Believing in Deities is a Form of Psychosis

[Astonished]

Yeah, well I think atheism is intellectually lazy, so there, Cerulean.

Yeah, well, just verify that scientifically and we'll go right along there with ya, cocksucker. Oh wait, you can't, science supports the corollary position, so you're the intellectually lazy one (but we already knew that). Sucks for you to be on the losing side of every argument, don't it? Pretty easy to join the winning one, we won't even make you apologize for being such a fuckass afterward.

Delusion is the common denominator with theistic belief, while perhaps not full-blown psychosis, it's certainly an open door to disaster; how else is forcing a cognitive dissonance (or several) into one's brain and defending it at all costs supposed to be looked at? So thinking it isn't the root cause of at least some severe mental breakdowns is a bit naive. But it also sure as shit isn't helping anyone with a preexisting predisposition toward this disorder or that.

[*Deidre*]

I've come to view my former desire to stay in religion as a ''comfortable delusion.''

[Astonished]

I've come to view my former desire to stay in religion as a ''comfortable delusion.''

And the saving grace of that comfortable delusion is that it doesn't have to be a permanent condition. Being delusional (or even outright suffering from psychosis) is perfectly able to be overcome or treated and cured or at least managed. But being downright stupid, well, different story; luckily you have to really go digging to find genuine stupidity absent of religious delusion.

[purplepurpose]

Criminals have corrupted minds. Stealing, killing and for some raping inmates at the prison is as normal as eating ice cream. Now that's fucked up and mind blowing that people live in such world view.

[Mister Agenda]

Not psychosis. It's very human and normal to believe what you were raised to believe and what everyone around you takes for granted is true; whether you depend on Jesus to help you find your car keys or your ancestors to protect you from witchcraft.

There's an element of luck in being an atheist, we shouldn't feel too proud of ourselves for not falling for theistic belief ourselves, any more than we should crow too much about any other advantage we happen to have.

No one is really to blame here, (almost) everyone is doing what they think is right when it comes to teaching their children. It's cultural heritage and human nature.

I completely disagree.

Delusion is a form of psychosis, believing in that which is not real.

It is not human to believe in something so unnatural that it projects imagination into reality to the point where that imagination is accepted as reality.

Yes, when it comes to religion, there is someone to blame.  It is those who continue to believe in the delusion and continue to perpetuate it.

You're disagreement is misplaced. A delusion is an idiosyncratic belief held in the face of generally accepted reality, argument, or evidence. It only rises to the level of mental disorder if it substantially interferes with one's life or causes you to pose a threat to yourself or others. It only rises to psychosis if the mental disorder is severe. Minus those elements, a delusion is merely an opinion held stubbornly regardless of contradictory evidence. Arguably, holding a delusion that the majority of your community holds is an advantage in daily life, and not particularly idiosyncratic, which is a key component of the definition, that your belief is eccentric as well as stubbornly resistant to evidence and argument. Religious fixation and ideation can be a symptom of schizophrenia, but you certainly don't have to be a schizophrenic to prioritize your religion and think about it a lot. Calling ordinary religious belief a psychosis is a disservice both to them and to people suffering from severe mental illness.

It's perfectly human to project imagination onto reality. It might even be uniquely human. You can't throw a rock without it landing near a human who has been taught a story that likely isn't true that they yet maintain and project onto reality.

Those who are still trapped in theistic and other superstitious belief are victims. If you're naturally too skeptical to swallow myths, good for you, but if it came naturally to you, you didn't earn it by definition. Even if you struggled to throw off those kinds of beliefs, you had the right kind of exposures or the right kind of brain, or whatever it is that made it possible for you to do so while others languish in indoctrinated beliefs or mild to severe delusion.

The good news is, that unlike real delusion or psychosis, both very hard to treat and permanently cure, the cure to superstitious beliefs among those who hold them because of indoctrination and social reinforcement is as close as changing their minds.

[Little Rik]

I completely disagree.

Delusion is a form of psychosis, believing in that which is not real.

It is not human to believe in something so unnatural that it projects imagination into reality to the point where that imagination is accepted as reality.

Yes, when it comes to religion, there is someone to blame.  It is those who continue to believe in the delusion and continue to perpetuate it.

You're disagreement is misplaced. A delusion is an idiosyncratic belief held in the face of generally accepted reality, argument, or evidence. It only rises to the level of mental disorder if it substantially interferes with one's life or causes you to pose a threat to yourself or others. It only rises to psychosis if the mental disorder is severe. Minus those elements, a delusion is merely an opinion held stubbornly regardless of contradictory evidence. Arguably, holding a delusion that the majority of your community holds is an advantage in daily life, and not particularly idiosyncratic, which is a key component of the definition, that your belief is eccentric as well as stubbornly resistant to evidence and argument. Religious fixation and ideation can be a symptom of schizophrenia, but you certainly don't have to be a schizophrenic to prioritize your religion and think about it a lot. Calling ordinary religious belief a psychosis is a disservice both to them and to people suffering from severe mental illness.

