Is religion a mental illness?

Question

I can’t think of any other explanation for it.

¨Mental disorders are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning.¨

It appears to be hereditary.

Answer 1

LOL...I think it's a two way street.

Some people’s practice of religion is like a mental illness;

AND for others…their mental illness is practiced with a religious fervor.

Answer 2

Organized religion is not a mental illness, it's a curse, and it's a bastardization of the message of the Christ.

It's the organization of religion and the extremes they occasionally take that can/should be mistaken for mentall illness. Look at the Muslim extremists.

As a pagan, they don't have a church that covers any of my beliefs. Non-demoninational churches come close.

Read up on Science of Mind. It's interesting in that it shows how we actually create our own reality.

Answer 3

There are certainly days when I would associate one with the other...especially as an American who cherishes the separation of church and state, and has been watching it slowly get eaten away since the McCarthy Era.

Howvever, I must admit that organized religion does bring some people emotional/psychological comfort--that it actually relieves their distress--and so I can't EQUATE one with the other.

I guess I just wish that most religious people (especially Christians) actually enacted/embodied the core values of their religion...too often I see compassion neglected in favor of aggression, tolerance thrown aside in favor of segregation, and and non-judgementalism trampled by those who would cast stones.

Answer 4

Religion is a belief in an idea - not a mental disorder.
It keeps many people mentally healthy believing that there more to life than just existing. People want to believe that there is a superior being.
I am sure that my answer is not going to change your mind, but that's your right to believe what you believe.
It's not hereditary, since it's not something you have in your genes.

Answer 5

lol. Everyone is looking for something. Everyone has a god. For you it may be knowledge. It's sorta funny. If you don't believe in God why have morals? If there is no God what created the atom that blew up and created everything? Nothing can't appear from nothing so there must have been someone who created us and the universe. Look up the probability of evolution and then lookup the probability of some creating the universe (or intelligent design).....

Answer 6

You look to anticipate that "faith" could communicate with the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, no longer all faiths enroll in those scriptures, or maybe to any. As a Pagan i think that the Gods created the Universe and the organic regulations by making use of which it runs, those regulations contain probability and success. psychological ailments, like quite a few different form, or, for that rely organic mess ups, happens via probability no longer layout and coping with them is a factor of the human concern. The Gods additionally gave us loose will, so we are responsible for voluntary movements according to what all of us be responsive to or have faith, which ability psychological ailment is a element interior the end results of those movements. technology is a gadget for info how the universe works, spirituality is a ability of exploring your dating with the Gods, the two can not in any way conflict provided that they address 2 separate subjects.

Answer 7

No, religion is not a mental illness. People are searching for where they belong in the scheme of things. Aren't you? The search for a spiritual connection is not a mental illness, it is an inner longing for something more, and something more real, than what this physical life has to offer. Many people find their answers.

Answer 8

there was a Sufi poet who wrote --
"Khudi ko kar buland itna ki har takdeer se pehle,
Khuda bande se khud pooche, bata teri raza kya hai
sitaaroan se aage jahan aur bhi hai"

it means --
" O human! make ur WILL so strong,
that one day before all of the humanity
God Himself will ask -- what is ur wish? u decide it for urself.
there is more of the worlds beyond the stars a plain sight could see.

what we see is what we think "exists", yet it doesnt mean that the Unseen doesnt exist. there is more to be discovered from the Unknown.

Answer 9

All high standards of truthful, beautiful and good living derive from the Teachings of the Messengers of the One True God. All great saints in various countries also come from there.

Answer 10

I did a clinical rotation in a psch ward and a lot iof the most severe cases were people that were thinking that they were Jesus, God or read the bible a lot (obsessively) I just think that is interesting that a mental illness would manifest itself in this way, and it is super prevalent!