Gabe the Angel

I had this thought and I wanted to share it with those of you who are going to visit God and stay at the heaven hotel. Alzheimer's is a slow way to lose control of your mind, it take years to set in, whereby you are not able to recognise the people you have known most of your life, but also you may not be able to do the most simple of things like swallow when you eat. My father suffered from this condition for at least 15 years, it showed up as just mood swings at first and then not being able to wright, a few strokes into the 11 year he could not even speak coherently, apart from the rambling and repeating of stories within an hour, my father died from starvation.

I can see this problem as being a major factor in the life of a dedicated christian. To have your mind disintegrate, and not being able to talk to God about things you spent most of your life rehearsing from the Bible or the Koran is to say the least debilitating. Those of you who find the cure to sinning with religion, have no control over this terrible condition, to say God is merciful, does not even start to answer this problem, the fact is your state of mind now will not necessarily be the state of your mind when you take your last breath on this world to go to the next. How then will you comunicate with God when you are unable to comunicate?

Or do you become the person you was before the condition started, will God have a way to rebuild your mind so he knows how you should be or is this a punishment just for the sinners?

Philos

This is a crucial point, not least as a dreadful test of faith.

I know a case of a woman alzheimer's sufferer who had been recently bereaved. She would ask where her husband was and every time she was told that he was dead she would go through the shock again, as if she was hearing it for the first time.

Clivedurdle

My mother died a few years ago after having had Alzheimer's for a few years. She had been a pentecostal since the fifties, her grand parents were involved in the 1904 Welsh revival.

One of the things that made me finally say adieu to God and interestingly confirm a scientific world view.

It was like a fountain slowly drying up, rarely there would be a tiny bit more bubbling, but never that much. That process, as far as I can see, is being very well explained by chaos and complexity theory. It is a comon process to many diseases.

The God theories are so inadequate to even start to draw out the complexities and nuances of this universe. They are imposed concepts into which observations and life must be forced, instead of working out the concepts after you have made some observations.

southernhybrid

I'm an RN who works part time and most my clients suffer from AD or other types of dementia. I have felt for a long time that if ever there was evidence of the fallacy of mind/body dualism, it's the effects of the disease Alzheimer's.

My condolences to all of you that have had to witness the decline of a loved one afflicted with this disease.

Aquila ka Hecate

My Mum also died over 5 years ago with Alzheimers's.

It doesn't just do for the Christian God theory-to my mind it does for all religious and metaphysical theories which posit the existance of a soul.

When you've watched that so-called 'soul' dry up and dribble away you really do start asking some hard questions.

Proxima Centauri

Alzheimer's shows how the mind is dependent on the brain.
When the brain goes the mind goes.

Bill B

I think you are absolutely correct. Mind/body dualism is a comforting illusion, but the reality of Alzheimer's totally destroys this illusion. I wish reality were not so ugly, but it is.

ekis

The purpose of life is what we give it. If you prefer not to give one, so be it. To help the family of an AD sufferer, I would recommend reading the Conversation with God books by Neale D. Walsch.

Philippe*

All my compassionate thoughts to you people... Test, but at these moments the daily life is broken and one can see the roots of Faith turns around the harsh, and more or less desperate human condition.

Philippe