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Are religious people delusional? No.
Do billions of people believe in things that are not true because of their religion? Yes, It would be hard to find someone who would deny that.
This is an exercise for Christians to help you determine if you hold onto beliefs that are not true.
Transcript:
Being Religious does not make you delusional. Until this morning, I understood that a delusion was a belief in something that is demonstrably not true. I decided to dig a little deeper into the definition used by psychologists and I discovered that I was wrong.
The DSM-IV, and psychologists, generally agree that personal beliefs should be evaluated with great respect to complexity of cultural and religious differences since some cultures have widely accepted beliefs that may be considered delusional in other cultures.[3] Specifically, to be a “delusion,” a belief must be sustained despite what almost everyone else believes, and not be one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith).
Why do they exclude false religious beliefs? Well, being delusional is a disorder that hinders a person from operating in a society. No matter how DELUSIONAL an entire society is, calling everyone in the society delusional would render the word meaningless for practitioners who need to diagnose and treat the disorder.
The fact that psychology does not define the religious as delusional does not change the fact that billions of people believe in things that are demonstrably not true. We don’t need to prove or disprove any religion to know that billions of people are mislead. Because the major religions of the world hold mutually exclusive claims. For example, it is guaranteed that all the Muslims in the world are wrong, or that all the Christians in the world are wrong – possibly both. And they will continue to be wrong – because their faith is so strong that it prevents them from finding the truth.
This next exercise is a test for Christian to determine if you carry beliefs that are demonstrably false. Let’s get started… unless you are… chicken? Don’t be afraid. If your faith is strong enough, you’ll come out of this just fine.
Please listen to the following statements and note your reaction. Is the statement true or untrue – and why?
1. God is a baby killer
2. The bible supports slavery
3. The bible contradicts itself
4. God is not perfect because he makes mistakes
5. Christianity is based on blind faith
6. Christianity is a religion of human sacrifice
7. The Bible has been changed and is not true to the original manuscripts
Christians, what was your immediate reaction. Did you reject these points in defense of your faith? When I was a believer I rejected each one of these claims immediately as they were presented to me – then I started looking for ways to justify my beliefs after the fact. That’s the thing about faith. You are bound to believe certain things regardless of what the evidence says. You do not have the luxury of thinking it over properly because if your faith is broken, then you risk eternal damnation. Fear retards the mental process, and it does so quite nicely when disguised with words like Gospel, Redemption, and Salvation.
Most of the statements I made in this exercise are true with respect to Christianity. Here is an example.
God is a baby killer
Here is evidence that God directly killed babies as recorded in the Bible. Nevermind all the times that God ordered others to kill babies. Nevermind mass executions such as Noah’s flood or Soddom and Gahmorra – where God directly killed every baby within a city or within the world as collateral damage when wiping out the wicked.
Nevermind the Passover where God killed the firstborn of every Egyptian (including the animals).
Let’s look at one specific account of God directly killing a specific baby.
2 Samuel 12 vs. 13-18
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for[a] the LORD, the son born to you will die.”
15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth[b] on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died.
I could present similar backing for each the statements in this exercise except for the last one.
The bible has been changed and is not true to the original manuscripts
I cannot contest this because I do not know for sure. You might be right to snap to it’s defense in this case. If it was open to changes, then the Church would have eliminated the contradictions – fixed the issues around slavery, treatment of women, god’s mistakes, the killing of children, the horrible human sacrifices, and let’s not forget the embarrassing stories like Noah’s Ark.
Set aside your fear and do a healthy examination of your beliefs. You will not be struck by lightning and you will not go to hell for it. Beyond this exercise, what other beliefs do you have that might not be true? How the belief that there is a omniscient, omnipotent, merciful, and just God who sends good people to hell for eternity solely because they didn’t fear him enough to stop themselves from examining their own beliefs critically.
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