Another question for Atheists?

But hey, lets not give yourself any credit.

hypnosis frees people from addiction too and that is also based purely on the belief of the subject believing he is hypnotized. in that sense religion is little more than hypnosis

Jesus freed me from religious addiction. The more I read that crap, the more ludicrous it became.

How do explain Catholic priest molesting youths? See no freedom there.

Good for them, but many people get freed from harmful addiction without the need for religion or belief in a deity. It is possible to break an addiction from sheer will power alone.

EDIT: With regard to the claim that Sweden is primarily atheist, it’s not true, but scooter poop’s counterclaim that Sweden is 90% Lutheran is not true either. Yes, I looked it up. 41% of Swede’s are Protestant Christian (Lutheran), while 34% of Swede’s are non-religious (atheists and agnostics). 34% cannot be considered “primarily” non-religious, but that’s still pretty high. It’s over 1/3 the population, and almost equal to the number of Protestants. It is also worth mentioning that among the 41% that are Protestant, many of them are liberal in spite of their religion. Unlike their less progressive American counterparts, most religious Swedes do not take issue with homosexuality, and they accept evolution and global warming as scientific fact.

EDIT: I don’t know whether the thumbs down are coming from Christians or Atheists. I suppose it doesn’t really matter. You can give me as many thumbs down as you want to, but it won’t change the fact that I’m right.

How do you explain people who free themselves from addiction using mental anchors other than religious icons?

Perhaps you are not giving yourself enough credit. Also there is no proof that Jeebus did any miracles, the only proof is whats in the bible. And thats not really proof.

if i could find a question i might have an answer

I gave up smoking one year ago, just woke up one day and decided it was time to quit – I’m an atheist, explain that!

My point is, millions of people free themselves from addictions without the help of Jesus Christ – so what does that lead you to conclude?

In one day, my non-religious parents stopped smoking. My dad is an atheist, and my mom is a deist. Where does Jesus enter the picture?

Faith healing is placebo if anything.
It is all rehearsed, and set up in the first place.
They heal no one.
Same as you state here, it is faith healing, and just doesn’t work.
And it is easier to trade one addiction for another, methadone/heroin for example.
Nothing gained.

For example in one night I was freed from cigarette addiction, marijuana, and sexual addictions

Wow! Somebody wrapped your penis in a spliff and set fire to it or what?
Pray do tell how this marvellous transformation was accomplished

this is my “well rehearsed” answer which btw is actually me thinking of it as i type. I have worked in psychiatry for almost a full decade with the Army, my psychiatrist that i work with is an Addiction specialist. while it is possible for many people to quit tobacco cold turkey and abstain from it after one day i call full bs on the others. especially since it is very hard to classify and treat sexual addiction and marijuana addiction is just like tobacco. except with marijuana there is very little and rare cases of withdrawal from it. As for crack, cocaine, meth, and other substances you do not get cleaned up from that in one day. In fact you can not be fully cleaned up. There are whole organizations and groups that continue to help people with past addictions continue with their lives after they quit to give support to prevent any relapses. Also it takes a ton of therapy to get someone to commit to staying clean.

So, thank you for trying to troll us with your question about fake addictions you have and please don’t hesitate coming back we atheists will still be here to poke holes in anything you throw at us.

Source(s):
close to 10 yrs Army Psychiatry.

12 step programs are not anymore effective than other non religious rehab programs.

They just got a lot of press.

Given that something like 95% leave before one year, I am not sure I would call them effective

Correlation, not causation. Belief in Jesus or any other religious figure is not required to defeat addiction, and not everyone who believes is free of addictions.

I don’t rehearse answers. In fact, I try to make my answers as unique as possible, given the same questions get asked over and over.

As for my answer, addiction is the mind, so is Jesus. If believing in Jesus is what gives you the mental fortitude to resist cravings, then good for you! But this technique of focusing the mind elsewhere has predated Jesus by many years.

>Another question is how do you explain people being freed from addictions through Jesus Christ.

By pointing out that they’re not. They were freed by their belief. Big difference.
It’s not surprising that a strong mental attitude could help counter addiction. That’s pretty much what you’d expect. That doesn’t speak to the truth of that belief, only to how strongly you believe it.

E.g. this claim is not unique to Christianity. You’ll find people of other religions saying the same thing. Are they all correct, too? When Malcolm X talked about how Islam made him reform from a drug using criminal to an upstanding citizen with a strong social conscience, does that prove that Islam is the one true religion?

Fact is that this attitude change doesn’t rely on any particular religion, or even on religion at all. Lots of different mechanism will work because what’s really doing the trick is the person’s own mind.

And, of course, I can’t help but notice your neat little well-poisoning. If we can’t answer, you’re right. If we can answer, then it’s rehearsed and you’re still right. Very nice. That way you don’t have to actually care how anyone responds, you can just lean back and feel superior.
Good job. I’m sure Jesus would be very proud.

Willpower is the way to beat addiction,
I as an atheist beat a 50 per day cigarette addiction two years ago.

You seem to imply that Jesus is the only way to beat addictions, sorry but you are wrong
if you are right then Christians are the only people who can beat addictions, clearly that
is not the case.

Another question is how do you explain people being freed from addictions through Jesus Christ

– They give up one addiction for another. It is like giving up opium for morphine, it is just a matter of words, they are still addicted.

For example in one night I was freed from cigarette addiction, marijuana, and sexual addictions.

– Marajuana is not addictive, sex is biological, castration will take care of that if you are that stupid and many people give up cigarettes, so what.

Millions of others have been freed from crack, cocaine, meth, and other very serious substance abuses.

– A few dozen maybe, but if it were millions we would not have a drug problem.

Im sure you have a well rehearsed answer to this so I would like to know what you think

– What I think is that you are making things up just like every fundie. Another word for that is called a lie.

I’m not an atheist, but allow me to chime in by saying that it is easy to claim to be freed from addiction, but another story to actually never turn to the bad habit again. I’ve seen dozens of people claim that Jesus helped them turn over a new leaf, only to return to the same bad behavior in a couple of weeks. So really, all it does is make people who believe in God look even more ridiculous.

Anything that motivates someone to stop using an addictive substance will work, especially if it’s very strong and personal, such as God. Because the believer thinks that God is working in him, he will think that his cravings are over. Once the psychological craving is out of the way, the physical cravings are not as strong and they will be able to quit.

Placebo also plays an important role in this. Give someone a sugar pill that “cures headaches” and their headache will magically be gone. Give someone a cup of tea that supposedly makes you fall asleep (even if the tea has no sleeping agent in it whatsoever), the person who drinks it will claim that it made him fall asleep easier.

Motivation and the placebo effect are what frees people from addictions. Or it may be Jesus, who knows. I’m agnostic so I don’t think anyone can prove anything, but I think my argument is a good one.

Source(s):
me
psychology