Religion Is Insanity

Is there a God? If so, what is She like?

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RCSaunders
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Religion Is Insanity

Post by RCSaunders »

The human mind infected with religion is like the brain demented by drugs. Some handle it better than others, but all religious individuals are a little insane.

Here is specimen:
[Also here, here, here, and here.]

So this is big news in the religious world, and other Christians are calling it evil and saying it's anti-Biblical and Satanic. And, of course, it is being called racist, but nobody is pointing out the poor woman is suffering from a total mental breakdown.

She's a Doctor of theology, a psychologist, and an academic who has expressed a desire to embrace the most self-destructive of all emotions fostered by those disciplines--hate. She never had a chance and I frankly feel very sorry for her.

In case you think this is an anomaly, praying for hate is a Biblical idea:

Psalms 26:5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.
Psalms 139:21 Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
Psalms 139:22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
Dubious
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Dubious »

That's only true because the human race itself is the biggest nut nursery the planet ever created.
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Dontaskme »

The true nature of being is the unknown.

Religion is formed from the idea that there is a separate personal automony in a knowing relationship with the unknown.

This personal automonous knowing relationship is an illusion.
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RCSaunders
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by RCSaunders »

Dubious wrote: Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:23 am That's only true because the human race itself is the biggest nut nursery the planet ever created.
H.L. Mencken said much the same thing:

"So long as there are men in the world, 99 percent of them will be idiots, and so long as 99 percent of them are idiots they will thirst for religion ..."

and

"The costliest of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind."

I agree with you both.
uwot
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by uwot »

The insane thing about christianity is that in order to gain eternal life, you have to hate the one you already have.
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Lacewing
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Lacewing »

A religious mindset seems to typically protect and sustain itself by manifesting stories and evasive maneuvers -- despite the fact that such things make no sense and are full of inconsistencies. That does nothing to deter one whose identity is desperately dependent on it.

Humans seem to struggle with accepting the unknown... so they claim to know things they cannot. They dress it up and give it a name, and claim to have a close relationship with it. They embellish it and attempt to validate it with more stories and predictions. They are intoxicated or empowered further by being part of a crowd. But, absurdly, their religious crowd is better and more true than other religious crowds.

Typically...
> They are here to assist in "converting/saving" non-believers, but if you reject their bizarre notions, they will quickly condemn you.
> They claim that love is demonstrated/earned through horrific sacrifice and suffering, and eternal torture awaits if you disagree.
> They claim that humans are wretches and sinners, yet also the masters over the rest of creation.
> They claim that something better than this life magically awaits.
> Many use religion to validate and/or glorify themselves most of all.

Religious "faith" appears to be the hope that what one wants to believe/imagine...is true.
Rather than seeing and embracing what makes sense, and what is already in perfect alignment, as it is.
Humans want to change it and own it (whatever it is), and they create the terms of it to suit themselves.
Then they forget they did that... and they end up being enslaved by it.
And they spread it like a plague.

Lies, rejection, and blindness... while living in a vast garden of possibilities.
Yep, that does seem to be insanity.
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by seeds »

RCSaunders wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 8:45 pm "Religion Is Insanity"
Clearly, most of what is handed down to us from ancient minds via the world's religions is indeed just a bunch of mythological nonsense.

However,...

(and setting aside the childishly naïve descriptions of such an entity)

...is the idea that the unfathomable order of the universe might be the product of a higher (transcendent) intelligence (as opposed to chance) any more "insane" than the "scientific" proposal that there could exist infinite copies of each and everyone of us living in infinite copies of this universe?...

...(as is suggested in the the "Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics").

And the point is that "insane" notions regarding the nature of reality are not limited to religions.
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Immanuel Can
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Immanuel Can »

RCSaunders wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 8:45 pm The human mind infected with religion is like the brain demented by drugs. Some handle it better than others, but all religious individuals are a little insane.

Here is specimen:
So this is somebody who says she's a "Theist" of some kind, but clearly has no regard at all for the words of Christ in Matthew 5:43 -- “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ..." So even if this person actually had "enemies," her responsibility is to love them... and she thinks God's going to help her to hate people?

...and all "religions" are supposed to be dubbed "insanity" on the basis of her wing nut views?

Sorry...that's too silly for me. Not gonna play.
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Lacewing
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Lacewing »

Immanuel Can wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 12:52 am ...and all "religions" are supposed to be dubbed "insanity" on the basis of her wing nut views?
As usual, you dishonestly distort and minimize when it doesn't serve you. RCSaunders said that was a specimen. Meanwhile, other examples have been given, as well as human history being undeniably FULL of religious insanity. Do you deny it?
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Immanuel Can
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Immanuel Can »

Lacewing wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 3:31 am RCSaunders said that was a specimen.
Well, the value of a "specimen" is if it is typical or indicative in some way. That one's not.

