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this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Persistent delusions are actually a mental illness
But they’re not persistent delusions. Delusions are, by definition, NOT cultural in origin. This is something that gets pretty well drilled into you when you study abnormal psychology. There’s a difference between someone’s brain malfunctioning and them simply being possessed of outdated cultural beliefs or traditions. It’s why religious beliefs aren’t considered mental illness, but still believing in Santa Claus when you’re an adult would be.
You’re right — it’s actually brain damage and cognitive impairment.
Damage to the prefrontal cortex resulting in cognitive inflexibility can result in a myriad of fixed beliefs—they’re not necessarily religious in nature.
And religious fundamentalism is a particular type of extreme religious belief; most people don’t hold to fundamentalism but are nonetheless religious, so the study doesn’t account for anywhere near all religiosity and certainly doesn’t refute the point that religious faith isn’t a form of mental illness.
I want to make something clear here: I’m an atheist and an antitheist, but I’m also a therapist and it really irks me when atheists try to conflate mental disorders with religion. It’s an example of atheists fueling their distaste for religion by giving in to amateurish ignorance about psychology. Learn what the fuck you’re talking about before trying to make claims that go against what all of the experts in a field of study agree upon. Honestly, atheists ought to know better.
that's just them special casing it so that they can avoid calling it a mental illness.
It's a persistent delusion fed to you by your parents, your parents feeding you it doesn't change that it's a delusion.
If someone raised their children to believe the tooth fairy was real and that everyone was going to lie and say that it wasn't and that you have to believe anyway, that'd be a delusion, but religion is special because...? the only difference is that more people are doing it.
The only reason for the cultural exclusion is because they don't want to define religion as a delusion, not because it isn't one. It meets EVERY single other criteria.
No, the reason religion is excluded is because delusions aren’t supposed to reflect cultural conditioning. Delusions are, by their very definition, an abnormal brain process. Cultural beliefs are not abnormal brain processes, no matter how irrational they are.
Please understand that this exception is accepted by the entire field of psychology. If you disagree with it, you have 200 years of psychological debate and study to contend with. Don’t pretend you’ve read enough to claim you have grounds to disagree with something the entire field of psychology considers a settled issue. No matter how much you wish religion is a mental illness, it’s not. Sadly, the irrationality of religion is fully explainable within the bounds of normal human psychology.
That's what i'm saying, the reason that cultural beliefs aren't allowed to be delusions is simply because they don't want to make religion a delusion. It's common, so, it's not a delusion. That's the end of the reasoning. Should we really say that anything that's commonly believed isn't a delusion? I think that's an exception made for a logical reason, it defends the field of psychology from culture, but cultures can share delusions.
The reason this exception exists is precisely as i've said, they've special cased it because they don't want to define religion/cultural beliefs as mental illnesses. The very reason for this exception is because they don't want it to count, not because it doesn't meet every single other (much more important might I add) criteria.
they're essentially going "yeah, these are delusions, but uh, enough people believe them and we don't want to piss them off so here's an exception"
I personally don't think that's valid at all, but I can see why they'd do it.
Just because a delusion is normal to have, doesn't mean it shouldn't be a delusion.
No, you’re wrong and I’m not going to debate this with you. Study some psychology before making false claims. Good-bye.
Source: dude just trust me
Some people will stick their head in the sand no matter how much logic or evidence is presented to them. When religion, or anything really, becomes a part of someone’s identity it is almost impossible to change. Similar to anti-vaccine nutters it has to do with ego and pride. These people can not admit to themselves they were fooled.