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Theists are mentally ill!
It is time to stop debating theists. Theists are less intelligent and should be treated as such. We only serve to decrease their intelligence by trying to engage them in intelligent conversation.
Atheists should engage the doubters, the people sitting on the fence. The intelligent ones will see the truth. In time theists will be small in numbers, they will be the minority, but we must dismiss them.
For the last hold outs the truly deranged believers I submit that a new mental health disorder to be known as "Theistic Predisposition Disorder" be listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Three million years of human evolution has rendered the majority of humanity predisposed to theistic beliefs. These beliefs cloud the judgement of all afflicted. Political, social, military, economic, medical, scientific and a myriad of other important decisions are made based on a mental disorder. Decisions which effect the whole of humanity are made based on a belief of fairytales. Humanity itself is threatened by such horrific incompetence!
"Theistic Predisposition Disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by an irrational and pervasive belief in God(s) and/or belief in an afterlife."
Atheists must take action. Humanity cannot survive itself if it keeps bringing god along for the ride.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Nicole on -
o.O
And praytell, what category would your TPD be classified under if the DSM-V creators lost their objectivity and instead added your diagnosis? And what symptoms would there be? After all, none of the categories in the DSM only have two symptoms.
I personally would never "treat" a client who comes into my office for their choice to believe in something if it provides them comfort. I'm not hateful like that. I would, however, use psychoeducation to help them understand why it is not okay to use those beliefs to hurt others. The only time we ever treat conditions are if they cause the person distress or can potentially cause harm to another.
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Permalink Reply by Revolution MacInnes on -
Theism is destructive to the human condition as whole. Political, scientific and medical decisions should not be made by people who believe in fairy tales and base said decisions on those fantasy beliefs.
The best and the brightest of Americans tend to be atheists. Those people are effectively barred from public office based on their atheism. Therefor our most intelligent citizens are not able to be a part elected government.
Also the DSM already has "Grand Delusional Disorder". I made up 'TPD' just get some awareness out to the lay person.
I suspect that you are a psychologist not a psychiatric. Psychology is akin to butchery in my book! But that is a whole other debate.
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Permalink Reply by Rich Lane on -
I suspect that you are a psychologist not a psychiatric. Psychology is akin to butchery in my book! But that is a whole other debate.
I don't care for ad hominem attacks no matter what the position.
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Permalink Reply by Devilsnight on -
It is never time to stop debating them. It is necessary to ensure that we will be able to co-exist peacefully with each other and the only way for that to happen is to talk with them.
Theists aren't necessarily lesser intelligent than atheists. I know some polls show that atheists tend to be more intelligent but that isn't saying much. There are plenty of fairly intelligent theists and it is wrong to generalize them as stupid.
Im thinking that many theists chooses to be so (or are forced into it) with the use of emotions.
Emotions that can suppress their intelligent thinking but not destroy it.
Im thinking that the regular theists might just be about as smart as the regular atheist but the difference being that most got trapped in the theistic thinking from they were small. Daniel Dennett has postulated this in a speech. There are of course dumb theists but then again there are also dumb atheists.
It also seems that theistic thinking originated a looong time ago before religion was created. It's postulated that this new kind of thinking gave man an advantage when it came to preparing for predators. The ability to imagine situations.
If this is true then theistic thinking is merely an ancient benefitial trait of our ancestors, like nails, and not necessarily a disease.
I am not fond of religion myself but I dont think that it is religion that is something wrong with. It is man. Religion provides an excuse to many things that religion itself does not manifest.
I think we are better off, but I wouldn't take the faith away from people who think they need it, nor their religion. Let it slowly die out by itself instead.
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Permalink Reply by Jared Lardo on -
If we stop debating them, then "Their position must be so weak as to not be able to stand up against real scrutiny." Plenty of us here are former theists who just friggin' thought about it a little too much to remain theists. We can increase the rate of such transformations by, contrary to your advice, engaging theists on the issue.
Theists are people, too. A few among them may warrant stabbing, but the majority are followers who just never really thought about it.
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Permalink Reply by Devilsnight on
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I would agree it to be fair to dismiss one group of theists though in debate; creationists.
These guys bastardize science to a point that it no longer is science. By continuesly debating them we give them credit in that there is actually something to argue about. There isn't.
As Richard Dawkins quoted from another scientists, dont remember his name, when he was asked to engage in a debate with a creationists he responded; "That would look good on your resumé, not so good on mine".
As long as the debate centers around actual science then we should keep pushing until they realize that they just aren't correct. But when they start to twist and bend science, purposefully ignore evidence and assert statements directly contradicted by science then it starts to become a waste of time.
