(January 11, 2017 at 12:51 pm)Autolite Wrote:(January 11, 2017 at 12:49 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Right, "Delusions are distinct from culturally or religiously based beliefs that may be seen as untrue by outsiders."
...Just as you wrote above. So, why are posting this?
The point I want to underscore is that the only thing that separates religious belief from the mental illness of delusion is that religion is a 'shared belief'.
If I believed in the Tooth Fairy and I lived on a secluded island where everyone else believed in the Tooth Fairy, then my belief in the Tooth Fairy would not be considered a delusion or a mental illness...
And there's a reason why the medical experts define it that way. When you believe in something that is widely shared and accepted, it takes away the whole point of someone having a mental illness.
On the very source you provided, it also says this under "Description":
"Delusions are a common symptom of several mood and personality-related mental illnesses, including schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, shared psychotic disorder, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder. They are also the major feature of delusional disorder. Individuals with delusional disorder suffer from long-term, complex delusions that fall into one of six categories: persecutory, grandiose, jealousy, erotomanic, somatic, or mixed. There are also delusional disorders such as dementia that clearly have organic or physical causes."
Believing in God, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Mohammed, etc etc when they are beliefs shared by many cultures around the world, does not put someone in any of the mental illness categories listed above, which is precisely why the medical definition of the word explicitly excludes them.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh