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Islam bans alcohol, but it also requires praying 5 times a day and usually a lot of going to Mosque with other Muslims and a general belief of unity and being i

Islam bans alcohol, but it also requires praying 5 times a day and usually a lot of going to Mosque with other Muslims and a general belief of unity and being in a common struggle against enemy types. I wonder if all that cultural stuff protects people from common psychological problems which they might otherwise try to stifle with alcohol. I think alcoholism is often a coping mechanism for some other psychological problem. If you just ban alcohol but don't have the culture to help with people's problems, maybe you make things worse. Mental health care is kind of an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and doesn't seem very efficient or effective either.

mjbeswick 5y ago
While religion may fill the spiritual needs that some people seem to have, and on the surface is pretty harmless; it can be extremely harmful to people that have mental health problems. Take someone that suffers from paranoid schizophrenia; telling them God speaks to people and that they should obey him can have dire consequences! I've see this problem first hand, so I'm not just speculating. People throughout history have claimed to be profits; but unless they are a fraud, it's far more likely that the voices they hear auditory hallucinations associated with schizophrenia!
fennecfoxy 5y ago
Religion doesn't have an amazing history when it comes to gay people, along with plenty of other things.
dmos62 5y ago
I agree that there's a lack of understanding for how to deal with the subtle aspects of a human, but I don't think that religion is a good solution. We need lucidity. I believe that most religions had that in the beginning, but centuries passed and clear-sightedness eroded to dogma and ritual. Opium of the people is a heavy handed comment, but there's truth in it. I do think, however, that if you don't take religious discourse at face value, there's a lot to be learned from it.

mjbeswick 5y ago

While religion may fill the spiritual needs that some people seem to have, and on the surface is pretty harmless; it can be extremely harmful to people that have mental health problems. Take someone that suffers from paranoid schizophrenia; telling them God speaks to people and that they should obey him can have dire consequences! I've see this problem first hand, so I'm not just speculating. People throughout history have claimed to be profits; but unless they are a fraud, it's far more likely that the voices they hear auditory hallucinations associated with schizophrenia!

fennecfoxy 5y ago

Religion doesn't have an amazing history when it comes to gay people, along with plenty of other things.

dmos62 5y ago

I agree that there's a lack of understanding for how to deal with the subtle aspects of a human, but I don't think that religion is a good solution. We need lucidity. I believe that most religions had that in the beginning, but centuries passed and clear-sightedness eroded to dogma and ritual. Opium of the people is a heavy handed comment, but there's truth in it. I do think, however, that if you don't take religious discourse at face value, there's a lot to be learned from it.