guest post by Joe Vikin:
RELIGION AND MENTAL ILLNESS
Joe Vikin
MMXIV
“Religion is an assault to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things; that takes religion.”
Steven Weinberg (b.1933), Nobel Laureate in Physics, an atheist.
It has been suggested to add religion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association for, inter alia, the following reasons.
Denial/inability to think and to reason, since, in the religious world, obedience is the important thing, while ignorance is valued, for, as Ecclesiastics says: “Beacoup de sagasse, beacoup de tristesse.” (lot of wisdom , a lot of sadness.) That religious people eschew wisdom is demonstrated by the persecution of learned people, such as Hypatia in Alexandria, Egypt; Galileo Galilei in Italy, Michael Servetus (Servet) in Switzerland. The latter was at the verge of discovering the role of the heart in the circulation of the blood when he was burned at the stake by Jean Calvin for doubting the Trinity; refusal to allow dissections of the human body. After Andreas Vesalius performed one autopsy, he lost his life, when he was ordered to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; when the ship returned to Italy, she sank, taking the anatomist to the bottom with her. Other examples of irrational behavior include refusal to allow vaccinations; banning the teaching of evolution in schools and denigrating Charles Darwin for his theory. Remember the 1925 Monkey trial in Dayton, TN? Believing the value of π is three because the Bible says so, as it occurred in the state legislature of Indiana in 1897. The legislation to make π conform to the Biblical value of three was tabled by the Agricultural committee in that year and it has remained so ever since.
Inability to distinguish fantasy from reality, some examples of which include Moses talking to God through a burning bush; the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Mohammed in a cave; the angel Moroni’s trek to Palmyra, NY to give Joseph Smith a set of golden tablets written in the Reformed Egyptian language, whatever that was, plus a device to allowed Joseph translate said tablets into English; the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary to announce she was pregnant, even though she did not know any man; in 1917 three little shepherds in Portugal claimed to have seen the Virgin of Fatima in the sky and witnessed the sun rotate in front of their eyes (Fatima was Mohammed’s favorite daughter). Believe that Joshua ordered the sun and the moon to stand still and that Moses struck a rock to produce water in the middle of the desert. Jesus fed the multitudes with two loaves of bread and some fish, etc., ad nauseum.
Paranoia: fear of women, of outsiders and of infidels, as seen in the book of Ezra in the Old Testament. A recent example of paranoia includes the Rev. Fred Phelps (1929-2014), a Baptist minister who was convinced God hates the USA because the country accepts homosexuality. Fear of the female body, exposure to which may lead viewers to sin and eternal damnation. Such belief led Attorney General John Ashcroft to cover the breasts of Themis, the Greek Goddess of Justice, in front of the Justice Department. Sittlichkeit über alles! Luckily the AG did not have access to Andrew Wyeth’s Helga paintings (image of one of these paintings at the end of this post). Who knows what he would he have done with them.
Emotional and physical abuse, particularly of women and children, under the doctrine: “spare the rod, spoil the child”; torture and execution of women for witchcraft during the middle ages and in New England, when in 1692 the region was under Puritan rule; refusal to give women pain medication during childbirth; some religions still refuse to allow women to be educated and to drive automobiles. In 2011, a family Judge in Texas hit his then 16-year old daughter with a belt, on the grounds that if a father spares the rod, he will spoil the child. Abuse of underage girls, as it was done in the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch in El Dorado, Texas. The leader of that sect (The Fundamental Latter Day Saints), Warren Jeffs, was jailed in 2011. Sexual molestation of children perpetrated by Catholic priests, while Bible toting slave owners in the American South routinely whipped their “properties”, as shown in the 2013 movie “12 Years as a Slave.”
