Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? It is a psychological ailment resulting
from a traumatic experience where the following four conditions are met.

- A person threatens to kill another and is perceived as having the capability
  to do so.
- The other cannot escape, so her or his life depends on the threatening
  person.
- The threatened person is isolated from outsiders so that the only other
  perspective available to her or him is that of the threatening person.
- The threatening person is perceived as showing some degree of kindness to
  the one being threatened.

So why am I talking to you about it tonight? Because it is my contention that organized
religion, christianity in particular, is the world's largest undiagnosed, and untreated,
case of this terrible psychosis.

To validate my point, let us examine the four points above in detail as it pertains to our
"benevolent" friends.In order to accomplish this, let us first, for the sake of argument,
assume that the religious books of these groups do, in fact, contain the factual account
of human history that they claim to. Now let's examine each of the points above as it
pertains to mainstream religions. I will use the christian faith as an example because it
is the one I am most familiar with.

A person threatens to kill another and is perceived as having the capability to do so.

Whether you call him god, allah, or g-d, the creator deity of "the book" has clearly
shown his capacity to destroy his people. The old testament is rife with examples of
the makers capacity for destruction.  The Israelite's exodus from Egypt tells of the
death of not only the soldiers who persued his chosen people, but of the first born sons
of their captors. Noah and the Ark and Sodom & Gomorrah show that this disregard
for human life is not restricted to his enemies.

Even more diabolical than threats of certain death, however, are the promises of the
eternal damnation that awaits those who do not abide by this being's dictates. There
are nine infinite planes of torture populated by those who have strayed from the path.
Can you even begin compare a threat of death to the promise of eternal torment in an
after life that doesn't end?

The other cannot escape, so her or his life depends on the threatening person

How, exactly, does one "escape" a being who is, by definition, omnipotent &
omniscient? Where can you go that is beyond his reach? Your choices are simple -
serve and live; refuse and die. God even goes so far as to state emphatically that
ignorance does not provide protection from his wrath. It is your duty to know his will -
a thing his chosen messengers have declared unknowable. Failure to observe these
laws results in punishment. There is no judge, no jury, and no process to appeal.

The threatened person is isolated from outsiders so that the only other
perspective available to her or him is that of the threatening person.

Deuteronomy Chapter 5, Verses 7 to 10
7. Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

8. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:

9. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate me,

10. And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my
commandments.

It is the second of god's commandments. Not only does it prescribe grave
consequences for anyone who turns to another deity for any reason, it promises to
administer that punishment onto the fourth generation. That's right. God states that, if
you do not follow his commandments, your great grandchildren will suffer because of
you regardless of how they have lived their lives. I think that meets requirement
number three

The threatening person is perceived as showing some degree of kindness to the one
being threatened.

The much quoted John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life"
serves to prove this condition to be true. Salvation and the forgiveness of sins
promised both in the new testament and by the prophets of the old is god's singular act
of kindness toward his creation.

Ironically, the damnation he is saving you from are also of his creation. The sins that
serve as the gateway to this timeless punishment exist by his decree alone. The agents
of our destruction are his servants. Yet he still manages to find the compassion to be
merciful and allow us the chance to serve him in the next life, if we are good little boys
and girls in this one. How gracious...
The Psychosis of Religion