You take a phenomenon that some explorers have given religious meaning to it, and you reduce their experience to a different framework and call it hallucination. How is that different from giving a "rational" explanation to belief in God; e.g., religious beliefs derived from primitive man's fear of natural forces he could not understand? If there is a difference, it is only in scale, not in essence. No one is dumb enough not to see that. The language of your posts contains such indirect denigrations of other people's religious beliefs, and that really isn't OK. It's one thing to discuss honestly how one's beliefs may or may not aid in survival, it's another to cast slings and arrows under a pretense. I am unable to have respect for that.

I don't have a problem with positing that the "Third Man" phenomenon might be hallucination. I just think you need to abide by your own rules, and not bend them when convenient. If you just abide by them, we wouldn't have this problem. I do agree with some other posters that you are trolling, and many posters here have been quite patient. Some people have been so kind as to share a very intimate part of their lives with the forum just to answer your question, so you must exercise greater sensitivity out of respect for them. Making even an implied attack is no appreciated.

As for my religious beliefs, you don't even know what they are -- nor are they relevant to this thread. As far as I can tell, I'm probably the only one in this thread without religious beliefs. How can you attack nothing?

Let's return to a more productive discussion. But I don't know whether anyone has anything more to add, because Denis seems to have written the definitive post on faith might work in a survival situation.