I have spoken to many professing atheists in my lifetime and I even listen to many atheists in the public sphere too. A common theme that I seem to get from these professing atheists is that they think that religion, specifically Christianity, is a mental illness. This idea demonstrates two fundamental flaws: 1) they do not understand what constitutes a mental illness and 2) They are in denial of reality. In this blog, I shall discuss what I mean by these two premises but first I would like to discuss why conflating religion with mental illness is so dangerous. When you confuse religion with mental illness, it puts a stigma on people who belong to a specific religious group. I say this because mental illness is highly stigmatized in society, unfortunately. When you stigmatize religious people by labeling them mentally ill, society then tends to ostracize them. Some professing atheists may say that religious people deserve to be ostracized, but I am willing to bet that most would disagree. I would hope that most people would say that no one deserves to be ostracized because of their religious beliefs. Now, I will talk about my two points concerning why this idea is flawed.
1) They Don't Understand What Constitutes A Mental Illness
1) They Don't Understand What Constitutes A Mental Illness
Many professing atheists who claim that religion is a mental illness demonstrate that they do not comprehend what a mental illness is. I do admit that it is difficult to actually pinpoint an exact definition of mental illness. However, the best definition of mental illness that I have found comes from Dr. Matthew Stanford, a neuroscientist, and Christian. He says in his book "Grace For The Afflicted: A Clinical And Biblical Perspective On Mental Illness" that,
"In psychology and psychiatry, we define mental illness as a clinically significant disruption of a person's thoughts, moods, behavior, or ability to relate to others, severe enough to require treatment or intervention"
According to the clinical definition of mental illness, one can only be diagnosed with a mental illness when the illness is disrupting their thoughts, moods, behavior, or ability to relate to others in such a way that it requires some type of treatment or intervention. This would mean that the illness is severely disabling the person from performing daily activities. It should be obvious that religious people do not meet this qualification as the evidence clearly indicates that many religious people have many meaningful relationships with other people and many religious people function normally in daily activities too. As a matter of fact, many religious people in all sectors of professional life do not have any impairments in daily living. So, for one to call religion a mental illness demonstrates that they do not know what they are talking about. As a matter of fact, the accusation says more about the person making the claim than it does about any religious person in general. It says that the person is more interested in shutting down the conversation rather than having a mature and open dialogue which is evidence of the fact that the person is not mature enough for the conversation. It is also a sign of deflection, which leads me to my next point.
2) They Are In Denial Of Reality
"In psychology and psychiatry, we define mental illness as a clinically significant disruption of a person's thoughts, moods, behavior, or ability to relate to others, severe enough to require treatment or intervention"
According to the clinical definition of mental illness, one can only be diagnosed with a mental illness when the illness is disrupting their thoughts, moods, behavior, or ability to relate to others in such a way that it requires some type of treatment or intervention. This would mean that the illness is severely disabling the person from performing daily activities. It should be obvious that religious people do not meet this qualification as the evidence clearly indicates that many religious people have many meaningful relationships with other people and many religious people function normally in daily activities too. As a matter of fact, many religious people in all sectors of professional life do not have any impairments in daily living. So, for one to call religion a mental illness demonstrates that they do not know what they are talking about. As a matter of fact, the accusation says more about the person making the claim than it does about any religious person in general. It says that the person is more interested in shutting down the conversation rather than having a mature and open dialogue which is evidence of the fact that the person is not mature enough for the conversation. It is also a sign of deflection, which leads me to my next point.