Espousal of violence, as witnessed by the Crusades, the witch persecutions in Europe (The Burning Times lasted for 500 years, from 1259 until 1759), the witch trials in New England in 1692, the Night of St. Bartholomew in Paris; execution of heretics and dissenters. Jesus was never the “Prince of Peace”, as he admitted he bought a sword and recommended his followers to sell their clothes to buy one. A sword is not an instrument of peace. The Jihad, the Holy War, in Islam. The Mountain Meadows Massacre perpetrated by the Mormon Nauvoo Legion in Utah in 1857. Only one person was found guilty for this crime: John D. Lee was executed by a firing squad on 23 March 1877. No religion has ever been pacifistic. Hindu fanatics caused the death of Mahatma Gandhi in India, and so on. Religion has been defined as a set of beliefs with an army and a navy, and, in the case of the Mormons, with a militia. Emperor Constantine established Christianity in Europe after he secured a military victory under the banner “In Hoc Signo vinces.” That “signo” was the cross.
Delusions, such as seeing God, angels, demons, chariots in the sky; cures due to divine intervention. Belief that Christianity spread fast with the aid of roads built by the Roman Empire (it took 500 years), yet Mohammed’s faith took only 100. Belief that a particular faith is the only “true” one and all others are wrong, and that their followers are the only ones to be saved, while the rest will spend eternity in hell. Believe in the existence of heaven and hell, purgatory and limbo, whatever the last two are. Belief that the “soul” is separate from the physical body. Belief in transubstantiation, that the wine and the host become the actual blood and body of Christ during Communion. That’s why the Romans thought Christians were cannibals: eating blood and human flesh. Belief that the human body is dirty and that the flesh must be mortified. Nobody in their right mind would entertain such delusions.
Inconsistent behavior: most religions claim to be peaceful, yet their actions contradict those declarations. One example: the peoples of the book (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) affirm they love women. Yet, the way females have been treated totally confirms that they hate the distaff gender. People who are sane strive to make their deeds be consistent with their words. And also, isn’t hearing voices from God or from angels a symptom of schizophrenia? And how would one classify the actions of Jim Jones and his followers in the Temple of Doom in Guyana, South America?
In addition, does chauvinism, i.e. excessive patriotism, belong in the DSM also? “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of freedom is no virtue.” Senator Barry Goldwater expressed such sentiment in the 1960s, in the midst of the Cold War with the USSR. Goldwater was a senator and presidential wannabe from Arizona. He lost the presidential race to LBJ. What about the slogan “My country, right or wrong”?
Does sport fanaticism belong in the DSM also? The word “fan” is an abbreviation for fanatic. After many games there have been riots and even a war between two Central American countries after a soccer match. One Colombian soccer player scored a goal in favor of the opposite team. When he returned to his home town of Medellín, he was killed. (Medellín was the present author‘s childhood home.) How does one characterize the behavior of teams and fans during and after hockey games? You have heard the joke, “I went to the Arena to see a fight, and a hockey game broke out.”
Therefore, chauvinism and sport fanaticism seem to qualify for inclusion in the DMS, as it does betting. William Bennett, former secretary of education and drug czar, admitted he lost millions to gambling, but he did not bet the milk money and he gave employment to many by doing so. He compiled “The Book of Virtues,” which prompts one question, which virtues does Bennett repudiate? Moderation, abstinence and frugality are three virtues he does not follow, as he is considerably overweight. Another compulsive gambler was Pete Rose, of baseball fame. And how do we explain the popularity of gambling casinos?
These examples lead to conclude human behavior is irrational and erratic, if not downright insane. And religion has been unable or unwilling to stop to those behaviors. Au contraire, religion has abetted and instigated many of them. That’s because religious people are only human, and we humans behave in the way our selfish genes compel us to act. That’s why we fight for territory. Therefore, free will and rational behavior are as real as the tooth fairy and leprechauns.
Don’t blame religion per se for the shortcomings of human beings. Blame our selfish genes, or better yet, blame the creator of life, who supplied all life forms (bacterial, vegetable, animal and human) with those genes, of which the one for altruism is rare. At the plant level, ivy plants and dandelions propagate without regard of the consequences and are unaware what impact their own uncontrolled growth has on their neighbors.
