As an atheist, it can be tempting for me to look at this headline and say, "Well, obviously! All religions are crazy!" But by that, I really just mean preposterous. And by that, I mean to me. But I think even a religious person could acknowledge that some people take their brand of religiosity a bit (or a lot) too far. I mean, there are religiously-driven people whose entire livelihood hangs on trying to turn gay people into second-class citizens. Or worse. That's nuts, right?
Turns out, maybe so.
[Excerpt]
Kathleen Taylor, Neuroscientist, Says Religious Fundamentalism Could Be Treated As A Mental Illness An Oxford University researcher and author specializing in neuroscience has suggested that one day religious fundamentalism may be treated as a curable mental illness.
Kathleen Taylor, who describes herself as a "science writer affiliated to the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics," made the suggestion during a presentation on brain research at the Hay Literary Festival in Wales on Wednesday.
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This lady is going to be taking some heat for this! Image from source, Raw Story.
The atheist in me reads a headline like that and thinks, "hells yeah!" But the gay in me says, "hey, wait a minute." I know the parallels aren't perfect, but gay people would immediately get offended, and tell you they don't have a mental illness, and don't need to be cured. Which is accurate. But a religious fundamentalist would feel the same way, even though it may not be accurate. I don't know. It's an interesting, but very, very incendiary topic.
[Excerpt] Leading neuroscientist: Religious fundamentalism may be a ‘mental illness’ that can be ‘cured’
A leading neurologist at the University of Oxford said this week that recent developments meant that science may one day be able to identify religious fundamentalism as a “mental illness” and a cure it. . .
There's a really nasty, awful, almost impossible to listen to right-wing talk show host named Michael Savage. Well, actually, his name is Michael Weiner, but that beside the point. This odious fellow has a saying (and a book, and billboards) that goes, "Liberalism is a mental disorder." As a liberal, I don't think so, but I wouldn't, would I? One thing I do know, is that the most strident ideologues are often suffering from an extreme case of projection. They accuse their imagined enemies of precisely what they themselves are guilty of.
So, are conservatives mentally ill? Not all, certainly. But how does one argue passionately for their cause, when their cause is so very, very often wrong? The excerpted article below is written by a more competent author than myself, and he makes an excellent case. Read on. . .
[Excerpt]
At this point, being a conservative isn't a political philosophy, it's a personality disorder
Dear Conservatives, all of your ideas, when practiced, result in Epic Fail. Drill baby drill, BP Oil Spill. Let the banks get Too Big To Fail and police themselves, massive bank collapse. Teach abstinence only, teen pregnancies go up. Cut taxes for the rich while waging war, create a massive deficit. Trust me, I could go on. Your political philosophy is a joke, a tiresome reel of you as Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes, yet no matter how hard your ideas fail you insist that it is only your leaders who fail the ideas, so you have doubled down on stupid and insisted that by being really, really conservative, this time its' going to work, seriously. Modern day conservatives are trying as hard as they can to bang a square peg through a round hole, but don't even get me started on Marcus Bachmann. . .
