Saudi Arabia Revives 15-Year-Old Ban On 'Zionism-Promoting' Pokemon (timesofisrael.com) 328
An anonymous reader writes: Clerics in Saudi Arabia have renewed a 15-year-old ban on Pokemon, following the release of the highly popular augmented reality version of the game, Pokemon Go. According to Reuters, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars reaffirmed a 2001 ban on the game. The Times of Israel reports: "While fatwa no. 21,758 makes no mention of the latest iteration of [the] game, it does list many sinful aspects of Pokemon. Firstly, the game is seen as a form of gambling, which itself is forbidden. Secondly, it encourages belief in Darwin's theory of evolution, and thirdly, the fatwa says, the symbols used in the game promote the Shinto religion of Japan, Christianity, Freemasonry and 'global Zionism.'" The ruling says: "The symbols and logos of devious religions and organizations are used [including] the six-pointed star: You rarely find a card that does not contain such a star. It is associated with Judaism, the logo and sign of the State of Israel, and the first symbol of the Masonry organizations in the world." Pokemon Go has been such a success that it has already doubled Nintendo's stock price after launching just two weeks ago.
Are all the rare Pokemon hiding in Meca (Score:2, Funny)
Are they trying to keep us from the Rare Desert Pokemon?
They sound completely insane (Score:5, Insightful)
I read this and I'm just shaking my head at how incredibly ludicrous every word in that statement was.
If it weren't for the fact that millions of people live under the oppression of this sort of thinking, it would actually be funny.
When will these people finally join the 21st century and stop basing their entire lives around this bullshit?
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When will these people finally join the 21st century and stop basing their entire lives around this bullshit?
Their whole society and all their peers will ostracize them when they live in such a religious society. You're right, though. It's what's needed.
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm thinking it might be a pretty long time.
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Insightful)
Very true. It is the fear of the consequences of non-conformity that makes people conform. And seeing bright people conforming, turns the dumb into fanatics. Its a vicious loop.
I would have modded you up, but I do not have mod points.
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It's also just like ga
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:4, Informative)
I assume you mean Copernicus' ideas, and that you're excluding Galileo's ideas of God's existence, which he never repudiated.
And that you're excluding that the same Catholicism has accepted evolution for a long time now.
But other than that.
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more [usnews.com]
You may be thinking of an atheistic assertion of evolution. That part is a non-sequitur leap from biologic
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Interesting)
It happened that there were three monkeys in a cage. Suspended at the top if the cage was a bunch of bananas. There was a ladder from the floor of the cage up to the bananas. One of the monkeys, who was both clever and agile and also liked bananas, decided to head up the ladder to grab a banana.
Imagine his surprise (not to mention that of the other two monkeys) when suddenly a fire hose washed down the cage, blasting all three monkeys over to one side. Cold and shivering, the three monkeys regrouped and thought about what had happened.
Monkeys don’t have a real long memory and, after awhile, a second monkey thought again about the bananas and headed up the ladder. Same thing—a fire hose washed all three monkeys over to the side of the cage. They picked themselves up, shook themselves off and hoped the sun would come out to warm them up.
After another couple of hours, the third monkey couldn’t resist and he went for it. Sure enough, same result—fire hose and cold, wet, miserable monkeys.
Finally, all three monkeys became convinced that going for the bananas was a bad idea, and went on with the rest of their lives.
Then the zookeeper drafted one of the monkeys for another exhibit and replaced him with a new monkey. The new monkey arrived, looked up at the bananas, looked over at the ladder and couldn’t figure out why the other monkeys hadn’t gone for the bananas. He headed for the ladder and got about 1 rung up when the remaining "experienced" monkeys tackled him, dragged him to the floor and pummeled him into submission. He quickly concluded that climbing the ladder wasn’t a good idea.
A week later, the zookeeper replaced the second monkey. Monkeys are somewhat single-minded. The new monkey spied the bananas, headed for the ladder, and the remaining two monkeys tackled him and pummeled him into submission.
Finally the third monkey was replaced and, you guessed it, the same thing happened. So life went on among the monkeys and after some time the first of the "new" monkeys was replaced with yet another monkey. Sure enough, the new guy saw the bananas, went for the ladder and his two peers then tackled him and beat him into submission.
