Seems ages that I blogged the last time. Well. Let’s get started with.. I was living in a car for a few month and I am at the moment living quite happily in Warsaw, Poland. So much about my biography, I would like to straight come to the point… RELIGION!
Even though I got baptized, had the first communion and even got confirmed (I love that memory.. Mom: “Wanna get confirmed?” I: “What is that?” Mom: “You know, your religious confirmation.. (blabla about definition..) ceremony, little feast, presents.. like communion just this time you can say no.” And I was like.. presents.. feast.. why not?) I am no fan of believe and such stuff.. Was already thinking about leaving, but since our priest suffers quite heavily under Alzheimer and is allergic on the word “leave”, I spare myself hours of religious monologue without result and wait for a successor. To make it up I kinda try to figure out what I actually DO believe in.. and in my search I found this video, about a guy explaining in a psychological scientific manner that Religion can be seen as MENTAL DISORDER.. No matter if believer or not: try to understand his point of view and if you agree or disagree, please explain me why in a comment underneath.
I like the last sentence though: (shortened and interpreted version) Feel free to practice religion, but don’t willfully spread it on others, especially not on children, since that is an infraction of their (human) rights. If they really believe.. they will get themselves baptized on their own.. and you can still celebrate them there… after all: it is not about the feast (officially).. is it?
Religion- Mental disorder?
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://isethoriginal.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/religion-mental-disorder/trackback/
Fascinating video. Nothing new, but a nice sum-up. The only problem I have with it is that it lacks two important points:
First, the causes of religion: hallucinogenic mushrooms taken by some neanderthals, powerseeking members of a clan or simple ways to transfere knowledge and ethics to other people? Because if it’s the latter, then it might induce us to think carefully about what a disease is: if half of the world is infected with a disease that dictates how they live their lives, is it still a disease, or is it part of human nature? At what point is a metaphor becoming a cult, and then a religion? Is What about speculations (i.e. what happened before the big bang: is thinking about that religion?)?
And the seconde point is related to this first one: since religion has, in the course of millenia, shaped our ehtics, moral, and general culture, what are the alternatives? Until recently religion was the simple way of keeping society from falling apart, but recently it’s getting steadily replaced by regulations. And these regulations are failing, one after the other. So, deciding not to use religion to teach moral and ethics, how can we teach them?
Be well aware that I’m in no way suggesting that religion is necessary for a functioning society. In fact, I am of the opinion that religions destroy societies. I am just wondering what the author of this video would suggest as… “placebo for the masses”, since religion is not really any opium at all…
p.s. You lived in a car? Sounds intresting! Did you have some sort of cross-europe road trip?
Dear Ramsesoriginal: I would like to remind you, that over 97 percent of humanity is victim of caries as well, yet it is not part of human beings. Having a “harmless” herpes (the one that grows on your lips when the immune system gets weak) is quite spread too, yet I would not call it part of humanity since it is a virus that befalls our body. Even if religion seems so common, I would still consider it rather a sickness than a way to transmit moralistic values, since certain human values are transmitted by atheists as well. Which makes us already approach point two partially: “What are the alternatives?” Many cultures offer many different ways to approach a problem and to solve it, as well we have countless numbers of philosophers and ethic oriented studies presenting proper ways of thinking. Therefore knowing as many as possible and choose the personally more convincing one is more suiting than undoubtedly accepting the first best you hear.
The moment the metaphor of a saving ship with every kind of animal on it, which is a metaphor for respecting the animals and preserve their species, gets taken as a story about humanity and god, and looses its original message you can count it as a cult. Same for the Indian cult, telling that the cow is holy, which instead of giving the message to honor and be thankful for what you have, makes people honor the cow and starve instead.
Speculations are.. as the name says.. speculations: might or might not be. The “sickness” within the religion is NOT the contained belief in it, but the way it gets spread, hence: as child you hear that there is a invisible being somewhere in heaven (but the one under your bed is fake..) that looks at you and judges you. There is no objection because it is just REAL, point. It does thus force the child into one direction. If I would tell to the same child that instead of the “God in heaven” it is the man under the bed that judges I would be called mad to tell the child there is someone under the bed. Most heavier mental disorders are big part caused or at least distinctively influenced by childhood experiences. Which means that if we consider mental disorders like Borderline, it can be “educated” rather than born within. In the case of mental disorders we talk about disorders that partially or fully restrict the person to think rationally, so if we take imposed mental disorders this could be as much borderline as it could be a suicide bomber.
About the regulations and the religion used as keep society steady: even if religion has a certain “age” it fails its purpose nearly as much as regulations.. To compare the “old” religious influence and the atheistic one, I would like to mention a TED talk: “Steven Pinker: A brief history of violence” and leave this suggestion without comment. About the “Placebo for the masses”, I would rather suggest to teach law and ethics to them instead of religion, since law is an expectation of the country and ethics gets updated and evolves since discussed over and over again and includes new technology and so on. Furthermore it has to be clear that ethics is an option, as religion should be, not a force.
I would like to emphasize once more at the last sentence: Everyone should feel free to practice religion, but not impose it to others.
And about the car.. No, I moved to Poland but for a certain period of time I had problems to find a proper settlement, which is why I actually lived in my car.