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ORIGINAL: GotSteel

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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
It's interesting that 76% of doctors are noted as much more likely to believe in God, and that belief in God tends to vary by individual fields.

I can't say I'm terribly surprised that oh say a urologists field of endeavor hasn't lead them toward atheism particularly more than a plumbers has. What I'd really love to see are numbers about what those in neuroscience have to say on the matter.

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ORIGINAL: thishereboi

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Strictly speaking, there's nothing about religion which explicitly says that they must oppose the teaching of evolution or that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System. That's something that they just make up out of the blue without any rhyme or reason, nor even any religious justification.

Who exactly is they? My biology teacher was catholic and she had no problems believing in evolution or teaching it. Nor did the priest who made the one web site we studied from. So please enlighten me. I keep hearing about them and want to avoid them if possible, if I only knew who they were.

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ORIGINAL: GotSteel

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
I cant be bothered to worry about them calling atheism a belief while atheists are calling believers mentally ill.

I think that's a misunderstanding (often on the part of the believer listening) of the reality that:

Other studies have shown that certain mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, are also associated with high levels of religiosity.[110] In addition, anti-psychotic medication, which is mainly aimed to block dopamine receptors, typically reduces religious behaviour and religious delusions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_between_religion_and_science#Studies_of_scientists.27_belief_in_God

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Why are believers in 'God' not considered mentally ill?
Firstly, this is NOT anything but a genuine question looking for genuine opinions, so don't take it for anything else please.

Why are people that believe in a 'God' and a 'Devil' and everything else not put onto the same level as those who believe they have an imaginary friend, or those who believe they hear voices in their head?

I know they could argue that there is evidence in the bible, but we all know it was invented as a way of scaring people and controlling them...a scam.

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When environmentalists speak of such things as; "Mother Earth", "Gaia" and "harmonic convergence" they are invoking religious ideals. Their fascination with crystals is also religion based. And, of course, their association with witchcraft is further testimony of religious rather than scientific roots.

1. Paranoid insanity - This is the mildest form of the mental illness of environmentalism. Religious environmentalists live in a state of paranoia. They fear that they will ingest some "horrible chemical" in their food so they demand "organic" foods. They fear that cars are going to destroy the air (It's cleaner than ever!) so they do all they can to eliminate the private ownership of cars while they righteously ride their bikes. These people think that you can hurt dirt by walking on it. (Step off the path at a national park and you'll meet one.) They are mentally ill. They are not dangerous but their anti-social behavior creates problems for all who come in contact with them.

The paranoids want stricter and stricter environmental laws to force people to protect the earth. Higher gas prices, forced recycling, federally protected trees are just some of the pet projects of these tortured minds.

2. Delusional insanity - This form of the mental illness that afflicts environmentalists is somewhat more severe than simple paranoia. The delusionalists see the earth as sacred and feels it is their divine calling to defend it. Where the paranoids see chemicals, cars and companies as the villain, the delusionalists simplifies it to all mankind. They see mankind as a blight on the earth. They feel that nothing man does to protect the environment can help. They are actually closet "humanity haters" and are always glad to hear when a wild animal has killed a human. Some famous delusionalists have stated that they felt the small pox virus had a right to exist! (Yet, being ideologically dishonest liberals, they never carry this philosophy over to the AIDS virus.) They have actually longed for some virus to eliminate the human race so that the earth will no longer be "afflicted" by it.
This form of the mental illness of environmentalism is a warning sign of the last, most dangerous from.

3. Criminal insanity - Environmentalists immerse themselves in the "horror" of human caused "damage" to the earth and the "rightness" of their cause. Once their unstable minds have been subjected to the constant preaching of the environmental "gospel" they lose touch with reality and seek only to hurt and destroy. Some have been known to release cattle and sabotage farm equipment. Others criminally destroy the clothing of someone wearing fur regardless of their constitutional right to wear it. Some have "spiked" trees so that a logger's chainsaw will hit the spike and hopefully kill him. These people are evil, merciless and dangerous.

