RELIGIOUS PERSON WHEN NOT MENTALLY ILL RISKS CAUSING RELIGIOUS TRAUMA SYNDROME

In the psychological world, trauma caused by religion tends to be a taboo topic.  This must change. Victims must be compensated.

Trauma can be caused by being told to affirm,

Scripture texts that make you feel your sins are terrible even hell-deserving

That certain things that don't seem bad are sins

That you sin a lot perhaps perpetually

That Satan and his demons are targetting you and ready to spiritually devour you [this is a clear example of paranoia and it is not just your own concern for it will spread to those who look up to you and who are influenced by you.  So don't add other-abuse to your self-abuse]

That God is like a disapproving authority figure who surrounds you all the time [these points remind us of Paranoid Personality Disorder: “Individuals with this disorder assume that other people will exploit, harm, or deceive them, even if no evidence exists to support this expectation.”]

Doctrines and morals that cause needless self-loathing

As God is that who gives you all you supposedly owe him all in return and must give your entire self but as nobody really can do that, you are going to feel like a thief and a fraud

Doctrines that are too absolute, too black and white

The doctrine that free will is doing whatever your nature is, says that if you sin then you are sort of made of sin.  In other words, your nature is bad, it is sin.

Doctrines that tell you you are just a servant.  A pawn who is become completely manipulated can feel like he or she is part of something bigger.  The person feels like they are part of a collective ego.  That is why letting yourself be used like that is just a form of selfishness.  Altruism is dressed up as doing good for others and keeping nothing back.  But a person who say does sacrificial things for say their own tribe is clearly NOT an altruist.  And this comes out more if they are discriminating against those who were not born into the tribe.

You stand for the position that since God owns life he will take your life when it is right to so you should suffer for years in grave horror instead of going for an assisted suicide.  It is evil to stand for enduring years of agony to get a place in Heaven.  Or worse, to please God's life-affirming principles.  Even if all you can think of is, "Maybe he owns my life as in he will decide when I go, or maybe he owns my life and will prompt me when it must end by assisted dying", that is problematic.  You are left in limbo so if you use your right to die you are going to suffer fear and doubt.  Terror could strike when the needle goes in.

Autistic people tend to be atheists in startlingly high numbers.  This is not saying atheism leads to autism.  It is saying that autistic people are not as easily conditioned as others are and are resistant to socially manipulative systems such as religion.  They think carefully and easily so they see through the folly of religion and God.  Religion and God belief are erasing autistic people and forcing them to play along.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psyched/201205/does-autism-lead-atheism#sthash.d47JBvt0.dpuf

It does not follow that if Jane and John talk about God and their experience of God that their experience is of some objective reality. They can sound similar but that does not rule out that it could be subjective.

For that reason it is safe to say that each person has an invisible god friend.  Nobody else can check if their experience is real.  Invisible friends are only for children.

It is a worry that they hold that prayer can cure all cancer and end the war if God so chooses.

They keep praying over and over again though nothing happens.  They support sacraments as cures for sinful tendencies and don't take responsibility for them not working.   A hospital with such a bad cure rate would be shut down.

They treat absurd and ancient mythology as reliable.

They claim to respect signs from God but in fact they only pick what signs suit them.  For example, a resurrection happening today of some religious figure who says its a sign that Jesus was a fraud would be met with scoffs while it is okay to accept Jesus's resurrection two thousand years ago.

From all this the person who says this is not their experience and who sells religion based on that is either a liar or mentally ill.  Or maybe both?

Objections:

Is it true that the believer is not in some way mentally disturbed for loving God and taking God seriously for she admits there might not be a God? 

Actually that is beside the point.  She is claiming to have a REAL relationship.

You can't say all religious people are mentally ill.  They are not.

 How religious are they really?  Are they confused?  A person with a properly developed faith is mentally ill.  And in cases like this, we look for the typical.  Jesus and the Bible authors were clearly unwell and damaged.  If they are the typical then we can say religion is a mental aberration.  We can say that the devout but clearly sane Christian we know is not typical.  That person is not a religion founder, that person is not a Jesus or a Bible writer, so the founding influencers should be considered to be the case studies that count.

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