It's perfectly human to project imagination onto reality. It might even be uniquely human. You can't throw a rock without it landing near a human who has been taught a story that likely isn't true that they yet maintain and project onto reality.

Those who are still trapped in theistic and other superstitious belief are victims. If you're naturally too skeptical to swallow myths, good for you, but if it came naturally to you, you didn't earn it by definition. Even if you struggled to throw off those kinds of beliefs, you had the right kind of exposures or the right kind of brain, or whatever it is that made it possible for you to do so while others languish in indoctrinated beliefs or mild to severe delusion.

The good news is, that unlike real delusion or psychosis, both very hard to treat and permanently cure, the cure to superstitious beliefs among those who hold them because of indoctrination and social reinforcement is as close as changing their minds.

Does that means that all those who fall in love should change their minds?  











Color mine

[Neo-Scholastic]

Yeah, well I think atheism is intellectually lazy, so there, Cerulean.

There have been no original arguments for the existence of god since, let's say, Aquinas? And they were pretty lousy.
You can't list any because there aren't any. And you have the nerve to call atheists intellectually lazy! Please present something new.

I didn't realize that truth comes with and expiration date? Anyway you are still wrong. Plantinga and Godel come to mind. The fine-tuning argument has been around a long time but progress in physics has made that argument even stronger.

[Little Rik]

It is to my belief, and observation, that having actual faith in any sort of deity from religious texts or folklore is a form of psychosis. 

What is psychosis? For those who don't know, psychosis is defined as a severe mental illness where in someone has lost touch with external reality. In other words, they believe in things that simply aren't real. And applying the facts to the topic of religion, with our current era's knowledge: it is indeed a FORM of psychosis. 

Now before you lose yourself, I'd like to state something. Religion, is barely often truly believed in. I tried to be a Christian once, and no matter how much I tried I could not believe in something that was utterly nonexistent and lose my touch with reality. 

People who do choose to be truly faithful and believe in such deities, are by, factual terms in a state of psychosis. With our current worldly knowledge, the facts stand true: gods and deities are not real. The facts are what we must go by in this debate, beliefs and faith, is by psychosis alone. While being mentally ill with psychosis has different effects, there have been many studies to show that religion in general is psychologically damaging.

Furthermore, many people in our history have believed in deities, so were all of them affected by psychosis? Firstly, I'd like to re-define the meaning behind a mental disorder. A mental disorder is simply a classification for a grouping of conditions to make understanding HUMAN ABNORMALITIES better. In it's primitive state, mental disorders are obsolete. There is no BIOLOGICAL condition, but rather an abnormality of the mind, at least I think. So technically they weren't 'ill', but just mentally abnormal in OUR PERSPECTIVE TIME. However then again psychosis of this form could've been perfectly normal at that time.

Then there are people who are like me, who tried their hardest to believe but couldn't due to the facts. With these people, I think they were merely pretending with religion in order to avoid persecution and whatnot. So with all of that stated, what are you thoughts?

Some questions to think on;

• Is it ethical to consider truly religious people mentally ill with psychosis?
  
• Should religion be eliminated from society to prevent psychological damage?
  
• Do you know anyone who went insane over God?
  
• Any more comments?
  

It sound like you fall in the corral of dogmas.

Dogma number one.
Not all those who believe in God follow a religion.

Dogma number two.
Nobody ever gave any evidence that God does not exist so your statement that God doesn't exist fall in the corral of dogmas.

Dogma number three.
It is true that some people go insane over their religion but the great majority does not so to think that religions send people insane is a dogma.
Religions are full of dogmas but very few people take these dogmas very seriously.
They say that the pope is infallible but almost nobody believe in that story and so in most of what religions say.

Please stop carry on with these statement void of any evidence before you yourself develop psychosis.

[Mister Agenda]

Does that means that all those who fall in love should change their minds?  











Color mine

That doesn't seem to follow. Love is an internal emotional state, not a delusion. You may be deluded that someone else loves you, but you are in an excellent position to know whether you love someone.

[Succubus]

I didn't realize that truth comes with and expiration date? Anyway you are still wrong. Plantinga and Godel come to mind. The fine-tuning argument has been around a long time but progress in physics has made that argument even stronger.

The fine tuning argument is the 'teleological argument', and that's Aquinas'.

Godel's argument depend on an infinite number of universes. There is only one universe, this one.

Plantinga's argument is the 'ontological argument' and it pre dates Aquinas.