Religion; form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

[Hitsua]

If you don't already know what it is, then head over to
http://www.ocfoundation.org/ocf1010a.htm


Alright, anyways. I was thinking about this a few days ago, and I finally got around to post about it. Most people involved with religion, believe that they have to pray for everything to go right. They pray every night just so everything will go right the next day. If they don't follow the 10 commandments, somthing will go wrong. Most people with OCD, have to do a certain "ritual" so nothing will go wrong, such as using your left hand to open the door, or say somthing 5 times before doing somthing else. Religion, is the same way.

Feel free to discuss.

[CelestialBadger]

This matter is discussed in the Ender series by Orson Scott Card. I don't have anything to contribute to this thread beyond telling you to read those books.

[DoMiNuS]

I don't know about Religion being a form of OCD, but Freud believed that it was an Ego Defense Mechanism. I have done some extensive research on this topic and have found some very interesting correlations between Paranoid Schizhophrenia, Delusional Disorder Grandiose type, and spiritual persons of the past (such as Jesus). In fact, in mental institutions today there is an outsanding number of people who fit the Jesus-like profile to the T and are most commonly diagnosed as Paranoid Schizophrenic or Delusional Grandiose. Just a theory, but an interesting one at that.

[EEX_ca_aok]

I think religion is a way for people to grasp what they can't understand. It gives them comfort. I personally have an extremely hard time comprehending the whole "religion" craze, because I think very scientifically and have a problem with the world being created in 7 days ~6000 B.C when we have dinosaur fossils from 250000 years ago. Lets say for a minute that there truely is a higher being.... who's to say we picked the right one? Is everyone but a select few going to hell because they picked the wrong religion? I have fond memories of a certain 2 part southpark episode where the kids believe that if they don't constantly confess their sins they'll burn in the fires of hell. Meanwhile, Satan (who if you've seen the movie is a homosexual), has a subplot going on in hell. So you see hell, and everyone new for the day is standing around panicking, and then a regular looking guy gets up on stage.

"Ahh yes, hello, I'm the director of activities here in hell. Now I'm sure some of you are probably wondering why you're here..."

There there are random outbursts from the crowd such as:

"But I was a good catholic, why am I here?"
"But I followed the path of enlightenment!"

Meanwhile the director is saying "Nope, sorry, wrong religion"

The people ask "Then who did chose right?"

Director: I'm sorry, the correct religion was Mormon, that's right, Mormon.

Can you not see the falacy of it all? Religion is a way to escape the inevitable perspective science gives us on life... that we are insignificant specks in a wide universe. And if there truely was an omnipotent being, why would he constantly smite the world with tragedy and send his "children" to hell?

[DoMiNuS]

I completely agree with you. I need scientific evidence before I can make a judgement of that sort. What I find sad is that most organized religions end up being more destructful to the person than helpful. Besides all the wars created in the name of religion etc, if a religion commands you to feel guilty for certain natural instincts all humans have, or it forbids you to do harmless things for know good reason, it's more negative than positive. It's common sense that people should not steal, kill, etc, but when you are told that being envious is a deadly sin, or being lustful, or proud etc....something is wrong! Religion, however, exists because people have a deep intrinsic need of belonging to a group, of feeling normal, of making sense of their existance. And that is fine until they choose a religion that harms them and the rest of the world on many levels.