Is Faith Delusion? by Andrew Sims

A Look at the Book by Andrew Sims

 - his inadvertent showing that religion is an undesirable psychological aberration

Andrew Sims is the author of Is Faith Delusion?  He is a former Professor of Psychiatry and President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and has also been Chairman of their Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group, so is exceptionally well qualified to address the subject.

Many, even believers suspect that faith in God or Christianity is a sign of a disturbed mind.

Sims as we say wants to argue that it is not. But he gives no sensible or non-delusional reason for the no. The jury is still out and religion is still under grave suspicion as dangerous to mental health if not an actual mind disorder.
 
The book's biggest flaw is its cardinal doctrine that if religious people have physically normal brains they are sane though they may report strange religious experiences and encounter what they believe to be God. That is nonsense. It is arrogant because nobody claims to know exactly how the human mind works or what forces there are that pull its strings.

 

Who is to say what a "normal" or "healthy" brain is? If everybody has healthy brains and think that God is making revelations to them all the time, then the consequences will be terrible. Normal life will be impossible. If everybody had mystical experiences all the time, that would prove that our criteria of a normal brain is faulty. Do not look at the brain and judge mystical experiences normal. Look at the consequences if everybody reported such experiences all the time. We judge a person who cuts their ears off for fun as abnormal simply because if everybody did that there would be grave problems and trouble. So those who have religious experiences are simply disturbed - period.

It is a mistake to assume that to have a mental or psychological problem, one must have wrong chemicals in the brain or abnormal brainwaves. The person who has a physically normal brain but who believes that the world is made of cheese is insane. God is an impersonal spirit if he exists. He does not reason or think for he knows all things. He does not have feelings. Though God is described as personal this is really not a helpful description for he is nothing like a person as we know it. He is an it.  Clearly people who say they have a relationship with him need to clarify their thinking and snap out of it.
 
Page 86 states that if we believe in randomness then what happens in our minds is meaningless. So we need to believe that nothing is really random and God controls and knows all things.
 
We do need to believe in randomness. If I start thinking that winning the lottery was fixed by God then it makes no sense for me to enjoy things that come about by chance for I don't believe in chance. And why bother with lotteries if they are fixed anyway? Healthy people believe that some things are random and some things are not. Belief in God violates our nature and our welfare by inferring that chance is impossible and that what we think is chance is not chance at all.
 
Page 114 states that magic or superstitious thinking is different from religious experience. For example the magician thinks he can control God. The person who prays thinks he or she can't control God and that it is up to God to reply to the prayer or not. It says that Christians in British cultures on the whole are not superstitious and that they do not believe in superstitions or magic. Sims states that some religions are harmful and it is these that are bad for your health. He thinks religion only harms when it is abused.  This is like arguing that a Republican voter who is born in New York is not an American for "No true American votes Republican". 
 
If believers really believed that prayer does not manipulate God they would simply resign themselves to God's will by prayerfully saying, "Do what you will." But they ask for things. If you ask for a bike you are saying you want the bike whether it is God's will or not. If you were not doing that, you would be indifferent to getting the bike or not getting it for your only concern would be to see God's will done. You are not asking him to do his will but you are resigning yourself to his will. Asking then is not praying but is selfish cynical manipulation. Believers are superstitious. Period.
 
Also, people who pray and occultists who do magic spells both use excuses when they don't get what they pray or cast spells for. If a sick person dies, both conclude that the divine had to let the person die for a purpose and so the prayers or spells could not bring any results.
 
Page 121 reminds us that symptoms and signs are not the same thing. For example, a symptom of schizophrenia would be the sufferer has an auditory hallucination. A sign would be when he uses words that do not exist - made up words. A sign indicates what the disease is. The symptom is the patient's complaint or problem - eg depression. Page 124 says that if somebody reports an experience, you must learn what the experience means to him or her before diagnosing anything or deciding that the person is in fact not ill at all.
 
This is interesting. Surely the more a person prays then the more he gives signs that he could do with some psychological help.
 
Page 150 tells us that if being a religious believer is a sign of mental illness then all religious activities are signs of mental problems.
 
"A delusion is a false, unshakeable idea or belief, which is out of keeping with the patient's educational, cultural and social background; it is held with extraordinary conviction and subjective certainty" (page 124).
 
This definition indicates that if you are the only person with a belief then the belief may be a delusion because the belief is not understandable or justifiable.
 
The Pharisees Jesus condemned were said by the gospels to be hypocrites. They were therefore out of keeping with their background. And they were so sure of themselves that they couldn't see how hypocritical they were. Jesus called them blind guides for that reason.
 
If a priest says mass backwards on a Sunday that is a sign he is deluded.
 
If a man argues that God exists because his Easter egg tasted good that shows he is deluded.
 
If a person doesn't wonder if they are deluded or not then that is a sign that they are deluded.
 
The deluded often love their delusions. They may PRETEND to wonder if they're deluded in order to seek support for their delusion.
 
If a person thinks very literally - eg that if they give their heart to God their heart has vanished from their body and is now in God's hands that is a sign of delusion.
 
Delusions can take any of the following forms:
 
Delusions of persecution

 

Morbid irrational jealousy

 

Delusions of grandeur

 

Delusions of love

 

Delusions of guilt

 

Delusions of control

 

Religious delusions (page 126).

