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Graveyard76
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When Religion Turns Into a Dangerous Mental Illness

Permanent Linkby Graveyard76 on Sat Jun 20, 2015 3:58 pm

When I was in my mid-teens, I was looking for something. Something spiritual maybe, I wasn't really sure. I'd never really been religiously minded, but I had a lot of admiration for Jesus Christ as a man, something I still have, and so I decided that I was going to attend church on Sundays.

Looking back, I was a very confused young man, trying to understand a nonsensical paraphilia or sexuality, and also in trouble with the law a fair bit. I was lost, quite frankly, and was hoping that God or Jesus could help me find some sort of inner peace and help me onto the straight and narrow.

Now, I realise not all churches are like this, but the people that attended the church I attended for the next couple of years were genuine nutters and zealots. Sometimes I wondered if the Jesus they referred to was the same man that I had read about, because these guys were proper Old Testament, fire and brimstone, prejudiced haters of anything and everything. They terrified me at times, but not half as much as they terrified each other.

I learned something from that time. I learned how powerful religion can be as a means to control people. I've got no doubt that some of those people would be burning people at the stake if they were allowed to do that sort of thing today, and that they'd believe God and Jesus would be pleased with them as they did so. The fear of God can make somebody who believes in certain things do pretty much anything, and it can supersede the real world around an individual like nothing else, to the point where I'd argue that it should be regarded as a very dangerous mental illness.

I think I was quite lucky, in that I'd read a lot about world mythology, and science before I met those people, otherwise their teachings might well have overridden everything else in my brain and I'd have become a zealot like them. Heaven knows, I got extremely close. I was the type of lost young person, with a void in my understanding, who falls easily into that type of thing.

My knowledge of other belief systems, and science, raised too many question marks, so I was able to rise above the threats of Hell and eternal damnation, and seek enlightenment elsewhere, but I moved on knowing full well the power of religion to completely turn an individual inside out and make that individual do things that no sane person would even think about.

So when I read this week, about a young bloke from a village near to me, who converted to Islam and was killed fighting with Jihadists in Africa, I didn't jump to the knee-jerk conclusions that most in these parts have jumped to. I saw a bloke who could have been me 25 years ago, who was looking for something to fill a void in his consciousness, and found himself serving a very extreme idea of who/what God is.

All this week, people have been speculating about what drives people like him to buy into such ideologies. Whether it's background, deprivation, alienation etc. I say that's the wrong question! People from ALL backgrounds and walks of life will come to religion looking for answers, or something to fill a void in their understanding of the world. David Cameron asked how can anyone brought up in a 'free country' such as the UK turn against a society that gives them so much opportunity to be whatever they want to be... He's missed the point. They could have met the same brainwashers in Ethiopia, or a land where it rains money. The result, wherever such ideas are put to susceptible people, will always be the same.

Now, I know religion brings a lot of comfort to a lot of people, and that its influence can be very, very positive, but I think the time has come when we have to ask if some religious people should be recognised as suffering from an extremely dangerous mental illness. It's sad. It's very sad, but how else would you describe somebody who is prepared to kill masses of innocents on behalf of their God?
Last edited by Ada on Sun Jun 21, 2015 11:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Minor edit by author's request

2 Comments Viewed 69515 times

Frances and My Mad Daydreams.

Permanent Linkby Graveyard76 on Wed Feb 11, 2015 1:15 am

I took a drive out earlier this evening, to visit a grave that's dear to me: Frances, a twenty-something lady from the Victorian era, who I've referred to as FS in the past on the Paraphilias board. I just sat there with her, in the dark, in a place that most 'normal' people would probably find spooky!

Being at that woman's grave always soothes me. I swear she's got some sort of positive field or something, and I feel 'hugged' when I'm there. Today, my head was so full of stresses and anxieties that it was actually hurting, but when I sat down and rested it against the cold headstone, it felt like all the pain was being leached out and healed.

Then my mind wandered to a place that makes me feel bad now, as I sit typing this at home. I imagined a scenario where I bring her back with me, and live with her. In this scenario, she's either mummified or an articulated skeleton, and I keep her dressed in nice clothes. We watch TV together, listen to music, and I get to have that feeling I get at her grave all the time I'm at home with her. It's quite a blissful daydream.

Now though, I feel terrible for even thinking it. I feel awful for thinking about taking her away from her grave. It feels like I've stepped over a boundary with her, even though it's an imagined scenario. It also makes me uncomfortable with myself. The fantasy is uncomfortably close to a few real life scenarios (such as a guy in Russia who dug up corpses and lived with them) where necrophiles have totally lost touch with reality, dug up graves, and taken dead people home to 'live' with them.

It's a good job that I know deep down that I'm actually quite sane and reasonable! Maybe not 'sane' in the eyes of most 'normal' people, but I know where my feelings come from, and it's not as dark a place as most people would imagine when they hear the word 'necrophile'. There are people in this world with terrible, malicious things going on in their heads. I'm not one of them. I might have some fantasies that aren't to most people's liking, which would even horrify a lot of people, but I think I'm a pretty decent person, and I'd really hope Frances agrees!

0 Comments Viewed 68427 times

There's a New Public Enemy in Town

Permanent Linkby Graveyard76 on Thu Nov 20, 2014 5:13 am

So they've started on fatties, just as I and many other people predicted a few years back.

