Religion is just another addiction.

AtheistAvatar: Whatever ideals or philosophies you couch it in your religion is just another addiction. Another way to get a fix.

It has been proven to physically enduce the same chemicals to be produced in the brain that METH does.

It hooks into your deepest fears of death and the unknown.

It is used by immoral predatory men and women to control you and rob you of your hard earned money.

It entertains you.

It gives you delusions of superiority making you arrogant and foolish.

Do not try to dignify your addiction with any kind of logical or rational arguments....it has no more rational justification than smoking or heroine does.

So if you are religious and read this post....stop deluding yourself...stop spreading this mental disease you have to other people...especially children...THAT disgusts me.

Its pathetic how so many religious people need others to believe the same nonsense as them to validate their own delusional beliefs. Wake up. You are just another junky. Try using your head instead of giving in to your most basic fears. Create your beliefs from FACTS instead of FICTIONS.

In other words....pull your heads out of your asses and keep your crazy to yourselves. Lunatics.

Harlet: care to explain how it is you weren't fueled by those meth like chemicals as you ranted,

Kundra: Like drugs, religion may be seen as "a replacement for reality".

harmonica: If you can't do without it, then you're addicted. Maybe you should try not practicing your religion for one week and see how much you really miss it?

Bodmin: Over the years that I've been participating in this forum, I have noticed a lot of people coming and going.

Some of them arrive with brass knuckles and seemingly unbending opinions, which they are all too ready to espouse, sometimes viciously. They may use so much hatred, bullying and out-of-context scripture posting to "prove" they are "right" and everyone else is either "spiritually dead", "wrong", "going to hell", "moron", "fringe loony", "ignorant", "deceived" or "misguided" that they can only be seen as demon-possessed. No one here really wants to be preached to, but during the most intense periods, it happens almost every day. They have become so set in their belief system that they no longer even consider other styles of thought and dismiss those with opposing views as gainsayers and "poor pitiful doomed souls" that need their prayers. Asking someone to pray for you is fine. Telling someone you will pray for them because they are doomed to burn in hell and you are genuinely concerned about their salvation is something different.

Luckily, others are open-minded, kind and capable of engaging in civil discourse around the mysteries of the universe; and the conundrum of humanity in understanding what, if anything, "God" is.

Religion can indeed be an addiction, just as any other activity that allows one to escape from the stresses and cares of everyday life. Some examples of addictive behaviors: Knitting, drugs, alcohol, sex, web surfing, attending funerals, hand-washing, smoking, basket-weaving, UFOs, idolising movie-stars, jogging, preaching, nail-biting, talking....you name it, someone, somewhere uses it as an escape from reality. And they can't stop!

In case someone wonders if they've gone a bit "round the bend" from being a believer to becoming a difficult, proselytizing fanatic, I have set up a checklist. Have a good, honest, self-searching look at the following signs of religious addiction and measure your own grasp of balance:

1. Inability to doubt or question religious information and/or authorities.

2. Black/white, good/bad and either/or thinking.

3. Magical thinking that God will fix you/do it all, without serious work on your part.

4. Rigid obsessive adherence to rules, codes of ethics, or guidelines.

5. Uncompromising judgmental attitudes; readiness to find fault or evil in everything and everyone.

6. Compulsive or obsessive praying, going to church or quoting scripture.

7. Excessive fasting.

8. Conflict and frequent argumentation with science, medicine and education.

9. Progressive detachment from the real world, isolation and breakdown of relationships.

10. Feeling specially chosen, claiming to receive special messages from God.

11. Attitude of righteousness or superiority: "we versus the world".

GeraldtheGnome: Some errors were made on this forum. When it comes to religion religious people think that everyone is worse off without it, in reality it is them who is worse off by being religious.

shadowline: Addictions make people weak and confused. According to Viktor Frankl (the psychiatrist) religion makes them stronger and more centered. That is because their natural need for meaning is being ministered to, Frankl found. When life is meaningful, humanity flourishes.

GeraldtheGnome: What is with some people on here using the term humanity whenever it’ is best not to ? When someone thinks that life isn’t meaningful without religion then the person is no better than an alcoholic, a Junkie or gambler that must gamble with the last bit of money that he or she has. They are as weak and confused as anyone else is with any addiction. So mistaking religion for something that is not an addiction was the mistake that Victor Frankl, the person above and other religious people made in the past, too many of them still do.

