Is Religion A Mental Illness?

[The Cummunist State]

Seems awfully limiting for an all powerful being.

He gave Adam and Eve choice. They chose wrong. What does that say about God? He likes freedom. That's pretty much it.

The tree was the tree of knowledge. They had no way of knowing that eating from it was bad. Then god decided because they were convinced by one of his creations to eat from it, he would burn everyone forever. It says that Yahweh is a complete idiot, evil, or both, if he even exists

[Ezlo]

You need a "depends on the religion" answer. Religions such as Buddhism, no, not at all. Things like Christianity or Islam, yes. You believe that a being you can't detect with any of the 5 senses created the universe, the world, etc etc, and that they watch over you. That's a mental illness.

One could easily argue the opposite point. One could argue that believing in a process that:
we cannot observe and have never observed
caused all life on Earth to evolve and grow from bacteria
has only a vague fossil record
MIGHT also be a mental illness.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting either way of thinking. I'll never know exactly how the world came to be. I'm only saying that neither school of thought has much basis in reason and logic.
But only one of those groups claims to follow reason and logic. The other follows its beliefs with faith.

[Mavorpen]

He gave Adam and Eve choice. They chose wrong. What does that say about God? He likes freedom. That's pretty much it.

Whut? Freedom is saying, "Eat this apple from the Tree of KNOWLEDGE, which won't hurt ANYONE at all and sin, or stay with me and tell me how pretty perfect I am." Not much freedom there.

[Samuraikoku]

He gave Adam and Eve choice. They chose wrong. What does that say about God? He likes freedom. That's pretty much it.

If he did really like freedom, he would have explained Adam and Eve what the consequences of their acts would have been. You know, informed consent in the terms of the law.

[The Cummunist State]

You need a "depends on the religion" answer. Religions such as Buddhism, no, not at all. Things like Christianity or Islam, yes. You believe that a being you can't detect with any of the 5 senses created the universe, the world, etc etc, and that they watch over you. That's a mental illness.

One could easily argue the opposite point. One could argue that believing in a process that:
we cannot observe and have never observed
caused all life on Earth to evolve and grow from bacteria
has only a vague fossil record
MIGHT also be a mental illness.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting either way of thinking. I'll never know exactly how the world came to be. I'm only saying that neither school of thought has much basis in reason and logic.
But only one of those groups claims to follow reason and logic. The other follows its beliefs with faith.

We can observe Evolution. Hell, we've been observing it ever since we realized the common cold resists our medications.

[Norstal]

Seems awfully limiting for an all powerful being.

He gave Adam and Eve choice. They chose wrong. What does that say about God? He likes freedom. That's pretty much it.

"Look little Timmy, you can eat all those candies, but it will not be my parental responsibility if you or your descendants get diabetes later in life."

:|

Really, god should just uproot the tree and plant it near his own house.

[Jerusalem and Damascus]

You need a "depends on the religion" answer. Religions such as Buddhism, no, not at all. Things like Christianity or Islam, yes. You believe that a being you can't detect with any of the 5 senses created the universe, the world, etc etc, and that they watch over you. That's a mental illness.

One could easily argue the opposite point. One could argue that believing in a process that:
we cannot observe and have never observed
caused all life on Earth to evolve and grow from bacteria
has only a vague fossil record
MIGHT also be a mental illness.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting either way of thinking. I'll never know exactly how the world came to be. I'm only saying that neither school of thought has much basis in reason and logic.
But only one of those groups claims to follow reason and logic. The other follows its beliefs with faith.

Yeah I'm going to have to side with Cummie on this. Evolution is fairly well-documented. Doesn't mean it couldn't be disproven, just that it seems disingenous to call something like evolution evenly remotely approaching "crazy" territory.

[Furious Grandmothers]

He gave Adam and Eve choice. They chose wrong. What does that say about God? He likes freedom. That's pretty much it.

Whut? Freedom is saying, "Eat this apple from the Tree of KNOWLEDGE, which won't hurt ANYONE at all and sin, or stay with me and tell me how pretty perfect I am." Not much freedom there.

That apple was the first ever jailbait in the history of mankind, I swear. Well, that's if Wiki's accounts of the first application of the apple as food happening only very late in our history in 328 BCE is true. What, not 6000 years ago?

[Ezlo]

We can observe Evolution. Hell, we've been observing it ever since we realized the common cold resists our medications.

I just gotta be the antagonist here.
Now I'm not a doctor or a microbiologist, but I can look around and see the vast variety of life on this planet. One could make the argument that the cold viruses are NOT evolving to fit the vaccine. Is it possible that the different strains have always been around and we just haven't cured all of them yet?
Granted, there's no evidence to support this, but it is an interesting take.