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

http://www.biblestudy.org/question/what-does-thou-shall-not-kill-mean.html

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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
My main point was that there is no religious justification for opposing science, so if your priest understands that, good for him. Perhaps he can explain it to others in his profession as well.

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ORIGINAL: GotSteel

Before bother to keep going with this, did you just run a google search, skim through and post the results without really reading them?

Not to say that you won't eventually find an atheist who thinks that religion=mental illness. I can find theists on the net who still think the earth is flat so anythings possible.

However, when it comes to my position that I think that's a misunderstanding (often on the part of the believer listening). Well so far you've done an excellent job of demonstrating the veracity of my position.

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ORIGINAL: Zonie63

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ORIGINAL: thishereboi

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Strictly speaking, there's nothing about religion which explicitly says that they must oppose the teaching of evolution or that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System. That's something that they just make up out of the blue without any rhyme or reason, nor even any religious justification.

Who exactly is they? My biology teacher was catholic and she had no problems believing in evolution or teaching it. Nor did the priest who made the one web site we studied from. So please enlighten me. I keep hearing about them and want to avoid them if possible, if I only knew who they were.

Isn't that the same religion which persecuted Copernicus and Galileo for stating that the Sun was at the center of the Solar System? I rest my case.
I'm not catholic, so I really couldn't say.

Then there was the Scopes Trial. Did you ever hear about it?
Nope.

Even nowadays, there are still a few districts where religionists still balk about the teaching of evolution. Not as many as there used to be, but they still exist.
So are these the they you keep speaking of?

My main point was that there is no religious justification for opposing science, so if your priest understands that, good for him. Perhaps he can explain it to others in his profession as well.
Not sure where you got the idea he was my priest. I said in my post that my bio teacher gave us the link she found.

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
Its my opinion that its not the misunderstanding of believers in what is being said, but the misunderstanding of atheists as to what is being said by the Sam Harris' of the world.

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ORIGINAL: thishereboi
I'm not catholic, so I really couldn't say.

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Nope.

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So are these the they you keep speaking of?

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Not sure where you got the idea he was my priest. I said in my post that my bio teacher gave us the link she found.

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ORIGINAL: GotSteel

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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
My main point was that there is no religious justification for opposing science, so if your priest understands that, good for him. Perhaps he can explain it to others in his profession as well.

The Catholic church has read the writing on the wall and gotten on the right side of evolution (though they still have a tendency to try and stick god in there somewhere when no one is looking). So it should be normal for priests to accept evolution.

At this point it's the evangelicals who tend to be really anti-evolution and are still horrifyingly successful at keeping it from being taught in schools.

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ORIGINAL: GotSteel

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
Its my opinion that its not the misunderstanding of believers in what is being said, but the misunderstanding of atheists as to what is being said by the Sam Harris' of the world.

From your own link:

"The word “delusion” in my title has disquieted some psychiatrists who regard it as a technical term"

He goes on to explain that he's using it in the colloquial sense NOT the technical sense in your own quoted text. Seriously Tazzy, read this stuff before you post it.

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
American author Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation compares religion to mental illness, saying it "allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy."

Sam Harris

Most religions have merely canonized a few products of ancient ignorance and derangement and passed them down to us as though they were primordial truths.

It is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.

The word “delusion” in my title has disquieted some psychiatrists who regard it as a technical term, not to be bandied about.… But for now I am going to stick with “delusion”, and I need to justify my use of it. The Penguin English Dictionary defines a delusion as “a false belief or impression”.… The dictionary supplied with Microsoft Word defines a delusion as “a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder”. The first part captures religious faith perfectly. As to whether it is a symptom of a psychiatric disorder, I am inclined to follow Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, when he said, “When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.”



Its my opinion that its not the misunderstanding of believers in what is being said, but the misunderstanding of atheists as to what is being said by the Sam Harris' of the world.