Posted by:
robertb
(
)
Date: December 03, 2011 04:31AM
The article linked below is probably one of the best explanations I have read for why religion is not a delusion.
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"Calling religion delusional has become an increasingly popular strategy for its critics. To my ear, there's more to this than just a benign slight -- there's at least the hint of the pathological. Religion can be delusional, but to think it inherently so is to misunderstand both religion and delusion.
Having spent my entire professional career around psychologists, I'm all too aware of how clinicians cringe when diagnostic terms get tossed about willy-nilly. So let's begin with what the latest APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV-TR, p. 821) says about delusion:
A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith).
Note that the manual almost gives religion a free pass on the delusion issue, which for some might end the discussion right there. But let's assume that this is too generous and push ahead anyway."
Continued
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-j-rossano/why-religion-is-emnotem-d_b_611148.html