Religion: Global Psychosis
By
Moksha Bruce Todd
Published October 2005, Zenger’s Newsmagazine
“Psychotic behavior” includes hearing voices, having hallucinations, and being out of touch with the world. “Religious fervor” includes hearing God’s voice, seeing images of Mary or Jesus in reflections of glass or burned into a grilled cheese sandwich. What is the difference between the two?
When a murderer says Satan talks to him and tells him what to do, he is diagnosed psychotic. When a mother drowns her children so they can “go to God,” she is diagnosed psychotic. However, when a faithful person sees Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, the churches send representatives to see if it is a “miracle.”
Why are religious people not considered psychotic? Matthew Shepard is murdered and the religious community is silent. A murderer in Texas “asks the Lord into her life” and the churches petition the governor to suspend her execution. This is psychotic behavior on both counts.
Christians do not have a monopoly on psychotic behavior. Fundamentalist Muslims also are quite psychotic. They, like Christian fundamentalists, are certain that every murder they commit, every action they take is given them from Allah. “Allah” is merely the Arabic word for “God,” yet the two groups consider themselves to be different from one another.
They are in good historical company. The first time the cross was acknowledged legally was by the emperor Constantine when he needed God’s help to kill. The Roman Catholic Church tortured people in the name of God during the Inquisition. Christians and Muslims fought the Crusades in the name of God. The Spanish and English wiped out the Native peoples of America in the name of God. Americans spread across the continent due to Manifest Destiny — given them through the blessings of God.
When the Founding Fathers created the United States, they feared history and the role the churches played, so they separated politics from religion. They had been raised on the philosophies of humanists and sought to implement into law the humanistic beliefs common to all religions.
So what brings us to the problem the world is in today? According to a recent NBC poll more Americans believe Genesis than evolution (30% now accept evolution and 70% believe the literal story in Genesis). We have become a nation of psychotics. We ignore history with the attitude that we are the answer for the world’s woes. We waste oil and gas by driving way beyond the speed limit and supporting the growth of Nascar, in spite of the fact that wasting gas only puts more money into the hands of those who would destroy us. That is psychotic.
This affliction is not one limited to fundamentalists, though. Gays and Lesbians who profess Christianity or Islam are supporting the mythology of the psychotic. They make excuses for their support of it by pointing out the better points of the beliefs but ignoring the horrible nature of the beliefs. This is psychotic.
When Karl Marx called religion “the opiate of the masses” he did not mean it literally but figuratively. He meant that it acts as a drug and makes people behave in a psychotic manner. At the time he wrote, psychiatry was in its infancy and he did not have the term psychotic, but that’s what he meant.
There is a problem with following something due to faith. One must suspend rational thought and “hope” beyond reason that what they believe is true. The German people had faith in Hitler, look what faith gave them.
Religion has its place. It explains the unexplainable to those who are primitive enough not to know about science. It gives feelings of comfort to those who suffer with the promise of paradise after life. But when science explains how something works, religion is threatened. That is when fundamentalism rises. Never in history have fundamentalist religious beliefs served anyone but those in power. Turning to them now will not change the nature of humankind. When given the chance, humans are greedy, hateful, thieving, invasive of different cultures, and self-centered.
Only rational thought holds the human being in check. When Gays and Lesbians participate in the institution of oppression, they are guilty of oppression. Whenever Christians say “I love you…” they mean “I love you if….”
Those in the world who support rationality over mythology are the hope for mankind’s future. Religious intolerance is destructive to the individual.
By
Moksha Bruce Todd
Published October 2005, Zenger’s Newsmagazine
“Psychotic behavior” includes hearing voices, having hallucinations, and being out of touch with the world. “Religious fervor” includes hearing God’s voice, seeing images of Mary or Jesus in reflections of glass or burned into a grilled cheese sandwich. What is the difference between the two?
When a murderer says Satan talks to him and tells him what to do, he is diagnosed psychotic. When a mother drowns her children so they can “go to God,” she is diagnosed psychotic. However, when a faithful person sees Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, the churches send representatives to see if it is a “miracle.”
Why are religious people not considered psychotic? Matthew Shepard is murdered and the religious community is silent. A murderer in Texas “asks the Lord into her life” and the churches petition the governor to suspend her execution. This is psychotic behavior on both counts.
Christians do not have a monopoly on psychotic behavior. Fundamentalist Muslims also are quite psychotic. They, like Christian fundamentalists, are certain that every murder they commit, every action they take is given them from Allah. “Allah” is merely the Arabic word for “God,” yet the two groups consider themselves to be different from one another.
They are in good historical company. The first time the cross was acknowledged legally was by the emperor Constantine when he needed God’s help to kill. The Roman Catholic Church tortured people in the name of God during the Inquisition. Christians and Muslims fought the Crusades in the name of God. The Spanish and English wiped out the Native peoples of America in the name of God. Americans spread across the continent due to Manifest Destiny — given them through the blessings of God.
When the Founding Fathers created the United States, they feared history and the role the churches played, so they separated politics from religion. They had been raised on the philosophies of humanists and sought to implement into law the humanistic beliefs common to all religions.
So what brings us to the problem the world is in today? According to a recent NBC poll more Americans believe Genesis than evolution (30% now accept evolution and 70% believe the literal story in Genesis). We have become a nation of psychotics. We ignore history with the attitude that we are the answer for the world’s woes. We waste oil and gas by driving way beyond the speed limit and supporting the growth of Nascar, in spite of the fact that wasting gas only puts more money into the hands of those who would destroy us. That is psychotic.
This affliction is not one limited to fundamentalists, though. Gays and Lesbians who profess Christianity or Islam are supporting the mythology of the psychotic. They make excuses for their support of it by pointing out the better points of the beliefs but ignoring the horrible nature of the beliefs. This is psychotic.
When Karl Marx called religion “the opiate of the masses” he did not mean it literally but figuratively. He meant that it acts as a drug and makes people behave in a psychotic manner. At the time he wrote, psychiatry was in its infancy and he did not have the term psychotic, but that’s what he meant.
There is a problem with following something due to faith. One must suspend rational thought and “hope” beyond reason that what they believe is true. The German people had faith in Hitler, look what faith gave them.
Religion has its place. It explains the unexplainable to those who are primitive enough not to know about science. It gives feelings of comfort to those who suffer with the promise of paradise after life. But when science explains how something works, religion is threatened. That is when fundamentalism rises. Never in history have fundamentalist religious beliefs served anyone but those in power. Turning to them now will not change the nature of humankind. When given the chance, humans are greedy, hateful, thieving, invasive of different cultures, and self-centered.
Only rational thought holds the human being in check. When Gays and Lesbians participate in the institution of oppression, they are guilty of oppression. Whenever Christians say “I love you…” they mean “I love you if….”
Those in the world who support rationality over mythology are the hope for mankind’s future. Religious intolerance is destructive to the individual.
posted by moksha b. todd at 4:47 PM
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