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Brain tumor caused pedophilia
January 9, 2013 at 9:15 pm
(This post was last modified: January 9, 2013 at 9:44 pm by Simon Moon.)
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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RE: Brain tumor caused pedophilia
January 9, 2013 at 10:48 pm
This is something I ponder frequently as a graduate student studying neuropsychology. My training in the clinical applications of neuropsych, and my research in neuroscience leads to a strong bias that we are a product of our brains. I know that in the future, I may be handling cases like the story presented here.
Under the influence of drugs, alcohol, etc. we may behave in ways that we would not normally behave. The same is true for medical issues like tumors or lesions, or chronic neuropsychiatric conditions, as these have an impact on neurological functioning. With this said, it is hard to draw the line at times. A man with a brain tumor, will never do those cruel acts again once the tumor is removed, and never would have raped/molested etc without the tumor being present. He was clearly not in his right state of mind from his illness. The justice system is about reforming and correcting behavior. Surgery in this case would take care of that. Someone who drinks alcohol in excess would also suffer from a lack of judgement, as this has a direct impact on your executive functioning. This individual would be made an example of, because of his substance use.
It is a very difficult to remove social biases from this, as well as the fact that life isn't black and white. Personally I struggle with this and my view flip-flops as I can see both sides of the coin.
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RE: Brain tumor caused pedophilia
January 9, 2013 at 10:49 pm
So every fucking priest has a brain tumor?
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RE: Brain tumor caused pedophilia
January 9, 2013 at 11:05 pm
Did he have sex with kids? No? He doesn't deserve to be punished.
If he did; yes.
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RE: Brain tumor caused pedophilia
January 10, 2013 at 11:17 am
or...just priests with an overblown sense of their own importance because some old fuck in Rome keeps telling them how wonderful and "holy" they are.