. Sekhmet could dispatch her "messengers" to cause illness, but could also call them off (and other gods, such as the wonderfully named Tutu, could command them to desist). So she is the goddess of both sickness and medicine, both disease and treatment. You can't escape sickness, but help to cure it or to cope with it is available. This provides comfort and hope.
Or is this just the equivalent of a conspiracy theory - it provides an explanation and an illusion of control, and, conveniently, can't be disproved? Is this a religious idea, in the sense of faith, and how much a philosophical one? Does it matter whether, in some sense, it's objectively true?
Which said, darling Jonghyun is on board the Horned God's boat as he sails at the Solstice for the Summerlands, and I'll fight anyone who contradicts that statement.
One of the main gods I worship is Sekhmet, the Ancient Egyptian goddess of plagues, whose priests were doctors. Sekhmet could dispatch her "messengers" to cause illness, but could also call them off (and other gods, such as the wonderfully named Tutu, could command them to desist). So she is the goddess of both sickness and medicine, both disease and treatment. You can't escape sickness, but help to cure it or to cope with it is available. This provides comfort and hope.
Or is this just the equivalent of a conspiracy theory - it provides an explanation and an illusion of control, and, conveniently, can't be disproved? Is this a religious idea, in the sense of faith, and how much a philosophical one? Does it matter whether, in some sense, it's objectively true?
Which said, darling Jonghyun is on board the Horned God's boat as he sails at the Solstice for the Summerlands, and I'll fight anyone who contradicts that statement.