2) They Are In Denial Of Reality
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them." -Romans 1:18-19
You probably have noticed that in this blog I've been referring to these people as "professing atheists". The reason why I do this is that there really is no such thing as a true atheist. The Lord Jesus Christ has revealed Himself plainly to all people so the professing atheist is really just someone who is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness because they love their own wickedness and depravity. This may sound harsh and offensive to say but it is the truth. How has God revealed Himself to humans? Well in verse 20 of Romans 1, we read the following,
"For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world"
The first way that God has revealed Himself to us is through His creation. When we contemplate how incredibly designed the universe is, we cannot help but see the hand of our Creator. It is so abundantly obvious to us that the universe is designed that even Dr. Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion is forced to admit that the universe looks designed, but then he goes on to suggest that we must remind ourselves that its the result of "millions of years of evolution". However, why do we need to "remind" ourselves to ignore what is so obvious to us? This sounds like suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. The fact is, the universe is so incredibly designed that microbiologist Dr. Michael Behe called it "irreducible complexity", which is just a fancy way of saying the universe is intelligently designed and thus requires a greater intelligence to have designed it. If this does not convince you, there is one other way that God has revealed Himself to all people and that is through our consciences. In Romans 2:14-16 we read,
"For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus"
All humans are born into this world with a conscience that knows right from wrong. Have you ever seriously considered how you actually know that murder and lying are indeed wrong? Or even how child molestation is wrong? It cannot be because you were raised in a society that believes those things are wrong. After all, if society is the arbiter of morality then that would mean society can change what is deemed right and wrong on a whim. However, I am more than positive that most people would agree that even if everyone in society said that child molestation was right that it would still be morally wrong to molest a child. However, where did such knowledge come from? There must be an objective standard of right for us to know what violates that standard. Let me elaborate on this with an illustration: Imagine we have two entirely different maps of Africa and we wanted to determine which map was indeed correct, how would we do that? Well, we would need to look at the actual continent of Africa to see which map was the closest. However, if Africa does not exist then both maps are irrelevant. In the same way, if God did not exist, then all of our moral judgments would in fact be irrelevant and arbitrary. It would not matter if we thought child molestation was right or wrong. However, we all seem to agree that child molestation is indeed wrong no matter where we are from. This is evidence that there is a universal standard for what is right and thus demonstrates that God exists as that standard. This argument has been called The Moral Law argument for God's existence and I have yet to see an atheist give a sound refutation for it because there is none.
You probably have noticed that in this blog I've been referring to these people as "professing atheists". The reason why I do this is that there really is no such thing as a true atheist. The Lord Jesus Christ has revealed Himself plainly to all people so the professing atheist is really just someone who is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness because they love their own wickedness and depravity. This may sound harsh and offensive to say but it is the truth. How has God revealed Himself to humans? Well in verse 20 of Romans 1, we read the following,
"For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world"
The first way that God has revealed Himself to us is through His creation. When we contemplate how incredibly designed the universe is, we cannot help but see the hand of our Creator. It is so abundantly obvious to us that the universe is designed that even Dr. Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion is forced to admit that the universe looks designed, but then he goes on to suggest that we must remind ourselves that its the result of "millions of years of evolution". However, why do we need to "remind" ourselves to ignore what is so obvious to us? This sounds like suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. The fact is, the universe is so incredibly designed that microbiologist Dr. Michael Behe called it "irreducible complexity", which is just a fancy way of saying the universe is intelligently designed and thus requires a greater intelligence to have designed it. If this does not convince you, there is one other way that God has revealed Himself to all people and that is through our consciences. In Romans 2:14-16 we read,
"For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus"
All humans are born into this world with a conscience that knows right from wrong. Have you ever seriously considered how you actually know that murder and lying are indeed wrong? Or even how child molestation is wrong? It cannot be because you were raised in a society that believes those things are wrong. After all, if society is the arbiter of morality then that would mean society can change what is deemed right and wrong on a whim. However, I am more than positive that most people would agree that even if everyone in society said that child molestation was right that it would still be morally wrong to molest a child. However, where did such knowledge come from? There must be an objective standard of right for us to know what violates that standard. Let me elaborate on this with an illustration: Imagine we have two entirely different maps of Africa and we wanted to determine which map was indeed correct, how would we do that? Well, we would need to look at the actual continent of Africa to see which map was the closest. However, if Africa does not exist then both maps are irrelevant. In the same way, if God did not exist, then all of our moral judgments would in fact be irrelevant and arbitrary. It would not matter if we thought child molestation was right or wrong. However, we all seem to agree that child molestation is indeed wrong no matter where we are from. This is evidence that there is a universal standard for what is right and thus demonstrates that God exists as that standard. This argument has been called The Moral Law argument for God's existence and I have yet to see an atheist give a sound refutation for it because there is none.
As you can clearly see, religion is not a mental illness, and those who say that it does, do not understand what is a mental illness and they are denying reality. I hope that if you are someone who once believed this erroneous belief that you will abandon it after reading this blog. Mental illness is a serious disability and it must not be trivialized by using it to shut down the conversation. The reality is that professing atheists hate God and their neighbor and love their own wickedness instead. This is why Psalm 14:1 calls these people fools because they are fighting against the grain of reality. I hope that you are not one of these people, but if you are then I call you to repent and put your faith in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for your salvation. You know that you have violated His standard of perfection and thus deserve eternal condemnation. God has not left you in this predicament because He came down as a human being to take our punishment upon Himself on a bloody roman cross. Then, three days later He rose from the dead. Now, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be saved and have communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for eternity.
--David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate
Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
--David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate
Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
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