Parakeet , here's my turning point post- http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/166727/1/Thanks-for-all-the-fish. I'd do a proper link but I'm on an iPad.
Posts by Qcmbr
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46Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
Ldmomo, I found myself reading the list going, ' that's crazy' and then I reminded myself what this thread was about and had a little chuckle.
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46
Jehovahs Witnesses and psychiatric diagnoses?
by Marvin Shilmer injehovahs witnesses and psychiatric diagnoses?.
today i added a new article to my blog sharing information from a 1983 study published in the journal for the scientific study of religion addressing religious affiliation and psychiatric diagnoses.
this article pulls information from an excellent academic study that is often misunderstood and therefore underutilized for its value.
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Qcmbr
In some ways this is good. I saw a lot of mentally abnormal people get a lot of love and acceptance in my own former religion and I often wondered what would have become of them without the church. Many of these people were fully functioning but socially reclusive and church gave them hope , purpose and structure. This is one area where I think religion can excel and I would expect to see a higher incidence of mental issues in the same way I would expect to find more sick people in a hospital.
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
Thanks for these illustrations Cofty, knowledge rocks. I'm off to look at Russian famines.
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
Tec - you are partially correct but I'd like to expand the definition a little. You get atheists who are democrats and a subset of them are child abusers. This, hopefully minuscule, set of people has three overlaid convictions which on further analysis will be subdividable into further groupings. Within each grouping there may be behaviour or assumptions that are 'crazy' to mainstream society and then there will be behaviours and thought processes that are 'crazy' when analysed rationally. Society agrees that children don't want to be abused so something thinking they do is assigned a 'crazy' evaluation. Republicans think that Democrat policies are 'crazy'. Science tells us that belief in a 6000 year old world and a flood causing Jehovah is 'crazy' but many Republicans may well think that the atheist position is 'crazy'. In short craziness is both a social tagging system and an intrinsic quality of some behaviour.
The article pointed this out quite well. All religious faiths recognise the craziness in their peers but are blind to their own; fashion encourages health damaging behaviour that science can point out but the fashion industry is blind to. A believer or non believer are all parts of many sub groups who may or may take part in social or scientific tagged craziness.
I think that faith based religions , including personal religions of one or two believers, are scientifically shown to be crazy because all physical assumptions ( for example the biblical flood ) made by faith based religions tend to fail 100% ( I will agree there is evidence that social structures in faiths can be beneficial to mental health but the lack of preference for any one religion argues against a specific god blessing those believers.) Western society is beginning to socially tag religious faith as crazy as well but faith has had a good run as the dominant meme in recorded human history.
Personally I do think the pronouncements of many who hear voices or get messages are crazy ( I don't wish to open the can of worms regarding brain illnesses now, to be clear, like the article, I am using the term 'crazy' in its social and scientific sense I.e. nonsense) not because they are good/bad, nasty/ lovely but simply because they are unable to substantiate extremely unusual viewpoints with anything other than dogmatic assertion and in some cases religious style group testifying ( so and so is right I feel the spirit tell me so ).
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
Not at all - if God appeared tomorrow the evidence would change my mind. For a believer who has faith in a young earth the evidence of the entire earth and all sciences is not enough. This is the difference and danger of faith as opposed to rational skepticism.
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
I think you can weave atheism into a dogmatic philosophy such as Stalinism but atheism itself isn't a belief unless contextualised as part of a philosophy. You could decide to enforce atheism as a central tenet of a philosophy at which point it ceases to simply be a stance of skepticism and you could turn it into a measure of commitment to a worldview. In certain Communist states I would be happy to say atheism is part of a belief system because you are expected to adopt a rejection of all gods as part of your faith in a political system. Here in the West not so much, there is no overarching political philosophy claiming it so it isn't subject to the same understanding, IMO, as a faith based belief. Atheism is pretty simple in this context.
Religion is part of the faith based paradigm that is so poisonous to mankind. When you decide you have a source of absolute truth you stop asking questions, you stop re-examining assumptions and you start making close minded decisions. You start defending a religion / party / philosophy and turning a blind eye to immorality. You end up with sane moral people sanctioning gas chambers, drinking kook aid laced with poison, flying aircraft into buildings and preaching door to door about an arbitrary set of statements that cannot be questioned. Faith is an all consuming beast, a true slave master and all the faithful are slaves whether they glory in it or not.
What is 'crazy' is our continuance in narrow paths of thought when a wealth of empiricle evidence is at our fingertips and self education is free. This is the first age when we truly choose to be ignorant or not.
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
Hi Parakeet, I'll look it up ( no time now , about to watch a film with family) but it was pretty traumatic experience which I am still exploring as I try to discover why I was able to believe like some of our board members despite reality staring me in the face every waking hour. It was not easy admitting to the board my awakening and I did contemplate never posting again in shame :)
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
I agree with the idea that religions can be viewed as crazy but when stepping back we can see that lots of religions have equally unfounded and bizarre behaviours. In addition to this I agree with the article's author that crazy behaviour is also seen in wider society such as in clothing.
As for discipleship I think you are being deliberately naive which leaves you either in the camp of being slightly devious or if you genuinely think posting an article is enough to denote discipleship then you aren't as on the ball as I give you credit for. I do think your support of AG which has moved beyond simple sympathy now to the stage where you are getting divine messages of support for her and of which you need to testify as a witness does place you into a disciple relationship. This is only a bad thing if you don't want to be her disciple.
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46
Crazy Religions
by Qcmbr ini was reading a good article regarding the relative 'craziness' of faiths (blog) and they mentioned a lot about mormons.
in short they talked about the socially accepted craziness (as opposed to actual mental illness) of mainstream , culturally accepted faiths v those that are relatively new.
we see scientology as more crazy than catholicism if we fall into the trap of judging without consideration but when examined all religions have very crazy elements.
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Qcmbr
I agree that dangerous religions are a different question , a religion like early Mormonism and the Heavens Gate group are extremely dangerous ( Mormonism almost tipped into full scale totalitarian hell) whereas some seem far more benign. The underlying justifications and regular practice is just as 'crazy' even if not harmful ( Mormon knickers never killed anything more serious than the odd romantic evening.) I find believing in a supernatural voices just as bonkers as sacrifing a pigeon to divine the future etc.