I have long been fascinated with things like psychology and sociology, learning about the things humans do and, to some extent, the reasons for their thoughts and actions. “Mental Illness” is, of course a vast subject, so much so, that most of us have had some direct personal experience with it in one way or another. Some ‘mental illness’ is very subtle and even the best experts might disagree on whether a particular person doing a particular thing is or isn’t ‘mental illness’. Other things are abundantly obvious to everyone, such as, when a couple allow their child to die from starvation and sickness when plenty of food and medical care were readily available; when some guy ‘snaps’ and cuts off his wife’s head because she has ‘dishonored’ him.
You might notice the examples above are likely to be associated with some kind of religious belief. It is this specific kind of illness that I want to point out in this blog.
Of course, most mental illnesses, whether they have any religious component or not, are not violent. But it is not necessary for delusions to be violent in order to do great harm. Yes, there are many kinds of delusions which have nothing to do with religion or religious beliefs at all. But many do.
I understand religion about as well as one can, I think. I don’t mean all the technical and academic details of theology, hermeneutics, etc., but religion. I was a devout Christian for over thirty years. I believed in God as much as anyone possibly can. I spoke in tongues (yeah, still can of course), felt the spirit of God move in me and around me. I considered it a great privilege to get on my knees and pray fervently to God, thanking Him for all His blessings, and sometimes asking for direction and guidance. I know what it means to “know God” and to talk with God and to listen to his voice. I was a very content Christian, happy with my life, until one night something happened. I stopped believing...almost. Just like that. I say ‘almost’ because I had to think about it for a little while; why was I suddenly terrified that I was going to Hell for turning my back on God, prayed more fervently than ever in my life to God to “help my unbelief”. It took a little thought to realize how goofy it was to be scared of and praying to a critter I didn’t believe existed in the first place. Then I started to grow.
Eventually, I concluded that religious belief is actually a clinical delusion. Not in some smart-ass insulting kind of way, but in the same way that other delusions are delusions. Most delusions are either somewhat or extremely rare. You can find a list of examples here. The DSM-IV is often called the “Bible” of psychiatry, as it is a listing of many various disorders, and illnesses. I cannot say that I was truly surprised, but was very disappointed when I learned that the APA (American Psychiatric Association), or whatever body is in control of the publishing of the DSM, had succumbed to the same greed and corruption as most other such groups. Why?
Because, according to the DSM, a delusion is: A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. ''The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture''.
This is very sad. They inserted a phrase in there that should have never been there: “despite what almost everybody else believes”. The honest definition of a delusion is the rest of the statement, minus that phrase. A delusion is a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. Why is this sad? Because “what almost everybody else believes” is absolutely and utterly irrelevant to whether or not a given thing is a delusion. Truth is not determined by popularity. It is determined by whether a belief is based upon evidence about external reality.
Freud had it right on this when he said religion was “A system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else...but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion.” Albert Ellis, PhD, said in an interview in 2001, “Spirit and soul is horseshit of the worst sort. Obviously there are no fairies, no Santa Clauses, no spirits. What there is, is human goals and purposes...But a lot of transcendentalists are utter screwballs.”
It should be obvious there are at least two main reasons for the inclusion of that ridiculous phrase about “what everybody believes”. One is that the body responsible for the DSM is not JUST a professional one, but also a political and social one. It would not be politically, socially, or especially financially, prudent to declare that most of the population of the world is deluded, never mind that this is the truth. The other main reason, I suppose, is that a huge percentage, perhaps most, of the “mental health professionals”, are themselves under such delusions. Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t think a person with an ongoing mental delusion is qualified to be a mental health professional. In the same way that I don't think a believing Baptist minister is qualified to lead an atheist organization.
One of the things that most irks me about my fellow atheists is the idea that religious folk are just dumb and/or uneducated. I always point to Francis Collins who ran the Human Genome Project and is currently director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is a genuine world class scientist...surely no one would assert that this man is just dumb or uneducated. He is also a Christian and wrote The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
People make mistakes all the time. I do, you do. We might make statements or hold opinions that are not correct. Most of us will modify our opinions if we are presented with actual evidence. This is what distinguishes a delusion from merely being wrong or mistaken about something. There is NO amount of logical reasoning, NO amount of evidence to the contrary, that will convince a delusional person that he is wrong. It is because his delusions are not arrived at through evidence or logical reasoning in the first place, but are based mostly upon emotion and ‘feeling’. This ALWAYS trumps reason in the human mind. Hence we have the world that we do, instead of one that could be vastly better. The Capgras Syndrome is basically when a person becomes convinced that his mother, for example, has been removed and has been replaced by an imposter that looks, sounds and behaves exactly like his mother. It has been discovered that the REASON for this delusion is due to a loss of any emotional connection to his mother within the brain.
Consider the website god is imaginary.com. There is a good deal of information there that most atheists would probably like, MAYBE some that might interest an “on the fence” person, but do you really think a serious Christian or Muslim would be persuaded by any of it? I don’t. It ain’t about reasoning. As Martin Luther correctly noted, “Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason”.
I spent most of my early life in religion of one flavor or another. I saw nothing odd or wrong or ‘out of place’ about it while I was in it. It was “...accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture”, so what could be wrong about it? Nonetheless, it was and is a “shared delusion”, as Richard Dawkins put it, rather than a ‘bizarre delusion’ (such as believing you are Napolean). I have done a great deal of research, especially reading fellow atheists and other skeptics who disagree with the label of ‘delusion’ for religious beliefs. I have yet to find one which disagrees based on the definition of delusion, or based on the content of religious beliefs. It is not good, most say, because religious beliefs provide so much comfort to so many people.
I find this especially troubling, coming from non-believers and skeptics. While I would not argue about the “comfort” question, it is beside the point. The question is whether the beliefs fit the clinical definition of delusion. They do. Period.
By 'religious beliefs’ I mean mostly beliefs in supernatural realms and beings; gods, devils, demons, angels, spirits, fairies, ghosts, heaven, hell, etc. Things like variations of “The Golden Rule”, or “Love your neighbor as yourself” are not religious beliefs, have nothing to do with religion.
I have seen religion destroy people...one example is a guy who is (apparently) a former friend on Facebook who goes all the way back to Myspace. I recently had to leave the ‘Article and Blog-sharing Group’, which Todd started and which I have enjoyed for a long time. Todd used to be an atheist. We’ve had many good discussions over the years, some disagreements, but when we disagreed it was good naturedly. Here is a recent comment from a thread: Wesman Todd Shaw “I find it offensive as a rule whenever someone says "this is rational," or "this is reasonable." I know such comments are nothing but shit, based on shit, and designed to do nothing but be shit.” Is this self-explanatory or what? Martin Luther would be proud. I am sad that I seem to have lost a friend.
TRB
