Why is it that when religious people say crazy things...?

Question

...it's ok, but once they act on the crazy things they say they are considered criminally insane and people of the same religion distance themselves from the incident and start saying that god would never say/do something like that?

Example: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060922/ap_on_re_us/children_in_bay;_ylt=Ah7ct6So96MI56UyGorDA3pvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

Here's a better explanation... How does anyone know god didn't actually tell this person to do that? What if what we view as schizophrenea is just what happens when god speaks to someone? You say god has a plan, and that everything happens according to his plan... at that you must believe that even though this woman was crazy she was still acting in a way that favors gods ultimate plan... where do you draw the distinction?

Answer 1

"While she knew people would criticize her or might try to stop her from tossing her children into the chilly water, she believed she had to do it because God commanded her, Gould said."

Is this not the same as the bible story about Abraham attempting to kill his son with an ax? What's the fundamental difference? The only difference I see is the lack of experienced psychiatrists during biblical times.

Answer 2

I read the article and it stated that she was a paranoid schizophrenic. Do you think she's not? I don't think it says anything about her religion in the article nor does it say anything about people of the same religion distancing themselves from her. But if you are asking a general question rather then one related to the article then as a religious person I don't believe that God is the cause of mental illness. I personally would not distance myself from someone because they were ill. There are many people, religious and otherwise, who distance themselves from the ill, both mentally and physically, simply because it's a very difficult thing to deal with. If you've ever had an illness in your family you will know how difficult it is to live with it everyday and sometimes you wonder if it will or could happen to you. People distance themselves not because of their religious affiliation but because of fear.

Answer 3

The story you are referring to and the "person" you are referring to and "not religious people" for this is a story about "one person"who has an illness called "schizophrenia" which is a mental disorder should not group all "religious" people in the same group. If there are people who "distant" themselves from the incident and say God would never do/say something like that, then they are not true christians or "religious people". We should all pray for that person. God would not do/say things like that, the person is sick.

Answer 4

Well, think about it... these these people believe that they inhabit a magical universe, which they share with talking snakes (with legs) and donkeys, a shepherd staff that turns into an asp, demons chased out of people and into pigs, friendly spirits, evil spirits, walking on water, multiplying loaves and fishes, food falling from the sky, conception by a ghost, people raised from the dead, the sun stopping in its tracks, parting seas, people being bodily sucked up into heaven (which, by the way, lies on the 'other side' of the sky), world-wide flood that drowned the earth to a depth of 40 feet above the tallest mountain, creating people from a dust bunny and a rib, a magical tree of knowledge, god speaking from a burning bush... and ritual cannibalism, by eating god in the form of a cracker.

In a sane world, anybody running around spouting ANY of that crap, would be locked up in the State Farm for the Funny. But in OUR crazy world, they think that there's something wrong with people who DON'T believe any of that ridiculous crap... UNTIL (as you say), one of them ACTS on one or more of those insane beliefs. THEN they decide he is nuts.

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Answer 5

The questions hard to answer when it's so general, but in answer to the example you gave, at least what I read of it, the woman is mentally imbalanced, which can be different from being a "religious" person. And ultimately, with the freewill man has been given, we can say whatever we want, but that doesn't make it true.

Answer 6

Heaven is an individual accomplishment.

"As regards the Word particularly, it has existed in every age, though not the Word we possess at the present day. Another Word existed in the Most Ancient Church before the Flood, and yet another Word in the Ancient Church after the Flood. Then came the Word written through Moses and the Prophets in the Jewish Church, and finally the Word written through the Evangelists in the new Church. The reason why the Word has existed in every age is that by means of the Word there is a communication between heaven and earth, and also that the Word deals with goodness and truth, by which a person is enabled to live in eternal happiness. In the internal sense therefore the Lord alone is the subject, for all goodness and truth are derived from Him" (Arcana Coelestia n. 2895).

Answer 7

Because they are CRAZY. They have chemical imbalances that heighten all feelings they have for God and their religion. They can't extract the lessons from the bible and take them literally. They hear voices and religious people who hear voices, hear crazy a.ss Godly and Demonic voices.

You can't compare an insane Christian to your neighbour who never misses a Sunday sermon.

Answer 8

It's called schizophrenia. If anyone had heard this woman saying anything about killing her children, it would not have been okay or accepted. Sometimes these people obsess on religion and sometimes its aliens. Whatever obsession they have, its not indicative of christianity, its pure insanity. So here you go, "God does not have us kill our children". He told Abraham to do it, but stopped him beforehand, cause guess what? It's wrong.

Answer 9

Fuzzy picture. Banana by your mouth? Is this some type of hint for the general public? Seriously, though, I don't get your point. The world is full of lowlifes. An isolated incident doesn't tell me anything. You're from San Francisco, right?

Answer 10

What crazy things do religious people say? No religious person would say it's ok to murder your children.

"Normal" people do not act on impulses. We have a general idea of what is right and what is wrong. But that doesn't stop us from having a very wrong impulse. Murder is a very wrong impulse.