Treating religious beliefs as a form of mental illness

_{Denyse O'Leary

June 6, 2016

Intelligent Design, Medicine, Mind}

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While we all sleep, our betters have plans for us.

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.

She made the assertion during a talk at the Hay Literary Festival in Wales on Wednesday. She said that radicalizing ideologies may soon be viewed not as being of personal choice or free will but as a category of mental disorder. She said new developments in neuroscience could make it possible to consider extremists as people with mental illness rather than criminals.

She told The Times of London: “One of the surprises may be to see people with certain beliefs as people who can be treated. Someone who has for example become radicalized to a cult ideology — we might stop seeing that as a personal choice that they have chosen as a result of pure free will and may start treating it as some kind of mental disturbance.” More.

Has anyone noticed how these types speak as if their own axioms are a “surprise” or, elsewhere, “counterintuitive”?

See also: Why fund social sciences? Even even “skeptic” Michael Shermer is beginning to “get it.”

and

Nicholas Kristof: More self-deceptive blather on academic freedom

On free will, see How can we believe in naturalism if we have no choice?

and

“I will ” means something after all

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Comments

So they took homosexuality out of the mental illness category and put zealos religious people in! Everyone can say everyone is mental. TDid this woman realize this when attacking identifiable groups?Robert Byers_{June 6, 2016
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News, rather like in the old Soviet Union. Speaks volumes, maybe even lets a cat out of the bag. KFkairosfocus_{June 6, 2016
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Bornagain77@1: Excellent points, as usual. Thanks especially for the reference citations. Invaluable!Truth Will Set You Free_{June 6, 2016
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clown fish #4: ----------------------------- "Obviously, religious belief in itself is not a form of mental illness. However, anyone who obsess about anything (religion, atheism, alien abductions, apocalyptic conspiracy theories) to the exclusion of everything else, could possibly be displaying the symptom of a mental illness." ------------------------------ A good well rounded comment. As for the Nazarene, Jesus, he was accused of being mad and possessed. It seems therefore, the ability to discern "truth" and "light," in that context, is not a natural facility, but which Jesus said he his to both. Besides, he even 'lit' up once at the Transfiguration. Witnessed by religious deluded fanatics! Cowards, who ran when he was to be crucified. However, empowered by seeing the impossible, a man risen from the dead, and later ascend into another dimension; all documented we would expect, faithfully and truthfully, as Jesus said he is the "truth." The strength of their conviction in following Jesus ensued. Scripture says have the mind of Christ. Anyone taking the course of the "way," which again Jesus said he was; knows what to expect.mw_{June 6, 2016
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This is not new. Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and that ilk, have long claimed that religious belief is a form of mental illness, and teaching that belief to children is a form of child abuse. To be fair, the Oxford neurologist does limit her mental illness designation to "religious fundamentalism" (not general religious belief) and to "other forms of ideological beliefs potentially harmful to society," but anyone who knows history will immediately see the danger in that language. For example, who gets to decide the definition of religious fundamentalism? Who gets to decide what is potentially harmful to society? Also, secular political and tribal belief has been much more harmful to society than religious belief. In his book Atrocities (2012), Matthew White reports that only about 10 percent of all the killing in history has been caused by religious fanaticism. Hegemonial wars, failed states, ideological civil wars, wars of conquest, ethnic cleansing, racism, communism, etc. have by far caused the most premature death in this troubled world.Truth Will Set You Free_{June 6, 2016
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Obviously, religious belief in itself is not a form of mental illness. However, anyone who obsess about anything (religion, atheism, alien abductions, apocalyptic conspiracy theories) to the exclusion of everything else, could possibly be displaying the symptom of a mental illness.clown fish_{June 6, 2016
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"We see, then, multiple studies converging on a single conclusion: the innate predisposition of the human mind to believe that there is some kind of an intelligent creator God." http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/08/more_studies_sh088551.html Psychologist, Deborah Kelemen, "felt the need to deprogram students and free them from their innate belief in an intelligent designing deity."!!!mw_{June 6, 2016
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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. ... She said new developments in neuroscience could make it possible to consider extremists as people with mental illness rather than criminals.
Atheism is a faith-based belief system; it is impossible to prove God isn't there. That belief must be taken on faith. Modern history demonstrates that regimes hostile to theism -- atheistic regimes -- always end up killing innocent human beings by the millions. The discoveries of modern science have rendered atheism irrational. We now know the natural Universe had a beginning, so its cause must have been supernatural. We now know it was virtually impossible for the Universe to have mindlessly and accidentally fine-tuned itself such that life would become a possibility. We now know that the physical dimension of life is digital information-based, self-replicating nanotechnology the function complexity of which is light years beyond our own. Technology, by definition, is the application of knowledge for a purpose. Life then is the result of the application of the knowledge of the supernatural reality that launched and fine-tuned the Universe. So, since the evidence makes it clear that atheistic fundamentalism is irrational and is "potentially harmful to society," should we consider atheists "people with mental illness rather than criminals"?harry_{June 6, 2016
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“, I maintain that whatever else faith may be, it cannot be a delusion. The advantageous effect of religious belief and spirituality on mental and physical health is one of the best-kept secrets in psychiatry and medicine generally. If the findings of the huge volume of research on this topic had gone in the opposite direction and it had been found that religion damages your mental health, it would have been front-page news in every newspaper in the land.” - Professor Andrew Sims former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists - Is Faith Delusion?: Why religion is good for your health - preface https://books.google.com/books?id=PREdCgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11#v=onepage&q&f=false “In the majority of studies, religious involvement is correlated with well-being, happiness and life satisfaction; hope and optimism; purpose and meaning in life; higher self-esteem; better adaptation to bereavement; greater social support and less loneliness; lower rates of depression and faster recovery from depression; lower rates of suicide and fewer positive attitudes towards suicide; less anxiety; less psychosis and fewer psychotic tendencies; lower rates of alcohol and drug use and abuse; less delinquency and criminal activity; greater marital stability and satisfaction… We concluded that for the vast majority of people the apparent benefits of devout belief and practice probably outweigh the risks.” - Professor Andrew Sims former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists - Is Faith Delusion?: Why religion is good for your health – page 100 https://books.google.com/books?id=PREdCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q&f=false Knowledge of the afterlife deters suicide. Lessons From the Light by Kenneth Ring and Evelyn Elsaesser p.257-258: As far as I know, the first clinician to make use of NDE material in this context was a New York psychologist named John McDonagh. In 1979, he presented a paper at a psychological convention that described his success with several suicidal patients using a device he called “NDE bibliotherapy.” His “technique” was actually little more than having his patients read some relevant passages from Raymond Moody’s book, Reflections on Life after Life, after which the therapist and his patient would discuss its implications for the latter’s own situation. McDonagh reports that such an approach was generally quite successful not only in reducing suicidal thoughts but also in preventing the deed altogether. … Since McDonagh’s pioneering efforts, other clinicians knowledgeable about the NDE who have had the opportunity to counsel suicidal patients have also reported similar success. Perhaps the most notable of these therapists is Bruce Greyson, a psychiatrist now at the University of Virginia, whose specialty as a clinician has been suicidology. He is also the author of a classic paper on NDEs and suicide which the specialist may wish to consult for its therapeutic implications. (14) Quite apart from the clinicians who have developed this form of what we might call “NDE-assisted therapy,” I can draw upon my own personal experience here to provide additional evidence of how the NDE has helped to deter suicide. The following case,,, http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/03/video-lecture-by-john-lennox-explains.html
bornagain77_{June 6, 2016
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