Calling religion a mental illness

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I don't think religion is a "mental illness." The vast majority of humans believe in some deity and a mythology surrounding the deity. I understand why people have those beliefs and actually wish I could participate. I can't imagine how much happier life would be if I "knew" that I would be going to "heaven" with "God" after I died no matter what I do as long as I believe some mythology about God, Jesus, Christ and some other stuff.

Humans seem to need religion. Glenn Beck and many others claim that God saved their lives. So, who cares whether there is or is not such a thing as God if people like Glenn Beck were able to rebound from a really bad place and be successful happy humans. We are vulnerable creatures living in a hostile universe with emotions and the ability to be depressed because we're intelligent. So religion is not a mental illness, it's a perfectly understandable way of coping.

There is something missing in my life that makes me depressed and sometimes I just feel like I'm going through the motions, trying to get through it. Maybe religion is what I need. So religion is understandable for sure and not a mental illness.

Last edited by American on 09 Dec 2013, 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Believing that the Cosmos with all its order has a Cause is not mental illness. It is a very plausible supposition for which there is not an iota of empirical evidence. But the hypothesis makes good sense.

ruveyn

A Cause is not necessarily an intelligent creator. While God does explain how the universe came about, what explains how God came about? See, we're back to square one.

Invoking infinite regress is a pretty horrid argument. It is premise three of Dawkin's central argument and even atheists who are trained in philosophy laugh at it.

http://www.skepticalchristian.com/r_dawkins.htm
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/richard- ... d-delusion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6m-KNUmG4

Or listen to Thomas Nagel

"All explanations come to an end somewhere. The real opposition between Dawkins’ physicalist naturalism and the God hypothesis is a disagreement over whether this end point is physical, extensional, and purposeless, or mental, intentional, and purposive. On either view, the ultimate explanation is not itself explained. The God hypothesis does not explain the existence of God, and naturalistic physicalism does not explain the laws of physics."

I was really disappointed to hear Gene Roddenberry's quote about religion being "a substitute for a malfunctioning brain". There's plenty of smart and rational people who believe in God; they just don't hold to naturalism or uniformitarianism.

I don't necessarily think religion is a mental illness.

I think if it gets to the point that it's so extreme that it completely dominates the lives of entire countries of people, then it's a mental illness.

I agree.

I do think that religion has similarities to disease though, particularly viruses. I think of religion as a "mind virus". Children born into a society with a particular religion tend to become infected with the same religion. Another characteristic of the religion-disease is that it protects itself by blinding people to information that may cure them of the disease. Take evolution for example; many fundamentalist religions forbid their followers from even learning about evolution! I've mentioned this multiple times before that a group of Muslims who were at university with me many years ago excused themselves from all the classes on evolutionary biology because it was knowledge forbidden by their religion. Fundamentalist Christians (including Jehovah's Witnesses) also appear to be forbidden from learning the facts about evolution and instead are fed propaganda that says evolution is false/inaccurate or the work of the devil etc or simply dismissed as the ravings of a mad scientist.

by framing religion as a disease to be exterminated you are acting just like the fundies you claim to hate.

Doctors help to cure people from viral diseases like smallpox. Knowledge helps to cure people from the disease of religion.

But only if they are open to that knowledge.

who died an made you thought police?

^^^this

And who died an made you thought police?

Non sequitur.