Believing in Deities is a Form of Psychosis

[Catholic_Lady]

There are a lot of religious people in the military. It's actually a very Christian community here, at least within the officers' ranks... I don't know if enlisted is any different. Most are some form of protestant, but there are Mormons and Catholics as well. These men and women are not psychotic or mentally ill. You actually have to be very mentally fit to be in the military, especially for the more prestigious positions.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is to answer your question, no, being religious is not a form of mental illness in any way. Medically or otherwise.

[Crossless2.0]

Regarding "the story about Jesus makes sense", from the Wikipedia article on your woo gospel:

"In his 1931 book, Strange New Gospels, the biblical scholar Edgar J. Goodspeed noted:
"Augustus Caesar reigned and Herod Antipas was ruler in Jerusalem." This opening sentence of the new gospel does not encourage any very high hopes as to its historical value. It is generally accepted that Antipas never rules in Jerusalem but in Galilee. Of course Dowling means Herod the Great."[2]

• Also, that Dowling has borrowed a number of details from the aprocryphal Gospel of James, a work that may not be older than the fifth century, such as details about the childhood of Mary and her marriage to Joseph, the birth of Jesus in a cave, and the account of the death of Zacharias which differs from the account given by Origen and other early Fathers.
  
• Goodspeed notes that the many ancient religions and philosophies taught, in many different countries, to young Jesus in the book seem "colored by Christian Science."
  

Eric Pement has pointed out difficulties in Dowling's text:

• The book depicts Jesus as visiting the cities of Lahore, India (pre-Partition in India, now in Pakistan), Shri Jagannath in the temple at Puri in Odisha, India, and Persepolis in Persia. Only the temple at Puri existed at that period; Lahore did not exist during the period in question, and Persepolis had already been destroyed by Alexander the Great.[3] The book asserts Jesus had remained in the Jagannātha Temple of Puri for four years, preaching among the downtrodden and low caste people.
  
• Dowling and Edgar Cayce both claimed to have produced an account of the life of Jesus through the transcription of the akashic records, but there are significant differences between their accounts.[3]
  
• Dowling claimed that Jesus knew Meng-tse of Lhasa, Tibet but Meng-tse lived 300 years before Jesus' time.[3]
  

Supporters of Dowling argue that within theosophical thought, figures such as Meng-Tse, Matheno, Miriam, Moses, Elijah and Vidyapati exist in an ascended state. As such, they communicated with Jesus after they had passed on from earthly existence."

So . . . this is what passes for evidence in your sad, addled mind, Rik?

   I was going to take some time at lunch to research Dowling, Crossless - - but I don't think I could have done THIS well.  Beautiful.  Brilliant.  Thank you.  Don't you just love it when various versions of woo make claims about something happening, in a place that did not exist at that time?  Such as, oh, the town of Nazareth - which was founded between 70 and 135 CE?  

My "research" consisted of nothing but a cut/paste job from the Wikipedia article, so kowtowing is unnecessary. However, it does raise the question why Rik can't be bothered to do even that minimal amount of checking on the nonsense he spouts here.

And yes -- I do love it when woo claims unravel upon the merest inspection of their 'facts'.

[Succubus]

AAAANND that's all you have.  No historical sources, no citations, no intelligent response - just a pathetic baby boy whine "she doesn't like me quoting the Bible as if it was history so I'm going to go crying to my mommy that she called me a troll".  You could at least try to get THIS right, then, whiny little pissant:  the term is "idiot troll".  Perhaps it should be "whiny little illiterate baby needs a time-out troll"?

He's no baby.



This is the horrible cunt.

[Astonished]

There are a lot of religious people in the military. It's actually a very Christian community here, at least within the officers' ranks... I don't know if enlisted is any different. Most are some form of protestant, but there are Mormons and Catholics as well. These men and women are not psychotic or mentally ill. You actually have to be very mentally fit to be in the military, especially for the more prestigious positions.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is to answer your question, no, being religious is not a form of mental illness in any way. Medically or otherwise.

It's a matter of degrees, sure, but at a minimum, every last one is delusional. That may not qualify as a mental illness or full-blown psychosis but adhering to it displays numerous symptoms of various disorders. Maybe it belongs to its own specialized niche of mental defects since no one ever comes to religious conclusions on their own. A condition that has to be inflicted rather than something that develops on its own, but still a condition.

[Little Rik]

1) There is no evidence that the Akashic record is a fantasy.
Of course there is also no evidence that it is true but the story about Jesus make sense.
2) Your so called historical research doesn't say that Jesus was left on the cross to rot nor that he was nor resurrected.
It has absolutely nothing to do with scientific facts.
It is just the opinion of someone which lacks of any evidence and by the way the author quite often takes from the Gospels or the new Testament or the Deuteronomy.

In other words the best thing to follow is what make sense and to me the akashic record make a lot of sense.

Regarding "the story about Jesus makes sense", from the Wikipedia article on your woo gospel:

"In his 1931 book, Strange New Gospels, the biblical scholar Edgar J. Goodspeed noted:
"Augustus Caesar reigned and Herod Antipas was ruler in Jerusalem." This opening sentence of the new gospel does not encourage any very high hopes as to its historical value. It is generally accepted that Antipas never rules in Jerusalem but in Galilee. Of course Dowling means Herod the Great."[2]

• Also, that Dowling has borrowed a number of details from the aprocryphal Gospel of James, a work that may not be older than the fifth century, such as details about the childhood of Mary and her marriage to Joseph, the birth of Jesus in a cave, and the account of the death of Zacharias which differs from the account given by Origen and other early Fathers.
  
