This page contains links and my comments as to the harmful effects of religion, primarily in current times. It is a continuation of the pages My religious beliefs (MyRel010, 020).
We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. ~ Gene Roddenberry.
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See also Current abuses by religions (Page 80)
The Case against Religion: http://www.matriarch.com/case.htm By Albert Ellis, Ph.D. Psychotherapy. . . . In the final analysis, then, religion is neurosis. This is why I remarked, at a symposium on sin and psychotherapy held by the American Psychological Association a few years ago, that from a mental health standpoint Voltaire’s famous dictum should be reversed: for if there were a god, it would be necessary to uninvent him.
If the thesis of this article is correct, religion goes hand in hand with the basic irrational beliefs of human beings. These keep them dependant, anxious, and hostile, and thereby create and maintain their neuroses and psychoses. What then is the role of psychotherapy in dealing with the religious views of disturbed patients? Obviously, the sane and effective psychotherapist should not — as many contemporary psychoanalytic Jungian, client-centered, and existentialist therapists have contended he should — go along with the patients’ religious orientation and try to help these patients live successfully with their religions, for this is equivalent to trying to help them live successfully with their emotional illness.
CHRISTIANS ANONYMOUS: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/9104/index.html A Resource For Recovering Christians. . . . like any addiction, Christianity is also a disease of the mind in many aspects. Persons afflicted with the fanatical beliefs that Christianity espouses are unaware to how deep in a religious abyss their faith has led them. The most important component of recovery is a recognition and admission that one is enslaved in the cult that is the Christian religion. With my step-by-step program, I have paved the way to helping Christians escape from the insanity they are governed by.
1.) "We have
admitted we are powerless over Christianity - that our faith has
become unmanageable."
2.) "We came to the realization that
Christianity could drive us to complete insanity."
3.) "Made a decison to stop turning over
our free will to the care of a God we never fully understood in
the first place."
4.) "Made a searching and fearless moral
evaluation of our faith."
5.) "Admitted to society, the world and
ourselves the exact inept nature of our religion, which is
totally wrong."
6.) "We are entirely prepared to remove
these 'holier than thou' attitudes."
7.) "Humbly agreed to keep our relation
to God completely to ourselves."
8.) "Made a list of all persons we had
deceived and turned over to Christianity and became willing to
tell them the real truth."
9.) "Made direct ammends to all persons
we told would 'burn in hell' if they did not believe as we
did."
10.) "Continued to take a spiritual
inventory of our former beliefs and when we were wrong (which was
almost always), promptly admitted how naive we were."
11.) "Sought through education and
common sense to improve upon our disconnection from Christianity
as we saw necessary, educating and empowering ourselves to carry
the renunciation of our faith out."
12.) "Having had an intellectual
awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to other misled Christians, and agreed to cease all
further practices involving shameless religious persuasion and,
furthermore, to never again use God as a terror weapon."
Christianity's endorsement of slavery (Page 10)
Has Christianity been of net benefit to mankind? (Page 10)
Is a cult more irrational or dangerous than a mainline religion? (Page 410) Short answer? No, they are the same thing -- and equally dangerous in requiring mental slavery, under penalty of torture in the case of mainline religions. The mainline religions are probably more dangerous than some cults.
Is religion good for you: http://fp.bio.utk.edu/skeptic/Essays/is%20religion%20good%20for%20you.htm by Massimo Pigliucci.
I think that religion is neither more nor less than one of many forms of superstition. . . . an article published in the Backgrounder, a publication of the Heritage Foundation (HF), one of the most powerful conservative think tanks in the United States.
The HF writer, P.F. Fagan (1996) argued that religion matters because it has a positive impact on social stability. . . .
Lutheran Church still justifies Luther's statements, on the basis that they were 'only' anti-Judaic, not anti-Semitic!
Of Babies and Bath Water: http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/gp017.htm Why are atheists grossly under represented in the American prison system? Why are the majority religious systems which claim to hold the higher ethic and morality failing to live up to their claims?
Oregon Live 5-28-99 Freedom of religion shouldn't endanger children: http://www.oregonlive.com/oped/99/05/ed052804.html The Oregonian. May 28, 1999. By Michael S. Morey. Legislature goes too far to protect parents who deny youngsters proper medical care.
Oregon parents have remarkable freedom to use their religious beliefs to deprive their children of lifesaving medical care.
Parents who demonstrate they prayed for their child are exempt from murder and manslaughter charges. The same religious exemptions protect parents when their conduct leads to permanent disability. Oregon also provides a religious exemption from an otherwise mandatory duty to report abused and neglected children to police or Services to Children and Families.
Oregon has a sad history of deaths and injuries to children resulting from parents withholding medical care, based on their religious beliefs. The Oregonian reported that 78 children are buried in one corner of a cemetery owned by the Followers of Christ in Oregon City, a denomination that prays for sick children rather than providing necessary medical care. . . .
Religion is Mental Illness: http://www.truthbeknown.com/mental.htm RELIGION IS MENTAL ILLNESS. GOD IS A PSYCHOPATH.
Religious groups that reject medical treatment
Religion is selfish, blinkered and immoral (Page 510)
The Southeast Michigan Chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation: http://www.atheistalliance.org/michigan/ RELIGION: SOCIETY'S OPPRESSOR.
Was Hitler a Christian? (Page 40)
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You can e-mail me at waynerp@sympatico.ca.