Just when the reputation of psychology is mired in continuous scandals, a column in Psychology Today asks if creationists are sane.
Along with denial, two other factors connect creationism with mental illness. The first is psychosis, which is an extension of denial. If psychosis is marked by the discrepancy between one’s personal view of the world and the consensual view, creationism holds onto the personal view at all costs, refusing to accept what is abundantly clear. True, if creationism became the majority view, its psychotic character might be mitigated. Except that this majority view would have no more valence than the belief so widely held about the relationship between the sun and the earth before Copernicus proved how the latter orbits the former, and not vice versa.
“Psychosis” is a dangerous word to throw around, as it is medically actionable.
No wonder the psychiatrists’ manual is no longer considered scientifically useful due to lack of validity. And it is hard to tell psychological “science” from spoof.
It’s one thing for “cool crowd” psychologists to fall on their sword but do they have to do it in public?