Monday, October 24, 2011

Monologue

Let me set the mood for you,

I am sitting on my friend Farhad's bed on one end of his room, Michael is on the cot which is placed in the left-center of the room, and Farhad is at his desk opposite me. Together since 1:30 PM we have been diligently studying and catching up on school work. By around 11:00 I feel a bit unfocused - I take that back. 'Unfocused' is an understatement...I was over my assigned reading. And so the three of us begin a discourse on the subject of Christianity. Questions like "If God were to exist, should I choose to worship him?" "How supportive are the examples of Jesus' existence on Earth?" and "How Christian are most proclaimed Christians?" were tossed around and debated over. As a novice on this subject, I left the house filled with new information...but what perked my interest most in our discussion was the relationship between human psychology and religion.

At one point, Michael brought up a theory about Jesus as a schizophrenic. From a respective, Agnostic perspective we analyzed this theory and I do not fully accept it but I do find it interesting. There are a few distinctive characteristics of schizophrenic personalities and one is that the schizophrenic person believes they are the Messiah. Known as the Messiah-complex, these individuals believe that they are meant for a greater purpose and to spread the word of God. Could it be that Jesus was perhaps schizophrenic? And that his 'miracles' were rumors? And just like today, perhaps people began following this Jesus due to these rumors. When is destitution and desperation, it is normal to believe in something that will grant you freedom - a sort of leap of faith I suppose.

I hope to look into this theory more and see what other people think. Was Jesus really here...or has he not even arrived yet...or maybe I should just think about this tomorrow...