Religion or Stockholm Syndrome

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praty

Registered Member
Have a look at this wiki.

Parallels can be drawn between people who praise and defend their captors and the people who defend their religious beliefs in 'god'.

So, can religion be the a form of this syndrome?
 
praty said:
Have a look at this wiki.

Parallels can be drawn between people who praise and defend their captors and the people who defend their religious beliefs in 'god'.

So, can religion be the a form of this syndrome?
Click to expand...

For some people, in some cases, this definitely seems to be the case.

There is a maladaptive coping strategy termed moving toward:
Moving toward
The individual moves towards those perceived as a threat to avoid retribution and getting hurt. The argument is, "If I give in, I won't get hurt." This means that: if I give everyone I see as a potential threat whatever they want, I won't be injured (physically or emotionally).

But both the Stockholm Syndrome and the related maladaptive coping strategies are considered pathological phenomena.

For a person to react to religious proselytizing with developing the Stockholm Syndrome / employing Moving Toward, there needs to be previous pathology in that person's psyche.

Not everyone who is exposed to threats develops the Stockholm Syndrome / employs Moving Toward, only some do.
Not everyone who is involved with a religious organization has done so out of the Stockholm Syndrome / employing Moving Toward, only some do.
 
praty said:
Have a look at this wiki.

Parallels can be drawn between people who praise and defend their captors and the people who defend their religious beliefs in 'god'.

So, can religion be the a form of this syndrome?
Click to expand...
This is kind of a defunct argument since you haven't at all established how religion necessarily places a person in a situation similar to a hostage crisis and how they develop a sense of empathy towards their captors.

IOW you are just trying to launch into a side argument expanding on the problems of religion causing suffering without properly establishing how
religion causes suffering.

In the absence of such substance to an argument, one could just as easily be talking about how atheism shares a parallel with Stockholm syndrome.
:shrug:
 
praty said:
Have a look at this wiki.

Parallels can be drawn between people who praise and defend their captors and the people who defend their religious beliefs in 'god'.

So, can religion be the a form of this syndrome?
Click to expand...


Not for Me. :D


All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
praty said:
Have a look at this wiki.

Parallels can be drawn between people who praise and defend their captors and the people who defend their religious beliefs in 'god'.

So, can religion be the a form of this syndrome?
Click to expand...

Who do you imagine is holding everybody hostage?

God?

I guess that its possible to read parts of the Biblical old testament in ways that suggest that God has taken humanity (or at least the Jews) hostage.

But I wouldn't want to confuse human religiosity in general with particular Bible interpretations. The Bible can't be used as if it was a paradigm for a general theory of human religiosity.

Besides, doesn't this theory kind of require that God be real? If God doesn't exist, then wouldn't the rather fanciful "hostage situation" just evaporate?
 
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