I was, a while ago, in a Buddhist temple in Taiwan with a client (on a
business trip). We had a free day. The client happens to be a
psychiatrist who works on psychotic depression disorders; we were
doing clinical studies of a new remedy. (The woman in Texas who
drowned her children at God's command, would have been a candidate, if
we'd gotten to her before her Christian preacher did.) Remembering my
reading of R.D. Laing, as we watched the faithful light their incense
and throw their lucky stones in front of Ganesha, the deity whose
image has a trunk and tusks,

"J Young" <youngopinions@aol.com> wrote

All of which makes me wonder if we're asking the right question.
Perhaps we should be asking if atheism is symptomatic of mental
illness. Perhaps atheists are, in a word, insane.

One can only hope that the possible
link between atheism and mental illness is examined honestly before
countless others suffer needlessly.

Research shows that believers tend to have good relationships with their
fathers, atheists poor relationships or absent fathers.

However it is not an absolute rule, of course. One can find believers from
broken homes, and atheists from happy ones. It doesn't tell us anything
about which belief is true.

What it does tell is is that, as humans, our ability to reach conclusions
based on evidence is limited. A large number of people must think that their
beliefs are based on reason, when there is no way they can be. We must be
aware of that fact.l

Research shows that believers tend to have good relationships
with their fathers, atheists poor relationships or absent
fathers.

"J Young" <youngopinions@aol.com> wrote

All of which makes me wonder if we're asking the right question.
Perhaps we should be asking if atheism is symptomatic of mental
illness. Perhaps atheists are, in a word, insane.

One can only hope that the possible link between atheism and mental
illness is examined honestly

before countless others suffer needlessly.

Research shows

that believers tend to have good relationships with their fathers,
atheists poor relationships or absent fathers.

However it is not an absolute rule, of course.

One can find believers from broken homes, and atheists from happy
ones. It doesn't tell us anything about which belief is true.

What it does tell is is that, as humans, our ability to reach
conclusions based on evidence is limited.

A large number of people must think that their beliefs are based on
reason, when there is no way they can be.

We must be aware of that fact.

"J Young" <youngopinions@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1122007526.349548.251360@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Bill Maher's recent accusation that religious believers suffer from a
"neurological disorder" that stops them from thinking is hardly
just the ranting of another Hollywood moonbat.

Maher may have some funny humor once in a while, but his pro-atheist views
are a result of his being poorly educated about the beauty and truth of
God.

Since Maher grew up Jewish, he may have been incorrectly taught that the
holocaust was "religious hatred", which it was not.

The holocaust occurred during a fierce World War run by an atheist, Adolph
Hitler, who incorrectly believed people were merely competitive animals
and
that only the strongest should survive.

died too, not just Jews. The Jews were seen as a class of people rather
than
a religion, and Hitler himself believed that all Jews were communists.

World War II likely resulted because of the conditions set down by the
Versailles Treaty. None of this had anything to do with religion, but
rather, the desire for money.

The main causes for war are probably selfishness, the desire to take money
from others, and the belief that people are basically animals who must
compete against each other.

Selfishness, money-lust and animal-based atheism are all false beliefs,
and
they cause more wars than any religion ever has. They don't bring
happiness
nor do they create more love.

observed to Joe Scarborough:

"We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do
believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think
it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a
faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If
you look at it logically, it's something that was drilled into your
head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine at
that age. And you really can't be responsible when you are a kid for
what adults put into your head."

Somewhat more inflammatory (and less tedious), perhaps, than Richard
Dawkins when he observed that "The meme for blind faith secures its
own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging
rational inquiry." And somewhat on par with Ted Turner's contention
that Christianity was for "losers" and Jesse Ventura's belief
that faith is a crutch for "weak-minded people." Regardless, they
all reflect the same basic contention: that religion is something
irrational, embraced by only those with a strange mental condition.

All of which makes me wonder if we're asking the right question.
Perhaps we should be asking if atheism is symptomatic of mental
illness. Perhaps atheists are, in a word, insane.

I mean, think about it. Here we have a faith - a belief system, if
you will - that presumes not merely the non-existence of a creative
deity but that what we commonly call the "mind" is nothing more
than neurological impulses in physical tissue. Yet at the same time,
this very organ - the same instrument that generates the impulses -
is supposed to be able to independently verify those signals. They
adopt a belief system which effectively prevents them from validly
separating reality from a drug dream, and then claim that they can.
This certainly suggests a significant cognitive dissonance worthy of
concern.

Further, neurological research indicates that a particular part of the
brain is connected to religious experiences.

product of a genetic deficiency or disorder - and if so, one can only
wonder what else is wrong with them. After all, most atheists seem to
suffer from delusions of grandeur

humanity's march toward utopia. They are also quite happy to embrace
programs to "improve" humanity to suit their own purposes -
hardly a coincidence, one would have to suggest, that the most
repressive regimes of recent days have all been formulated along
atheistic, humanist principles

link between atheism and mental illness is examined honestly before
countless others suffer needlessly.

A mental illness results when a person goes 3 or 4 days straight with no
sleep. This has nothing to do with whether a person is atheist or
religious.

The holocaust occurred during a fierce World War run by an atheist, Adolph
Hitler