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Faith/Religion/Beliefs vs. Mental Health


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From what I've noticed, if a belief system is not a form of the main stream Religions/Beliefs it is considered a Mental Health issue.

First examples off the top of my brain would be Wicca, Pagan, Mythology, Egyptology, or anything like them. How exactly are these abnormal considering that most if not all have been around since before Christ based faiths?

Personally I think that its totally insane to believe that, IF there is a God that there is only ONE God and that God had only ONE Son (Jesus). Not to mention the fact that his Son (Jesus) was born of a virgin. Anyone else think this is just crazy thinking?

If you would take the time to actually read about other Religions/Beliefs then you will realize and come to the understanding that almost all of them have similar story lines. "God had Child via Virgin." Go on Google search or go to the library. You will see that I have a point with that.

Most of you were raised to have certain Beliefs of what God is or isn't. It was all ingrained in your head since birth of what YOU HAD to believe because that is the status-qua. And heaven help you if you start actually thinking for yourself and forming your own belief system cause then you have issues. /me beats you all down with a stick and screams at ya'll to 'get back in that box!' <~ is about how I feel as it I am treated because of my views on Religion.

If by some chance I manged to offend any one of you, maybe its time to actually take a hard look at what you really believe. Don't quote any form of any Bible to prove I'm wrong. Cause after all, I would have to believe in YOUR Beliefs for it to prove anything to me.

ATTENTION DOCTORS: Please define in extreme detail why anything other then 'main stream' faiths are considered a Mental Health Condition. After all, Jesus turned water into wine. He was magical, right?

Side Note:

None of this is intended as a 'hit' on Jesus based faiths. Its just a really good example most can relate to.

ONLY EDIT: Please move to proper forum, I have no clue where to post this. Thank you!

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That was teh case decades ago, but now days if your a Pagan or other small religion in America, at least, you are protected by the Constitution. There is no higher authority than the Constitution in America.

And even at that if your Wiccan or in the Neo-Pagan movement I think back then you still did have a right to practice it.

Though I think it is only in certain places peoples' bias would think a satanist is mentally ill. La Vey founded his church in the 60's.

It also might have to do with the type of religion. One that believes in magic extremely heavily or has any very weird thing (like worshiping aliens).

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Guest GingerSnap

No, I don't think they (religions outside Christianity) are considered mental health issues. Those things that are defined as mental health issues have a list of criteria attached to them. I was brought up with conservative religious beliefs that for the most part, I have held onto. These beliefs included the Jesus and virgin stuff which after a great deal of research on religion, I abandoned. You are correct that those that become angry and can only quote the Bible itself are not secure in their faith and I see that all the time, the anger when they are questioned. Yeah, they think I'm going to Hell no matter what kind of person I am and if that is the case, I won't have to share space with them anymore which will be a relief in itself. You do have people that go off the deep end with religion or belief system but there would be many more symptoms involved for it to be classed as a mental health issue, well, a true mental health issue. Surely you have seen the news where a mother kills her children because "God told her to do it."? Well, that was not my God but her lack of mental health.

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Guest ASchwartz

I agree fully with Gingersnap. Faith, mainstream or not, has nothing to do with mental health issues. The times when mental health becomes an issue is in extreme circumstances where people are held against their will, murder is committed or there is animal cruelty. However, those things are so very rare that it is ridiculous to mention them. Religion and faith, whether mainstream or not, has nothing to do with mental health.

Allan

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Religion and faith have nothing to do with mental health? It has a lot to do with mental health, it probably exists for mental health, although not in the way being presented here.

Religions, if not a complete mess, are forms of meditation. They help people overcome their sense of self, a sense of self which is so often a struggling sense of self.

Yes there are similarities such as 'being born from a virgin' and so on. And if all you get out of religion is a literal interpretation, then christianity n particular is going to seem unworthy and obnoxious.

There are other, deeper similarities to find however, and they are difficult to talk about because a soon as you do you are almost missing the point (christian missionaries are pretty guilty of this, the buddhists have been far less obnoxious), anyway, if you are still with me, another similarity between religions is a sort of transcendental perspective, usually contrasted with all the pains and anxieties of life. And the idea of course, is to transcend those pains.

Theres many implications to a transcendental perspective, but in terms of personal mental health, it actually helps alot of people step outside of their depressions and fears. IT can help you face and accept paranioa, in christian terms paranoia would be considered a form of hell. Facing and accepting paranioa, or anxiety in its lesser form, is a key ingredient to overcoming it. TOO often people FIGHT it or run from it, which works only to perpetuate it. The golden rule 'love your enemies' or at least the perspective behind such a saying speaks to not only the enemies exterior to your body, but within your own head.. If anxiety and paranioa are your enemy, don't fight it, accept it for what it is so that you can move on. Dwelling and fighting will only dig you deeper into fear.

Religions go into quite a bit of depth painting a picture of what happens when you resist the things you are experiencing, when you go against the the flow of the river, when you deviate from a norm, or when you pluck the apple from the tree, when you become a lost sheep, straying away from the herd- You inevitably experience of taste of hell. And its not a bad thing to go against the flow, the idea is just to be aware of what happens when you do.

Religion speaks to consciousness and the various highs and lows, or heavens and hells it encounters, and it points to a way out, which is the transcendental perspective. Religion is very involved with mental health for that reason, sort of.

