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The ability to experience fear, worry and anxiety is a vital survival trait. Worry alerts us to potential problems; anxiety is a message from our subconscious that the problem is almost certainly real; fear is confirmation and the preparation of the body to deal with the problem, by fight or flight. Alcohol allows a temporary change of perspective on reality, in the same way a ten mile run, a walk through the Louvre, or the contemplation of mitochondrial biochemistry does. Temproary changes of perspective enhance, rather than cloud reality. Faith, in contrast, is the ultimate means of hiding from reality. Faith is the most effective way of rejecting evidence. Faith allows one, like Carrol's queen, to " believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast" yet to do so without his charm. Faith allows one walk off a cliff, confident one will be unharmed. Faith allows one to immolate oneself and forty innocent fellow humans, confident one will awake in Paradise with a harem of virgins.

If you're trying to suggest that all projects (businesses included) should be assessed a tax that helps offsets the damage humans have inflicted on our environments, I can agree with that. If everyone and every endeavor gave a small portion to fix our problems, it would not only be effective at combating problems we've created in the natural world, it would also give humans a great reason to band together as a species. Imagine if we didn't waste so many resources squabbling amongst ourselves, and actually had more common goals....

I would argue that belief in UFOs is based at least partially on visual evidence (even if the photos are always grainy and blurry). You rarely hear folks talking about UFOs without some kind of visual support, or physical manifestation (crop circles, scorched landing sites). UFOlogists almost always trust in their evidence. OTOH, religions often talk about faith as a strong "sense" of rightness, you "just know" your worship isn't misplaced, and your faith doesn't require anything real to back it up. It just abides.

Really? CP-symmetry violation produces matter/antimatter asymmetry. The currently known violations are insufficient to produce the observed asymmetry but lack of evidence is not proof of nonexistence.

Booze can cloud the mind and you can escape reality for a while, but the problems of life that we hide from; will still be there in the morning. The profound sense of peace that comes from God is without the use of stimulants. It comes in times when I should be feeling fear, worry and anxiety. Thousand of people have died over the last couple of centuries pioneering aviation. They had little objective evidence to suggest their ideas would work, but they had to put their trust in new ideas that sometimes led to their deaths. Thanks to these pioneers in aviation and all their failures; we now have more objective evidence to understand how flight works; and it is now much safer for all of us. Mankind would probably still be living in the stone age if we waited for clear objective evidence to move forwards.

I would relate it to some medical condition, mainly endocrine disorders like an elevated production of TSH(thyroid stimulating hormone) in the pituitary gland and so increased level och thyroxin (T4) and free triiodothyronine (fT3) in the bloodstream which will elevate every cell's rate of function. It does not have to be pathological, a slight increase could be enough to produce the "symptoms" you described. Other conditions as malabsorption in the digestive system or enzyme production disturbances of the pancreas could be the reason, as well as parasite related problem (unlikely)

If you are doing a PhD, publishing while attaining your Masters doesn't matter as much, since there is the expectation that you will publish during (or immediately after) the PhD phase. Submitting the work for publication was a requirement for my PhD, and I know of places where multiple papers were expected/required. If you deem publications to be crucial to your employment chances, then you have to publish as part of a terminal MSc