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Religion is a Delusion, revisited

1/29/2018

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I have claimed that when one applies the American Psychiatric Association’s symptoms for Delusion Disorder it applies to religious beliefs. Here is a reaction I received and my answer to that rebuttal. It is long, but I hope you read it to the end. I love to hear your reaction

Rebuttal:
Religious faith is not a delusional disorder in the same way that strawberries are not a delusional disorder. It does not meet the criteria. Delusions are a very specific set of symptoms, indicative of a psychosis. Postulating a divine creator, or any form of philosophical thinking, does not indicate delusional symptoms. And particularly delusional disorder, which is an atypical and uncommon condition. In order to make the correlation you have, you would have to assume that the religious person is experiencing hallucinations. Now obviously, this is not the case for most people, regardless of their religious affiliations. Hallucinations, visual or auditory, would rule out delusional disorder since the condition itself does not require a person to be psychotic. Such a diagnosis would be made via process of elimination. I don't see how you got from what you falsely believe to be a psychotic symptom to delusional disorder, without first taking into consideration any other psychotic symptoms the patient may be exhibiting. Most people on this planet are either religious or spiritual. Delusional disorder accounts for a tiny percentage of first admissions.
 
My answer to that rebuttal: I agree with your assessment if one looks at it from a clinical point of view. “Postulating a divine creator or any form of philosophical thinking” is not a symptom but believing it, as a certainty, is. There are many levels of delusion and only when that delusion become extreme, it will be clinically accepted it and treated. A slight cold is not the flu.
 
Delusion starts with indoctrination, mostly in childhood, and the type of indoctrination highly depend on the culture and environment you were brought up in. Take the simple case of belief in Santa Claus, “He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when you awake, he knows when you are bad or good, so be good for goodness sake”. This parody on the Christian god, historically invented to control behavior, based on the actual mixture of several cultures is an example of a delusion believed by many children.  (love to further in detail on this but not here at this time). This doesn’t qualify in your terms as a clinical delusion, but it is in fact a delusion, it is real for the child. This delusion, if not interfered with, will eventually be resolved at about 6 to 7 years of age, according to some studies, because the child starts questioning such thing as flying reindeer and bringing gifts to every child in one day, so they shed their delusional beliefs. A person who cannot do that and keeps believing in Santa would indeed suffer from a clinical case of DD. The parallel with religious beliefs is astonishing.
 
 Many religious indoctrinated children, including myself, start questioning the delusional dogma of religion and grow out of it. Many “fence sitters” are also questioning the validity of the delusion but the stigma of being an unbeliever is still very evident and can be a negative influence in your position in society and even family and friends. Then there are multi levels of delusion, from feeling assured that a god must exist and don’t understand that there are people who cannot accept that, to extreme case such as people who will murder others (an abortion doctor, for example) and are a danger to society. Christianity does not burn witches any more and is relatively benign, compared to Islamic extremists, but still is delusional. This all points to an instinct we inherited because it was useful in the maintenance of the tribe but is now creating havoc in the world were we essentially have become one tribe.
 
You stated “most people on this planet are either religiously or spiritual” true, however the existence of a spirit or soul is also a man-made delusion, which can be traced back in antiquity. If you are interested, go to my Blog on “The origin of the spirit”, I can’t write a book here. The spirit which enters the baby on it’s first breath and leaves the body on it’s last breath to rejoin the Great Spirit (the atmosphere) has mistakenly become a delusional entity (“Spiritus” is Latin for Breath). The word “Spiritual” has no real meaning.
 
Hallucinations, visual and auditory experience are indeed not symptoms of DD but when one believes that they are real manifestations of a Deity, it is. The recent case of a judge who interfered in a jury’s deliberation because god told him the accused was not guilty, is a prime example of DD. The only reasonableconclusion is that Religion is indeed delusional, “the holding of beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument”.
 

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January 18th, 2018

1/18/2018

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The research in the field of neuro-science is getting more exiting every day. Nature.com’s news feature, dated Jan 10,’18 explains that researchers are starting to find out how to see a memory.
 
Janice Chen, a cognitive neuro scientist, at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is among many others, using brain imagining to identify what kind of patterns are involved when a specific memory is created and recalled. This kind of research could help reveal someday why memories fails through disease, old age or how false memories are formed.
 
I would urge people to read the whole article before making off-hand comments. This research gives more and more credence to the conclusion that memory, which determines who you are (your “self”), is strictly a brain function which means a material brain is needed to make us aware of ourselves. This reinforces the conclusion that brain-death means death of your self-awareness, making an aware afterlife a moot point.
 
If you are knowledgeable in the field and can point out flaws in the research you are welcome to voice it. Plain denial and proposing non-evidenced suppositions are not acceptable as debating points.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-00107-4?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits


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Does Morality Need a God?

1/9/2018

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Many Theist are sure that a god is needed to define morality and that the fear of God is the only way we can control our basic instincts, such as rape, killing and looting. The irony here is that, if a God created us, he gave us those instincts in the first place. The holy books contain many ‘morals’ which would be detrimental to living and cooperating in modern society. Long before the Bible and probably originating long before written language, we find that a moral truth existed, now recognized as the Golden Rule, which was born out of necessity rather than dictated by any god.
 
The Golden Rule (which can be considered a law of reciprocity in some religions) is the principle of treating others as one would wish to be treated. It is a maxim of altruism that is found in many religions and cultures.[1][2]  (Wikipedia).
 
It is mentioned in Ancient Egypt and India in the Mahabharata,in the Tamil tradition, Ancient Greece, Persia in the Pahlavi Texts of Zoroastrianism, ancient Rome,  the Abrahamic  religions, the Bahai Faith, Hinduism, Buddism. Jainism, Sikhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Mohis, Irnian religions and also in the new religions, such a Wicca, and Scientology.
 
The Parliament of the World’s Religions  has declared that the Golden Rule is the common principle of the world’s religions. Many Humanist sources have also adopted that principle. There is also research published that in terms of neuroscience, neuroethical principles are in play here.
 
Let me finish by quoting an interesting conclusion found in Wikipedia; “It is possible, then, that the golden rule can itself guide us in identifying which differences of situation are morally relevant. We would often want other people to ignore any prejudice against our race or nationality when deciding how to act towards us, but would also want them to not ignore our differing preferences in food, desire for aggressiveness, and so on. This principle of "doing unto others, wherever possible, as they would be done by..." has sometimes been termed the platinum rule.[85]”
 
 
 
 
 

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