Religious beliefs have been officially recognized as a form of mental illness by the American Medical Association, an action that paves the way for all church-goers to be institutionalized should they continue to lose faith in the American way of life. This unexpected new decision was made Friday by delegates in Boston, who went against a recommendation from the committee that had studied the subject.
“The appeal of religious fundamentalism is threefold: First, these cultists claim to explain what empirical, institutional analysis cannot. They make sense out of a world that is otherwise confusing. Second, they do so in an appealingly simple way, dividing the world sharply between the forces of light, and the forces of darkness and trace all evil back to a single source, the devil, and his various agents. Third, religious cultists claim special knowledge unknown or unappreciated by others. For the cultist, the heathen masses are a brainwashed herd under the command of ultimate evil, while the cultist congratulate themselves on being able to penetrate these deceptions.”
Religious fundamentalism as a disease has become a question ever since the Central Intelligence Agency began lobbying to have “conspirisim” labeled as a mental disorder, a campaign begun by John Foster “Chip” Berlet and continued by Michael Barkun, a campaign that was initiated to silence government dissent. Now, the government moves to place similar controls against other groups who hold non-scientific views about the nature of reality.
Ok, so the AMA didn’t say this. I made it up. The quote, however, is practically verbatim from Michael Barkun, who works closely with the FBI, and has become a leading debunker on conspiracy theory, an op that involves lumping all the theories, especially the wackiest ones, in with the real researchers, and acting as if it’s all the same stuff. In other words, no conspiracy theory is valid because they are all based in delusion? How’s that for stifling all deep political research? Yet, if you just substitute Barkun’s “conspiracy theorist” with the name of any religious, social or even educational movement, and you can easily deride virtually anyone for following delusional herd instincts.