Hi, just found this forum today and a first time poster too. As such I apologise now if this is in the wrong area but I didn't know where else to start this thread.
Im in need of some advice that I feel only Athiests (or like minded people, agnostics, humanists etc) can help me with. It's a long story so bare with me!
In Jan 2009 my dad suffered a brain hemorrhage and my family went through the whole ordeal of dealing with it, stress, panic, grief etc. Thankfully he recovered within a few months and is physically well now (walk, talk etc) but as one would expect, the brain damage had a major impact on him and he suffers with short term memory loss to this day (he does remember things but only vaguely and sometimes not at all).
Anyway this isn't the main issue. The issue is that after a few months from his accident, he was admitted into a rehab centre where he developed some severe psychological problems, the cause of which is unknown (reading into it, it appears to be a trend suffered by many survivors of brain hemorrhage, and their frustration at their memory loss) but I also suspect family, relatives, other people and neglect on the rehab workers side is partially responsible too.
The thing with my family, and particularly my mother, is that they are all very religious, not to the point of praying daily, preaching etc, but they do believe with absolute conviction in their faith and (contradictory to what their religion teaches funnily enough!) can even look down on people without faith (such as myself).
Naturally during such stressful times they have been praying, doing ceremonies etc, and my mother in particular has just about exhausted every possible religious ceremony she can! Our family are primarily Hindu's, however my mother has also tried Christian prayers, preaching, going to churches, miracle seminars etc.
Naturally as I suspected, nothing has worked, however it has, as far as I am concerned, made matters worse. My dad, who before his accident, never denied belief in god but wasn't a devoted follower in any faith either, has become very spiritual. But more so than this, since trying christian prayers, I cant help feel he's been brainwashed.
This is partially my fault too. After his accident he became very spiritual but only out of fear (fearing god had punished him / is punishing him for some reason) and became very depressed that he was not being "forgiven for his sins". Funnily enough my family, who once berated him for not following faith properly and warned him he would be punished, are NOW saying that such talk is silly and that god has forgiven him, or is "testing him" or "works in mysterious ways"... you know, the typical BS you expect from religious followers. The Hindu values taught by my family have always followed a "you must pray to god or you will be punished!" principle, one that says "love god" but warns you to respect god "or else"! As such, combined with a reunion with some family friends (who have become devoted christians), my sister and I tried pushing my dad away from Hinduism as portrayed by my family, and into a more "caring" christian principle as portrayed by these family friends and their church (we did not believe it, but we felt it would be more forgiving, calming for him so we encouraged it).
The result as stated has been very bad. I think he has been brainwashed as he constantly talks about Jesus and christianity etc (he draws the cross in the air literally once a minute when awake and always mutters "Jesus" in just about every sentence at the end!).
So right now we are at a loss as to what to do. He went back into a new rehab (better than the first I might add) and is due to be discharged in May, but honestly there has been no improvement in his behaviour. The key I feel, is that he doesn't make the effort to participate in classes and sessions in his rehab or bother to follow advice because he feels god can heal him in an instant if he chooses to, and so is also stuck in depression, because since god can heal him instantly, and he hasn't been healed yet, god is punishing him by either purposely torturing him or else refusing to heal him. (Ironically, he's got it more put together than the rest of my family because he's right! If god did exist, where is god to help him? Sadly, he refuses to realise that this is proof of god's non-existence!)
Anyway to summarise, my dad has been brainwashed, particularly by the christians (yes I do blame them for making my dad into a religious nut case, but at same time I know they were only trying to help and aside from this, are very supportive and caring people) and my sister and I, who aren't religious, don't know what to do. We can't talk about this stuff and get clear answers/ideas/suggestions from our mum or family because they still believe in god despite all this crap. I have considered speaking to the rehab people about this, but I feel that they probably won't listen since some of the psychologists/doctors are probably religious too and will think of it as "silly" or an "attack on their faith" etc and just ignore it.
So does anyone have any similar experiences (like knowing someone who was brainwashed and getting them out of it)? Any ideas, suggestions? No offense to any religious believers but I really am not looking for "don't worry, god will help eventually" answers.
