religions and schizofrenia?

Question

Studying the Revelation based religions(Christianity, Judaism,Islam), one can know that they all came from one family.
Is it possible that a certain family was suffering from a certain mental disease in which the person hears and sees sounds and images which others don't. Actually,such a person cannot distinguish between thouhgts and reality. What ever we think, a certain chain of image moves in our mind. Normal persons can know that that is a thought and its image,but in certain persons, the images are so strong that they see them and can't believe that othes are not seeing them.
We know that Abraham,the father of this family, tried to slaughter his son as he heard God commanding to kill it. even today, such cases keep on coming on media: when a mother/father killed childs as they were asked to do so by some force.

Is it so?
I am not expert on the disease, I wish to know more on it as wel.

Answer 1

It is a good point. While being religious does not imply that one is schizophrenic, it is certainly striking how closely tied the two are. Our recent bout with "Leanne" is a quite obvious example, but there have been quite a few other religious posts here that were very probably the product of schizophrenics.

The basic demands of religious participation either attract schizophrenics or possibly even produce schizophrenics. I mean of course the fact that one is encouraged to say things like "I talk with God" and "My guardian angel saved my life" and "I see ghosts".

Answer 2

I am sure that some mental illness has been involved in all religions. Look at humanity as a whole, we have mental illnesses, have always had them, so any sub group would have to include those illnesses as well. Do I believe Christianity is the result of such illness, no. Do I believe that it has played a role in it, yes. But I wasn't there so can't say for sure.

Answer 3

There is a theory that visions can be accounted for by mental illnesses. On an individual level, schizophrenia or possibly temporal lobe epilepsy, and on a group level, hysteria.

They could also be due to a drug induced paranoia. It's common for shamans to use drugs to incite visions, and continues to happen in several parts of the world today. It's known that several of the plants shown being prepared in egyptian writings can have hallucinative effects. Maybe the book of revelations is just stolen from a smaller unknown shamanistic tribe, and is based on one such hallucination.

Atheism. You know it makes sense.

Answer 4

that may all be true, but then did 600,000 people have schizophrenia?

you know their is a little bit in the back of Exodus that talks about the entire nation of Israel listening to god at once.

if you could explain to me how that happened or how it was added in latter without people raising some eyebrows... please tell me.

Answer 5

Good point,Mental illness is evident all throughout the bible,,
Bizarre behavior dismissed as direction from god...and unfortunately mental illness is traceable in family linage.

Answer 6

you have a point (in a strange sort of way).

while i'm not a christian i think that there were too many different people involved in the writing of the bible for it to have been schizophrenia.
i don't really know very much about the koran, so i can't say.

Answer 7

i agree but people who kill and say God told them to they just assume it is gods voice they can hear in their heads but it is just their illness

Answer 8

good point! but they won't buy it.

and zippy.....who gives a crap if he misspelled it...he/she still has a good point!

Answer 9

hmmmmmmmmmmm

Do I detect a nonbeliever and paranoia?