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Religious fervor. A mental illness?

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
How Do You Distinguish between Religious Fervor and Mental Illness?

Interesting article from Scientific American.

Whenever any person acts irrational and strange you just gotta admit that at least some form of mental illness is playing a role.

Also leads me to another (easy?) question if you can act completely irrational and strange and still be regarded as mentally well because your back to being normal afterwards and still return to the insanity again and again?
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
How Do You Distinguish between Religious Fervor and Mental Illness?

Interesting article from Scientific American.

Whenever any person acts irrational and strange you just gotta admit that at least some form of mental illness is playing a role.

Also leads me to another (easy?) question if you can act completely irrational and strange and still be regarded as mentally well because your back to being normal afterwards and still return to the insanity again and again?
Personally, I think that happens quite often. Some spend most of their time quite sane, but occasionally depart for the other extreme. Others spend most of their time quite insane, and occasionally depart for the other extreme. And some bounce around between the extremes, sometimes sane, sometimes not, but mostly partly both.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
By adhering to the definition. If it's religious, it's not a mental illness regardless of other symptoms - by definition.
Also leads me to another (easy?) question if you can act completely irrational and strange and still be regarded as mentally well because your back to being normal afterwards and still return to the insanity again and again?
Many mental illnesses are characterized by their periodic occurrence. You don't have to constantly hear voices to be diagnosed with schizophrenia. (Again, exception when the voices have religious character.)
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Whenever any person acts irrational and strange you just gotta admit that at least some form of mental illness is playing a role.

In India and nearby nations, there are those who are called "God intoxicated" who appear externally the same as the mentally ill but who have very different internal experiences.

During a trip to India, one person identified as God intoxicated was pointed out to me. What was he, nicknamed Mohammed, like?

The chief difficulty of these baths was to get Mohammed clothed thereafter, for he would stand naked, trying to make up his mind to allow his vest to be put on. He seemed like an over-cautious child on the edge of a swimming bath, hesitating to plunge into the cold and uninviting water.

He would tell Baba to put his vest on, and when it was held over him, and was about to be drawn over his head, he would suddenly shout like a frightened child, "No, no," and push it away. Eventually, to the relief of all, he would have the vest on, and would then suddenly demand to have it removed again.

This sort of thing went on every day, and it would often take one hour to dress Mohammed in the simplest clothes. The same process recurred when it was a matter of putting on his sandals, Pathan chappals, with an adjustable strap behind the heel. They must be tightened, loosened, tightened, loosened, taken off and cleaned, put on again, cleaned, tightened, loosened, and so on and so forth, literally, in the mental sense, ad nauseam, and potentially, one feared, ad infinitum.
 

Maximus

the Confessor
How Do You Distinguish between Religious Fervor and Mental Illness?

Interesting article from Scientific American.

Whenever any person acts irrational and strange you just gotta admit that at least some form of mental illness is playing a role.

Also leads me to another (easy?) question if you can act completely irrational and strange and still be regarded as mentally well because your back to being normal afterwards and still return to the insanity again and again?

The worldview most resembling a mental illness is atheism. It is logically confused and always dodges the real questions. It looks like many atheists here, from what I can see so far, have a cartoonish, monarchical picture of God as some being "up there". That view should be ridiculed because it is silly and childish - and not what centuries of Christian theology is all about.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
The worldview most resembling a mental illness is atheism. It is logically confused and always dodges the real questions. It looks like many atheists here, from what I can see so far, have a cartoonish, monarchical picture of God as some being "up there". That view should be ridiculed because it is silly and childish - and not what centuries of Christian theology is all about.
Atheism isn't even a view.

Everybody started without any God in life so it's a natural default unlike introduced theology for which term atheism came later as a response.

It simply means one without gods.
 

Ayjaydee

Active Member
The worldview most resembling a mental illness is atheism. It is logically confused and always dodges the real questions. It looks like many atheists here, from what I can see so far, have a cartoonish, monarchical picture of God as some being "up there". That view should be ridiculed because it is silly and childish - and not what centuries of Christian theology is all about.
How can someone who believes there is no god believe hes up there?
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
It looks like many atheists here, from what I can see so far, have a cartoonish, monarchical picture of God as some being "up there".
god-medieval-stained-glass-windo-15399404.jpg


I wonder how they got that image.
 

robocop (actually)

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
How Do You Distinguish between Religious Fervor and Mental Illness?

Interesting article from Scientific American.

Whenever any person acts irrational and strange you just gotta admit that at least some form of mental illness is playing a role.

Also leads me to another (easy?) question if you can act completely irrational and strange and still be regarded as mentally well because your back to being normal afterwards and still return to the insanity again and again?
When someone has a religious experience, who are we to judge that there is no unknown channel?
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
The worldview most resembling a mental illness is atheism. It is logically confused and always dodges the real questions. It looks like many atheists here, from what I can see so far, have a cartoonish, monarchical picture of God as some being "up there". That view should be ridiculed because it is silly and childish - and not what centuries of Christian theology is all about.
In what ways does atheism resemble mental illness?
It seems to me that disbelief in something unevidenced, rather than being "logically confused," is quite rational.

What errors of logic do you refer to?
What is the confusion?
What questions are dodged?
 

1213

Well-Known Member
...Whenever any person acts irrational and strange you just gotta admit that at least some form of mental illness is playing a role....

Ok, I think what you do is irrational and strange, is it ok to consider that perhaps you are mentally ill?
 

Erebus

Well-Known Member
By adhering to the definition. If it's religious, it's not a mental illness regardless of other symptoms - by definition.

Many mental illnesses are characterized by their periodic occurrence. You don't have to constantly hear voices to be diagnosed with schizophrenia. (Again, exception when the voices have religious character.)

This is broadly true, though it is possible to have a mental illness that includes religious themes. You may believe that God speaks to you and not be considered mentally ill. If you literally hear the voice of God and he's commanding you to do things, you're more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness. If you hear the voice of God commanding you and you also believe that you're Saint Patrick, a diagnosis is almost certain.

The exact cutoff point when religious belief becomes delusion/hallucination is hazy and highly subject to cultural biases. In fact, diagnosis in general is highly subject to cultural biases. In the UK for example, African-Caribbeans are significantly more likely to be diagnosed as schizophrenic than White-British who are in turn significantly more likely to be diagnosed with depression. There's still a lot of argument about why this is and to what extent people's cultural backgrounds affect diagnosis.

The point about periodic occurrence is spot on and is something that more people should know.
 
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