Wherein Trevor Blake rounds up some recent news stories about religion.
Voodoo Caused Man To Kill Kids, Himself
10 more kids taken out of commune
Boys ‘used for human sacrifice’
Man Charged With Child Rape Admits Guilt In Court
Christian bookstore owner, cop admit sex with boy
Pastor accused of rape under guise of casting out lesbian demon
Full Story: American Samizdat.
Plus: Being an Atheist in America Isn’t Easy.
See: Faith as an Illness by Douglas Rushkoff.
I’m kinda on the fence about treating faith as an illness (not to mention what role the state should play in mental health), but it’s good food for thought.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Snoop // Sep 4, 2006 at 6:35 pm
try telling the guys over at barbelith that.
It was like being crucified i tell ya.
2 ultra-assist // Sep 4, 2006 at 6:45 pm
lith hasnt been interesting in what seems like fucking years
3 Lupa // Sep 6, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Belief is a tool. Any tool can be put to helpful, neutral, or harmful purposes (categorized subjectively, of course).
The problem with categorizng religious belief as a mental illness is that you’re crossing over from spirituality into psychology. I interviewed a therapist for my current work in progress, and one point she made very clear is that she is a psychologist, and her bailiwick is to determine the psychological impact of belief, not the veracity of the belief itself. The problem is that there are too many people who, upon seeing the psychological analysis of a belief, will pass it off ONLY as that. She also warned against deciding that a belief is a form of insanity simply becuase you yourself do not hold it–that’s what led to people being involuntarily institutionalized for religious and political beliefs less than 100 years ago.
Yet if we follow the studies of Joseph Campbell and others, belief can have a very healthy place in our lives. It is a continuation of play, the play that we often abandon upon reaching adulthood. The same suspension of disbelief that lets of pretend we’re driving a car as a child (when all we’re doing is running around holding an invisible steering wheel) is also that which let’s us believe that we have become what we have invoked (even though all we’re really doing is dressing in a funny costume and making weird gestures and statements). To others these things may be insane, but to us they represent a very existent reality on a different level of perception.
There will always be people who use religion and other things to rationalize stupidity and insanity. That doesn’t mean, IMO, that all belief should be thrown in the same box. If a little old lady believes that Jesus rides the bus with her every day, and she’s not beating people up who sit on him, where’s the harm in that?
4 Klintron // Nov 3, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Lupa - there’s a difference between belief and faith. Faith is what religion is made of, and it has corrosive effects on the world.
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