Expert: Margaret Placentra Johnston - 6/13/2010

Question
Clint - I'm a Southern Baptist minister's daughter with an enormous respect for my father's walk of faith. I have doubted, logically, biblical truths since I was 5. I embraced atheism for 5 years and reestablished my 'faith' in the midst of tragedy. I employed my willful suspension of disbelief wholeheartedly, hoping to find God as never before. The result was a nervous breakdown. I have newly re-embraced my disbelief, establishing a solid foundation therefore with an education of the facts, theories, writings and belief systems of well established atheists and agnostics. I have a master's in counseling psychology from Southern Nazarene which resulted in my inability to deny my disbelief in christianity as it had been represented to me. The charade was never more evidenced to me as it was when 'christian' psychologists were wholly incapable of reconciling for themselves or others the enormous chasm between science's best understanding of mental and emotional ilnesses v. spiritual ramifications of sin/guilt. While I have read an abundance of literature pertaining to the science, logic, histories of atheism v. religion, what I cannot find are works representing the psychological ramifications of persons living in a largely delusional society. Beyond the obvious causes of war, misogyny, homophobia, etc.  I've studied much about the obvious detriments to one's psyche and self when long term delusions are endured. There are vast writings about the effects of cult and cult-like organizations and their psychological impact on followers.  There seems to me that there should be a vast amount of research and writings, opinions and the like on the psycho-social impact on mankind as a whole having filtered everything though the delusion of Gods, 'bibles', belief in hell, etc.  It seems obvious to me that living in delusion in this important area of religion would weaken the mind and psyche and make it less immune to other distortions of reality and 'mental illness' in general.  That is my theory, but I cannot find one piece of scholastic work on this topic.  Is this something you could direct me toward?  Your opinion on the matter is of course welcome, but I am hungry to dig into this aspect of psychological abuse to the human condition.

I hope I did this right.  Thank you so much, in advance, for any time and insight you might give my personal struggle.  

I'm from Oklahoma as well. My father is still a member of the SBC home mission board working actively as a national consultant to churches nation wide wishing to implement free medical clinics into their arsenal of reaching the lost.  I will not come out again, publically with my atheism until he has passed on. But I want to be fully prepared to embark on my own ministry, as you have, to bring solace, peace and understanding to those like me struggling to walk away.  I guess that's why the psychological impact studies and opinions are so valuable to me.  Thank you again.

Answer
Dear Sherrie;

You question seems to be directed to a different expert in my category: "Clint."  But somehow I got it so I will provide a brief answer.  If you meant to direct the question to me, please send a follow-up question and I will reply in more depth.

You ask for scholastic references about the evils of traditional religious belief (which you claim are based on delusion.)  While I cannot give you those exact references, I think I can provide perspective by directing you to works about spiritual development.  

On my website: www.exploring-spiritual-development.com you can find a button linking you to "Theorists" on spiritual development.  Though these notables have yet to link themselves together under any particular umbrella, it is because I have found a high degree of correlation among their works that I am writing a book to point this out.  

Anyway, spiritual development claims that not all people start out at the same place.  For this reason traditional level religion (whether "delusional" or not) actually benefits those at the Faithful (see my website to read more about these levels) level of spirituality.  Without the structure provided by their religion, these people risk falling back into what I call the Lawless level.  Whether their beliefs are delusional or not, religion serves a very real purpose in their lives, lest they fall back into chaos.  

However, many folks have reached a reasoning and faith level that leads them to do away with traditional beliefs, or at least to question them.  You can read about such people under the term "Rational level" on my site.  For most of these people, traditional religion is delusional.  They don't need it, and prefer to look directly at the truth, in so far as they can understand it.

Now, the problem comes when we look at what all the "theorists" have done with this stage information.  They all have fleshed out a stage that comes after "rational."  I am calling this stage Mystic.  It may take quite a bit of reading, searching and thought to even begin to understand what the Mystic level is.  But if we can call the Faithful level "pre-critical" (they are not able to apply critical reasoning to religious topics) then we can call the Rational level "critical"  (they can and do apply critical reasoning) and the Mystic level can be called "post-critical."  This means such people, having already decided that the literal meanings of traditional religion cannot be true, still find a way to engage in spirituality somehow.  Despite not believing in a literal "god" they still find some force, founded in Love, that unifies us all. Whether in a church or out, they bask in the mystery of trying to approach that force.  

The stages lead to mass confusion in religion because few realize that in any church, there are some pre-critical people who attend because they desperately need literal belief and some post-critical people who are so into unity that they do not feel obliged to share their post-critical understanding with the Faithful level folks.  

Seen through the lens of spiritual development theory, it appears people at any given spiritual level are choosing a faith stance (or disbelief) that best makes their life work for them.  (outside of course of the some who may be choosing a level that is pathological for them.)  Seen this way, the Faithful level of religion does not weaken the mind and the psyche, but rather provides a structured life to those who need help in that area.  And the Mystic level provides an indescribable richness to the life of post-critical people NOT in need of the structure of religion, but who approach faith as a never ending mystery.  

And the Rational level is good for those who have discarded the need for Faithful structure, but have no interest in approaching the mystery.  

This is not my opinion but a distillation of the works of about fourteen "experts" from different centuries and different disciplines. Again, you can access those experts on my site, but it has taken me twenty years of distilling their concepts in my head before I understood them well enough to write about them.  Should you choose to study up on these, you will have a lot of work ahead of you.  

All the best to you,

Margaret