Why was that? None of these monkeys knew anything about the fire hose. None of them had ever gotten wet for having climbed the ladder in the quest for bananas. Yet the monkeys had been fully culturalized to know that it was a bad idea. And you could likely go on individually replacing monkeys one at a time forever and expect the same result.
The Parable of the Monkeys can be readily applied to just about every organizational community structure in the human sphere. We can laugh at the silly monkeys, but humans are the only creatures on Earth capable of amassing and arming themselves to fight and die by the tens and hundreds of thousands because another human claims yet another human is building firehoses to keep all the bananas for himself.
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really - Christianity is evolving. It basically loses edge as time is passing, becoming 'lukewarm' religion. Look at Church of England as extreme case of that, but same route can be seen in most subsects. On the other hand, Islam is frozen in time, actively fighting any kinds of changes (given what happened over very trivial differences between Shia and Sunni, you should not expect any bigger changes for next few thousand years).
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Re:They sound completely insane (Score:4, Insightful)
But don't think for a minute that they don't want that power back.
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The same can be said about Christianity.
That's easy to show as false. Compare "Christian" countries to Muslim ones.
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They can't join the 21st century because their entire culture is rooted in bronze age bullshit.
They should have been cut off from modern society completely and eventually forgotten.
But of course, when we are beholden to petroleum companies, the sick and degenerate middle east gets a seat at the table.
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capitalism, as practiced by the US, is going to cause the end of the US.
and you know, I wish our kind of capitalism on ALL OF THEM over there in the islamic countries.
what... should we be the only ones suffering in this world?
(lol)
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Informative)
This is an attitude in many Christian circles as well. We're talking 21st century Christians in Murica, the same people that condemned D&D and Harry Potter. Plenty of them in Europe as well though not so prominent.
http://www.charismanews.com/op... [charismanews.com]
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Insightful)
You'll find some folks in just about every religion that are wound waaay too tight and see the devil in everything. The rest enjoy their games and movies like everyone else.
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:4, Insightful)
False equivalencies. What percentage of global Christianity believes that Pokemon is evil versus what percentage of global Islam is under Sharia law and/or believes that Pokemon is evil AND that women are second class citizens?
By the way... you know that when you use words like "Murica" you automatically lose any argument with an adult, right?
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Informative)
Here's your link for the Islam numbers [pewresearch.org]. Short version: The number of places under Sharia law is growing, and - more shocking -- the number of Muslims in western countries like the US and the UK who *wish* they were living under Sharia Law and would like to see their country change its legal system to one that was theology based is *growing.*
47 percent of all American Christians identify themselves as "Evangelical," although only 62 percent of those "Evangelicals" believe that abortion should be illegal in all states, so they're probably not what you would describe as a real Pokemon-fearing Evangelical. Link with stats [go.com]
Look, I'm not here to do your homework for what is common sense to anyone who is not a dyed-in-the-wool Jihad apologist. Radical Islam is an existential threat to western civilization, and it's growing. Christianity is NOT an existential threat, and their numbers are diminishing. Get your head out of your ass and start doing some of the research yourself.
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When the rest of the world stops enabling them and defending this shit for fear of "islamophobia"?
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If Pat Robertson could run the U.S., and he's tried, he'd ban teletubbies. Islamophobia is a polite description of someone who's racist against swarthy people who write funny.
Re:They sound completely insane (Score:5, Insightful)
Say it with me: Islam is not a race.
They are (Score:2, Insightful)
They sound completely insane
Haven't you noticed, muslims are often completely insane? So frequently one will attack people, saying that it is for Islam, but then everyone will say "it wasn't really, he's just insane". And there's the way that they go around murdering people n completely different countries just because someone drew a picture, made a film, or wrote a book they didn't like.
Thank you (Score:3)
"Haven't you noticed, muslims are often completely insane?"
Fuck off. There is nothing wrong with Muslims or Islam you racist piece of shit.
If someone is committing a terrorist act claiming that they are doing it because they are a Muslim or in the name of Islam it is bullshit. Islam is peaceful. They are either lying about being muslim/islamic or they are a Zionist stooge.
Thank you, I had forgotten the "they blame everything on the Zionists" to add to the list of muslim insanities. You obviously suffer from a lot of them
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When will these people finally join the 21st century and stop basing their entire lives around this bullshit?
Probably not until around the 26th century, but the rest of us will be in the 26th century then and the same question will stand.
