Could the belief in god considered a mental illness ?

en.wikipedia.org...

religion was necessary,

Atheism might be classified as mental illness, religious thought and philosophy are totally different then mental illness.

OH never mind.

Could the belief in god considered a mental illness ?

Anything can and will be considered a mental illness. People that wear cowboy hats and brown shoes at the same time are mentally ill in my book. Don't get me started on bass guitar players....or bass fisherman!!

Are atheists mentally ill? The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: rom12345

What is delusional is to believe that we as individuals know the truth.

And yet here you are, an individual claiming you know what's true about God. Such is the way!

believing that God doe not exists, seems more delusional than believing he does.

I'm not so sure about that. Perhaps you have convinced yourself it's true.

Thanks for the detailed replies. I'm not sure we would ever agree on anything but I was curious as to who has dialogue with God. I think I was correct in saying no one as you haven't named anyone. Of course you mention that funky dude from two millennia ago but he's long gone. I was hoping for someone from nowadays!

Anyway, I get the idea of the trinity and how it might serve as an analogy or metaphor for our psyche and materiality...and the Jesus, Lucifer thing is useful in a similar way. It's all nothing new.

For myself I'm not concerned with God other than as an interesting topic to discuss. I also find it interesting to find out why people believe what they believe.

Thanks again.

a reply to: midicon
Like all times, people, including my self have dialogue with God, through the holy spirit. In an process of internal introspection, with the expectation of wisdom and truth.
One can get to the depths of dialogue with the self, and find it lacking.
You are not the dialogue you have with your self, and it not God either.
The dialogue with God is through what christians call The Holy Spirit.
Speaking to God could be interpreted as having a mental illness, how ever I believe anyone who is doing this literally, is more that likely crying out in a moment of desperation.
It will often take this desperation to find God.
If you ever see someone actually talking to God, know that most likely it is because all else has abandoned them.
God will remain for those who believe in Him.
Those who do not, will not endure the separation fall.

originally posted by: midicon
a reply to: rom12345

Does he ever say anything useful?

Yes
In the most important matters that may trouble you. there is no one else has the answers.
Most will only open them selves to God when they are desperate.
Prayer manifests great utility if it is in accordance with good intention.

a reply to: rom12345

Yes
In the most important matters that may trouble you. there is no one else has the answers.
Most will only open them selves to God when they are desperate.
Prayer manifests great utility if it is in accordance with good intention.

I'm sure that there are people all over the world right now, in desperate situations and praying to God but to no avail. I would suggest that God never helps. Of course you might just be referring to some introspective 'dark night of the soul' or some such and if so I would find it difficult to accept anything other than it was a subjective experience.

Fortunately I'm not 'troubled' in the sense that I need anything supernatural to vicariously live my life through. There is enough beauty and wonder in this life right now without the idea of a God. It's never enough for some though, there are those that always want more, something bigger, more beautiful, all powerful, all knowing...and not only that, they want an afterlife too!

Sadly, there is no life in the afterlife and only the living can live.

No, it is in fact natural. Not a mental illness. However, that is only true if you know the real meaning of God. It goes back some time and is somewhat connected to the ''elite'' and most, if not all, secret societies.

I'm not going to spoil the fun here though, as I'm currently in the process of preparing a very in-depth thread on this topic.

a reply to: Asgaard

And yet another 'true meaning' of God! I look forward to such a thread...sounds psychological.

a reply to: midicon

I know, ATS has many threads on this topic. But, it is a topic worth talking about, as it is such a big part of society. The difference with my thread however, is that my ''true meaning'' is 100% verifiable. I invite you to befriend me, so I can give you a notice when it's online. Then, you can tell me BS or not. Deal?

Note: I'm in the beginning stages of this thread, so it'll be a bit before it hits.

a reply to: rom12345

So you're justifying burning witches you moron? Do you know history at all? Even those witches that were considered "good" were also tortured into confession under various rulers who sought to condemn all witches.

Let's hope nobody gives you any power.

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
Are atheists mentally ill? The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Keep it out of government, there is no reason to measure character by which church you go to. There should be no question of what the gods want in court or in congress. We are supposed to be humanitarian for the sake of itself, because civil rights are inalienable and we believe in inherent value of the human being, soul or not.

a reply to: TzarChasm

So said Stalin and Mao
Value of a human being, pretty preachy for an atheist

No one has it right, we can agree I hope

There are page after page on youtube explaining the existence of God. It that's not enough proof for you...I don't know what to tell you.

a reply to: olaru12

Gave you a star for the chuckle, don't push your cheek out too far with that tongue ! LoL !

One might almost figure that 'splainin' doesn't get 'er done, eh ?

When the sun is up in the sky, does anyone need to 'splain it ?
Does not a blind man 'know' that it's there ?

What is: just is, no ?

And as you suggested: all the 'splainin' in the world, don't change nothin.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

what is weird is that we are discussing the possibility of a mental illness and I just thought because of the link I posted earlier

I posted a link before showing that evidence shows the human brain evolved to have a a consciousness that has a predeliction to a belief in the afterlife or deities.

So the brain evolved this way for some reason , most likely to help with the vast information we receive from our environment,I think maybe the belief of afterlife in the waking world may help a human deal with the overwhelming reality of their own mortality , much like dreaming in the sleeping world maybe is a function to help us deal with the events of our memory and possible scenarios we prepare ourselves for in the waking world.

So maybe the non belief is also some form of adaptation or evolution for due to changing environment to help us deal with our reality now as opposed to millenia ago when we were outright pagans with pantheons of deities and then eventually monothesitic religions.

I think this change of belief to atheism maybe has to do with the emergence of technology as theorised that AI will emerge , this could then pose many questions for the emergence of life in the universe and to the origins of our species itself rather than having a divine origin story we potentially may have a technological origin.
Maybe that change from natural to technological has pushed our species on an adaptive technological path and forced our brains to adapt to a non belief based outlook on life .

just my thoughts , sorry it was only 20 past 4 not long ago




we'd need to do a lot of studies on comparisons between brain scans of people with beliefs of varying degrees and people without beliefs.

originally posted by: Raggedyman
a reply to: TzarChasm

So said Stalin and Mao
Value of a human being, pretty preachy for an atheist

No one has it right, we can agree I hope

See my response directly above yours.

DP

Great thread

Last year I took my mil to a psychiatrist because she started to act weird. After many tests he diagnosed her with chronic psychosis. Nothing can be done about it and medication doesn't work or has to many side effects. So we just have to let her be for now and hope it never gets worse.

When I discussed this with the psychiatrist he told me to look at it this way:
One of her things is to have conversations with people on the tv, she is convinced they are talking to her directly. The Dr said that in a way this isn't very different then a deeply religious person who talks to God and is convinced that God talks back to him. The 'believing it to be true without a doubt' is the same process in both examples.
Also, in both examples, the believing makes the person happy and hopeful and it fulfills a need in their lives and therefor is looked at as a positive thing in his/her life.

Dr said that it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks of it. As long as they are happy and not harming anyone else, it won't be treated as a mental illness, but in the textbook both cases are considered psychosis. Be it mass psychosis in the second.

I had several experiences myself that could count as textbook psychosis, although I consider myself in perfect mental health! Maybe it's just part of human nature...