Worshipper rips out both eyes in Mass with his BARE HANDS

[DavidL]

28. Except that seeing visions, hearing the voice(s) of God or

angels, or feeling an overpowering feeling, or "acting only upon one's true beliefs despite a complete lack of evidence", are identical in character and behavior, be they events of a religious person's life or in the lives of those suffering from a severe form of psychosis.

Sometimes, it's difficult even for a trained psychiatrist to discern the difference in his/her patients between someone who feels religiously inspired and someone who actually is hearing voices or seeing visions, especially if the patient is confounding the illness with various "secondary gain" from his similarly religious peers.

To date, in my years on this planet, I have never heard about, nor read about an atheist tearing his eyes out, self-mutilating, or engaging in any other self-destructive act solely because he claimed no belief in a god.

I am sure some people who are atheists suffer a bout of psychosis, sometime in their lives, hear voices, or see visions, but they probably don't associate those voices or visions with their atheism; they are more likely to feel that they are, indeed, quite ill, and thus seek treatment.

By contrast, religious beliefs and over 2000 years of religious literature and folklore, from the Bible and elsewhere, continues to cloud the issue for many suffering a psychosis, making it hard for them to know IF they are really ill and in need of medication.

Most anti-psychotic medications have only been available during the last half century. Who knows how many people over the last 2000 years have self-destructed while suffering a psychosis, thinking they were following along with the wishes of their particular version of a god's personal message to them.