3 ms·

Mark 9:14-29, depending on the translation. The translation of biblical fasting is suspected to be one meal a day type thing, like Ramadan. More about the hist

Mark 9:14-29, depending on the translation. The translation of biblical fasting is suspected to be one meal a day type thing, like Ramadan. More about the history of fasting and epilepsy here (which also cites the Bible verse, god forbid): https://www.medlink.com/articles/ketogenic-diet-in-the-treatment-of-epilepsy https://www.medlink.com/articles/ketogenic-diet-in-the-treat... Of course I’m being downvoted because I mentioned a religious text. It’s in other secular ancient texts as well. My point was more about how fasting and the ketogenic diet has been recognized as a treatment for mental diseases for a long time. As it relates to the title, a lot of them are suspected to have roots in inflammation and metabolism.

tharkun__ 5y ago
FWIW, I just saw the downvote and I totally did not understand why you were downvoted. You're just spot on w/ keto and epilepsy and I nowadays find religious fasting quite interesting. In fact I find religion more and more fascinating the older I get. Not in the sense of actually believing in a super human creator being but in the wisdom distilled into these texts. Unfortunately I don't remember the name but very recently I heard a (Christian in this case) scholar on the radio talk about the bible and religion in general that really resonated. He wasn't reading the bible and other ancient texts quite literally like so many of us do. He saw them as regular people describing the world they saw and distilling the wisdom they gained and wanted to preserve in the pictures of their time. His interpretations just made sense to me and I says that as a totally non-religious person. And that's because they weren't dogmatic and "religious" or prescriptive, like so many a preacher is the Sunday before an election, telling everyone who to vote for. As mentioned before (both here in another comment and other posts on HN), I find the population control aspect of religion very fascinating. In the currently active world religions this will probably not be seen kindly and more like heresy. But just the fact that many of the major religions will see each other that way too is fascinating. Or even slight variations of the same major religion for that matter. Usually it's much easier to talk to people about this for long lost/dead religions and it's fascinating how they see those aspects in those religions, but not their own.
- gnarcoregrizz 5y ago
  There is certainly wisdom distilled into the texts, they've made it this far. I found the bit about fasting particularly interesting, because its now being studied and proven to be therapeutic, and is mentioned and practiced often in both western and eastern religions. Funny that you mentioned population control, one could consider science a popular religion of today ;) As you said, not all religions get along. That, and marvel is the new greek mythology, they'll unfortunately be watching those movies a thousand years from now in history class and thinking we were idiots.

tharkun__ 5y ago

FWIW, I just saw the downvote and I totally did not understand why you were downvoted. You're just spot on w/ keto and epilepsy and I nowadays find religious fasting quite interesting. In fact I find religion more and more fascinating the older I get. Not in the sense of actually believing in a super human creator being but in the wisdom distilled into these texts. Unfortunately I don't remember the name but very recently I heard a (Christian in this case) scholar on the radio talk about the bible and religion in general that really resonated. He wasn't reading the bible and other ancient texts quite literally like so many of us do. He saw them as regular people describing the world they saw and distilling the wisdom they gained and wanted to preserve in the pictures of their time. His interpretations just made sense to me and I says that as a totally non-religious person. And that's because they weren't dogmatic and "religious" or prescriptive, like so many a preacher is the Sunday before an election, telling everyone who to vote for. As mentioned before (both here in another comment and other posts on HN), I find the population control aspect of religion very fascinating. In the currently active world religions this will probably not be seen kindly and more like heresy. But just the fact that many of the major religions will see each other that way too is fascinating. Or even slight variations of the same major religion for that matter. Usually it's much easier to talk to people about this for long lost/dead religions and it's fascinating how they see those aspects in those religions, but not their own.

gnarcoregrizz 5y ago
There is certainly wisdom distilled into the texts, they've made it this far. I found the bit about fasting particularly interesting, because its now being studied and proven to be therapeutic, and is mentioned and practiced often in both western and eastern religions. Funny that you mentioned population control, one could consider science a popular religion of today ;) As you said, not all religions get along. That, and marvel is the new greek mythology, they'll unfortunately be watching those movies a thousand years from now in history class and thinking we were idiots.