Religious fundamentalism could soon be treated as mental illness

I hate to say this but if religious fundamentalism is treated as a mental illness, then the mental health professionals have lost the plot. Who's going to decide what's ok to believe? A scientific utopia is no more achievable than other Utopia It's fun to make fun of the crazies BUT most fundamentalist were taught their whole lives that something is true.



Digital Journal

Kathleen Taylor, a neurologist at Oxford University, said that recent developments suggest that we will soon be able to treat religious fundamentalism and other forms of ideological beliefs potentially harmful to society as a form of mental illness.

Taylor admits that the scope of what could end up being labelled "fundamentalist" is expansive. She continued: "I am not just talking about the obvious candidates like radical Islam or some of the more extreme cults. I am talking about things like the belief that it is OK to beat your children. These beliefs are very harmful but are not normally categorized as mental illness. In many ways that could be a very positive thing because there are no doubt beliefs in our society that do a heck of a lot of damage, that really do a lot of harm."

Judge won’t drop murder charge against Pa. faith-healing parents; victim was 2nd child to die

PHILADELPHIA — A judge upheld murder charges Wednesday against a fundamentalist Christian couple in their infant’s faith-healing death, saying things might be different if their toddler hadn’t died four years ago “under strikingly similar circumstances.”

Their probation in that case required Herbert and Catherine Schaible to seek immediate medical help if another child was sick or injured. But they instead prayed over 8-month-old son Brandon before he died of pneumonia in April, according to their police statements.

Rwanda: Faith Healing Vs Medical Healing

The term faith healing is best known in connection with Christianity. A number of its adherents interpret the Bible, particularly the New Testament, as teaching belief in - and practice of - faith healing. They claim that faith alone can cure blindness, deafness, cancer AIDS, development disorders, anemia among other diseases.

Thus when one is afflicted by any of these diseases, they would rather wait for divine intervention to cure them instead of seeking medical help in hospital.

Additional Reading
'Faith healer' swindles Coventry woman out of £25k savings
Some thoughts on state fundamentalism in Malaysia — Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


Yikes,,,mental illness...I'm not liking the sound of that...I think this will make it more difficult for religious people to feel or be accepted in society...even thought they are focusing on "Fundamentalist" I fear that Christians and Muslims will bear the brunt of this....

I personally believe that a lot of fundamentalist use religion as a tool to get what they want by distorting the true teachings of their religion...

Does this mean a fundamentalist would be involuntarily admitted to a psych ward if he or she is refusing treatment at a hospital for some life threatening illness due to refusal of treatment...

I have always been convinced that any religion is a form of mental illness. And people wonder about the state of civilization and he world? The "nuts" are ruling and the 10% sane ones are called Atheists.

If fundamentalism is a mental/personality trait, then it should be able to be found among the religious and the non-religious alike.

So if religious fundamentalism is a mental illness, then so is secular fundamentalism.

There really is no excuse for either of those.

A religious fundamentalist has all the resources they need to temper their views with tolerance by taking advantage of comparative religion, comparative mythology, and comparative mysticism scholarship. These fields turn a myopic, local viewpoint into a panoramic, universal viewpoint thus injecting cross-cultural tolerance.

A secular fundamentalist can also take advantage of that scholarship, and grow to tolerate and maybe even understand the religious.

There is no need to force "mental health" treatment of either side of the fundamentalism coin when education can do the trick.

reply to post by Guenter


that's a bit over the top..I'm sure their are plenty of sane religious people you know...the same argument can be made for people who believe in aliens or ghosts...we shouldn't be telling people what they should and should not believe in...if they are a threat to you religion may be part of the problem but I suspect there are other mental health issues going on that trump the religion...

Its more of a mental addiction then a an illness.

Its a drug to ease the burden of the world or to hide from the reality of the world.