Weird outliers are only that...weird outliers. They don't tell you anything at all about the main
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Dontaskme
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Dontaskme »

Morpheus says to Neo :arrow:
"You have to understand that many people are not ready to be unplugged, and many of them are so inured,
so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it."

_______

What system ?
The system that is of most value and worthy of fighting and protecting here is the ( human illusory ego and it's imaginary story telling ) there is absolutely no-thing known outside of this fictional conceptual arena.

Man and his god are like peas in a pod. Where ego I go.
The mind of man bolsters it's delusional stance and it's illusory persona with the idea that there is something bigger and better and higher than itself. It forms alliances with those predisposed to the same delusions, and will fight and protect it's delusions to the death.


Ultimately all gods emerge and live in the hominid brain (ego) and as long as they are granted power over the dream-kingdom people will submit to them.

I am speaking to the innate suffering that accompanies the sense of being a separate self and the tendency to result to religion to assuage that pain.The conceptual self is the cause and result of all confusion, misery, mental pain and suffering seen in the world since the dawn of man.
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RCSaunders
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by RCSaunders »

Immanuel Can wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 3:52 am
Lacewing wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 3:31 am RCSaunders said that was a specimen.
Well, the value of a "specimen" is if it is typical or indicative in some way. That one's not.

Weird outliers are only that...weird outliers. They don't tell you anything at all about the main
Well that may be your idea of a specimen. Usually a specimen is the most precise example. A specimen of a diamond would not be the tiny rough common every-day one, but a large cut one that illustrated its spectacular nature. A specimen of a toxic plant's toxicity, like the giant hogweed, would be the largest possible, with pictures of the dark painful blisters, scars, and blindness it causes the body, just as religion causes diseases of the mind. A specimen of religion's affect on the mind would be the most radical example, like the one I provided or the following:

Buddhist monk chops off head with guillotine for 'good luck.'

All religion is self-induced insanity.
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Immanuel Can
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Immanuel Can »

RCSaunders wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 2:51 pm Usually a specimen is the most precise example.
Then this isn't even a "specimen." It's just an outlier.

You can see the woman has no grasp of her own theology at all. She isn't any example of Christianity, let alone an example of other religions.

Imagine if I told you all secularists were homicidal because one particular secularist was...and we could point to many, of course. Would you not point out to me instantly that that was a rash conclusion, a generalization with nowhere near sufficient evidence? You should. And if it turned out that the one person I mentioned didn't even have a grasp of what secularism entails, and was actually something else, then you ought not to be believing me at all.

I can see no way in which this "specimen" you've provided is in any way reflective. But hey, at least she shows this much: when somebody's determined to find a reason to hate, they'll find it. They don't need facts, or reasons or evidence. They'll just do it.
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RCSaunders
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by RCSaunders »

Immanuel Can wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 2:58 pm I can see no way in which this "specimen" you've provided is in any way reflective. But hey, at least she shows this much: when somebody's determined to find a reason to hate, they'll find it. They don't need facts, or reasons or evidence. They'll just do it.
Well, I certainly didn't expect you to agree, but I agree with your observation about hate.

It has actually always bewildered me. Of all the human emotions men embrace, hate is the most pointless and self-destructive. All feelings are deceptive, if one attempts to base their thinking on their feelings, but hate is the worst and most irrational of them all. No matter how bad a thing is, hate has never and can never make anything better. It is the ultimate self-abuse.
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Immanuel Can
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Re: Religion Is Insanity

Post by Immanuel Can »

RCSaunders wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:02 pm
Immanuel Can wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 2:58 pm I can see no way in which this "specimen" you've provided is in any way reflective. But hey, at least she shows this much: when somebody's determined to find a reason to hate, they'll find it. They don't need facts, or reasons or evidence. They'll just do it.
Well, I certainly didn't expect you to agree, but I agree with your observation about hate.

It has actually always bewildered me. Of all the human emotions men embrace, hate is the most pointless and self-destructive. All feelings are deceptive, if one attempts to base their thinking on their feelings, but hate is the worst and most irrational of them all. No matter how bad a thing is, hate has never and can never make anything better. It is the ultimate self-abuse.
Well, I think I kind of get it. Hatred is a very easy emotion, very natural to human beings. They enjoy it, because it makes them feel superior, or a righteous victim, or a fighter against oppression. They enjoy those kinds of roles.

They use all kinds of ideological excuses for it: "oppression," or "the good of society," or "race," or "privilege," or any other excuse that seems to elevate their petty emotions to a higher moral level. It might not be virtuous to hate other people generally, but it's said to be wonderful to "punch a Nazi" or "hate the oppressor," or "rise up in righteous rage," or "be a freedom fighter," and so on.

It's all very nasty. And as you can see, it's all dead opposite to what Jesus Christ told those who walk in his footsteps to do. So I think it's very safe to say that there are much better models one can choose to represent what the faith really is than this woman. She clearly doesn't even know the first thing about love....namely, that she has herself, if she is even really a Christian, has been forgiven so much that she has forever lost any right to hate anybody.
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