[Jerusalem and Damascus]

Whut? Freedom is saying, "Eat this apple from the Tree of KNOWLEDGE, which won't hurt ANYONE at all and sin, or stay with me and tell me how pretty perfect I am." Not much freedom there.

That apple was the first ever jailbait in the history of mankind, I swear. Well, that's if Wiki's accounts of the first application of the apple as food happening only very late in our history in 328 BCE is true. What, not 6000 years ago?

While the RCC says Genesis is allegorical I do have to chime in here -- there was no apple. That was a more recent European addition. The Bible only says "fruit", and it's probably likely they meant a "fig" when referring to the Forbidden Fruit, which had been cultivated since 2 500 BCE (at least, that's as far as we can trace back based on Sumerian sources). So, still not 6 000 years, but closer than 328 BC.

[Jerusalem and Damascus]

We can observe Evolution. Hell, we've been observing it ever since we realized the common cold resists our medications.

I just gotta be the antagonist here.
Now I'm not a doctor or a microbiologist, but I can look around and see the vast variety of life on this planet. One could make the argument that the cold viruses are NOT evolving to fit the vaccine. Is it possible that the different strains have always been around and we just haven't cured all of them yet?
Granted, there's no evidence to support this, but it is an interesting take.

It's interesting, but so are tapdancing unicorns, and both have the same veracity.

[Uruk Castle]

yes it is

[Lunas Equestria]

i completely agree with what religion has caused over the years ( I am a atheist). However religion was the science before science and it is in our culture and hard to shake off. Some Genetic studies also show the religious fervor is genetic. To some people it provides hope. Sadly some people over use this message and distor it beyond what it was. Calling it a mental illness is wrong. To many religon is a sort of crutch. Arguably like alcoholism and drugs, though much more aceptable. It helps one copes with the death of a loves one to know that they will see them when they die.

[The Cummunist State]

We can observe Evolution. Hell, we've been observing it ever since we realized the common cold resists our medications.

I just gotta be the antagonist here.
Now I'm not a doctor or a microbiologist, but I can look around and see the vast variety of life on this planet. One could make the argument that the cold viruses are NOT evolving to fit the vaccine. Is it possible that the different strains have always been around and we just haven't cured all of them yet?
Granted, there's no evidence to support this, but it is an interesting take.

*sighs* Well, no. Not really. There are testings and what not. But even so, Evolution would still be proven with the mountains of other evidence.

[Mavorpen]

I just gotta be the antagonist here.
Now I'm not a doctor or a microbiologist, but I can look around and see the vast variety of life on this planet. One could make the argument that the cold viruses are NOT evolving to fit the vaccine. Is it possible that the different strains have always been around and we just haven't cured all of them yet?
Granted, there's no evidence to support this, but it is an interesting take.

Except you're forgetting the fact that we've tested this in the lab, with controls for these types of things.

[Simon Cowell of the RR]

He gave Adam and Eve choice. They chose wrong. What does that say about God? He likes freedom. That's pretty much it.

The tree was the tree of knowledge. They had no way of knowing that eating from it was bad. Then god decided because they were convinced by one of his creations to eat from it, he would burn everyone forever. It says that Yahweh is a complete idiot, evil, or both, if he even exists

You completely missed the point. God said not to do something. Adam and Eve did. God got a little PO and kicked them out of Eden. The actual crime was mildly irrelevant.

[The Cummunist State]

The tree was the tree of knowledge. They had no way of knowing that eating from it was bad. Then god decided because they were convinced by one of his creations to eat from it, he would burn everyone forever. It says that Yahweh is a complete idiot, evil, or both, if he even exists

You completely missed the point. God said not to do something. Adam and Eve did. God got a little PO and kicked them out of Eden. The actual crime was mildly irrelevant.

That's like me telling a dog to sit for the first time, and then when he doesn't I brutally burn him to death then use magic to Resurrect him and keep burning him forever.

[Furious Grandmothers]

The tree was the tree of knowledge. They had no way of knowing that eating from it was bad. Then god decided because they were convinced by one of his creations to eat from it, he would burn everyone forever. It says that Yahweh is a complete idiot, evil, or both, if he even exists

You completely missed the point. God said not to do something. Adam and Eve did. God got a little PO and kicked them out of Eden. The actual crime was mildly irrelevant.

But god also knew that after telling them not to do it, they would do it anyway. What does that say about him?

[Thatchland]

The tree was the tree of knowledge. They had no way of knowing that eating from it was bad. Then god decided because they were convinced by one of his creations to eat from it, he would burn everyone forever. It says that Yahweh is a complete idiot, evil, or both, if he even exists

You completely missed the point. God said not to do something. Adam and Eve did. God got a little PO and kicked them out of Eden. The actual crime was mildly irrelevant.