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It's the $CURRENT_YEAR ! :)
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It's a pretty straight forward question. Is Israel and Zionism mentioned in the Fatwa? If so, it is completely reasonable for different sources to highlight different aspects of the Fatwa. If not, then the Times of Israel has made up facts, which is a serious problem.
Which is it? I don't know. I couldn't find the original Fatwa, and I doubt I'd be able to read it if I did.
Shachar
Here you go... (Score:4, Informative)
21758 [alifta.net]
The reasons stated for banning are, in this order: gambling, evolution, use of religious symbols of other religions ("six-pointed star of Judaism", "the cross", "angles and triangles - Masonry", "Symbols of the Shinto creed").
So... the "Zionism-promoting" thing is invention and interpretation of Times of Israel, as neither Zionism nor Israel are mentioned in the fatwa.
Other than that, the entire thing reads like any other religious edict of any religion - detached from reality, one leg in conspiracy theories and religious paranoia, other leg firmly cemented in mental issues.
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Saying it's the 21st century has as much logical weight as saying that it's Thursday.
That might be relevant if you're running around as if it's Saturday.
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Well, they do a lot of charity work.
When we live in a world where little girls are attacked, have acid thrown in their faces, or killed outright, just because they wanted to go to school to learn about things beyond being wives and baby-making machines, and where there are violent assholes running around, blowing up historical landmarks, archaeological sites, killing people just because they don't believe in some Invisible Sky God the same exact way they do, and cutting off people's heads on gods-be-damned YouTube, and some are denying their
Sorry, couldn't resist (Score:4, Funny)
Israel: "Palestinian territories; gotta catch em all!"
Re:Sorry, couldn't resist (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny thing, if the Arabs states had just let Israel be instead of trying to crush it in 1948, Israel would be a tiny bit of land that they wouldn't even notice. Instead, the whole "drive the Jews into the sea" thing kind of backfired on them.
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Even more irony: if the Palestinians hadn't promised rivers of blood even earlier and agreed to what the Jews offered, Israelis wouldn't even have the area of land decided on by the UN: they would have less than 30% in the very northern tip, just south of Lebanon.*
Of course, they probably all would have been murdered just a little later.
And to rub salt in the wound: most of the lands in Israel have ancient titles stretching back into the Ottomon period. For a very long time Jews couldn't hold it, but leadin
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Funny thing, if an Israeli hadn't assassinated Rabin... You don't have a conflict this big without having irrational bigoted extremists on both sides.
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Trying to pretend there's anything approaching moral equivalency between these two sides is simply absurd. Israel is tolerant to the point of allowing pro-hamas people to sit on the knesset, the equivalent of America having pro-ISIS senators, while even the "moderate" Fatah openly calls for total genocide and the total eradication of Israel.
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It's would be the equivalent of allowing pro-confederacy senators. Which we did and still do.
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Evidently you missed this little thing called "reconstruction". Also your metaphor sucks because there hasn't been a confederacy for over a hundred years. I chose pro-ISIS for a reason, it's a currently extant group which is actively attacking the US (and damn near everyone else for that matter).
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Now replace "Jews" with any persecuted ethnic minority...
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2 wrongs don't make a right.
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I always said this about hitler and poland, saddam and kuwait etc. But people call me a fucking idiot. Something about letting evil prevail?
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As if Israel didn't had expansionist ambition... These fanatics will burn the whole world if it get them to the promised land.
And the last time they went on an offensive war was? Or by expansion do you mean taking land from the nations that attacked them and lost?
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Actually, Hitler, Jews, "Gotta Catch 'em All..." [washingtonpost.com]
There's a time and a place for everything.
Huge Mischaracterization - Not promoting Darwanism (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Huge Mischaracterization - Not promoting Darwan (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, such insanity. Clearly Pokémon Go is promoting a Lamarckian Theory of Evolution, not a Darwinian Theory of Evolution.
We are talking about a people who don't build any buildings with triangles in them, just because the triangle is a symbol of Christianity (it represents the father, son, and holy spirit). And who ban words with the letter 'X' in them because the X resembles a cross. I don't see why we should have any expectation of rationality out of that bunch.
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Wow, such insanity. Clearly Pokémon Go is promoting a Lamarckian Theory of Evolution, not a Darwinian Theory of Evolution.
I think it's just the word evolution they don't like, it's clear they don't understand the concept under any guise. I wonder if they'd have called them transformations they would still have the same beef.
