Written by a friend -Trancelation
Religion is a mental illness.
Some ex-Christians like to argue theology and history, attacking the problems with the Bible.
I, too, can do this as well as anyone. I've read several books on the subject, and while indeed there are hypocrisies, inaccuracies and contradictions on literally every single page of the Bible, pointing out these problems to Christians is like pointing out why alcohol is bad for alcoholics.
They are too addicted to see the flaws with what they are addicted to, and how it does not actually solve their problems. People suffering from mental illness are also incapable of understanding CONTEXT. This is why, when you have discussions or arguments with the mentally ill (in this case Christians), it is so frustrating. Their brains have been de-wired for understanding a discussion in its actual context. Reading the responses from Christians we can easily see that they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE SAYING. Their words they type or speak or think will always revolve around allowing the disease that has claimed them to exist. They are afraid of facing it; they are afraid of freedom and happiness. So instead of acknowledging points made time and again, this will always be the end result. No matter how cogent your point or argument, the Christians will always regress to that knee-jerk childlike state where their minds shut down and succumb to the call of their addiction. Some people call this faith, and admire it. I call it what it is: a disease. A sickness. A psychological, emotional imbalance in the brain of a victim.
Faith as a mental disorder, I personally feel that the only way to deal with Christianity is to treat it as the mental disorder that it really is. This cuts right to the heart of the problem; it does not give Christians an easy way out. Of course they will try to twist words and turn the argument around in their favor, but in the face of direct accusations about their illness they always crumble.
If everyone dealt with the religiously ill by confronting them about their illness, rather than engaging them in pointless philosophical digressions, the confrontation would always be a short one and would end with the religiously ill person seeking a new target to sate their drug. Faced with rock bottom (no one to torture emotionally with their psychological imbalance), Christians are faced with two possibilities: death or change. Only the most desperate person chooses death.
I've made the point before that I have had mentally ill people in my life; I've had a friend suffering from NPD, and my father is an alcoholic. Christians posses the same qualities as these two kinds of people. Not always in the same degrees, but they are always present. As such, I feel that we as ex-Christians should confront Christians about their illness and demand they receive treatment for it.
Perhaps one day in the hopeful future people will have interventions for the mental illness that is called faith in the same way they do for drugs and alcohol.