• Goodspeed notes that the many ancient religions and philosophies taught, in many different countries, to young Jesus in the book seem "colored by Christian Science."
  

Eric Pement has pointed out difficulties in Dowling's text:

• The book depicts Jesus as visiting the cities of Lahore, India (pre-Partition in India, now in Pakistan), Shri Jagannath in the temple at Puri in Odisha, India, and Persepolis in Persia. Only the temple at Puri existed at that period; Lahore did not exist during the period in question, and Persepolis had already been destroyed by Alexander the Great.[3] The book asserts Jesus had remained in the Jagannātha Temple of Puri for four years, preaching among the downtrodden and low caste people.
  
• Dowling and Edgar Cayce both claimed to have produced an account of the life of Jesus through the transcription of the akashic records, but there are significant differences between their accounts.[3]
  
• Dowling claimed that Jesus knew Meng-tse of Lhasa, Tibet but Meng-tse lived 300 years before Jesus' time.[3]
  

Supporters of Dowling argue that within theosophical thought, figures such as Meng-Tse, Matheno, Miriam, Moses, Elijah and Vidyapati exist in an ascended state. As such, they communicated with Jesus after they had passed on from earthly existence."

So . . . this is what passes for evidence in your sad, addled mind, Rik?

Let us go through some of this garbage.
You say...............Lahore did not exist during the period in question..........

Utter garbage son.  
Read here.............Lahore had been called by different names throughout history. To date there is no conclusive evidence as to when it was founded. Some historians trace the history of the city as far back as 4000 years ago.[30] Ptolemy, the celebrated 2nd-century Egyptian astronomer and geographer, mentions in his Geographia a city called Labokla situated on the route east of the Indus River, in a region described as extending along the Jhelum, Chenab, and Ravi rivers which may have been in reference to the ancient settlement of Lahore.[31]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahore

And then you say.........Persepolis had already been destroyed by Alexander the Great.....

Not really son.
If you read here not all was destroyed.

......many buildings were simply left intact...........

https://rambambashi.wordpress.com/2009/0...ersepolis/


Take Hiroshima.
It was almost destroyed but not all and now is up again on his feet better than before.
Did you know that Mazda cars are build in Hiroshima?

Triple fool again.      
Here you say.........Dowling claimed that Jesus knew Meng-tse of Lhasa, Tibet but Meng-tse lived 300 years before Jesus' time.

You should go in korea and see how many people are called Kim or in England and see how many people are called Smith.
And what about in India where million people are called Krishna?
They are not Krishna which lived ages ago yet they are called Krishna.
With Meng-tse something similar could well have happen.
This guy probably was following Meng-tse's philosophy that lived before him, who knows.
I don't, you don't and the historic stories still don't know for sure beside the Meng-tse that was born before Jesus lived in China while the Meng-tse that related to Jesus story lived in Tibet.

You see how you failed once again?  

[Dropship]

Some atheists in AF are fretting themselves sick about a possible US vs N.Korea war, anybody'd think they were scared of dying!
But most Christians are too kool to give a damn either way..

[Little Rik]

Some atheists in AF are fretting themselves sick about a possible US vs N.Korea war, anybody'd think they were scared of dying!
But most Christians are too kool to give a damn either way..

Only Christians you reckon?  

[The Industrial Atheist]

Some atheists in AF are fretting themselves sick about a possible US vs N.Korea war, anybody'd think they were scared of dying!
But most Christians are too kool to give a damn either way..

Um life has value. Just because I don't believe in an afterlife doesn't mean I'm in any hurry to become nothing. Besides that war  probably wouldn't cause  immediate death for some people. There could be prolonged suffering that would last generations.

[Astonished]

Some atheists in AF are fretting themselves sick about a possible US vs N.Korea war, anybody'd think they were scared of dying!
But most Christians are too kool to give a damn either way..

Um life has value. Just because I don't believe in an afterlife doesn't mean I'm in any hurry to become nothing. Besides that war  probably wouldn't cause  immediate death for some people. There could be prolonged suffering that would last generations.

If we didn't wait for Iraq to actually pull some shit before we deposed Hussein, there's no fucking way we're going to wait on N. Korea with the WLB in the White House. So that's a two-fold asinine assumption on the part of theists, that they have an afterlife to look forward to (or three-fold if they assume it's going to be pleasant) and that anyone but North Koreans should be worried about some shit going down.

[The Industrial Atheist]

Um life has value. Just because I don't believe in an afterlife doesn't mean I'm in any hurry to become nothing. Besides that war  probably wouldn't cause  immediate death for some people. There could be prolonged suffering that would last generations.

If we didn't wait for Iraq to actually pull some shit before we deposed Hussein, there's no fucking way we're going to wait on N. Korea with the WLB in the White House. So that's a two-fold asinine assumption on the part of theists, that they have an afterlife to look forward to (or three-fold if they assume it's going to be pleasant) and that anyone but North Koreans should be worried about some shit going down.

They can't bomb us into oblivion but maybe they can bomb us. I have some concern for N. Korean civilians. They don't deserve to die because their leader is a fuckface.

But yeah N.Korea is a gnat compared to us. We could take them out without using Nukes if we wanted to. But using Nukes on them could screw up the environment and mess up sources of food and water for our allies.

I think theists are a little more likely to fall for the propogand "It's ok, they're the enemy, they aren't like us."