7 reasons why religion is a form of mental illnessArticle by Sweet TeaThe Southern Skeptic FairyI would like to propose that religious beliefs be placed in the DSM as a category of mental illness for the following reasons:
(1) Hallucinations - the person has invisible friends who (s)he insists are real, and to whom (s)he speaks daily, even though nobody can actually see or hear
these friends.
(2) Delusions - the patient believes that the invisible friends have magical powers to make them rich, cure cancer, bring about world peace, and will do so eventually if asked.
(3) Denial/Inability to learn - though the requests for world peace remain unanswered, even after hundreds of years, the patients persist with the praying behaviour, each time expecting different results.
(4) Inability to distinguish fantasy from reality - the beliefs are contingent upon ancient mythology being accepted as historical fact.
(5) Paranoia - the belief that anyone who does not share their supernatural concept of reality is "evil," "the devil," "an agent of Satan".
(6) Emotional abuse - religious concepts such as sin, hell, cause feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and other types of emotional "baggage" which can scar the
psyche for life.
(7) Violence - many patients insist that others should share in their delusions, even to the extent of using violence.
Tags: religion mental illness mental illness faith as mental illness
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Wisdom says on 2009-10-10 08:02:50 about religion is a mental illness
1. The limited capacity of believing in things that are only visible and audible is a non-believer feature. For example they do not believe in radio ways, air, love, affection because they cannot see them.
2. A true believer does not rely on the Creator if he has cancer and a microwave in the kitchen, war comes through human not God, so a true believer cannot expect God to finish war.
3. Praying is presenting gratitudes and wishes. It is not a contract. It is therapy like many of non-believer satisfy themselves at yoga, plates classes. Non-believers cannot suggest an idea about prayers and their becoming true because they do not pray. People worship in different ways since thousands of years and they will do. Believers know to what extent their prayers come true. God is not responsible from Bristish and american soldiers in middle east.
4. Mythology might seem to be great fun to non-believers but it was a religion like many others. The belief in it is a historical fact! There are hundreds of people studying it!.
5. Religion is not a 21 century individualist leisure time activity. It sets up rules for trade, family, sex, war and so on. The ones who are able to understand and adjust its rules properly (which does not happen nowadays) gain relative peace and sustainability for again human beings. The Creator does not need your prayers, sacrifice. Everything commaned by religions (most of them ) are for a better life for humans not God. !
5. The abundance of fear, shame and guilt results in crime. Human beings are not capable of control themselves unless there is an authority. "Lord of Flies" read it!
6. Forcing people to do things is a human attitude. For example, non-believers keep posting videos and notes on internet to convert others to their "religion" which is "not-believer". However, since they cannot see it, they do not believe it ! |
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gravity says on 2009-10-10 06:53:49 about this crap
This is stupid.
1. Hallucinations: Religious people hardly ever have hallucinations - that is actually seeing or hearing things - instead they often refer to communication with a deity as a sort of inner dialogue or through their 'hearts' (which can just as easily be understood as 'inner dialogue').
2. Delusions: If you classified everybody who has delusions as insane, you'd find a lot of people who believe in ghosts (and the plethora of other superstitious beliefs people have) are suddenly insane too. Silly beliefs ≠Insanity.
3. Denial/Inability to learn: This is compartmentalization caused by stubbornness, and does not apply generally to religious people (yes, there are lots of open-minded religious people). Again, something very common in religious and non-religious alike.
4. Inability to distinguish fantasy from reality: Sure, if a religious person was actually building an ark and jamming every animal they could into it, I'd call that insane. But most aren't, and claiming they're insane because they believe the weird things in ancient texts isn't a very good argument. For one, they are more willing to stretch their plausibility beyond us - that's not insanity. It might be gullibility, ignorance, or stupidity - not insanity. If you are to call that insane, you are to call every person who believed in a mythological history is insane. Good luck convincing the DSM there, buddy.
5. Paranoia: I don't think very many religious people will call me an agent of Satan for expressing my disagreements with religion. This is a very limited view of 'religious people' and it's no good to make a hasty generalization based on the entire population of religious people based on a small subset. Even then, I can think of a better explanation for it other than 'paranoia.'
6. Emotional abuse: Hey, I agree that some religions can inflict emotional abuse on somebody, especially the ascetic religions. But emotional abuse is not a qualifier for mental illness. Lots of people were emotionally abused and are not mentally ill.
7. Violence: Oh, please. Yes, everybody who is religious is willing to shoot you right in the head for being a heathen. Keep telling yourself that, if it helps you feel better about you not being a Christian.
This is one of the stupidest arguments I've seen. I can only imagine insecure atheists with a chip on their shoulder, who consistently confuse the words 'religion' and 'Evangelical Christianity,' can ever actually agree with this trite nonsense. "LOL RELIGIOUS PEOPLE ARE MENTALLY ILL" (none of these people have probably ever cracked open a DSM or read anything about psychology). We really are not this dumb, as atheists, are we? Can we please be rational about this and look at religion for what it really is instead of pleasing our egos while completely missing anything of substance?
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| Sweet Tea
 GOD IS DEAD. HE IS NO MORE. HE IS KAPUT.There is no such thing as church law, sharia law or any other religious law. The law of the land, Government law, or International law applies. Religious entities simply do not have the legal power or authority to create or apply laws.
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