Humans do likewise. The command from Genesis, to be fruitful and multiply, reflects the desire, nay, the command from our genes to do so at all costs. At the rate the human population is growing, it won’t be long before we destroy all wild life, ruin all the arable land, run out of food and water and pollute the environment beyond repair. In China arable land has been found to be contaminated with toxic metals, such as arsenic. The epitaph of the human race should read “They loved children too much.”
The desire to reproduce is reflected by the actions of the “octomom”: Nadya Doud-Suleman (b.11 July 1975) had already six children and insisted in being artificially inseminated. As a result, in 2009, she gave birth to octuplets, even though her mother had objected to the procedure. Nadya’s role model was the actress Angelina Jolie, whose pregnancies and adoptions are fodder for the press. Angelina, who sees herself as a great humanitarian, has a total of six children. Nadya, to look like her idol, had her lips augmented, even though she denies it. To pay for the procedure she mortgaged her house. Now that Angelina secured a double mastectomy, is the octomom going to follow suit to imitate the actress? Also since the physician who impregnated Nadya is the “putative” father of her children, he should contribute to their care but he cannot do so since his license to practice medicine was revoked.
And who is paying for the care of her brood? Nadya has acted in soft porno flics and in strip joints. In one year she grossed more than 200 grand, a fact that embroiled her in welfare fraud. She was married to Marcos Gutiérrez until 2008, but he cannot be asked to support the octoplets since they are not his. How would you classify Nadya’s behavior, normal or deviant? Certainly her obsession with the actress is abnormal.
Another example of human’s compulsion to reproduce. Darly Alves da Silva, 54, was an illiterate farmer in Brazil. He sired 28 children by 5 women. His 23 year old son Darci killed Francisco (Chico) Mendes in 1988 in Xapuri, just north of the border with Bolivia. The victim was trying to prevent the Amazon jungle from being destroyed. Da Silva senior contended he needed to cut down the trees to expand his ranch to feed his growing brood.
Neither Darly nor his son would know what the Bible says about population growth. Still they obeyed the impulse conveyed by their genes to be fruitful and multiply. The irony is that the word “Silva” means forest in Portuguese. The world would have been better off had da Silva Sr. practiced birth control. The insidious thing is that Brazilians regard the destruction of the Amazon as “improving the land.” [sic].
On the upper side of the economic scale, Mitt Romney, the Mormon presidential wannabe, celebrated the arrival of his 20th grandson in 2013. The Chinese and the Hindus, even though they do not follow the Bible, are doing their best to overpopulate the planet. The last two groups, regardless of their religious affiliation, follow the command from our selfish genes.
Here is another example of the dangers of overpopulation: In 1985 the eruption of El Nevado del Ruiz, a volcano, buried up to 25,000 people and wiped out the Colombian the town of Armero. If the country had not been so overpopulated, people would not be forced to live in areas prone to disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, tornados, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, mud and landslides and the like. Then the population of the country was 28 million. It was seven million the author was born in 1933 and it had risen to 47 by 2012. People die of overpopulation. Our growing numbers force us to occupy areas that are not safe. Here we live in the Chemung Valley, in spite of the fact it is located on a flood plain. Hurricane Agnes in 1972 showed us what damage a flood can inflict and it is a sure bet another one is going to visit the area again. Yet we do not or cannot heed the warnings because our growing numbers demand a place to live.
We shall also mention Mary Kay Latourneau, a school teacher in Seattle, Washington, the mother of four. She seduced and had herself impregnated, not once, but twice, by her 14-year old Samoan student. She was the ultimate cougar. Eat your heart out, Mrs. Robinson! Mary Kay had a good example. Her father was John G. Schmitz, who had been a California state legislator and a college professor. He believed there is nothing wrong with the Catholic Church that a good inquisition could not cure. He took the place of George Wallace after the latter was shot and became paralyzed. John, the father of four, had two more from one of his students. So this Father-Daughter team engendered a total of 14 children. In the words of a Pope, they did not deny anybody the opportunity to participate in “the banquet of life,” even though for many children that banquet consists of rummaging though garbage dumps to secure their food. The present author witnessed such events in his home town in Colombia.
