When is a belief system a Mental Disorder?

Thus says the OP. The poster mentions such items as belief in witchs and the belief in a 6000 year old earth. The poster wants to know when such a belief can be labelled as a "mental disorder."But there is also the belief that life has some objective meaning. Anyone who believes this is suffering from a delusion of grandeur which is a classic symptom of paranoid schizophrenia. Since my mother back in the day was a full-blown schizophrenic, I have some experiential knowledge of this disease. I mention it as an example of the BRUTALITY of life. We can be brutalized by insanity but that is but one of many ways that Nature can brutalize us. All these ills that flesh is heir to is due to the fact that we are FLESH which evolved in that hit-or-miss fashion described as the combination of natural selection and mutations. Besides birth defects and other imperfections with which we are born, there are all manner of diseases and accidents that come our way from time to time. We can be as prudent as we like, but we cannot avoid the brutality of life for very long. It might come naturally or it might come as a result of the sorts of actions we as natural creatures like to partake in such as war and murder and torture. In America, murder is rather common as compared to Europe. The Europeans are more dramatically efficient: they prefer genocide. The Americans have been fond of killing off entire peoples also, but we have done it rather haphazardly and gradually: we lack the dramatic flair of the Europeans.The history of brutality on the part of nature and ourselves is due to the fact that life is accidental and meaningless. Our climb from slime left us with grave imperfections.This is why I say that our lives are meaningless, brutal, and short.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-19-2006 12:49 PMThis message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-19-2006 12:54 PM

Of course evolution has no purpose. The only way we could have a formal purpose is if we were made by a being who had something in mind when he made us. Nature made us: it had nothing in mind. Nature has no mind. We are here for no particular reason. Therefore, life is meaningless--in the objective sense.As far as life being "short," the term is admittedly relative. Compared to mosquitoes we live a long time. Compared to redwood trees, our lives are very short. Compared to geological measurements, our lives are like the timespan that a bubble exists.But one can also speak of shortness of life in other terms. Think of all the time one spends preparing to do something. And think of all the time in which one is too old to do something {or you have some other impediment). The amount of time that might be thought of as our "prime" is a short portion of the full extent of our lives.

The parents are just assembly-line workers. Nature made us.

Formal purpose is not subjective. It's the only kind of purpose that's not.

The parents cannot "make" the child in the sense of forming it into anything they like. Nature formed us.

I'm talking about the design of a human being. We were "designed" by nature--mindlessly.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-20-2006 05:34 AM

I didn't know people mated for that reason. What, a woman picks a tall husband because she wants her children to be tall?

I thought people married or mated with others because they were attracted to them not because they might produce attractive children.Some couples don't have any children and don't want any.And anyway our basic body structure is still designed by nature.

A mental disorder occurs when someone mistakes a subjective purpose for an objective purpose.

Oh, please. I'm talking about things like having arms and legs and brains, and you're talking about hair color and eye color.

Really . . . You seriously think that's the way life works?This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-20-2006 08:30 PM

Yeah, bunch of nuts.

I didn't have a soul-mate concept in mind. I just didn't think we worried too much about what some theoretical children in the future were going to look like and be like. When I was young I wanted to marry someone who was intelligent, goodlooking, and sweet. Admittedly, it's rather hard to get all that in one package. But I wasn't thinking about some supposed children we might or might not have. I just wanted such a person so I myself would be happy.

Oh, it's on an UNCONSCIOUS level. I see. I'm not sure how we could know that since it's unconscious.

I had no idea I was so unselfish. Here all this time I was concerned about these potential children, whereas I thought it was all about my pleasures. I suppose you are suggesting that what we think is physically attractive is just that which looks "healthy." However, there might be some pale, anemic women with long black hair that I most certainly would find attractive, despite the fact they aren't that healthy and probably would not be very good at childbearing or rearing. Too lethargic they are--but nonetheless attractive.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-22-2006 01:50 PMThis message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-22-2006 01:56 PM