Stock price (Score:5, Funny)
Pokemon Go has been such a success that it has already doubled Nintendo's stock price after launching just two weeks ago.
Well good luck maintaining that bubble, Nintendo, now that people can't openly play Pokemon Go in Saudi Arabia. Time to start shorting NTDOY and hoarding gold.
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Time to start shorting NTDOY and hoarding Golduck.
FTFY.
I'm pretty sure (Score:4, Insightful)
if the Middle East had their way, we would still be in the Dark Ages.
We're gonna ban Pokemon, but it's cool to beat your wife or jail folks for "insulting" Islam and other ludicrous nonsense.
How can a modern World leader, look them in the eye and not just bust out laughing ? How on Earth does anyone take them seriously on anything ?
Unless they pull off a miracle, the entire Middle East will be instantly forgotten once our reliance on oil dries up.
They really have nothing to fall back on.
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"We"? Are you Saudi Arabian?
Did you even read the fucking headline?
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Conflicts with Reality (Score:3)
If a Law Conflicts with Reality, then the Law brings itself into Disrepute!
There but for the grace of... (Score:5, Funny)
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Stop interrupting. We're trying to have our Two Minutes Hate against Muslims here. No fair bringing up our own Right Wing Conservative Theocrats.
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Stop interrupting. We're trying to have our Two Minutes Hate against Muslims here. No fair bringing up our own Right Wing Conservative Theocrats.
Because a random person on the internet equates to a national government?
Re:There but for the grace of... (Score:4, Insightful)
We have random people on the Internet running for president. It's not that big a leap.
Think about the news in the past week. We had a Duck Dynasty guy speaking at the national convention of a major political party. We had another speaker at that convention claim that the opponent is "serving Lucifer". The clock is running on our moral superiority.
http://www.dailysquat.com/wp-c... [dailysquat.com]
https://twitter.com/JasonHavey... [twitter.com]
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Stop interrupting. We're trying to have our Two Minutes Hate against Muslims here. No fair bringing up our own Right Wing Conservative Theocrats.
You seriously can't see the difference between "legislated madness" and "religious belief"?
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Wow... just wow.
Now understand that I clicked that link fully expecting a whole lot of religious crazy.
And I was still not even slightly prepared for the direction it took.
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It looked to me that they were saying pokemon was evil beyond redemption for having pictures of "demons" but a self declared actual former "demon summoner" should be respected and believed without question. Beyond the far side of crazy and not what most people would even associate with the fringes of a religion.
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but a self declared actual former "demon summoner" should be respected and believed without question.
Well, to be fair, he was able to identify all the pokemon er... poke-demon attack types, from his direct personal experience with them. How does that not command instant faith and respect?
Beyond the far side of crazy
To where the days have 4 corners. timecube!!
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In Saudi Arabia, witchcraft is still a crime and people are actually still prosecuted for it. Just look at this weird shit [telegraph.co.uk] they do.
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The difference is that the loonies don't run the mental institution over here.
Not yet at least, give it a while.
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Man, I'm glad we don't have any of that craziness here in the US... ...damn [erikadawson.com]
There's a difference between a few randoms showing concern and a government banning on overtly religious bullshit reasons. When Obama or whichever fuckup get the job next is saying the same, then you have a point.
Turkey (Score:5, Insightful)
This is where Turkey is headed now too, after the staged coup which was used as justification for purging tens of thousands of secular leaning judges, teachers and soldiers.
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Maybe, although that is probably the best case scenario. The main problem is Erdogan is rapidly making enemies (remember he only had a slight majority in the elections) and the more 'conspirators' he locks up, the more enemies he will make. Saudi has the advantage that it essentially keeps its population under control by giving them all lots of money. The motivation to do something about a regime that is giving you a lavish and comfortable life is much lower than to do something about one that is locking up
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If this coup wasn't staged, it was the most dilettante coup since November 1923. You really want to tell me that a military that led 4 successful coups since WW2 would commit every cardinal sin in the "how to fuck up a coup" book?
If you believe that, I have a bridge with a wonderful view over the San Francisco harbor to sell to you.
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Yeah, but you have to have a story better than "training exercise" or your guys wont fight.
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To be fair you'd expect most participants in a military coup to not know it was a coup, or at the very least not question it. Chain of command is part of how they work.
