whichphilosophy

Some interesting points, but as I don't have time to reply to them I will just comment for what its worth.

Religion or Atheism or having the occasional bet, having a drink now and then do not mean the person is insane (from anothers point of view).

However obsessions about religion, Atheism, compuslive gambolling and alchoholism are obsessions.

When the obsessions become acute then there is a problem. If we were to label everyone insane on the basis of religion or any other ism that is unacceptable to an existing status quo, it would mean that since our world is virtually insane and assylums would be build to keep the lunatics out, not in.

Another thing is an insane person or a criminal will often use something as an excuse. Religion or any other ism, when highjacked by fanatics like Hitler, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao's late wife, Stalin, the Spanish Inquisition etc., point to our own short falls, greed for power money etc.

Another danger is when one is fanatically opposed to fanatics, as soon as they take over they would be just as bad, except they lead another herd.

That's all folks.

Yahzi

That's not quite true: part of the defintion of being Jewish was "practicing the Jewish religion." The other part was having more than 2 grandparents that were Jewish. Note that by this definition, Jesus is not Jewish. Tricky Nazis, eh?

As far as I know, no-one has ever actually figured out why Hitler hated Jews. He was quite grateful to the Jewish doctor that treated his mother without being paid in full, when he was a young man. he fell in with a bunch of anti-semites when he started his career, and seems to have just used it as a poltical tool; but by the end, he was as rabid as they come. Nobody knows why.

aikido7

I am probably crazy, but I have always suspected that religion and insanity come from the same area of the brain (along with paradox, metaphor and humor). The religious person is able to swim, while the schizophrenic thrashes about wildly.

Ovazor

You are right. It is funny how the religous beliefs of person's grandparents were considered more important that the actual beliefs of the person in question. T

whichphilosophy

Is this scientific proof that religion causes insanity? :rolling:

aikido7

No. Just my opinion that insanity, metaphor, religion, etc. arise from the same brain area/signal/pattern.

But I am sure Stephen Hawking has a better idea.

Bright Life

If this turns into some back and forth bantering about who is the worst kind of person, I'm just gonna close this thread. If anyone has any scientific proof of any of the points presented so far, well then it can go to S&S. General bickering is pointless, and it lowers the level of civility we strive to maintain here at IIDB.

Bright Life
GRD Moderator

whichphilosophy

I know, so you no doubt agree that opinion is different from fact.

whichphilosophy

An important distinction you made. A lot of people don't seem able to make the distinction you made.

I may also add that the mental state of the religious extremist or other extremist would dictate how they direct their fanatatical acts, which in turn causes a further deterioration of their mental state.

So whether Pol Pot was in a Christian or non-Christian society he would have performed the same acts.

aikido7

whichphilosophy,

Anthropologist and generalist Gregory Bateson made the same points about schizophrenia and metaphor arising from the same mental domain. I think the book I am thinking of is Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity.

If you want, I can probably move all of my Weekly World News copies and my Teen Beat collection and find it. If you are really interested in the direction I am attempting to point to, I will see what I can come up with.

I think we need to bear in mind that much of scientific work on the mind is, ipso facto, conjecture. Based on facts, surely, but in the end largely theory.