We have various terms to describe people who embrace many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. If their beliefs are extremely common, we call them "religious." Otherwise, those individuals are defined as "crazy," "psychotic" or "deluded". The majority of believers is perfectly healthy, of course, including those who commit atrocities in the name of their beliefs.
What is the difference between a man who believes that God will reward you with 72 virgins if he kills a score of Jewish teenagers and one believes that creatures from Alpha Centauri are sending messages to the world peace through the dryer? Actually there is a difference, but it does not give religion a flattering shade. The
Faith brings a certain kind of person to believe that no one else believes. Be guided by ideas for which you do not have concrete evidence (and, therefore, can not be justified in discussions with other human beings) generally indicates a way of thinking deeply unfair. This does not mean that all believers are mentally ill.
Yet, for some historical accident, is considered normal in our society believe that the Creator of the universe can hear our thoughts, and is a symptom of mental illness believe that is communicating with us in Morse code through the rain beating on the glass the bedroom. So even though in general people are not religious crazy, their beliefs are absolutely.
This is not surprising, since almost all religions have merely canonized a few of the fruits of ignorance and mental imbalance of the old and pass them on to us, as though they were primordial truths. As a result, billions of people still believe things that no sane person would believe on their own. In fact, it's hard to imagine a set of beliefs more than those fools that are the basis for many of our religious traditions.
Consider one of the cornerstones of the Catholic faith: "By the consecration the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Under the consecrated species of bread and wine, Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a living, real and substantial, his Body and Blood with his soul and divinity.. " From the Catechism of the Catholic Church of Rome.
Jesus Christ, who, as is known, was born of a virgin, did it in defiance of death and ascended to heaven in the flesh, can now be eaten as a host. A few Latin words spoken on your favorite wine and you can also drink his blood. You can doubt that anyone asserted these beliefs on their own would take a fool? Or rather, there is some doubt over whether it is actually crazy?
The danger inherent in religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them sacred. As each new generation of children is taught that religious propositions need not be justified as is the case for all other, civilization is still besieged by armies of irrational individuals. Even today we kill each other for the ancient literature. Who would have thought possible eventuality so tragically absurd?
Sam Harris - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the future of reason - New Media Worlds
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