 

The delusions are not bad simply because they are delusions but because they do harm. For example, to falsely think you are being persecuted is not good for you and neither is the idea that you have power and control that you do not have. Nobody needs treatment for harmless delusions. But if you believe in Bible Christianity you will feel persecuted by demons which are all around us according to Christ, feel jealous for God and hate to see people having any idols, feel that God loves you without evidence, feel that you can manipulate God though prayer and have religious delusions. Even if these are not necessarily delusions they are just as horrible. All together they are worse than having say a delusion of guilt.

 

Interestingly religious delusions are categorised here.  Instead of arguing that one of the other delusions can manifest in a religious form we are told that religion may cause or manifest as delusion. 
 
Page 128 argues that though you can have religious delusions having religious faith is not necessarily delusion.
 
Sims lists the reasons why he thinks religious belief or faith is not delusion:
 
The beliefs are not against one's culture or social background. COMMENT - THEN THE REFORMERS MUST HAVE BEEN MENTALLY DISTURBED FOR DEFYING ALL THAT WITH NEW RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. JESUS MUST HAVE BEEN DELUDED WHEN HE HAD SO MANY DIFFERENCES WITH HIS JEWISH BACKGROUND THAT HE DIED ALONE ON A CROSS.

 

They are understandable and justifiable.

 

COMMENT: HE SEEMS TO BE THINKING OF THE BELIEFS BEING UNDERSTANDABLE AND JUSTIFIABLE IN A PERSONAL BUT NOT EVIDENTIAL WAY. HE MIGHT SEE SOMEBODY BELIEVING BECAUSE THEIR COMMUNITY BELIEVES AS UNDERSTANDABLE AND JUSTIFIABLE. BUT THE FACT REMAINS, THAT UNLESS THE BELIEFS ARE BASED ON RESEARCH AND CRITICAL THOUGHT AND EVIDENCE THEY ARE NEITHER UNDERSTANDABLE OR JUSTIFIABLE. AND INDEED THE CHRISTIANS WHO CAN ABLY DEFEND AT LEAST SOME OF THEIR BELIEFS IN A RATIONAL WAY ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. MOST CANNOT AND SO THEY ARE DELUDED. PERIOD. ALSO THERE ARE BELIEFS THAT ARE NOT UNDERSTANDABLE OR JUSTIFIABLE. WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THE MESSAGE OF THE BOOK "THE SECRET" THAT HITLER'S VICTIMS BROUGHT THEIR SUFFERING ON THEMSELVES FOR NOT USING THE MAGIC OF POSITIVE THINKING? ALSO, EVEN IF A RELIGION CAN PRESENT EVIDENCE THAT ITS BELIEFS ARE PROBABLY TRUE, IT DOES NOT FOLLOW THAT IT REALLY BELIEVES BECAUSE OF THE EVIDENCE. IT IS POSSIBLE TO SAY YOU BELIEVE IN SOMETHING THERE IS EVIDENCE FOR WHILE YOU DON'T GIVE A TOSS ABOUT THE EVIDENCE. CAN YOU HAVE FAITH AND EVIDENCE FOR IT AND NOT BELIEVE BECAUSE OF THE EVIDENCE? ASSUMING FAITH DOESN'T ALWAYS DEPEND ON EVIDENCE THE ANSWER WOULD BE YES.

 

They are not crudely literal or concrete - eg, when you think you sense the voice of God in prayer you don't mean you hear an audible voice.

 

COMMENT: CHRISTIANS BELIEVE THAT GOD MOSTLY COMMUNICATES WITHOUT ACTUALLY SPEAKING. IF THERE IS NO GOD OR IF HE IS NOT COMMUNICATING THEN YOU ARE DELUDED FOR YOU ARE MISTAKING YOUR OWN IMPRESSIONS FOR HIS MESSAGE. IF BELIEVERS REALLY BELIEVE IN THIS FORM OF DIVINE COMMUNICATION, WHY DON'T THEY MURDER PEOPLE AND SAY THAT WAS BECAUSE THEY FELT THAT GOD TOLD THEM TO? IF GOD USES EVIL FOR GOOD THEN IF THEY FEEL HE IS TELLING THEM TO KILL, THERE IS NOTHING ANYBODY CAN DO TO REASON THEM OUT OF IT. ONCE YOU SAY GOD USES EVIL, YOU ADMIT THE POSSIBILITY THAT HE CAN COMMAND YOU TO KILL FOR HE KILLS ANYWAY. THE REALITY CHECK IS TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU. FEELING THAT GOD IS COMMUNICATING IS ACTUALLY MORE DELUSIONAL THAN HEARING AN AUDIBLE VOICE FOR YOU WILL NOT HEED THE VOICE JUST BECAUSE YOU HEAR IT BUT YOU MIGHT HEED IT BECAUSE YOU FEEL IT REALLY IS GOD. YOU HAVE MORE REASON TO TAKE A VOICE SERIOUSLY THAN ANY ALLEGED PSYCHIC POWER THAT TELLS YOU THAT GOD IS COMMUNICATING WITH YOU INAUDIBLY AND THROUGH YOUR IMPRESSIONS AND EMOTIONS.

 

Finally, religion especially when it is not helping the person make up their own mind and do their own research on an evidence base is clearly a sign of unwellness.  That is alarming in itself.  More harm will come and the religious person will do unintended and unnoticed harm to others.

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