Does religion equal addiction?

Question

In many ways we can say yes most wholeheartedly. Just like the junkie who is looking for the best high, so to does the religious addict seek to find the best high that any religion will provide. If one religion does not give them that high they seek out another to try and find it.
What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

I'd say that's a very appropriate analogy. The religious do experience very genuinely profound and seemingly transcendent feelings when they involve themselves in prayer or meditation or worship. I would never dispute this.

What I WOULD dispute is where credit should be given for these experiences. They attribute their ability to feel these things to a deity whereas I would see them in a neuroscientific, philosophical and introspective terms.

As Sam Harris said:

There is little doubt that a certain range of human experience can be appropriately described as "spiritual" and "mystical" - experiences of meaningfulness, selflessness, and heightened emotion that surpass our narrow identities as "selves" and escape our current understanding of the mind and brain. But nothing about these experiences justifies arrogant and exclusionary claims about the unique sanctity of any text.

Answer 2

Looks as if you are determining the difference between a religious person and a spititual one.
A religious person is one who is looking for god,in essence it is as you say, I mean, one who is looking for the Best so called 'High", and when they don't find it there they look for another, looking for someone to tell them something that they want to hear, in other words, they want them to tell them "sweet nothings" and make them feel good.
A Spiritual Person on the other hand, is one who has found God.
I am the latter, I did not however seek Him, He sought me.

Jhn 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

I know God exist's because I met Him.
Believe it or not, Lack of belief in God does not deminish the truth of what I know to be an absolute fact, and not you or anyone else for that matter can change that or stop me from spreading the gospel of truth.
This is a war for the souls of people, one that Christ will win.

Rom 14:11 For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

I also know this because I read the end of the Bible, we win.

Answer 3

It can happen that way. Every human endeavor is susceptible to addictive behavior. Many of the "charismatic" churches tend to play to that crowd. They are very dramatic, talking in tongues, ect... I think most people do not follow religion for that purpose though. Most are a part of the church through tradition or personal needs being met...as well as some genuine believers.

Answer 4

Didn't you ask this same question last month? At least somebody did. Yahoo should have informed you that there have been many similar questions. Anyhow, some addictions are negative (alcohol and other drugs, gambling, sex, etc), some not so much so (exercise, reading, etc), and some are beneficial. For the MOST part, religion would fall under that last category. YBIC

Answer 5

Depends on the individual. Some people make an addiction of the religion, others not. And we have to be careful because everything that is in excess does badly.

Answer 6

it can, they usually have one religion "the drug of choice", once they find what they are looking for they stick with it.
When people are down and looking for answers, some turn to self pity, some to drugs, some to religion. Some just turn to faith.
Faith and religion aren't the same thing. Take AA for example, just accepting a higher power has helped many people with addictions. I think we can all agree AA is a pretty good thing.

Answer 7

Indeed, and we have to be careful.
My religion (Judiasm) does not believe in the superiority of any religion IE anyone in the world can be a person living well or "in the Lord's image".

But look at what has happend in much of the Arabic world, they have taught people their religion overly, doing things like memorize the Quaran by rote instead of learning by theory...
And over the last thousand years these Arabic nations have gone from world powers to nearly third-world establishments often competing violently over religiously significant land (for example, Israel). For many of them, religion is their only drug, and, as such, it leads them often to war and bad use of resources, not happiness.

Same goes with the US. We often flaunt religion often spending huge sums of money on things like churches (In Houston, for example, Lakewood Church takes up an entire, hotel-like decorated sports stadium (previously the Compaq Center where the Houston Rockets played).
This is indirectly violent because this "spiritual money" should, in large part, be used for charity instead, saving people in third-world countries by giving them food and educating them well enough so they can earn their own food in the future.

Medicine (IE "light drugs"), in moderation, helps us put our problems aside and brings people together in religious communities. And, in the same way, any religion can be very valuable communally.
In excess, it causes people to run rampantly between different "drug" religions and snatch ego from them, rather than strong values.

We have to be cautious to veer toward moderation, though, otherwise our religions will become somewhat Machiavellian indulgences, and do the opposite of what we created them for.

Answer 8

Actually, no. It makes no more sense than sex = addiction or exercise = addiction or love = addiction. I'm sure the premise fits whatever agenda you are espousing, but it's taking an idea to rather ridiculous extreme.

Answer 9

I believe religion can equal addiction. My mother in law is addicted to religion. That is literally her end all and be all.

Answer 10

I agree one hundred%. And confident, risky issues can come from faith. seem on the Spanish Inquisition. seem what's happening now interior the middle East. faith is in all risk the #a million explanation for the international's problems.