Get your men, we're attacking the president's house.
Right-o
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Gotta jail them all.
Thank you, Wahhabist lunatics, for making my day. (Score:2)
Remind me again (Score:5, Insightful)
I once met a guy who would not let his kids go to (Score:2)
see Harry Potter movies because "they promote witchcraft". Yes, he was an adult and father of three sons.
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But worshiping people nailed to crosses that die and respawn after 3 days is fine.
Yeah, I know that kind of loony.
The ban doesn't appear to be working (Score:4, Informative)
Just because it has been condemned by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars doesn't mean people won't be playing it. As I walk around Riyadh I can see many people playing Pokemon Go, so perhaps not such a big deal as some of the posters make out.
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Great minds (Score:2)
I banned Pokemon because I thought it was shit.
I didn't even need to reach into the ether and draw parallels with it supposedly promoting Zionism.
Fucking Pikachu, I somehow knew he was up to no good but now I have proof?
I think a review of Zionist promoting things should be conducted so we can ban them all...although, I do wonder...
If religious people in Saudi believe god created everything, who are they to say god does not prefer people choose to be pure rather than use the evil, Zionist promoting
They should be embarrassed (Score:2)
"Rarely find a card?" What are they smoking? (Score:2)
You rarely find a card that does not contain such a star. It is associated with Judaism, ...."
Pokemon is a video game.... there are no cards....
Also, what is the deal with countries passing Anti-Semitic laws targeting to ban the practice of Judaism?
There should be a global embargo against such countries, which have no respect for human rights....
Re: Build a wall (Score:4, Funny)
OK, but you have to admit that this one is good legislation.
*ducks out*
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Okay. https://i.redditmedia.com/pvdF... [redditmedia.com]
Re: Build a wall (Score:4, Interesting)
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Which Christian country enact this papal declaration? Right none. Troll harder, muslim apologist.
Vatican City?
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So is this the new version of "cracker, not hacker"?
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Mecca is there... it's kind of a big deal in Islam.
And Saudi influence on it is what is ruining Islam right now. Look up Wahhabism, and you'll see what I mean.
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Somebody needs to tell them that it's not a Star of David, it's a sheriff's badge.
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Heil Drumpf!
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Banning these violent haters has already started:
http://media.breitbart.com/med... [breitbart.com]
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So Pastafarianism makes the cut then...
An early 5th century cookbook describes a dish called lagana that consisted of layers of dough with meat stuffing, a possible ancestor of modern-day lasagna [wikipedia.org]
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So religions have to age and season? Like cheese, when it reeks it's finally ok for consumption?
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Religion is a mental disorder (Score:5, Insightful)
At least it would fulfill every criteria in the ICD-10 F22.0 definition of delusion if religions were not explicitly exempt. Because, well, what's the difference between a delusion and a religion except the fact that a lot of people have the same delusion?
Re:Religion is a mental disorder (Score:4, Insightful)
Not only is religion a mental disorder, it has the dubious distinction of being a communicable mental illness, which is something very rare indeed.
Re:Religion is a mental disorder (Score:5, Insightful)
That works for all the other delusions as well. Religions, cults, conspiracy theories, SJWs... same shit, different name.
In the end, they all claim to have the moral high ground, they claim they have the truth, they have zero problem with internal contradictions and anyone who dares to tell them that they're crazy, and offer logical, conclusive examples on why they are, are heretics/shills/whatever.
Re:Religion is a mental disorder (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only is religion a mental disorder, it has the dubious distinction of being a communicable mental illness, which is something very rare indeed.
I'm not sure that communicable mental illnesses are so rare. Belief in things like racial superiority and class superiority, along with the various forms of servitude or outright slavery they engender, are also communicable 'social diseases'. Then there are various irrational 'fad' beliefs, such as those of anti-vaxxers. Hell, advertising and marketing are the commercial versions of mental disease propagation. (It's interesting that 'propaganda' and 'propagate' share a common Latin root).
Because we humans can communicate with a great degree of specificity and detail, various forms of mental, emotional, and intellectual health deficits are communicable. Language is a mental disease vector.
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I wonder if there's a collection you can read up, I bet that should provide some entertainment and enough material to run a YouTube channel about it, showing off what you cannot do in Saudi Arabia because it offends their imaginary buddy.
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I'm fairly sure there's a Fatwa that clearly states they cannot.