Originally posted by chrismarco
reply to post by Guenter

 

that's a bit over the top..I'm sure their are plenty of sane religious people you know...the same argument can be made for people who believe in aliens or ghosts...we shouldn't be telling people what they should and should not believe in...if they are a threat to you religion may be part of the problem but I suspect there are other mental health issues going on that trump the religion...

Well it is not really over the top. As I read in a quote ones: >
There is a fine line between "believing" and changing ones life so that ones actions reflect ones believes. Religion after all is the enemy to natural behavior. Being "chosen", being "right", being saved etc. And then the need to turn these dogmas and believes into actual LAWS that affect you and me on a daily basis.

Originally posted by luciddream
Its more of a mental addiction then a an illness.

Its a drug to ease the burden of the world or to hide from the reality of the world.

Excellent definition. If it were not an addiction but a permanent illness then one could not come to ones senses and for example leave religion for atheism at a later age, even when totally fundamentally raised from baby on.

reply to post by chrismarco

.I think this will make it more difficult for religious people to feel or be accepted in society.

Why would that be? We'll soon be a protected class. Those who are areligious will need to complete sensitivity training and we'll be able to receive disability benefits.

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


I read this on reddit this morning.

This almost feels like "atheist extremism". Anytime anyone goes to far with their beliefs and becomes radicalized, it's detrimental for us all.

Yay next they can knock down the useless churches. This makes me very happy. Oh and in case anyone thinks I am being sarcastic, I can assure you I'm not.

Originally posted by MystikMushroom
reply to post by ATSmediaPRO

 

I read this on reddit this morning.

This almost feels like "atheist extremism". Anytime anyone goes to far with their beliefs and becomes radicalized, it's detrimental for us all.

Like Obama?

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


sure that will happen.

Satan will Not Tolerate any endangerment of his Mental Prison Matrix.

....using the retarded religious examples as " reasonable *cough* proof how "true" his stance is '

and, seen the nowadays Spelled Masses,
they will agree in Masse

destroying their only 1 Chance to get Free - by turning to Him

so, so predictable, all this

but no - let us remain covered by that soothing Sleep...

When they classify "man made global warming" as a Mental Illness I'll be satisfied.

They're just labeling ideas they don't like as "mental illness." That, in itself, is a mental and moral defect.

Most intelligent, thinking people change their views of life, philosophy, and religion several times over their life-time. And most realize that fact. But not these idiots.

Something is defiantly wrong with people like the ones the OP had shown who let two of their children die because their faith taught them they could pray the pneumonia away. That has to be a form of mental illness.

Originally posted by luciddream
Its more of a mental addiction then a an illness.

Its a drug to ease the burden of the world or to hide from the reality of the world.

Why would religion have be a drug to do all that? There's any number of doctors out there who will prescribe you just bout anything you want. Certain anxiety medications make you not give a sh*t at all about much of anything if you're just looking to hide from reality. I know because i'm on one of them because I started suffering from acute panic disorder.

reply to post by Guenter


I'd have to disagree, Atheists are just as likely at being wrong about their opinion on God as theists do. You don't know if a god or gods exist and to claim that one way or the other is arrogant on your part. Maybe if you changed that last word in your post to "agnostics" you'd be more correct. But I don't want to come across as condescending either, so I'm just going to maintain my disagreement on your entire premise.

Originally posted by luciddream
Its more of a mental addiction then a an illness.

Mental addiction. Sure. I can see that. In fundamentalism (be it Christian or Muslim or whatever), the person thinks they are specially chosen and have a mission from God, etc etc. That kind of attention from God can be addicting, especially because we live in a dreary mundane world.

Then there are those who don't know any better .. who aren't allowed to hear anything except what their religious leaders say ... who are killed if they leave their fundamentalist religion. That's a whole other mind bending situation.

Originally posted by NOTurTypical
We'll soon be a protected class. Those who are areligious will need to complete sensitivity training and we'll be able to receive disability benefits.

That was excellent!

reply to post by NOTurTypical


Why do you say you "HATE" religion, yet still refer to yourself as religious? You don't hate yourself do you?