Does not believing in Jesus cause mental illness?

Question

I've always kind of wondered if not accepting mainstream Christian thought (e.g., if you don't accept Christ you're going to hell) is a basis for being labeled mentally ill. I was just wondering because my minister does it at church alot.

Plus, I've just come across this site that has a link to a very official-looking scientific study that claims that this is true:
http://www.centerforrationaldebate.com/jesus_mental_illness.html

What are your thoughts? This is really trying my faith.

Answer 1

Well... about 80% of americans believe in Jesus... and 80% of anything pretty much defines what is 'normal'. But there's more to it than that.

Christians believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie, who is his own father, can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced, by a talking snake with legs, to eat from a magical tree... (etc.)... and you think that there is something horribly wrong with people who ARE NOT so gullible and droolingly stupid as to believe such outrageously ridiculous codswallop.

Think about that. that's just plain crazy.

Religious 'belief' is an amalgamation of gullibility, irrationality, willful ignorance, self-delusion, intellectual dishonesty, drooling stupidity and hypocrisy. These are each harmful to humanity on an individual basis. Wrapped up in one convenient package (religion), they represent an immediate, vital and ever-present existential threat to humanity.

They think they are 'good'. In fact, they are insane, and quite dangerous. The problem is that since over 80% of the adult population of the USA is insane (delusional), insanity defines what is 'normal'. So... the inmates are running the asylum... and the inmates gang-leaders' have access to the most advanced nuclear arsenal on the planet... and many of them think that it is their god-given duty to help pave the way for Jesus' return so he can hurry back and destroy the world to make way for the next one.

This should be trying a lot more than your faith.

"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.



LOL. Just (belatedly) looked at the linked article. Very good spoof. I should have looked first. Sounds like sonething that Pastor Deacon Fred might come up with. Got me.

You DID recognize it as a spoof... didn't you?

Answer 2

LOL! Jesus did NOT believe that mental illness is demonic. Jesus 'drove out demons' from people He came across because He could SEE and HEAR them and did not want them causing more affliction to the person they were harming. They were Satan's minions taunting Jesus because of His presence on earth. Demons are evil spirits in a person's core or crux. Mental illness is caused by physical nerve damage in the brain. Definitely not the same thing! The only thing that has changed in 2,000 years is that 'evil spirits' take on several more forms now, with the advent of technology. Mental illness has been concluded as a physical medical condition and is treated with medication and psychiatric care.

Answer 3

Thank you for the best laugh I've had since I read the article about the Canis Method
(The CANIS Method of Reducing Bias in Survey Research
Francis D. Barrett, Jr. Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Aug., 1972), pp. 329-330).

The Canis method paper, published in the most prestigious marketing research journal in the world, presented the results of a study that demonstrated you could determine if a survey participant was telling the truth by watching his or her dog!

I recall another "scientific paper" published that showed that eating "smarties" candies made you smarter then eating dum-dums...all very "scientific" and, like the canis method paper AND the Jesus paper, all written totally tongue-in-cheek.

Especially amusing was the serious interpretation of the original paper on the center for rational debate site. While I do agree that people who don't know the love of Jesus can suffer from mental illness, anyone that would cite the referenced "scientific paper" couldn't possibly understand what it would take to actually study the question.

Didn't you realize it was a joke?

Answer 4

Funny stuff. The "scientific study" links mental illness to an "egregious lack of Jesus." So what if you only have a "minor" lack of Jesus, are you just a little neurotic? My favorite was the "Kid's Corner." One really can't always tell if his/her parents are terrorists...

Answer 5

It's a very committed parody. Brilliant, actually.

Here's a line from the "study."

We did not feel the need to experimentally
confirm this hypothesis because it was something
we felt in our gut.

Edit: Here's another line:
"However, we are very dedicated to the study of psychology, so that someday, we might even be considered real scientists when we talk to those smug physicists. God, I hate them so much. That will surely wipe the smiles off their sneering faces."

Answer 6

Anyone can make up something that looks credible and stick it on the Internet. I don't believe this at all, but I do believe some people invite demons in and can appear mentally ill, but I do not believe for one second that not believing in Jesus cause mental illness, that's stupid.

Answer 7

not believing in Jesus does not cause mental illness,

Now if you believe in the Boogey Man...

Answer 8

No...

Considering there are some people that are mentally ill and obsessed with religion, I'd say no. Genetics are a large cause, not belief or not.

Answer 9

If that website appears official to you then there is no hope for saving you.

Answer 10

I'm a Christian and personally i don't think that is true.