Is a belief in creationism a sign of mental illness?

Question

It's hard to define mental illnesses like schizophrenia because it's so varied that most if not all of us have some mild form of mental illness.

Do you think that creationists are more likely to occupy the high end of the mental illness scale? as it were.

Answer 1

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned...........

Answer 2

in this day in age everything seems to be a disease, or disorder of some magnitude, so first you really need to define mental illness. is a mental illness hearing voices in your mind? is mental illness acting on those voices even though you know the action is wrong? is liberalism a mental illness? mental illness has been overused to describe many things, including religion or lack there of, to the point that true mental illness has been blurred badly by people who want to take advantage of others one way or another. creationism is not a mental illness, and neither is atheism, liberalism is still questionable though.

Answer 3

"It's hard to define mental illnesses like schizophrenia because it's so varied that most if not all of us have some mild form of mental illness."

now where did you get THAT from?!

Answer 4

More often it is a sign of ignorance. Instead of looking at the mass of information that is out there, they instead look only at those tracts that agree with their 'faith'. This keeps them from really having to confront a reality that is in disagreement with their ideas. Mental illness would be the situation where they actually know the relevant information but still reject reality.

Answer 5

Evidently not. The majority of several countries believe in creationism. That is mass mental illness. I don't think so. I know a lot of Christians, and I am one as well. We are all of sound mind.

Answer 6

Is having an avatar of Adolf Hitler a sign of mental illness? I think someone who would have Hitler as their avatar is on the high end of the mental illness scale.

Answer 7

I think having a mind is a requirement of mental illness.

Answer 8

Yes, if they completely deny the evidence and facts about evolution. But some believe in both. When you deny reality, you are mentally ill.

Answer 9

I personally feel creationism is ridiculous, but it is certainly not an indicator of mental illness.

Answer 10

I think it's perfectly rational to believe in Creationism if you don't know the facts that disprove it.

Which is why I wish they would all just pick up a book some time.

Answer 11

Yes it is. Mothers who murder their children are almost exclusively from fundamentalist sects. Over 300 cases in the past ten years in Minnesota over the past ten years clearly demonstrate this statistical trend. Lets not even mention what is going on in Texas.
One of the big problems is that the symptoms of insanity (especially paranoid scizophrenia) that the child killing mothers display are masked by fundamentalist behaviour and accepted by the rest of the fundamentalists as simply religious zeal..

Thumbs down?
OK two articles
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http://www.canadiancrc.com/articles/David_McCrae_Women_Forgotten_Murderers_01FEB04.htm
is about the difference in how the courts treat women murderers

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http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/49582
DALLAS - When a mother admitted killing her baby daughter by severing the child's arms this week, she joined a high-profile list of Texas women with histories of mental illness who have killed their children in gruesome fashion.

The state has had at least four similar cases in recent years:

● Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001.

● Deanna Laney bashed her three sons' skulls with rocks last year, killing two and maiming a toddler. She said God told her to do it.

● A mother from suburban Dallas drowned her daughters last fall.

● A woman in Brownsville is accused of helping her common-law husband behead her three children.

In all the cases, the women had some sort of mental illness in their past.

Though the killings have been brutal, legal and psychiatric experts say such cases are no more common here than in other states.

"Texas seems to be a lightning rod," said George Parnham, the Houston attorney who defended Yates. "I don't necessarily go with the idea that we're wackos down here."

Dena Schlosser, 35, was charged with capital murder Monday after calmly telling a 911 operator that she had cut off the arms of 11-month-old Margaret. Police found Schlosser sitting in her living room, covered in blood, a church hymn playing in the background.

Schlosser's husband, John, told an official with Texas' Family and Protective Services that his wife had referenced a Bible Scripture the night before the killing and said she wanted to "give her children to God," according to an affidavit that led a judge to award the agency temporary custody of the couple's two older children.

Schlosser had a history of postpartum depression, a disorder that can occur in women after they give birth.

Authorities discovered a grisly scene at the Schlossers' apartment.

An officer had to remove a knife from Schlosser's hand, according to a search warrant affidavit released Tuesday. The baby was found in her crib, both arms severed at the shoulder, and died at a hospital.

Authorities said the two older daughters in the family, ages 6 and 9, were at school when police arrived, and that their father was at work.

Schlosser had been investigated on child-neglect allegations this year, but Texas Child Protective Services had recently closed a seven-month investigation.

Her mental history and her 911 confession are similar to Yates'. And the method Schlosser used shared the bizarre, brutal nature of Laney's rocks and Yates' systematic drowning.

Yates, who had a history of schizophrenia and postpartum depression and said the devil prompted her to kill her children, was convicted of capital murder and is serving a life sentence. Laney was acquitted of capital murder by reason of insanity after psychiatrists agreed psychotic delusions kept her from knowing right from wrong.

These are all fundamentalist believers in creationism.