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Nathan, Thank you! That is one of the best explanations I have gotten asking this very question for 20 years. Maybe you could answer a science question for me too. I just don't know where to post it.

Thank all of you really!

Other questions:

Is it only people with some sort of Mental Health Issue that reject the mainstream or do A-Typical people do this also? And would that in fact not make them A-Typical?

Could it be that the people with Mental Health Issues actually may have some sort of clue and the A-Typical have it wrong? Example a bad one but an example anyhow ~ Again, the world is flat. - It took one 'Crazy' to prove otherwise, right?

________________________________________

I've always wondered about this kind of thing since I was around 11 yeas old. I've never seemed to grasp the fact that 'everyone' has one way of thinking and that way is without a doubt, fact. I'm still having a hard time grasping this.

People have always told me that I am in fact, wrong, about the way or what my beliefs are.

When do you think people will open their eyes, stop 'nursing' and think for themselves?

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Nathan, Thank you! That is one of the best explanations I have gotten asking this very question for 20 years. Maybe you could answer a science question for me too. I just don't know where to post it.

Thank all of you really!

Other questions:

Is it only people with some sort of Mental Health Issue that reject the mainstream or do A-Typical people do this also? And would that in fact not make them A-Typical?

Could it be that the people with Mental Health Issues actually may have some sort of clue and the A-Typical have it wrong? Example a bad one but an example anyhow ~ Again, the world is flat. - It took one 'Crazy' to prove otherwise, right?

________________________________________

I've always wondered about this kind of thing since I was around 11 yeas old. I've never seemed to grasp the fact that 'everyone' has one way of thinking and that way is without a doubt, fact. I'm still having a hard time grasping this.

People have always told me that I am in fact, wrong, about the way or what my beliefs are.

When do you think people will open their eyes, stop 'nursing' and think for themselves?

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Guest GingerSnap

The Golden Rule is actually that of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is a difference between mental health for which many things are beneficial and a mental health issue.

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Nathan, Thank you! That is one of the best explanations I have gotten asking this very question for 20 years. Maybe you could answer a science question for me too. I just don't know where to post it.

... oh i get it science.. are we going to have a science vs. religion debate too? I'm rooting for creationism!

Is it only people with some sort of Mental Health Issue that reject the mainstream or do A-Typical people do this also? And would that in fact not make them A-Typical?

Depending on where you are, its kind of pop culture right now to reject the mainstream religions, and for good reason, sooooo, im not sure, maybe you live in the bible belt and havn't seen this?

Either way, rejecting a religion does not make you 'a- typical' or mentally ill (although from a certain perspective that you probably do not inhabit, some spiritual people may say you are suffering for it, but I won't get into that.) It's far from A-typical anyway.

Will other PEOPLE reject you for rejecting religion, and therefore, it is not that you are a-typical, its just that you have a different opinion, and you are being wrongly accused of being mental ill? Well that depends on whether you live within the bible belt or not.

Could it be that the people with Mental Health Issues actually may have some sort of clue and the A-Typical have it wrong? Example a bad one but an example anyhow ~ Again, the world is flat. - It took one 'Crazy' to prove otherwise, right?

These questions are interesting, because you can find analogies to them all over religion, but I won't get into the religious part.

When the 'Atypical person' or maybe you could call him the 'deviant'- anyway, when this crazy deviant discovered and proved the earth was round, of course he was hated on and denied initially-he was told he had no clue- because there was a certain normative belief held by the majority, and it takes quite a lot of competence for single deviant to convince an entire majority that he has gained some new insight.

ITs sort of like how galileo and his science was largely denied in his time, it takes awhile for everyone else to catch on, and untill they did, they defended their beliefs by denying G-dog's science. ITs a very human thing to do...

But eventually, if what the deviant has discovered is indeed valuable in some way, the majority will eventually open their eyes and catch on, so long as the deviant has discovered something that is adequate for his time, or speaks to something that is missing in the majority. There are a lot of deviants, however, who really have nothing to offer, in fact most have nothing to offer, thats not to say to look down on them....

Do I think anyone is discovering something new by denying mainstream religion? People have been denying it since its birth, Jesus and his beliefs didn't go over to well with Roman oppressors so they killed him (not just anybody can say they are the son of god), Plus science has already been born, sooooo we don't exactly need to nullify overbearing religions that are trying to cover domains in human thought that do not belong to them in order to create more room to investigate empirical things... excuse my grammar buut weeeew yeah ,basically, though, if you are rejecting religion in search of some other truth- that is OKAY! (and hard to do if you find yourself being rejected for doing so and you have my sympathies).

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Boy I really think religion has very strong mental health roots.

Take the fear of death. This one phobia is the basis for almost any religion. People seeking answers and confort for what will happen those they love and themselves die.

We also use it in extreme behaviors to justify bad behavior. For example homophobia sexism racism abd even speciesism is often a religious base fear of something we can't or are unwilling to understand. In some cases used too kill rape neglect or abuse. To the people that do these things religion can be a root for it but not always.

I can't see why all that would reject religion would be seen as less stable as those that do follow religion? Atheist and agnostics still follow laws and moral codes many are very smart. I think again if people that are religious see them as unstable its large in part fear based. Now some like me have left religion because of how it can be used abuse people. Don't forget most wars are religious based to some degree. We like to hate and fear muslims in society today but other religions including christians are just as bad if you look at history.

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