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Introduction Religion is usually discussed in terms of philosophy rather than psychology, which misses the whole point; the real question is, why do millions of people want so badly to believe in god(s), and what exactly does that do to them. The question is all the more important in today's world of religious extremism where holy texts are used to justify terrorism and other atrocities. It is easy to counter theist's arguments, but impossible to make them admit that you are right. Facts are useless against what is really a psychological problem. At this point we must differentiate between various religions; some are healthier than others, most notably eastern religions like Buddhism. Some forms of Buddhism are not really religions at all, having a lot more in common with psychology than blind belief. Therefore, the following discussion applies mostly to abrahamic religions, most notably Christianity because the author was originally raised as a protestant Christian. Conversion Religion began as a way to explain the unknown; it satisfied the need to know. As mankind evolved, science basically eliminated the need for mystical explanations, showing that it could deliver better. In today's world most people are religious simply because it is a tradition in their community, and therefore accepted at face value; this is especially true in rural communities, where the general level of education is low and the social environment isn't conducive to the development of intelligence or critical thinking. Over time tradition tends to be replaced by personal conviction, but it is tradition that persuades these people to accept the bait in the first place. The proper name for such behaviour is "ignorance"; they simply never question authority. In addition to this sort of collectivist belief there's also another, more personal source for religious thought. People often state that despite all arguments, they "feel" that god exists; for many believers, most of whom are not logical to begin with, this is the main reason to believe. Unfortunately, Freud himself pointed out that people's need of security drives them to find a new protector as they grow up and realise that their parents can't protect them from death. Therefore they have a powerful need to believe that there is a being who can provide the protection they so desperately need. This is known as the Embryonic and Parental Shell Theory; god becomes an imaginary friend, and a crutch for denying the reality which one is too scared to face. At this point, it may be interesting to note that in the MBTI personality model, collectivist belief correlates with the Sensing (S) attribute and personal belief with the Feeling (F) attribute. This does not mean that all such people are religious, but there is nevertheless a tendency.The alternative is to leave the protective shell and to make the mind strong enough to stand on its own; but this will not happen if you take the easy way out. If you break your leg, it helps to use a crutch; but when the leg has healed, you must find the courage to give up the crutch - or spend the rest of your life attached to it, with no other alternative than to accept any hardship it imposes on you. It is said, that a person becomes an adult when he accepts that he is dying, and has been dying since day one; isn't it therefore valid to note that the one who denies death will never truly grow up, living all his life in a childish fantasy world instead. The battle to stand on one's own is often a difficult one; when life does its worst, the temptation to accept a crutch becomes ever greater. Finally, when the will is broken and defeated, the conversion is complete; the result is enormous relief and happiness, much like the one experienced by those who celebrate the end of a war despite the fact that enemy tanks are rolling on their streets. The best protection against this form of conversion is a stable and safe socio-economic environment - when there is less cause for fear and stress, there's consequently less cause to deny reality. Social welfare mechanisms are very effective in this sense because they allow citizens to think that no matter what happens, they will always be able to get help. It is far more difficult to cure someone from religion than it is to infect someone with it; even some atheists can be converted by making them sufficiently afraid of death, but in order to cure a theist one has to provide him with the courage to face both death and tradition. Most of the time it is hopeless, and will only make the theist more afraid. This is especially true when one tries to argue that god does not exist, because it means taking the crutch away by force. In the words of a popular movie character: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering". The only way to cure a theist is to help him to strenghten his will so that he no longer needs the crutch. At this point he starts to seek answers on his own; he wants to be freed. Priestcraft While it is clear that most if not all priests enter their vocation with the best of intentions, it is also clear that they are responsible for much of the spreading and influence of religion. Most of the time they are kind, but uninformed souls, who merely wish to help others; they just happen to serve the wrong master. Their kind can do a great deal of good; it's unfortunate that the long-term effects of their actions are so harmful. Priests realised long ago that since the basis of belief is fear, they have to enhance it in order to ensure that people remain in their spell. In every revival movement or cult, the priest who is most successful at scaring the living daylights out of his audience with threats of hellfire always makes the most converts, and has the most fanatical following. Major religions seem to have forgotten this factor; as a result, we are witnessing a notable exodus into revival movements and cults, where fear is cultivated into its maximum intensity. Of course, at the other end of the spectrum we have the rewards for obedience; the priest might promise a person who has recently lost his wife and children, that he will see them again in the afterlife if he is true to the Lord. Since this person is too afraid to face the fact that his loved ones are gone, the priest helps him to deny it; but the denial comes with a price tag. If some day he renounces his faith, he has to face all the fears he has denied all at once. Needless to say, most people just can't take it and therefore turn right back. An informed reader should be able to notice a connection with classical conditioning here, as well as drug addiction. The road to recovery is long and hard, thus deserving our sympathies.The other primary weapon is guilt; from the story of the original sin, to the crucifiction of Christ and beyond, the Bible does everything it possibly can to ensure that no matter what you do you are forever a sinner, and always going to Hell, unless you continuously beg for mercy. Catholics in particular resemble heroin addicts who have to get their fix of forgiveness to avoid the inevitable after effects of sin. The very real, big problem associated with this concept is that people think they can do anything they want as long as they confess the sins afterwards; god will forgive. The line between rational and religious morality is severely blurred. Besides direct influence, priests also recognise the importance of priming children so that they can then be converted as adults. To this end, priests direct their efforts to women because they are the ones who raise the children, and can also pressure their husbands into going to church. Women are also generally easier to convert due to the fact that they tend to be