Religion is a Mental Illness

Andrew Doyle: This ideology has infantilism built into its core. And when it captures various institutions, they all become infantile. If you take, there was a conference called "Resisting Whiteness" at Edinburgh University where the organizers had said, that--

Meghan Murphy: You come, you show up, you peel your skin off, burn it.

Doyle: Well, I mean, they had a separate space, they had separate-- they separated people by skin color. But they also had a Q&A after the event where they said, white people weren't allowed to ask questions. But then that raises the question, what if you're half? What if you're mixed-race? Do you get to ask half a question? How do they even know, it's not always obvious. So, that's a childish thing to have. But that was done by adults in a university. In a top university.

So, yes, I think it's to do with the complete lack of the capacity for critical thinking, the first lesson of which is that there is always something to learn from your detractors, right. There is always a kernel of truth in everything that people say, and there's always merit to listening to what-- to having your ideas challenged.

These are people who are fixed to a script, which has been provided for them. Which is the same as any ideology. It's the same as any fundamentalist religion. ISIS fighters don't think critically, they have a script handed to them, a holy writ and it's been interpreted for them by the worst demagogues in that community.

And the same goes for any form of ideology. If you're a strict whatever. Marxist, or you're a strict-- you know, it can be anything.

Murphy: Feminist.

Doyle: Feminist too, it can be-- if you have a strict set of rules, it means you're not thinking for yourself. I like to be surprised by people's opinions, I don't like to be predictable. And I think that's a real loss when people can't say, "well, hang on, maybe I'm wrong about this. Let's talk to someone who disagrees. Maybe I can come out of this."

You know, if you take someone like Daryl Davis, who has deradicalized members of the KKK, can you imagine that? This guy sat down with them and talked them out of this, right. I couldn't do that; I don't have the ability to do something like that. But those people were people who were not thinking for themselves, thinking from a script. It's really, really rife.

And yes, I tie it to-- I suppose it's what children do, because children crave someone to tell them what to do, that's why they all need discipline.