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Permalink Reply by John Cameron on -
I agree that theists are mentally ill, but I don't think it is a result of an inherent mental defect. I submit that through a systematic system of childhood indoctrination whereby a person's identity is inexorably entwined with belief in the specific god of their parent's religion, a child's psyche is injured through an enforced cognitive dissonance (My brain tells me this stuff is crap, but all the respected people in my life tell me to swallow it whole). This creates a delusional state in the person which clearly behaves in similar fashion as other delusional states in persons afflicted by delusional disorders. The beliefs are contrary to available evidence but are extremely difficult to eradicate and the attempt to do so often results in a marked aggressive defense of the erroneous belief. The issue is not the cognitive processing, but the psychological cost of resolving the dissonance. The person must accept that all the energy and effort that went into maintaining the belief was wasted. Not to mention the loss of familial and social support that would accompany rejecting the belief.
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Permalink Reply by Revolution MacInnes on
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Very well stated, thank you for your input!
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Permalink Reply by Sendero Rojo on
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Marx said religion is the opium of the masses. He didn't mean that theists are a bunch of dopeheads. He goes on to say that "religion is the heart of a heartless world." That's to say that if the world had a heart there'd be no need for religion. Religion is not a mental illness. Religion is a drug that the capitalist class uses to calm the masses in the face of exploitation and oppression. "Who cares that you're exploited and oppressed, this life means nothing compared to the afterlife." Why fight against exploitation, oppression and injustice when it's all "god's will" etc.. Religion acts just like a drug for the exploited masses, it is used to mask the pain created by the capitalist system.
Religion will always exist so as long as the capitalist class maintains their dictatorship. They will continue to use their overwhelming $control$ of the pubic opinion-molding machine* (TV, newspapers, textbooks etc.. all a society looks to when judging what is "normal") to prop up religion because it serves their interest$. Furthermore the conditions that living under capitalism inevitably creates for the overwhelming majority of humanity will continue to supply a heavy demand for religion and for every kind of painkiller. We live in a world that has long passed the ability to produce adequate food, shelter, clean water, and health care for all, yet see people dieing all around from treatable conditions. This is the inevitable results the capitalist system. Religion may change forms but it will always exist so as long as we live under capitalism.
*By having overwhelming control of what society deems to be "normal" the capitalst class is able to tap into our natural fears as social animals who don't wish to stray so far away from "normal" as the be shunned by our families and friends, and to risk the ability to secure our survival. This is simply one arm of their dictatorship (which flows from the fact that individuals are allowed to own the means to produce the goods that are required of us to survive), but one they can't live without.
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“People always were and always will be the foolish victims of deceit and self-deceit in politics until they learn to discover the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. The supporters of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realize that every old institution, however barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is maintained by the forces of some ruling classes.” - Lenin
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Permalink Reply by James Heim on
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Why can't someone found a new country with atheistic values at its core? (the US is too far gone the way I see it)
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Permalink Reply by Sendero Rojo on
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James,
It has been attempted several times now (and even today in the Red Corridor of India), with the most far reaching attempts being in the USSR from 1917-1956 and in China from 1949-1976. Besides all of the challenges that undoing the horrors of the capitalist system poses domestically, this new atheist society would be born into a world surrounded by hostile theist/capitalist imperialist neighbors. In their relentless effort to bring you “democracy” they will first strangle you economically by refusing to trade goods fairly with you, or at all, and refusing to share new technological advances with you. Then they will fund people within your own society who want to bring back the old capitalist ways (which includes theism) and engage in all manner of activities to create chaos in your society. They will get on their TV’s, newspapers etc.., and tell the people that you’re a bunch of baby rapers, you’re eating people, you’re burning theists at the stake etc… all manner of nonsense about you no matter if it’s true or not of course. And if after all of that you still refuse to let their businesspeople (with includes preachers) in your country and have their way they will eventually send brainwashed poor people from their countries in to crush you militarily.
There will never be a true atheist society, free of chaos, while there are still armed forces under the command of the capitalist class in the world. If you want to want to solve a problem you have to dig up the roots and theism is rooted in the production relations under the capitalist system. As long as individuals are allowed to own the means to produce the goods that are required of us to survive, we’ll be living under the dictatorship of the capitalist class, who will always use their elevated $tatus to mold society largely to their liking.
I’ll type more about this in a bit, got to run for now.
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Permalink Reply by Revolution MacInnes on
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Excellent so you are in favor of voting for liars and or theists next time as it might be hard to tell the difference.
I really do not care if I am branded as evil by morons who believe in fairy tales thank you!
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