Parents want their children to become adults without imaginary friends yet most of those children worldwide will become adults who worship imaginary friends. It’s happening right now, it happened in the past and it will happen again. Most of the Human population is at some disadvantage because of religion. Everyone must be for what is certainly true and for what is possible. Instead of anyone worshipping any god and/or goddess they should only be for what is certainly known to be true and for what is possible, that rules out religion and everything else that anyone is unrealistic about. There might possibly be at least one god or goddess around somewhere right now and there possibly are none around whatsoever so live your life without being for any religious god or goddess and without believing in anything else that is made up to. Anyone who thinks that their is a natural need for religion is a fool, anyone who is for not having a religion and for not believing in anything else that is unrealistic is not a fool and that is what is needed by everyone alive and yet to be born.

Didn’t the above mean administered to even though that world also would have been pointless for him to use ? I must admit that I keep referring to that one as a male but there is nothing to tell me that it is so.

shadowline: I'm guessing the number of people who would be inclined to trust an experienced psychologist with a world reputation over a blog on a pen pals website is not...few. A reading of Frankl's celebrated book "Man's Search for Meaning" might be enlightening. It certainly has for millions of other people.

GeraldtheGnome: You made some errors on here, too many full stops, you used a symbol and quotation marks when you shouldn’t have. I went through this sort of crap with someone else, your using confirmation bias and your own religious bias just as your precious Victor Frankl did. This is neither a blog or a pen pals website. You yourself are not some highly esteemed person worldwide and neither am I. I go off what is so, you and the guy that you keep going on about the guy because he agrees with your brainwashed ways. I don’t care how many millions of people enjoyed a damn celebrated book that I only know about from you because many more millions of people out there don’t even know about the guy and his book that you give too much credit to.

There are experienced psychologists who go against confirmation bias and religious bias, then there are the amateur ones that go for religious bias and confirmation bias, all of that was so in the past too. You chose him to be the champion of what in reality is a display of a ‘champion’ who shares your own unique form of utter stupidity.

Zanjan: If you’re a slave to your job, body, or emotional control, is that an addiction?

Every day you work 9-5, unless you own a business, then its 7-8 plus on call. Are you a workaholic or are you doing what needs to be done because there’s nobody else to do it?
You drink water, eat, and exercise regularly 7 days a week because you're not willing to die.

Self care is critical no matter what you’re doing – you have to socialise, to love, to be loved, to serve others and let them help you too. You have to enrich your life by surrounding yourself with wonderful things and wonderful people. You have to set goals. You’re COMPELLED to do all this if you desire to stay healthy and stable.

Strike a balance between stillness and motion: Tend to your own soul first. Pray. Meditate. Align your sights, re-check your aims. Keep up with your education - read science and scriptures. Do all these things every day. If that’s addictive, show why you shouldn’t do it.

shadowline: Gerald, Viktor Frankl is easy to find out about, and his famous book is easy to read. It is not an exercise in "confirmation bias", it is an account of an empirical discovery, based in personal experience.

As for myself, you know nothing about what my "unique form of utter stupidity" may or may not be, and you have no reason to be insulting me personally. I simply reported what Viktor Frankl discovered in a concentration camp because I find it interesting. Also, I admit, because I get tired of the constant parade of anti-religion hate speech this site is full to the brim with.

Zanjan: Oh, please don't get tired! Education should never stop but, it's only education if it's NEW.

You brought recent news.

Personally, I'd rather school the hapless ignorant than preach to the choir.

GeraldtheGnome: You both made some errors. There are a number of people on this site and there is the majority of people of every religious denomination of every religion that myself and most other people who are not religious worldwide that none of us have a problem with. Meditation is fine, Zanjan’s own flawed argument about addiction in regards to what she was referring to is wrong, the thing is though unlike you she’s not falsely accusing me of something and she’s not falsely claiming to be some persecuted innocent little victim on this forum here unlike you.

You should work out the difference between what is hate speech towards religious people and what isn’t. I mean if I single out Christianity or that of any other religion that is about a Hell as a place of torture religion then I can show in each religious story where there is hate against those of other religions and towards those who aren’t religions, especially when I read certain verses. First of all the worship of any invisible imaginary god or goddess who is believed not to be imaginary is bad enough, the belief though is bad enough. So anyone alive or deceased who thinks that for any reason that an external source, not just that of religion, is the only way to get meaning into one’s own life is just another example of a silly person. I don’t care who wrote what with some flawed belief that the way to get meaning into your life is religion.