Yeah, I mean which would be simpler and more efficient to do:

1. Ban 2 people from paradise, punish them and their 7 billion descendants, deal with their whining, praying, whimpering, blasphemy, etc etc etc
2. Kill the 2 people, get rid of the darned tree, get rid of the instigator and make 2 new people

For being omnipotent, and all - sure makes some bad decisions.

[Nornalhorst]

He gave Adam and Eve choice. They chose wrong. What does that say about God? He likes freedom. That's pretty much it.

If he did really like freedom, he would have explained Adam and Eve what the consequences of their acts would have been. You know, informed consent in the terms of the law.

He did. He told Adam he would die if he ate from the tree.

[The Cummunist State]

If he did really like freedom, he would have explained Adam and Eve what the consequences of their acts would have been. You know, informed consent in the terms of the law.

He did. He told Adam he would die if he ate from the tree.

"Hey, here's a tree I made with really tasty fruit right in front of you that my creations will tell you to eat, and they're right because eating that fruit will make you much better as human beings and allow you to think for yourselves, but if you eat from it you will die, except I didn't tell you about the fact that you won't just die, you'll also be burned forever. Have fun!"

[Nornalhorst]

You completely missed the point. God said not to do something. Adam and Eve did. God got a little PO and kicked them out of Eden. The actual crime was mildly irrelevant.

Yeah, I mean which would be simpler and more efficient to do:

1. Ban 2 people from paradise, punish them and their 7 billion descendants, deal with their whining, praying, whimpering, blasphemy, etc etc etc
2. Kill the 2 people, get rid of the darned tree, get rid of the instigator and make 2 new people

For being omnipotent, and all - sure makes some bad decisions.

Or maybe more likely this was all according to plan, the fact that he is omniscient and that he even placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden in the first place shows that in a way he intended for this to happen. He gave Adam and Eve a choice both leading down a different evolutionary path for humanity they could either eat from the Tree of Life and become powerful, unintelligent, immortals and live in a perfect environment or they could eat from the Tree of Knowledge and become extremely intelligent mortal beings who are weak and frail, live in an imperfect environment and have to deal with the consequences of intelligence and evil. The punishment they recieved also makes perfect sense, you may think God is being sexist for giving women increased labor pain but if you think about it the reason humans have so much difficulty delivering children is because of the size of the child's head which is caused by a larger brain that gives us our increased intelligence. The punishment for the man being he has to work until he dies also makes sense with our increased intelligence we want civilization we are no longer content with leading simple lives of picking fruit and running away from scary predators we want more so we have to work to get it.

[The Cummunist State]

Yeah, I mean which would be simpler and more efficient to do:

1. Ban 2 people from paradise, punish them and their 7 billion descendants, deal with their whining, praying, whimpering, blasphemy, etc etc etc
2. Kill the 2 people, get rid of the darned tree, get rid of the instigator and make 2 new people

For being omnipotent, and all - sure makes some bad decisions.

Or maybe more likely this was all according to plan, the fact that he is omniscient and that he even placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden in the first place shows that in a way he intended for this to happen. He gave Adam and Eve a choice both leading down a different evolutionary path for humanity they could either eat from the Tree of Life and become powerful, unintelligent, immortals and live in a perfect environment or they could eat from the Tree of Knowledge and become extremely intelligent mortal beings who are weak and frail, live in an imperfect environment and have to deal with the consequences of intelligence and evil. The punishment they recieved also makes perfect sense, you may think God is being sexist for giving women increased labor pain but if you think about it the reason humans have so much difficulty delivering children is because of the size of the child's head which is caused by a larger brain that gives us our increased intelligence. The punishment for the man being he has to work until he dies also makes sense with our increased intelligence we want civilization we are no longer content with leading simple lives of picking fruit and running away from scary predators we want more so we have to work to get it.

"Hey, since you ate from the tree of knowledge, I'm going to make it so that you have to be punished at every turn no matter what and unless you obey my strict commands that no human could live up to that I designed to be impossible then you are worthless and I hate you and you're going to burn forever because you either give into the strong urges I gave you that no one can resist, OR you do a bunch of horrible things to other people and then sing songs in my name and call me pretty names like 'Thou' and when talking to me spell He with a uppercase H. Have more fun!"

[Raeyh]

He did. He told Adam he would die if he ate from the tree.

"Hey, here's a tree I made with really tasty fruit right in front of you that my creations will tell you to eat, and they're right because eating that fruit will make you much better as human beings and allow you to think for yourselves, but if you eat from it you will die, except I didn't tell you about the fact that you won't just die, you'll also be burned forever. Have fun!"

The being burned forever is just the method to destroy an immortal soul. It's not really forever, either.

[Warped Aggression]

Religion of any kind is no more of mentall illness then a broken leg is.