I know that not all Christian churches speak this way, but in my previous church community and the church communities I grew up in, someone might mention that they were under attack by Satan as casually as they might comment on the flavor of their morning coffee. I contend that this superstitious view of reality is bad, bad, bad for the psyche.
I have been out of the church for 2 years and an Atheist for about a year. The amount of good and bad in my life is occurring in exactly the same proportions as before. Seeing evil spirits (or divine favor) in your circumstances is no different than imagining a cloud formation looks like Scooby-Doo.
This made me chuckle!
ReplyDeleteI was definitely in the type of church which seemed to pray more to the devil than to god! What a wacky life that was..
I have a theory that fundamentalism is a religion designed specifically for people who suffer from clinical anxiety. This anxiety can be sourced back to the devil or some other form of evil, and the anxiety can be managed by creating a closed world in which the dnagers are excluded and the sufferer feels safe. Because a large proportion of their co-religionists suffer from the same (unacknowledged) problem, they reinforce each others behaviour like other co-dependents. They are then easy prey for charlatans and cranks who exploit this anxiety in the same way the dealers and publicans exploit more conventional addictions.
ReplyDeleteTongue only partly in cheek!