[Captain Cardio]

It's more that people who suffer from addiction are not really true believers in god, they are just trying to satisfy there addiction by proffessing a belief in god.

I understand you're refering to reformed addicts, but you could apply that same idea to anybody who starts believing in god, that they don't actually believe at first, they just try to make themselves so they can get something from religion that makes them feel good. If we are to say that religious addiction can exist, I think we need to figure out what line a person crosses between being a believer, and being addicted.

Its like a non believer trying to cover his bets by saying he believes in the hope of fooling god.

Even if the person doesn't believe in christianity, if they are trying to believe and are acting like a good christian, I would hope that God would permit this person, and not necessarily interpret his actions as deception.

I am thinking about a guy I know who as a ex druggy now full blown christian. He has read only one book in the last 15 years and that is the bible. He can quote it by word and that is about all he does. But if I try to ask him what it means or how does he interpret the quotes of the bible and he cannot do it. All he can do is quote it.

I think this more indicative of obsessive behavior rather than actual addiction.

The difference is that maybe this kind of person has a tendancy to make their life all about one thing, whether it be partying(with drugs and alcohol) or religion. While they were doing partying, they may have had an actual addiction to the drugs or booze. Once they got past their addiction, their inherant behaviour was to make their life all about one thing again, because they still hadn't learned moderation. They have just learned to either do something obsessively, or not do it at all. They person chose to take an interest in religion, and thus took an interest obsessively.

So I think you could chalk it up to an obsessive personality type.

That is not a belief it is an addiction. Or do you disagree, is it just good enough to say that you believe, an understanding is not neccessary?

It seems like the line you draw about whether or not religion is an addiction or an actual belief, is whether or not someone trying to be religious understands it. I know plenty of people that go to church that don't bother reading the bible, or thinking critically about what is said in the sermons. They just go to church and it makes them feel comforted.

They still argue with other people about whether god is real, but they aren't able to really back up their position, they just get angry and frustrated whenever they try to make their case with a skeptic. This situation applies to many christians. It wouldn't be fair to say they aren't addicted, if we consider your ex-druggy friend to be addicted, on these grounds anyway, when really the druggy is exhibiting the same behaviour, just more of it. At least the druggy's gone to the effort of reading and memorizing some of the bible.

Captain cardio said: But I think religion lacks the quality of having a polarizing effect on people's moods. SoylentGreen said: There are some real fanatics out there and some of those "born again" have a very polarised view of religion.

Their view of religion might be polarized, but I mean mood polarization.

People with polarized (for clarity, this is like 'extreme-d') moods, which are often a result of addiction, feel alot more highs and lows than the average person, and a lot less moments of feeling average. If someone is addicted to drugs, whenever they take them they feel really good, but then a few hours later they start to feel really bad as the high wears off, and want to take drugs again.

Whether it be smoking, drugs or booze, all addictions have obvious effects on a person's mood, and are the kind of thing somebody needs constantly to bring their mood up. For religion, this reformed druggy wouldn't be running home from work feeling terrible, thinking "****! I need another fix of christianity!".

The ex-druggy may talk about religion constantly, but you could just chalk that up to an obsessive personality, rather than an actual addiction.