Religious Fundamentalism as a mental illness?

[Skarekrow]

I agree completely. This kind of thinking is pretty freaky. Its literally denying people their basic human right of free will and free thought. Granted that most people are contantly being brainwashed and dont exercise their power of free will, but no one has the right to take that choice away from them. I may not like a lot of beliefs and attitudes but to take that right away from people to hold them seems very extremist and fascist.

Sometimes i wonder how we could create a better society where human rights were upheld and people could still hold their personal and cultural beliefs and have their lifestyles within that framework. It seems like such a delicate balance. Clearly there are a lot of cultural and personal beliefs that violate human rights completely. I think if these violations become obvious and people are getting hurt then we have a responsibility to act. Particularly if there are children involved. But sometimes its not so simple, especailly when it involves consenting adults that voluntarilly choose to hold certain beliefs and live a certain way. The only thing we can really do as a society then is to offer as much education and safety nets as possible, so if people that are caught up in harmful cultural beliefs 'want out', there is a way out for them. If we really care about people caught up in destructive belief systems, we can be kind to them and offer them alternatives and support, thereby reiterating their freedom of choice and their responsibility to make their own informed choices. Empowerment is definately the key, excercising responsbility of what you choose to believe and understanding that you have a choice. We all have the ability to choose and change beliefs, we do this constanatly. The answer is not more authoritative brainwashing and drugs

And in terms of brainwashing, i think the marketing industry has a lot to answer for. Why do we put up with their shit? The amount of money they invest into brainwashing people is staggering, and then most people voluntarilly tune themselves into the tube to get their regular upload. So easy to just tune out. Only if you want to, ofcourse

Im sick of new 'mental illnesses' being invented. And new drugs and technologies that bigpharma can supply to the population to treat these mental illnesses. However, if someone really wanted to change their belefs and were willling to go through a 'treatment' to do so, then i think they have the right to do so. it just open up a world of scary possibilities and even more methods to control others. Sounds very clockwork orange and 1984- scary

Seriously, that was probably the most concise and well thought out response I have read yet...nice one.

 

[Haifaa Aziz]

Being raised as a Muslim and i still am my beliefs at early were basically shaped from my family and the Muslim community around me.
but as i grown i had so many questions that's when i started to think, search on my own and thus to shape my recent beliefs, so from my own shaped beliefs allow me to disagree when you describe religious fundamentalism as sort of mental illness!

if you believe in god then you have to believe that he is FAIR and JUST.. life is a series of tests that you have to pass successfully to deserve heaven, and to pass tests you have to choose right, you have to choose what satisfies god above all even above yourself because heaven is so precious and it won't be given to whoever. as you know the life after the day of judgement is eternal and this life compared to that life is like an hour or part of the day,so it's up to you to choose to put god's will above yours or not to but whatever your choice is there is always a price to pay (if you choose to live this life to the fullest regardless of god's will then the price will be hell and if you choose heaven the price is to be a consistent believer and to hold on through life tests)


In our Qura'n god says "What can Allah gain by your punishment, if ye are grateful and ye believe? Nay it is Allah Who recogniseth (all good) and knoweth all things." Surat An-Nisa
the "Aayah" means that the bad things that happen to us in this life or after life happens because of our past sins and ingratitude not because god is unfair.

"why would our petty sins damn us for all eternity?" just like god punishes us for our sins he opened a door for us to erase these sins by asking for forgiveness so this is something else that makes god fair in my opinion.

There are so much stuff that our brains can't process that's why our brains shouldn't be the only reference to shape our beliefs or to judge on god. i courage you to always ask god to show you the right path and search in authentic sources because i can see that it matters to you and it's a good sign

Final advice try to take a look at The Holy Quran it may answers some of your questions and doubts as it did to mine.

 

[Skarekrow]

Being raised as a Muslim and i still am my beliefs at early were basically shaped from my family and the Muslim community around me.
but as i grown i had so many questions that's when i started to think, search on my own and thus to shape my recent beliefs, so from my own shaped beliefs allow me to disagree when you describe religious fundamentalism as sort of mental illness!

Good answer, although no one here was agreeing with the article itself as far as I understand...certainly not me.

 

[the]

I think that all the high school coaches that stress the 'fundamentals' should be round up and "treated", aka shot because they are corrupting our children!

But really there was no substance to this article (typical of Huff P). It is one of those thoughts that people bring up and are quickly dismissed as stupid on its face. Maybe if she has some evidence I would consider it. Being extreme isnt something that should be persecuted, although being X-treme... maybe I could see jail time for that.