Are devout Christians mentally ill because of their irrational supernatural beliefs? For those of us who were committed Evangelicals at one time, were we mentally ill? Does this mean that billions of people are mentally ill just because they devoutly worship, serve, and follow God? Listen to some atheists, and it is clear that they believe the answer is a resounding YES! Most atheists who make this claim have never been religious. To them, religion is a virus that causes mental disease. This allows them to dismiss Christianity out of hand without wrestling with and engaging their claims. In my opinion, this is lazy thinking.
We humans, religious or not, are prone to irrational belief. All of us, at one time or another, have had wonky, crazy beliefs. As a former Evangelical, I know that many of my past religious beliefs were illogical and unjustifiable. Does this mean I was mentally ill? Of course not. For those of us raised in Evangelical churches, we spent years being indoctrinated and conditioned by our parents, pastors, youth directors, Sunday school teachers, and others. We believed what we did because that’s all we knew at the time. How could I have believed otherwise?
I wish atheists would stop saying religious people are mentally ill. Christians might have mental health problems, but is religion solely to blame for this? I don’t think so, and it is uncharitable and unkind to suggest otherwise.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Not mentally ill. Otherwise there’d be no
point in developing the Clergy Project. Even for those who find shelter from organized religion, to become atheists, most still have a very great desire to want to genuinely help people. It’s a shame that we (atheists) still don’t have sanctuaries of our own.
Bruce, to answer your post, I can only render my opinion, and that opinion is YES, they are.
Now before you ban me, I would acknowledge my own, personal struggles with addictions, (for the record, nothing involving “injections”), depression and a host of familial relationship issues.
Interestingly, the therapists I have utilized in my lifetime suggest – EVERYONE and they mean EVERYONE alive could use mental health therapy. Including themselves.
So, this is not a “knock” on Christians, mental health struggles afflict the entire species.
I would further qualify that American society, and the cultural and economic realities citizens are expected to cope with (in it) every day, is all one needs as proof of SOCIETAL mental illness. It is NOT just the citizen that is mentally ill here, it is what this society drives us toward every day.
I could wax on endlessly about our species evolution and how survival shaped our nature, the predisposition to violence on an individual and in fact Governmental policy level. The literature we read, the visual media we are exposed to, capitalism, war, greed, RELIGION ……………………. OF COURSE humans are mentally ill to some degree, how could we not be? And this does not apply strictly to the United States, try the whole world.
For rock music fans among your readership I recommend the tune “VICARIOUS” by that excellent band “TOOL”.
Give it a listen and ponder the message among the awesome guitar riffs…………..
In some respects one can give the early Christian movement a little slack for their fantasies, trying to make sense of
the unbelievably violent and cruel system of order imposed upon it by the Roman empire.
I suppose your inquiry really boils down as to what defines mental illness. For me it is rather simple, in terms of what it is NOT: Human beings, working together, in a non violent and non exploitive way, for the common good.
Our species is still very FAR from achieving that goal.
I don’t think religious people are de facto mentally ill. There are plenty of people who are mentally ill – some happen to be religious, others happen to be nonreligious.
It’s difficult to untangle and walk away from childhood indoctrination, especially when one’s indoctrinators are trusted people (parents, teachers, grandparents, etc). I found it extremely painful to realize that people i had revered/trusted steered me down a bad road. Many of these people were otherwise intelligent, kind people – they too were indoctrinated.
People believe or follow ideas/groups for a variety of reasons, often emotionally-driven reasons. That doesn’t mean the followers are mentally ill, unintelligent, etc.
Religious people may not, by definition, be mentally ill but if I remember my psyche classes, a defining characteristic of mental illness is departure from reality. If sanity is on a sliding scale, I submit that atheists, agnostics, and those ignoring religion are on the “saner” end of the scale. Personally, I feel compulsive about reality in that sometimes I’d like to escape it but it just stubbornly keeps confronting me.
Number one “religion” and being “religious “ is man trying to earn favor with God (and yes he does exist even more than you and me) through works and rituals and that is NOT possible because of sin.
Jesus Christ is God reaching out to sinful man through his death and resurrection and mercy and grace!
Religion and salvation in Jesus Christ and relationship with him are TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THINGS.
Religion will get you to hell (and yes it does exist!) as fast as atheism.
And if every religious person and every atheist could go into hell for even 1 second! Which will be longer than 1 million years on earth they would have their rearends lined up for miles to hear about and receive Christ.
So Quint, answer me this. Suppose it’s atheists whom God is going to elevate to heaven after they die, and he’s been playing chicken with religious believers (especially Christians!), misleading them all the way along? Or maybe it was actually Satan who caused the Bible to be written? I guarantee that you can provide no evidence to support this possibility, and that’s the problem with having beliefs that aren’t founded on evidence. Oh, and for the sake of completeness I can assure you that actually you’re off the hook…hell absolutely doesn’t exist!
Quint, I believe that there’s no such thing as “salvation.” I believe that everyone dies and stays dead, and that life after death is completely impossible.
I also believe that Jesus might have been a real person, but believe with 100% conviction that he is now dead and absolutely did not come back from the dead. He couldn’t even save himself.
That said, I reject the concept of salvation unconditionally. It is the height of cowardice to let someone else die in your place, and I do not accept the preposterous Passover Long Weekend pseudo-sacrifice.
The only people I need saved from are Evangelical Christians and other zealots Heaven bent on saving my depraved, wicked soul (not that I have a soul🤣).
The problem here is defining what we mean by mental illness. Is it defined as a particular neurological condition such as schizophrenia, or autism, or dementia etc, or is it defined as anything that doesn’t conform with what we regard as the norm? I think it’s safe to say that religious belief can’t possibly in and of itself be classed in the former category, so we’re left with the second category. Therein lies the problem: who gets to define the norm? Until not so long ago the norm would have been religious belief and it would be atheists who were defined as mentally ill. Now that reason has taken centre stage as a result of better socio-economic conditions and universal education so we can ponder why people hold what we see as unreasonable views. The trouble is we all indulge in varying levels of cognitive dissonance, where our actions are at odds with what’s best. For example having a beer is enjoyable but it probably isn’t good for us. Driving a car is convenient and something we justify for all sorts of reasons, even though we know it really isn’t good for the planet.
So with religious belief I think there’s a level at which it can’t possibly be defined as mental illness, as it’s little different from so many other day to day inconsistencies. On the other hand there surely comes a point at which there is so much cognitive dissonance that there is at least an element of mental impediment at work.
I wouldn’t say that religious people are, by definition, mentally ill. I can, however, say that some people are religious fundamentalists or fanatics because they have mental health issues. Certainly, that was true for me when I was an Evangelical Christian: I was deeply depressed and struggling with my gender identity and sexuality, and thought only Jesus could cure (“save”) me.