Had Creator had been a female, she could have done better, by, for example, making animals to be autotrophs (self-feeding) like plants, making their own food, thus obviating the need to hunt and consume plant life and each other. It would also help if animals and humans would not produce so much solid and liquid waste. Does his thinking also deserve to be added to the DSM?
BIOGRAPHICAL EPILOG
The writer of these lines was born in Colombia, SA in 1933 and has been in the USA since 1954. He served in the US Army for two years, stationed in Germany. While aboard the MSTS ship the buzz around was that you never admit to the First Sergeant you could type, as he would make you a latrine orderly. Right on cue, the first thing the first sergeant asked was: “Can any of you guys type?” Every body looked down, muttering, “I don’t want to be no latrine orderly.” I said to myself, “What the heck, if he makes me a latrine orderly, I will be the Battalion’s best. So be it!”
Few days later he found himself as a clerk of Company B, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, stationed in Ayers Kaserne, Kirch Göns, Germany, just south of Bad Neuheim. As such his most onerous duty was to fetch coffee from the Battalion mess hall at least ten times a day. The coffee pot was heavy and the trek to the mess hall was long; in addition, the paper cuts he suffered were deep. Every time his company went on maneuvers in the harsh German winters, he would be found inside the Executive Officer’s jeep with a typewriter on his lap. The typewriter was heavy! That was long before the advent of computers.
After his discharge from the service he received his degree in chemical technology, with the aid of Korean G.I. bill, and worked in two pharmaceutical companies for five years, then went to teach organic chemistry in his alma mater New York City Community (now Technical) College in Brooklyn, NY, where he met his future wife, Sonia Gilabert Sewell. She had been born in Cali, Colombia, but was raised in Chile since she was five years old. They married on 08 August 1964 and are the parents of Ivan Joseph and Omar Andrew. The couple lives in Corning with Charlie, their 15-year old poodle, who twirls them around his little finger, according to Marcy Straight from the Corning YMCA. The couple has been affiliated the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Big Flats since 1967, after an interlude with Grace Methodist Church in Corning.
He is also a recovering Catholic. As a teenager he became the target of unwanted attentions by two Catholic priests who taught religion at El Liceo Antioqueño, the public high school he attended in Medellín, Colombia. That’s why he still fumes when Pope Benedict XVI declared that priestly molestation of children is a “recent American problem.” His eminence was either ignorant or in denial or both. His reasons for abandoning the faith are explained in “Chronicle of a Faith Forsaken” and “Why I’m an atheist”, available from the author upon request.
AFTER THOUGHTS
Many of the actions taken by human beings, some sanctioned by religious authorities, can be summarized with the words from General Omar Bradley. After the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on a Japanese city, he exclaimed, “We are technological giants but moral midgets.” That in contrast to the words of the war time Prime Minister of Canada. He said “it is fortunate the bomb was used upon the Japanese and not upon the white races of Europe.” His name was William Lyon McKenzie King., Evangelicals would like to rename the aircraft the “Enola Heterosexual.”
The words of Enrico Fermi are also worth recoding. When he was confronted with the awesome destruction wrought by the instrument of war he helped to develop, he said, “Don’t bother me with your moral scruples. The bomb was good physics!”
These words agree with those expressed by Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York in 1981. He asserted that nuclear deterrence can “be morally tolerated if a nation is sincerely trying to come with rational alternatives.” The Cardinal’s views opposed the 1976 statement by the conference of bishops condemning the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and the threat to use them.
Who are the sane, those who favor the use of nuclear weapons, “hawks” like Edward Teller (one of the proponents of the neutron bomb, the one that kills humans and leaves buildings intact) or those who oppose them, peacenicks like Linus Pauling? And what role does or should religion play in this debate?
FINAL THOUGHT
If the present writer were to claim that God or an angel spoke to him, he would be carted off to the nearest behavioral health unit by men in white, soon, if not immediately.
20 April 2014.
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