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Does Jesus talk to you?

Does Jesus talk to you?

  • Yes, I hear the voice of god.

    Votes: 4 8.3%
  • Yes, in the form of signs, dreams, etc., but no voices.

    Votes: 4 8.3%
  • Maybe, I'm not sure.

    Votes: 3 6.3%
  • No, I've never experienced this.

    Votes: 29 60.4%
  • Other (Please Explain).

    Votes: 8 16.7%

  • Total voters
    48

Curious George

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One of my best friends has a younger half-sister. She's five years old. His mother is extremely religious (protestant, not a church-goer). He didn't grow up with his mother but his half-sister has lived with their mother since birth.

This little girl seems extremely intelligent. She can carry on conversations like an adult (which I found amazing for a five year old). Her speech is very clear and she seems very mature. She can even read at almost an adult level from what I can tell. She was really impressive. That a five year old could be so advanced to the point that I felt almost completely justified in treating her like an adult was weird, I thought, but the weirdest part was that this is kid is, for lack of a better term, a total "Jesus Freak."

Let me explain:

- She only talks about "Jesus." No matter what you try to talk to her about, the topic of conversation will come back around to Jesus within literally 10 seconds.

- If you don't say anything, she will initiate a conversation about Jesus. She asks questions like "Do you believe in the god that I believe in?"

- It is extremely important to her that people believe in Jesus.

- Her half-brother is a what I would call a "spiritual" guy. He doesn't really buy into any religion but he feels like there is something more out there and that most religions, from Christianity to Buddhism, are on the right track. It is offensive to this little girl that he does not believe in Jesus as the "one true god" and he "died for our sins." She badgers him relentlessly to the point that, when she visits, he tries to avoid her.

- She says that Jesus talks to her. Her mother believes this and is responsible for encouraging all of this interest in Jesus, but she is conscious that "Jesus talks to me" comes off as crazy. Everytime her daughter brings up talking to Jesus, she reminds her that "we don't talk about that in public."

- Her mother removed her from kindergarten and is now home-schooling her because the other children in class were making fun of her fixation on Jesus.

Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a religious guy. I'm also not an anti-religious guy. Personally, I'm agnostic. I feel like I haven't seen proof of a god or gods one way or the other, so I respect the right of people to believe in whatever religion they choose and, I hope, they respect my right to think most religion is a bunch of hooey until somebody convinces me otherwise or until some spectral being presents itself before me.

When I hear something like "Jesus talks to me" though, I start to wonder if, perhaps, there isn't some sort of major psychological issue in play there.

Turns out though, at least from conversations I've had, talking to Jesus is not uncommon.

My mom thinks Jesus talks to her (my mom's kind of a Jesus Freak too, so I didn't put much stock in that). I've also had a lot of people that I find to be absolutely, completely sane though, tell me the exact same thing.

I figured it must be in the way of showing a sign or something, the old burning bush and what not, but no. These people I've talked to say they are literally hearing, in their head, what they believe to be the voice of Jesus Christ. That really concerns me because, usually, whenever you hear someone say that, they're usually wearing a straight jacket.

So, in the interest of curiousity, I have to ask the question.

Does Jesus talk to you?
 
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I don't think there's anything wrong with a five-year-old having an imaginary friend. But I worry about the mental health of the adults who claim to hear voices in their heads.
 
Thing is, I think we all hear "quiet" voices in our heads all the time. Thoughts that form into things we can only assign as "voices." I don't think it's such a hot idea to give such weighty authority to these voices though, but if you believe that they are the words of God, I imagine it's easy to encourage them to the point that you would hear them louder and louder all the time, like any other mental discipline. I do listen to them, as I think they are the thoughts of my sub- or supra- consciousness, but I weigh their validity each and every time I "hear" them. For example, last night I was at the supermarket and trying to decide between the caesar salad and a frozen pizza, and a voice popped into my head saying, "Dude! The pizza, totally the pizza!" I could be wrong, but I don't think that was Jesus.
 
Everybody (especially as a kid), has another voice that talks to them inside their head. Imaginative children, only children, sometimes have a name and a pretend identity for this voice.
As one grows up, the two voices- one's own, and the other one inside one's head- seem to become integrated. Although in times of stress, one might still argue with "oneself".
This voice is not Jesus, though. Not unless Jesus sometimes advises one to do bad things.
 
Yes. Jesus does talk to me. Specially when I want to buy a burrito.

1454594083_151d694197.jpg
 
People who think Jesus talks to them are batshit insane. 'nuff said.
 