Thanks, and sorry if this post offends anybody!
Im in need of some advice that I feel only Athiests (or like minded people, agnostics, humanists etc) can help me with. It's a long story so bare with me!
In Jan 2009 my dad suffered a brain hemorrhage and my family went through the whole ordeal of dealing with it, stress, panic, grief etc. Thankfully he recovered within a few months and is physically well now (walk, talk etc) but as one would expect, the brain damage had a major impact on him and he suffers with short term memory loss to this day (he does remember things but only vaguely and sometimes not at all).
Anyway this isn't the main issue. The issue is that after a few months from his accident, he was admitted into a rehab centre where he developed some severe psychological problems, the cause of which is unknown (reading into it, it appears to be a trend suffered by many survivors of brain hemorrhage, and their frustration at their memory loss) but I also suspect family, relatives, other people and neglect on the rehab workers side is partially responsible too.
The thing with my family, and particularly my mother, is that they are all very religious, not to the point of praying daily, preaching etc, but they do believe with absolute conviction in their faith and (contradictory to what their religion teaches funnily enough!) can even look down on people without faith (such as myself).
Naturally during such stressful times they have been praying, doing ceremonies etc, and my mother in particular has just about exhausted every possible religious ceremony she can! Our family are primarily Hindu's, however my mother has also tried Christian prayers, preaching, going to churches, miracle seminars etc.
Naturally as I suspected, nothing has worked, however it has, as far as I am concerned, made matters worse. My dad, who before his accident, never denied belief in god but wasn't a devoted follower in any faith either, has become very spiritual. But more so than this, since trying christian prayers, I cant help feel he's been brainwashed.
This is partially my fault too. After his accident he became very spiritual but only out of fear (fearing god had punished him / is punishing him for some reason) and became very depressed that he was not being "forgiven for his sins". Funnily enough my family, who once berated him for not following faith properly and warned him he would be punished, are NOW saying that such talk is silly and that god has forgiven him, or is "testing him" or "works in mysterious ways"... you know, the typical BS you expect from religious followers. The Hindu values taught by my family have always followed a "you must pray to god or you will be punished!" principle, one that says "love god" but warns you to respect god "or else"! As such, combined with a reunion with some family friends (who have become devoted christians), my sister and I tried pushing my dad away from Hinduism as portrayed by my family, and into a more "caring" christian principle as portrayed by these family friends and their church (we did not believe it, but we felt it would be more forgiving, calming for him so we encouraged it).
The result as stated has been very bad. I think he has been brainwashed as he constantly talks about Jesus and christianity etc (he draws the cross in the air literally once a minute when awake and always mutters "Jesus" in just about every sentence at the end!).
So right now we are at a loss as to what to do. He went back into a new rehab (better than the first I might add) and is due to be discharged in May, but honestly there has been no improvement in his behaviour. The key I feel, is that he doesn't make the effort to participate in classes and sessions in his rehab or bother to follow advice because he feels god can heal him in an instant if he chooses to, and so is also stuck in depression, because since god can heal him instantly, and he hasn't been healed yet, god is punishing him by either purposely torturing him or else refusing to heal him. (Ironically, he's got it more put together than the rest of my family because he's right! If god did exist, where is god to help him? Sadly, he refuses to realise that this is proof of god's non-existence!)
Anyway to summarise, my dad has been brainwashed, particularly by the christians (yes I do blame them for making my dad into a religious nut case, but at same time I know they were only trying to help and aside from this, are very supportive and caring people) and my sister and I, who aren't religious, don't know what to do. We can't talk about this stuff and get clear answers/ideas/suggestions from our mum or family because they still believe in god despite all this crap. I have considered speaking to the rehab people about this, but I feel that they probably won't listen since some of the psychologists/doctors are probably religious too and will think of it as "silly" or an "attack on their faith" etc and just ignore it.
So does anyone have any similar experiences (like knowing someone who was brainwashed and getting them out of it)? Any ideas, suggestions? No offense to any religious believers but I really am not looking for "don't worry, god will help eventually" answers.
Thanks, and sorry if this post offends anybody!
