boutons_deux
07-26-2015, 07:55 AM
http://media.salon.com/2015/07/cruz_scalia_huckabee.jpg
The headline on the News Nerd was almost too good to be true:
“American Psychological Association to Classify Belief in God As a Mental Illness.”
A study, the story (http://www.thenewsnerd.com/health/apa-to-classify-belief-in-god-as-a-mental-illness/) beneath it read, had led the APA to conclude that “a strong and passionate belief in a deity or higher power, to the point where it impairs one’s ability to make conscientious decisions about common sense matters, will now be classified as a mental illness.”
“Religious belief and the angry God phenomenon has caused chaos, destruction, death, and wars for centuries. The time for evolving into a modern society and classifying these archaic beliefs as a mental disorder has been long overdue.”
The story, like the others the site publishes, was “for entertainment purposes only,” and “purely satirical.” In other words, a spoof. The hour was not nigh; psychologists were not yet ready to diagnose firm belief in God as what it is: an unhealthy delusion. Men in white jumpsuits won’t be forcing the faithful into straightjackets any time soon.
Yet the satire in the News Nerd’s piece derives its efficacy from an obvious truth: belief in a deity motivates people to behave in all sorts of ways — some childish and pathetic, others harmful, a few outright criminal — most of which, to the nonbeliever at least, mimic symptoms of an all-encompassing mental illness, if of widely varying severity.
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/26/the_religious_have_gone_insane_the_separation_of_c hurch_and_state_and_scalia_from_his_mind/
The headline on the News Nerd was almost too good to be true:
“American Psychological Association to Classify Belief in God As a Mental Illness.”
A study, the story (http://www.thenewsnerd.com/health/apa-to-classify-belief-in-god-as-a-mental-illness/) beneath it read, had led the APA to conclude that “a strong and passionate belief in a deity or higher power, to the point where it impairs one’s ability to make conscientious decisions about common sense matters, will now be classified as a mental illness.”
“Religious belief and the angry God phenomenon has caused chaos, destruction, death, and wars for centuries. The time for evolving into a modern society and classifying these archaic beliefs as a mental disorder has been long overdue.”
The story, like the others the site publishes, was “for entertainment purposes only,” and “purely satirical.” In other words, a spoof. The hour was not nigh; psychologists were not yet ready to diagnose firm belief in God as what it is: an unhealthy delusion. Men in white jumpsuits won’t be forcing the faithful into straightjackets any time soon.
Yet the satire in the News Nerd’s piece derives its efficacy from an obvious truth: belief in a deity motivates people to behave in all sorts of ways — some childish and pathetic, others harmful, a few outright criminal — most of which, to the nonbeliever at least, mimic symptoms of an all-encompassing mental illness, if of widely varying severity.
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/26/the_religious_have_gone_insane_the_separation_of_c hurch_and_state_and_scalia_from_his_mind/