According to this morning's headlines, obesity costs the nation more than both smoking, and the so called 'war against terror'. Allegedly, the UK spends £47 billion a year on this problem, and never mind how this dodgy figure (which I don't believe) has been reached, it seems the ever so righteous, finger wagging public are being given a new bunch of people to look down their noses at.

When smoking was outlawed in public places back in 2007, I and many others predicted that the nanny state would gain momentum, and would soon be telling people what they can and cannot eat. The persecution of smokers was somewhat justifiable in areas where other people have no choice but to inhale second hand smoke, but that persecution is now continuing into open air spaces such as parks, with the full support of the righteous finger waggers. Never mind the fact that somebody having cigarette in an open space doesn't affect them in the slightest.

I'm a slim person, who generally eats very healthily, but if I exercised my God-given right to stuff my face with burgers and be a fat person, who has the right to get on their high horse and point their finger at me? The same wankers who think it's their right to have a go at somebody for enjoying a cigarette in the middle of Hyde Park of course, and they will, despite the fact that what somebody else chooses to eat doesn't affect them in the slightest.

“But we have to pay for their lifestyles!” say the righteous mob.

No you bloody don't. We all pay for the NHS, and people such as smokers and drinkers are taxed to the hilt for their pleasures, which is why you're cynically being wound up against fat people. The government wants to slap an extra tax on another easy target, and they make such taxes popular by making public enemies out of someone.

I know a 'fat family', who believe it or not, aren't fat because they're slobs, or unhealthy eaters, not that any of that is anybody else's business. It's simply their metabolism. They actually make more of an effort to exercise and eat healthily than most people because of the way their metabolisms are. Twice a day though, the mother endures nasty comments when she takes her kids to and from school. Comments like “They should have their kids taken away...”, “I bet they're unemployed dole scroungers, getting fat at our expense...” and worse.

That's only going to get nastier now the media campaign has started to give them the smoker treatment.

It shouldn't be the media's job to fuel this sort of prejudice, or the government's place to legislate against people's pleasures in life. The nanny state is getting far too big, and we should all be alarmed at how big it's getting. I for one don't appreciate suits in Whitehall deciding what's best for me, and encouraging the righteous mob to target me. You might think it's a good thing when they persecute smokers, or even fat people, but mark my words... They'll try to stop something YOU enjoy at some point. It could be chocolate. It could be beer or wine. It could be your favourite takeaway or confectionery. They'll do it, with the support of the righteous brigade, and you'll be aggrieved. You'll say: “Hold on. I know this stuff's not good for me, but surely it's my right to make the decision if I want it or not? Who the Hell do you think you are, picking on me for one of my pleasures in life?”

You'll have every right to complain, unless of course, you're one of the dimwits who supports the current government backed persecutions.

Enjoy your ciggies, drinks, cream cakes, and whatever else!

YOLO, as they say on a mysteriously popular social media platform.

Graveyard.

1 Comment Viewed 73963 times

The Newspaper That Hates Britain

Permanent Linkby Graveyard76 on Thu Oct 03, 2013 5:53 pm

I don't think Ralph Miliband hated Britain. From what I can gather from what's been written about the man's life, he only disliked the way the establishment works in this country, and wished for a system that affords opportunity for all, not just those from privileged backgrounds.

He might have had a few dodgy communist beliefs, but it was/is his absolute right in this country to hold whatever beliefs he liked. When the Daily Mail says he hated Britain, they mean he hated their exclusive and elitist vision of Britain – which represents a very small minority.

So who really hates Britain? The DM is no friend of people such as me. It's no friend of anybody in the area where I live. It regularly slanders and attempts to demonise every demographic of people who make up my local community. When the DM refers to Britain, it's only talking about a small percentage of the population of this isle. It's not talking about people like me, or my neighbours, who Ralph Miliband wanted a fairer deal for, and who the DM wouldn't piss on if on fire.

If you see Britain in a way that is inclusive of all of the people who live here, and not just the elite toffs, then there's a much better case to be made for saying that the Daily Mail hates Britain, than for claiming that Ralph Miliband ever did.

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Who are the real benefits cheats milking the system?

Permanent Linkby Graveyard76 on Mon Sep 09, 2013 5:24 pm

Since the Con/Dem coalition came to power in the UK, there's been a lot of demonisation of people who claim benefits. We're told that they're cheating the system, and that it's become a lifestyle choice. We're told that those of us who work and pay taxes should be angry at all these feckless scroungers who are milking the system.

Now that I'm no longer receiving any form of state benefit, and am working full time and paying taxes that go into the benefit system, let me tell who I begrudge receiving my hard earned money...

Not the ordinary benefit claimant. They're welcome to make use of the safety net, as I expect to be if ever my mental state deteriorates again, or I find myself out of work for whatever reason.

I begrudge scrooge employers, who pay their full time staff such miserly wages that the government has to top it up with tax credits. That's as good as giving the employer a bunch of taxpayers cash for nothing. Why aren't papers like The Sun and The Daily Mail complaining about this?

I also begrudge greedy private landlords, who trap their tenants in unemployment by pushing their rents up as far as the government is willing to pay. In London, where there's a huge shortage of affordable housing, this is a massive problem that's not talked about enough. Many people in the lower skilled bracket find themselves trapped out of work, because their rent will swallow all of the wages from a low to modestly paid job.

Why aren't these landlords being called benefit cheats?

The same reason why scrooge employers aren't.

The Tories look after their own.

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