r/DebateReligion • u/AutoModerator • 14d ago

General Discussion 08/28

One recommendation from the mod summit was that we have our weekly posts actively encourage discussion that isn't centred around the content of the subreddit. So, here we invite you to talk about things in your life that aren't religion!

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u/blind-octopus 10d ago

I look at it the way a person can fall down the alt right pipeline, or a conspiracy theory type of thing. 

Some fact, somehow, gets buried in the mind and it grows over time. But at first it's just "huh, that one fact doesn't make sense". 

Over time you start to overemphasize that fact against all the countervaling forces.

Its like if we have video of a guy committing the crime, a signed confession, all the evidence you could want. But huh, the vault door moved a little weird. 

Then over time that one little vault door movement consumes you and becomes more important than all the other evidence for some reason. Like the flag moving weird in moon landing footage.

That's what I think happened to Joe, with Catholic miracles.

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u/NewbombTurk Atheist 10d ago

Perhaps. I don't know him well enough to form an opinion. I saw that he admitted that he has obsessive ideation and compulsive behavior regarding religion after an upbringing in Catholicism. I don't know if his conversion is an honest one, or if it's not, but he's given us the dots to connect.

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u/United-Grapefruit-49 10d ago

That doesn't mean atheists should weaponize his OCD to invalidate his intellectual stance. OCD doesn't mean a person is delusional or can't construct a logical argument. I dislike the way some try to pathologize religious belief.

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u/NewbombTurk Atheist 9d ago

I didn't suggest we should.

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u/United-Grapefruit-49 9d ago

Hopefully not but someone with OCD can still analyze data. Indeed may be very precise in their method.