People who think Jesus talks to them are batshit insane. 'nuff said.

Well, toddlers who think Jesus talks to them might be exempt from this statement; more likely, they're just suggestible and easily influenced.
If they reach puberty still thinking Jesus talks to them, then they might be safely categorized as batshit insane.
 
People who think Jesus talks to them are batshit insane. 'nuff said.

I'm guessing you don't any Mexicans named Jesus....
 
I'm guessing you don't any Mexicans named Jesus....

Ah ha! Subtle. I didn't get it the first time. Jesús, not Jee-zus.
 
I'm guessing you don't any Mexicans named Jesus....

One of those "I wonder why" questions I've had since childhood (in Texas) relates to this. . .

Why do spanish/latin and arabic/me societies name their children after their saviours, but in english/american society is seems almost blasphemous? Is it only blasphemous in the english translations of the bible?
 
One of those "I wonder why" questions I've had since childhood (in Texas) relates to this. . .

Why do spanish/latin and arabic/me societies name their children after their saviours, but in english/american society is seems almost blasphemous? Is it only blasphemous in the english translations of the bible?

Wow, I was about to post some similar musing myself.
"Mary" used to be a very popular girl name, just as Maria is in Spanish.
Both cultures have also traditionally named our children after popular saints: Peter (Pedro), Joseph (Jose), etc.

But we stop short of naming our sons "Jesus". Why? Is it too bold? Too tasteless? Too arrogant? Are our children unworthy of the honor?

:thinking

I can only, off the top of my head, think of one white American man whose birth name was "Jesus", and that is Jesus Christ Allin, aka "gg allin", 1956-1993, RIP.
And that's only because gg's dad was some abusive and insane backwoods survivalist minister, whose congregation probably numbered about ten, including his family.
 
Daily. God talks to everyone. Some actually listen.

BB
 
A saddening account of that little girl.

She will grow up in ignorance and self-delusion, figuring that "Jesus" exists. She will become asocial, separated from other kids, and probably become psychotic when she's older.

These kind of people are entitled to governement support, in my opinion. The kids should be taken away from them and grow up in a healthy, atheist environnement where schooling is based on philosophy and science rather than random 'wisdom' written four thousand years ago, when people could barely think.
 
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A saddening account of that little girl.

She will grow up in ignorance and self-delusion, figuring that "Jesus" exists. She will become asocial, separated from other kids, and probably become psychotic when she's older.

These kind of people are entitled to governement support, in my opinion. The kids should be taken away from them and grow up in a healthy, atheist environnement where schooling is based on philosophy and science rather than random 'wisdom' written four thousand years ago, when people could barely think.

Wow...are you a psychiatrist?
 
One of my best friends has a younger half-sister. She's five years old. His mother is extremely religious (protestant, not a church-goer). He didn't grow up with his mother but his half-sister has lived with their mother since birth.

This little girl seems extremely intelligent. She can carry on conversations like an adult (which I found amazing for a five year old). Her speech is very clear and she seems very mature. She can even read at almost an adult level from what I can tell. She was really impressive. That a five year old could be so advanced to the point that I felt almost completely justified in treating her like an adult was weird, I thought, but the weirdest part was that this is kid is, for lack of a better term, a total "Jesus Freak."

Let me explain:

- She only talks about "Jesus." No matter what you try to talk to her about, the topic of conversation will come back around to Jesus within literally 10 seconds.

- If you don't say anything, she will initiate a conversation about Jesus. She asks questions like "Do you believe in the god that I believe in?"

- It is extremely important to her that people believe in Jesus.

- Her half-brother is a what I would call a "spiritual" guy. He doesn't really buy into any religion but he feels like there is something more out there and that most religions, from Christianity to Buddhism, are on the right track. It is offensive to this little girl that he does not believe in Jesus as the "one true god" and he "died for our sins." She badgers him relentlessly to the point that, when she visits, he tries to avoid her.

- She says that Jesus talks to her. Her mother believes this and is responsible for encouraging all of this interest in Jesus, but she is conscious that "Jesus talks to me" comes off as crazy. Everytime her daughter brings up talking to Jesus, she reminds her that "we don't talk about that in public."

- Her mother removed her from kindergarten and is now home-schooling her because the other children in class were making fun of her fixation on Jesus.

Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a religious guy. I'm also not an anti-religious guy. Personally, I'm agnostic. I feel like I haven't seen proof of a god or gods one way or the other, so I respect the right of people to believe in whatever religion they choose and, I hope, they respect my right to think most religion is a bunch of hooey until somebody convinces me otherwise or until some spectral being presents itself before me.

