hiv/aids, religion

[Guest guest]

, perhaps you might impress on your friend that it's been 20+ years since

the epidemic started, and people are living 10, 15+ good years after infection,

so he might want to hold off (and suicide thoughts are a pretty common response,

so find him a support group pronto - and having really manic rounds of

hoping/researching/trying new things and then crashing is also really common).

However, there are not as many stories as one would hope of drug-free longevity,

and given the many millions infected, that's sobering. Since everything works

better in a healthy body, point him towards the coconut oil studies from the

Philippines and every other antiviral food resource you can find - and I'm sure

there are tons of online resources, although doubtfully NT. Buy him some

coconut oil and show him how to use it. It's simple and it tastes good.

OTOH, longevity with the drugs has been better when they are started early,

before loads get very high. If it were my dear friend, I'd push nutrition and

monitoring for as long as possible... but if loads started rising, I'd think it

was time to talk about medication.

About religion: I should prolly let handle it, but you take craploads

on faith. How much of NT is replicated and peer-reviewed? Doesn't your gut

come into it? How about history? How much of what you 'know' is really

hearsay, ie, oral history, as is religion? When people live through

religious/spiritual experiences or have some sort of internal sense of the

divine, then that IS the simplest explanation. It's like a small child who has

been separated from her mother finding her again: Oh, THERE you are. Of course.

And all is right at the very deepest level. Haven't experienced it yourself?

So? Do you have to climb Everest to believe in the view from the top?

[Guest guest]

Mati-

> About religion: I should prolly let handle it, but you

> take craploads on faith. How much of NT is replicated and

> peer-reviewed? Doesn't your gut come into it? How about

> history? How much of what you 'know' is really hearsay, ie, oral

> history, as is religion? When people live through

> religious/spiritual experiences or have some sort of internal sense

> of the divine, then that IS the simplest explanation. It's like a

> small child who has been separated from her mother finding her

> again: Oh, THERE you are. Of course. And all is right at the very

> deepest level. Haven't experienced it yourself? So? Do you have

> to climb Everest to believe in the view from the top?

I appreciate your other comments, but I'm not really sure what you're

getting at here.

As to the person in question, he's a born again Christian whose faith

may have been broken by this latest turn of events.

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