Are religious people mentally imbalanced? (serious questio)

[chirox]

I'm a Paramedic who was bought up Catholic, but no longer follows any God.
The reason for my question is that I recently had a few classroom days with a Mental Health Professional and he stated that Religion is mass paranoia and therefore people who believe in a God are mentally unstable to some degree. He didnt say that they were insane, just that in order for a human to believe in something that is totally unquantifiable, invisible, all powerful and all knowing, requires certain functions in the brain to be switched on (or off I suppose?), and that Atheists such as myself are in fact missing a piece of code somewhere or it's been eliminated from our conciousness.

I'd love to hear from MH Pro's if there are any here, it struck me as quite odd that a Professional could say this so openly. Posted in Science as I'm looking for a Scientific rather than esoteric answer.

[Zeuhl]

<<hard-wired in us and that it conveys some sort of evolutionary advantage>>

<<may be a survival instinct. >>

Yes I can see the sense in that - you could label religion a 'coping strategy'. Most things do have a purpose and it would help societies bond together.

So what doea that make us Atheists?

The next level? The next step on the evolutionary ladder? Hippies?
.

[sandyRoe]

There's a coincidence. Both my dog and my God sustain me. I need little else.

[naomi24]

Zeuhl, according to some it seems atheist is a dirty word. I like the hippie idea though. :o)

Sandy, dyslexia? ;o)

[Calibax]

I think Zeuhl, that the more we learn about how the universe works the less we need God. It would have bee difficult for primitive man to believe that an earthquake or a rainbow was anything other than divine or perhaps magic. But when you know about plate tectonics or the diffraction of light the magic disappears.

[flicrat]

Zeuhl ,I think you are not an atheist - who doesn't believe in God - but,from what you yourself wrote, an agnostic, who doesn't know .

[wildwood]

No, they are not mentally imbalanced, or you need to regard your own child who waits for father Xmas so too. Many religiously reared children like me become suspicious of the doctrine when growing up, as it does not follow reason. To my mind, religion is a crutch which gives many people comfort and peace. Humans, being what we are, know that death comes to us all and can not rationalise it, therefore religion is viewed as one answer. Even Darwin turned to religion to pacify himself when death become imminent.

The ones that get up my nose are those who stick their beliefs down your throat and are hypocritically inclined when it suits. Most 'believers' live a normal life and are happy to live their lives roughly by their church's doctrine. I am somewhat envious of the ones that find solace in their religion when they lose a loved one, or can justify the the rampant cruelty that occurs daily on this planet.

[karenmac60]

But that is a child Wildwood, who will believe in Santa because their parents tell them he exists and they trust their children. I think we are talking about adults here, who are capable of rational thinking instead of blind trust, yet they still believe in a supernatural being in spite of the fact there is no evidence and the whole concept being more than a bit far fetched.

[jno]

Zeuhl (belatedly, have had dinner guests)

this isn't about 'popularity' - I don't know if people take to religion because it's popular - but about our makeup. There's evidence that a predisposition is genetically based, as per jake's post. Five have that gene (I'm grossly oversimplifying) to every one that doesn't. So which, by any standard, is 'normal'?

Personally, I'm not fussed either way. I'm just not sure that the one is in a position to say the other five are mentally unbalanced. A bit like our Jimmy being the only man in the regiment who's in step?

(Obviously, I have no idea if whales have religion. How would I tell?)

[naomi24]

I've read about the religious gene theory and, bearing in mind the nature of the question, wonder whether it might eventually be possible to use surgery to cure religious fervour.

jno, believing in something for which there is not one jot of evidence can't be considered 'normal' by any stretch of the imagination. Despite your belief that your Jimmy was the only man in the regiment marching in time, it would be obvious to every rational person watching that he was out of step - just as it's obvious to every rational person watching religion that it's out of step with reality.

flicrat, the word 'agnostic' doesn't mean someone who doesn't know whether or not there's a God. No one knows whether or not there's a God - not the religious, not the atheists, and not the agnostics. This from the internet:

Word History: An agnostic does not deny the existence of God and heaven but holds that one cannot know for certain whether or not they exist. The term agnostic was fittingly coined by the 19th-century British scientist Thomas H. Huxley, who believed that only material phenomena were objects of exact knowledge.

[sandyRoe]

If someone wanted to convert the world to their particular religion at the point of a sword they might be unbalanced. If somebody uses religion as a way to help themselves through life and didn't meddle with others lives, what harm are they doing? That's hardly unbalanced.

[naomi24]

If people kept their beliefs to themselves and didn't interfere with other people's lives, fine - but they don't. Despite the irrationality of it all they have their way and society allows them to have their way.

[roger]

I haven't believed since I was about ten. When I die I'll find out!

[Vagrant]

Yes

[chakka35]

I have long opined that religious belief in the ordinary person is a mild form of insanity, because of its obvious irrationality, but usually harmless.
When someone takes up religion as a trade, the problem becomes more serious so that by the time a person reaches a senior position in that trade he is quite bonkers - as bishops, archbishops and popes obligingly demonstrate every time they open their mouths.

There is an analogy with astrology. Ordinary folk who read their horoscopes and believe them are a little doolally but harmless. Professional astrologers have obviously lost it completely.

[askyourgran]

David Icke is still around and as far as I know not been carted off by men in white coats. But we all think he's nuts. The Vicar at our local church would be a bit put out to find that he was mentally unbalanced.

[chakka35]

gran, what have white coats got to do with it?

Ask your vicar what his view would be (albeit tactfully unexpressed) of a grown-up of his acquaintance who still believed in Santa and fairies. Would he consider him or her mentally balanced? If not, then let him look at his own beliefs and ponder how ratiional, sane people see them.