When I hear something like "Jesus talks to me" though, I start to wonder if, perhaps, there isn't some sort of major psychological issue in play there.

Turns out though, at least from conversations I've had, talking to Jesus is not uncommon.

My mom thinks Jesus talks to her (my mom's kind of a Jesus Freak too, so I didn't put much stock in that). I've also had a lot of people that I find to be absolutely, completely sane though, tell me the exact same thing.

I figured it must be in the way of showing a sign or something, the old burning bush and what not, but no. These people I've talked to say they are literally hearing, in their head, what they believe to be the voice of Jesus Christ. That really concerns me because, usually, whenever you hear someone say that, they're usually wearing a straight jacket.

So, in the interest of curiousity, I have to ask the question.

Does Jesus talk to you?

You know doughgirl? :shock:
 
No that's just common sense :twocents:

Common sense...hardly. What you have is a rush to judgment based on third hand information and obviously NOT a professional estimation of where their life will take them. Now were you a psychiatrist...
 
I'm guessing you don't any Mexicans named Jesus....

Actually, I think one of my gardeners is named Jesus, now that you mention it...
 
I've come to the conclusion that nobody is completely, 100% sane. People need a bit of craziness in their life to act as a pressure release or else they'll go bat **** insane and start hoarding feces to throw at the mailman. If some people want to use Jesus as the thing that keeps them able to function, where's the harm in that? So long as they don't start bombing abortion clinics or something like that, it isn't doing any more harm than the alternatives.

Someone calling their superego "Jesus" isn't, in itself, a sign that someone's gone off the deep end; lots of people do that. But when people begin to reach the point where their eccentricities start impeding their functioning (as this girl's mother seems to be doing with her) it's up their the people that care about them to gently nudge them in a more socially acceptable direction. Teasing is society's way of telling us that we're getting close to the fringes and withdrawing this girl from kindergarten because she's getting teased for her faith does sound like it will make it harder for her to function later in life... Hopefully this family has some kind of moderating influence, like a priest or something, that can point this out to them.
 
I've come to the conclusion that nobody is completely, 100% sane. People need a bit of craziness in their life to act as a pressure release or else they'll go bat **** insane and start hoarding feces to throw at the mailman. If some people want to use Jesus as the thing that keeps them able to function, where's the harm in that? So long as they don't start bombing abortion clinics or something like that, it isn't doing any more harm than the alternatives.

Someone calling their superego "Jesus" isn't, in itself, a sign that someone's gone off the deep end; lots of people do that. But when people begin to reach the point where their eccentricities start impeding their functioning (as this girl's mother seems to be doing with her) it's up their the people that care about them to gently nudge them in a more socially acceptable direction. Teasing is society's way of telling us that we're getting close to the fringes and withdrawing this girl from kindergarten because she's getting teased for her faith does sound like it will make it harder for her to function later in life... Hopefully this family has some kind of moderating influence, like a priest or something, that can point this out to them.

Excellent post. Praying and 'talking to God' is not a sign of insanity, or anything close to it. Believing that God talks to you is dependent on what one means by that. Do you hear an actual voice, similar to that of your friend/family member/other live human? That could be a sign of a psychotic disorder. Does God 'talk' to you in actions, occurrences, or similar to how we use 'self-talk' to help ourselves? Nothing crazy about this. It's both faith-related and an adaptive coping mechanism.

As far as the girl goes, I have serious concerns about how this 'indoctrination' is going to impact her functioning. I, too, hope she has a moderating influence, though I suspect that her mother wouldn't allow one.
 
A saddening account of that little girl.

She will grow up in ignorance and self-delusion, figuring that "Jesus" exists. She will become asocial, separated from other kids, and probably become psychotic when she's older.

These kind of people are entitled to governement support, in my opinion. The kids should be taken away from them and grow up in a healthy, atheist environnement where schooling is based on philosophy and science rather than random 'wisdom' written four thousand years ago, when people could barely think.

WTF is wrong with you? Obviously you don't know the meaning of philosophy...you should look it's etymology up sometime. Has a lot to do with "random wisdom". Maybe the kid really does talk to a mexican, be open-minded.
 
I'm guessing you don't any Mexicans named Jesus....

Years ago I was a mgr at a KFC...imagin my suprise while passing out checks, I found one made out to Jesus.
 
I don't hear ANY voices in my head...Not sure if that makes me crazy, but I only hear things from my ears.
 
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