Go out and do something meaningful in your life instead of seeking out an external source that you mistake for bringing meaning into your life if you want meaning in your life. Just don’t tell anyone that religion or more to the point your religion is the way to get meaning in your life. Newsflash, religion isn’t, even an addict that leaves any addiction then becomes religious has only replaced one addiction for another. Religious people are not persecuted by myself and by most that aren’t religious, nor do any of them as well as me hate people just because they are religious. Even the smartest people do dumb things, the difference is that they do it less often and most people or everyone doesn’t notice it. So when I refer to stupidity by you and by others I am referring to specific stupidity, it’s not an example of hate so stop being so precious about it. Myself, you, Zanjan, the one that made this forum and everyone else have all been stupid about at least one thing in our lives so far. There literally has been no parade on this site and no one, except those in videos have spoken on here. So you made a false accusation because myself and various others don’t go along with your religious beliefs. Don’t use the word empirical ever again. If you cannot explain things simply then you simply don’t know enough about it.

Zanjan: Everyone posting in the religion forum is doing so for the sake of education, yes? If not, why bother posting? There are lots of other categories where one can make small talk or flame those of different persuasions.

There won't be any education when one is haranguing the poster, deliberately belittling them.

GeraldtheGnome: This is not about any imagined persecution that you or anyone else falsely accuse myself and others of. Use spaces where they are needed as well. There’s no small talk going on here at all. Technically no one has posted here and we are not posters. So spare me and others from false accusations and from your false claims. You both worship imaginary gods and goddesses that you are addicted to worshipping. Life has no meaning or at least the claim life has no meaning without religion is a false claim. Your life is whatever you make it, it is not improved by religion and it’s not dependent on it. Your life isn’t void of what is needed if religion is not a part of your life.

Learning is a good thing, don’t try to convince me that your beliefs that you think are certainly true are certainly true.

mrsmargaret48: How original, someone as read a book then posted a load of unscientific garbage as their thoughts.

GeraldtheGnome: AtheistAvatar is a top bloke.

mrsmargaret48: Yep he seems tuned in to your way of thinking or not thinking to be more accurate.

GeraldtheGnome: You mean that he too doesn’t suffer from a religious addiction. You weren’t accurate with your guess by the way.

mrsmargaret48: Religious mania, I've read the DSM-5. Atheist should leave science to scientists and mental health to mental health professionals. People who talk about mental health should know what their talking about, its not for unqualified amateurs and uneducated nerds.

GeraldtheGnome: Neither of us Atheists have talked on here, most people are qualified enough and educated enough to know when someone is religiously brainwashed. To prove my point you can share with everyone here your own creationists beliefs. If you do list all of your creationist beliefs, which I hope you do, then don’t leave out one little detail. Sorry, that was a mistake of mine, I mean list each of your creationists beliefs instead of every detailed thing. Creationism after all idoes not include details, instead it’s about no details and that of no proof.of everything that is claimed to be true. An example of what I mean is the first self contradictory verse of the entire mainstream English Bible, ‘in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth’. Yes, there are variations of the verse, that’ though is basically all that it is about.

For creationists explanations should never be given except for crap that without intelligence nature had no way to bring about life. The reality is that no one knows how life started up on this planet. Does everyone at least agree that the planet we are on did have an origin ? Atheists are scientists and Atheists are mental health professionals. So have you have read at least two books now and you haven’t understood properly what is in at least two books. Thinking that only religious people understand things properly is a very amateur, brainwashed, biased and bigoted way of thinking about anything. By the way an Atheist is someone that doesn’t believe in at least one god, a Christian is sure that there are many false gods. So you are a Polytheist Atheist. You are a Polytheist, you can not even work out that the made up god that you name God and the nonexistent one who you refer to as Jesus are two separate gods.

Agnosticism is about not being able to prove that even one god is around anywhere right now, you can not prove that there is any god around right now. You are full of excuses and you are full of it in general. Your usual bit about how I am incorrect about everything is wrong. You have made false claims and false a accusations about myself and about others. Just in case you think that I am wrong about that then you should look at any forum where had a go at other people.

mrsmargaret48: Just press repeat, on every topic.

GeraldtheGnome: Stop lying, stop it with the cyberstalking and just stop behaving like a spoilt brat five year old child having a tantrum. Grow up and stay away from forums Troll. Nothing that you just came out with is relevant to the forum religious addiction. Go and have anger management classes, control yourself, respect everyone, stop making false accusations and stop making false claims.

To AtheistAvatar. You have seen on here (with the example above this) how some with religious addiction behave when they do not get their own way.