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RE: Yes, religion is a drug, but what type of drug?
February 13, 2016 at 10:15 am
(February 13, 2016 at 10:08 am)robvalue Wrote: Very true.
And the longer someone has held such an extreme position, the harder it must be to ever admit that they have been wrong all that time. So the harder the brain fights to twist the world in order to fit it inside the biblical narrative.
One more bit of mental gymnastics is easier than stopping to consider that your whole position might be wrong. The cognitive dissidence must be maddening.
Being brainwashed is, upon thinking upon this further, a better analogy than having a drug addiction. Most brainwashed individuals do not even know that they have been brainwashed, whereas, most drug abusers know that they are addicted, even if they cannot escape the addiction. I suppose, for some, that is also true for religion; they know that it is false, but they are "addicted" to it (wife will leave them if they abandon it, lose their faith loser their job, etc.)
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RE: Yes, religion is a drug, but what type of drug?
February 13, 2016 at 10:41 am
(This post was last modified: February 13, 2016 at 10:43 am by God of Mr. Hanky.)
(February 13, 2016 at 10:15 am)Jehanne Wrote: (February 13, 2016 at 10:08 am)robvalue Wrote: Very true.
And the longer someone has held such an extreme position, the harder it must be to ever admit that they have been wrong all that time. So the harder the brain fights to twist the world in order to fit it inside the biblical narrative.
One more bit of mental gymnastics is easier than stopping to consider that your whole position might be wrong. The cognitive dissidence must be maddening.
Being brainwashed is, upon thinking upon this further, a better analogy than having a drug addiction. Most brainwashed individuals do not even know that they have been brainwashed, whereas, most drug abusers know that they are addicted, even if they cannot escape the addiction. I suppose, for some, that is also true for religion; they know that it is false, but they are "addicted" to it (wife will leave them if they abandon it, lose their faith loser their job, etc.)
When you are raised Xtian, you are brainwashed from the day that you are first able to understand spoken language. You learn all about Mom's god, sin, where people go when they die, and Jesus before you you have developed any reasoning skills, which does not even begin to happen until the age of 6. Therefore, everything which you are taught before then, right or wrong, has been filed as correct for lack of any means of deciding otherwise. This, of course, is how religious ideas, so described by Dawkins as virulent memes, survive the evolving generations through thousands of years. It is fundamentally dishonest brainwashing!
Mr. Hanky loves you!
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RE: Yes, religion is a drug, but what type of drug?
February 13, 2016 at 11:16 am
Your post reminded me of a saying that I heard years ago and a quick Google search revealed it:
"Give me the child till the age of seven and I will show you the man." -- St. Ignatius of Loyola, the found of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
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RE: Yes, religion is a drug, but what type of drug?
February 13, 2016 at 12:47 pm
(This post was last modified: February 13, 2016 at 12:49 pm by robvalue.)
How much theists actually believe out of the stuff they say is a very interesting question to me.
I accept they mainly believe it, but I'm not at all convicted they really believe all of it. Maybe some do, the ones that got ruthlessly indoctrinated to the point where they are literally living half (or more) in a fantasy world.
Unfortunately it's really hard to find out. I can only go by what ex-theists say, I suppose. No theist is going to admit to me they don't really believe such and such, even if it is the case.
But, for example, the moment someone partakes in cherry picking the bible, it's clear they don't really believe it's the perfect word of God.
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RE: Yes, religion is a drug, but what type of drug?
February 13, 2016 at 1:41 pm
What type of a drug would religion be?
A suppository.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
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RE: Yes, religion is a drug, but what type of drug?
February 13, 2016 at 4:16 pm
Religion is marijuana.
It makes you swallow a lot of things you wouldn't ordinarily. It gets you involved in never ending discussions. It stinks.
And it makes me laugh a lot.
I must not be nasty. I must not be nasty. I must not be nasty. I must not be nasty. I must not be nasty. I must not be nasty. I must not be nasty. I must not be nasty.
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