If you Believe in Biblical Fundamentals, you are Mentally Ill!

Every day seems to bring us closer to the implementation of one State religion - a monolithic secular one. Kathleen Taylor, a neurologist at Oxford University, said that soon society will be able to treat religious fundamentalism and other forms of ideological beliefs potentially harmful to society as a form of mental illness. She informed The Times of London:

• "One of the surprises may be to see people with certain beliefs as people who can be treated. Someone who has for example become radicalized to a cult ideology -- we might stop seeing that as a personal choice that they have chosen as a result of pure free will and may start treating it as some kind of mental disturbance."

We are progressing quickly from a high regard for religious conviction – even from the view that it’s essential for democracy - and the First Amendment guarantees to religion as a form of mental illness. And if we are mentally ill and deemed destructive to society – already, we are demeaned as “bigots,” “haters,” and those who deprive others of their civil rights – then why not medicate us, forcibly treat our mental disease, or just put us away as the media has already done!

This raises an interesting question: “Who is to decide who’s mentally ill?” If the Democrats decide, then it is the Republicans who are mentally ill and need to be silenced. If the gays are to decide, then everyone who is opposed to their agenda is mentally ill. If the atheists are to decide, then all people of a traditional religion are mentally ill.

Taylor is not limiting her comments to Jihadists:

• "I am not just talking about the obvious candidates like radical Islam or some of the more extreme cults. I am talking about things like the belief that it is OK to beat your children. These beliefs are very harmful but are not normally categorized as mental illness. In many ways that could be a very positive thing because there are no doubt beliefs in our society that do a heck of a lot of damage, that really do a lot of harm."

We are becoming very intolerant even as we pride ourselves as the quintessence of tolerance. Are these beliefs really “very harmful?” Taylor is not simply talking about parents who send their kids to the hospital, but of any corporal punishment. In contrast, many express thanks to their parents for the firm discipline – even a good whack to the butt – they received.

Perhaps Taylor might have a case if she could statistically demonstrate how the termination of school corporal punishment has produced better schools and students, but she can’t. What then does she base her “very harmful” assessment on? Perhaps nothing more than the permissive, secular religion of today!