Reply #18: It seems to me [View All]

[bloom]

that the main difference is solitary delusion - where one is creating one's own reality (without realizing it).

And a group delusion. If you are part of a group that believes in a delusion together (which most people do about something) - then you are generally considered to be sane.

(I've noticed that mental health professionals frown on the idea of people creating their own religion.)


One comparison is to "Manufacturing Consent" - it seems that Chomsky showed how people are deluded as a group about various things. It's not even necessarily like someone is sitting around pulling the strings about the delusions - sometimes they are - but mostly that there can be organic, evolving myths.

The military is full of myths about goodness and all kinds of things that people believe. Like - if you are part of the military - all of a sudden it becomes noble to kill people.

There are myths about what is reality as far as events. Like with the Israel/Lebanon situation - if you are part of one group - you believe one thing (it can seem like mass hypnosis) - if you are part of another group - you believe something entirely different. People think that they know - that their sources are reliable and such. But there are few who know - and even those at the top who think that they know - don't necessarily know.

So that is what I think religion and God beliefs are like. Enough people believe a thing - a person is part of the group - and they believe what the rest of the group believes (or they try). Often people will think that there is (or was) an authority somewhere who has it all figured out- and they trust that authority.

It's pretty different from people with psychosis - who are more like in their own world.

Though it might seem like there are similarities - like how there are a lot of things that people think that they know - that they really don't.