Yep, that’s the one 
(Hey I’m amazed at how many things I spell and type right, must be a good day)
But that’s because we decided as a society to ignore that delusion, not because it’s a different type of delusion (well it is different obviously, but hopefully you know what I mean). The are plenty of delusional people out there who do manage to function pretty well in our society, that doesn’t mean they’re not delusional.
I tend not to believe irrational things being asserted without a shred of evidence behind them, out of hand, regardless of who’s teaching them to me.
It’s not that I don’t sympathize with the predicament you were in. But seriously, you were expecting the devil to show up? Other people were demons? Why did you never question this?
Or any other number of ancient “histories” or religious works from the tens of thousands that have existed.
Religious people have been making shit up since time immemorial.
It was considered historical for centuries by the ancient Greeks. It was even vindicated as historical, in EXACTLY the same sense that people claim the Bible is vindicated today, when Schliemann used it to find the site of Troy.
And IMO, the capricious, petty gods it describes offer a much better explanation for the world we see than the idea of a single omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent Yahweh. So don’t be unbelievably arrogant and narcissistic by thinking your beliefs are better than mine.
Not as insulting as “quoting” me as saying something you made up. That is despicable.
No. Being misinformed is not a neurological incapacity. Human beings are designed to believe what we are told: If what one is told is woo, one may believe in woo; if what one is told is based in science, one may believe in some science facts without understanding. Neither is crazier than the other.
I don’t think it’s crazy to be religious if it’s the result of being indoctrinated into it as a child.
And even if one becomes religious as an adult, that could be more ignorance than craziness.
Only if you live in some kind of isolation chamber.
I’m not talking about when you are a child. But as you grow up, you learn to tell fact from fiction. You have much more evidence for the existence of Santa Claus than you do Jesus — you get presents at Christmas, but you don’t get your prayers answered — and yet you “outgrow” the belief in Santa and other fairy tales. Why? Because you have permission to do so.
So if you are old enough to know that people don’t walk on water or float up into the sky, but you continue to believe it simply because you were told to, then sorry, but something is wrong with you. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid, but there is some lack of something somewhere that makes you abandon common sense in that one area.
Pulling a figure out of my butt, I would guess that at least 80% of the people who are so skeptical and hardnosed when it comes to evidence that they refuse to accept official documentation and contemporaneous newspaper announcements that Obama was born in Hawaii, who refuse to consider that Bush, who had the entire national security and investigative apparatus on call, and had to provide Obama with millions of dollars worth of Secret Service protection from the day he was nominated, could have guaranteed a Republican victory by exposing him as a non-citizen; these same people have no trouble accepting the anonymous and conflicting accounts that claim that Jesus was born to a virgin, with angelic choirs, and magic guiding stars leading foreign dignitaries to worship him, and a King who was practically on his deathbed terrified that the infant would steal his throne.
Well, why don’t you define what you mean by “crazy”. To me, it means a pathological condition that significantly impacts a person’s ability to live (in or out of a human society).
As irrational as a fear of homosexuality is, it was S.O.P. in many cultures for many centuries. It does not impede people from functioning in society (unless you are gay and also have a fear of homosexuality, perhaps). Humans have killed other humans from time immemorial, and there is no need to invoke “crazy” to describe all of that behavior.
Yes, because they don’t consider the converse: “Are crazy people religious”?
Yes, I posted it, and I defended it. But you inserted a sentence from God knows where when you “quoted” it.
You are not crazy.
If a Mormon becomes a presidential candidate, a few commercials about the real native Americans being white, or Jesus being in America should be enough to scare voters into voting for President Obama.
Sanity is statistical.
If 90% of the people believe something then by definition they are not crazy.
The remaining 10% are not crazy either since evidence-based conclusions is what science is all about.
With due respect, “crazy” doesn’t mean “has some irrational beliefs.”
I’m an absolutely staunch atheist but it seems obvious to me religious people are not (necessarily, by virtue of being religious) crazy, for the rather obvious reason that the vast majority of religious people are functioning adults who show no evidence otherwise that one would think them deranged.
If we’re simply redefining “crazy” as meaning “religious” then I guess it’s a nice tautological argument, but by any commonly understood meaning of the word it’s a silly question.
No I didn’t really expect the Devil to materialize and torment me, I meant to illustrate the fear that goes along with Doing That Which Is Forbidden. I also wasn’t actually taught that all non-Christians were demons, but I definitely was taught that the devil lurks among us, whether or not in a physical form, and therefore must avoid anything that my parents or church didn’t like so that I don’t get exposed to the devil’s corrupting influence.
Here’s an example: A policeman tells you not to enter a building because there is a killer in there. If you go in there he will kill you. If there is no evidence of a killer in the building other than policeman’s claim, would you still go into the building?
Another example: There is a sign on a closed door that says DO NOT ENTER - TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT. There’s no evidence of anyone actually being shot. Do you enter?
It’s the same thing with religious indoctrination. In my mind, every heavy metal album had a big DO NOT OPEN - LISTENERS WILL BE SENT TO HELL sign on it. I would imagine that most people, once put into that frame of mind, would prefer not to tempt fate and go back to the things that you’ve been taught are safe. It keeps people with the tribe.
Oh now I see, seems I accidentally put “Absolutely false and insulting on top of that.” inside the quote tags instead of after them. My mistake, sorry.
When you look at how effective religion is as a self-serving tool, it’s hard to say religious people are crazy. Treat others as badly as you wish, because you can just say some magic words and consider yourself forgiven. Forgiven by God, of course, not by the injured party, but who cares about them? Ruin the whole world if you want, because Jesus is just going to come back and cut in half with a flaming sword or something.
Sociopathic? Sure. Crazy? Nah, on some level I think they know exactly what game they’re playing, and why.
On a bumper sticker:
:rolleyes:
Well, that’s why my OP said I acknowledge that they are not raving lunatics. But surely you agree it’s possible for someone to be crazy even though they don’t twirl around on the floor like Curly. Crazy is about what you think, and it may or may not manifest itself in observable actions.
The fact that something is accepted by society doesn’t mean it’s not crazy. Suppose your young daughter is afraid to go to sleep because she thinks there is a monster in her closet that’s going to kill her. The first few times you will probably gently reassure her, open the closet , turn on the light, move all the clothes around, and show her that there’s no monster there. But she says he’s there, he’s just invisible. So you go through some kind of bluster, ordering the monster to leave. But she says the monster is so big and powerful that nothing you can do will frighten him. And so on.
If this went on night after night, year after year, are you telling me that you would not consider contacting a mental health professional?
And I see no essential difference between her irrational belief that an invisible monster in her closet will kill her, and a conservative Christian’s belief that an invisible monster in the sky will make him burn for all eternity if he supports gay rights or pro-choice.