more emotional than men, and are therefore easier to scare. The fact is that most believers are women, numbering up to four times more than men in some countries. Variations Just as there are two main sources for religious behaviour, there are two main types of believers: extrinsic and intrinsic. The first type is the habit believer, who uses the Bible to justify his actions and opinions, while selectively ignoring everything that does not fit his world view. The second type is the devout believer, who uses the Bible to justify believing in his imaginary friend. Neither of these types are actually believers, in the sense that the Bible is fairly irrelevant to them; they just need reassurance that they are right. Type tends to correlate with the source of one's faith; namely, tradition with habit believing and fear with devout believing. Sometimes devout believing is also the result of an actual mental illness, like paranoid schizophrenia. Extrinsic religiosity, which includes the majority of believers, appears to be associated with negative values, prejudice, immaturity, depression, authoritarianism, dependency, and negative mental health. Extrinsics are not really religious so they lack the coping mechanisms provided by the intrinsic variety, and are vulnerable to authoritarianism since using religious arguments to justify their opinions allows them to avoid the effort of evaluating their thoughts logically; god says that they are right, so why would they think any further. Intrinsic religiosity is associated with pro-social behavior and happiness, but also with notably conservative, judgemental, and prohibitive attitudes, implying higher level of orthodoxy than with extrinsics. Intrinsics are generally not racist but are less tolerant toward those who appear to be making a choice that's against their beliefs; although they will usually not state this directly because they have a very strong need to be seen as "good people" and not the bigots that they are. The effects of intrinsic religiosity on mental health appear to be positive - although not dramatic - and the placebo effects of positive belief have been found to contribute to physical health. One should note that religion is not necessary for any of the positive effects though. The third type, the fundamentalist (or true believer) is actually a combination of the other two; he's afraid to face reality but also not creative enough to invent his own god. Thus he adopts an external value system as basis for his internal conviction. He interprets the Bible literally, substituting his own moral judgement with the alleged word of god, and is convinced that his beliefs are correct and thus unquestionable. Children are subjected to harsh treatment in an effort to break their will, which makes them authoritarian, and therefore likely to maintain fundamentalist values even when they don't share the internal beliefs of their elders. Fundamentalism correlates frequently with dogmatism, racism, authoritarianism, sexism, homosexual bias and practically every other form of intolerance imaginable. Violence is viewed as an acceptable way to solve problems and compassion is limited to "righteous" people. Considering that the fundamentalists are doing what the Bible says, this is not actually surprising; the Old Testament in particular is full of examples where such behaviour is glorified, with the message that anyone who's not a fundamentalist should be killed. Religious people are generally a lot more open to suggestion than others, less assertive, less creative, less inner-directed, submissive, dependent, and collectivistic. The members of revivalist and evangelical groups are particularly suggestible. This has lead many atheists to use names like "sheep" or "soulless" to refer to them. The latter one refers to a paradox regarding the afterlife; atheists tend to observe, that those who are most anxious of all to get their souls into heaven appear to have relatively little to save in the first place. Cult Tactics In addition to the tactics described above, cults in particular make use of a number of coersive mind control techniques. The victims are naturally uninformed of these techniques and are therefore likely to report that they act out of their own free will. New members are drafted by showing the cult in extremely positive light, and pressure is increased so gradually that one does not realise what's going on. Many tactics are aimed at making leaving the cult difficult, while ensuring obedience to extract increasingly demanding services. Tactic 1 - hypnotic techniques Increase suggestibility through hypnotic techniques such as extended audio, visual, verbal or tactile fixation drills. Excessive exact repitition of routine activities. Sleep restrictions and/or nutritional restrictions. Tactic 2 - environment control Controlling time use and social/physical environment, via a system of excessive rewards and punishments. Contact with family and outsiders discouraged, economic and other dependancy on the group reinforced. Tactic 3 - information control Discomfirming or doubting information in group communications prohibited; rules for permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication highly controlled, and an "in-group" language is often used to force members to think uncritically, within the narrow black and white parameters of the group's doctrine. Tactic 4 - personality change Causing the victim to evaluate central aspects of self and prior conduct negatively; efforts to destabilize and undermine the victim's basic consciousness, reality awareness, world view, emotional control and defence mechanisms. Victim is guided to re-interpret his life's history and to adopt a new version of causality. Tactic 5 - confidence removal Creating a sense of powerlessness, by subjecting the victim to intense and frequent actions and situations which undermine his confidence in himself, his judgement, and his ability to make effective decisions. Tactic 6 - emotional control Strong aversive emotional arousals using non-physical punishments such as loss of priviledge, humiliation, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other such techniques. Hyper emotionalism and the manipulation of feelings, such as inducing alternating emotional highs and lows. Tactic 7 - intimidation tactics Intimidation using psychological threats such as physical or mental illness, reappearance of a prior physical illness, drug dependence, economic loss, social failure, divorce, disintergration or failure to find a mate. Tactic 8 - mystic manipulation Victim is convinced about the higher purpose and special calling of the group through a profound encounter or mystical experience, such as a miracle or a prophecy; this may involve narcotics or staged "miracles". Tactic 9 - greed and vanity Group aims to bring about change, whether on a global, social or personal level. Appeal to vanity and elitism in being given a chance to become one of the elect, elite, chosen ones. Promises of power over others. Tactic 10 - no more secrets Self-disclosure to the other members, often in the context of a public gathering in the group, admitting past sins and imperfections, even doubts about the group and critical thoughts about the integrity of its leaders. Resources The Social Psychology of Christianity http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/320Psychology.html Parents and Religion http://www.clam.rutgers.edu/~tfrydel/Religion_and_Parents.html The Psychology of Religiosity, Fundamentalism and Atheism http://www.freethoughtassociation.com/minutes/2003/Jul09-2003.htm The Skeptic's Annotated Bible http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Facing My Deepest Fear http://members.cox.net/veyanne/facefear.html Back to main page |