"Machete Kills" And How Religious Fundamentalism Hijacks the Brain

 Here is a long, scientific article which I have rearranged, truncated and edited plenty. This is based on an article written by one Bobby Azarian Ph.D. First a very quick read and then some of my own points.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/bobby-azarian-phd

Fundamentalist ideologies act like mental parasites.
October 10, 2018 

Fundamentalist ideologies can be thought of as mental parasites. A parasite does not usually kill the host it inhabits, as it is critically dependent on it for survival. Instead, it feeds off it and changes its behavior in ways that benefit its own existence. By understanding how fundamentalist ideologies function and are represented in the brain using this analogy, we can begin to understand how to inoculate against them, and potentially, how to rehabilitate someone who has undergone ideological brainwashing—in other words, a reduction in one’s ability to think critically or independently.

If we want to inoculate society against the harms of fundamentalist ideologies, we must start thinking differently about how they function in the brain. 

An ideology with a tendency to harm its host in an effort to self-replicate gives it all the properties of a parasitic virus, and defending against such a belief system requires understanding it as one. 

When a fundamentalist ideology inhabits a host brain, the organism’s mind is no longer fully in control. 

The ideology is controlling its behavior and reasoning processes to propagate itself and sustain its survival. 

This analogy should inform how we approach efforts that attempt to reverse brainwashing and restore cognitive function in areas like analytic reasoning and problem-solving.

This is primarily because fundamentalism discourages any logical reasoning or scientific evidence that challenges its scripture, making it inherently maladaptive.

Ideologies Mutate

When an ideology is replicated—or passed from one person or group to another—it undergoes mutations. As a consequence, different versions of that belief system are produced, which generate different types of behavior. There are harmful variants —specifically the rigid fundamentalist versions—that cause the host mind to process information in a biased way, think irrationally, and become delusional.

Ideological Viruses and Mental Parasites

Fundamentalism is a parasitic ideology that inserts itself into brains, commanding individuals to act and think in a certain way—a rigid way that is intolerant to competing ideas. We know that religious fundamentalism is strongly correlated with what psychologists and neuroscientists call “magical thinking,” which refers to making connections between actions and events when no such connections exist in reality. Without magical thinking, fundamentalism can’t survive, nor can it replicate itself. Another cognitive impairment we see in those with extreme religious views is a greater reliance on intuitive rather than reflective or analytic thought, which frequently leads to incorrect assumptions since intuition is often deceiving or overly simplistic.

Fundamentalism is linked to science denial. Since science is nothing more than a method of determining truth using empirical measurement and hypothesis testing, denial of science equates to the denial of objective truth and tangible evidence. 

In other words, the denial of reality. Not only does fundamentalism promote delusional thinking, it also discourages followers from exposing themselves to any different ideas, which acts to protect the delusions that are essential to the ideology.

My Comments : 

I was watching outdoors adventurer  Bear Gryll's "Man Versus Wild" on National Geographic recently. Bear often takes actors and famous people into the wild and teaches them survival skills. I was watching Bear Grylls take famous Mexican American actor Danny Trejo (Machete Kills) into the desert somewhere in the US.

Danny Trejo is now in his late sixties and is no more the muscle bound tough guy that he was during his heydays in Hollywood. Danny Trejo is famous for the Machete Kills movies.

In the episode Danny Trejo recounted his life history where he grew up on drugs, alchohol, robbery and gangs. He was sent to jail more than once. When in jail Danny Trejo had near death experiences from prison fights. 

Recalling the prison fights he says there is absolutely no reasoning, no place for discussion and no place at all to let the other fellow live. It is always a fight to the death. Hatred followed by violence. Even animals do not behave like this. 

Only human beings can behave like this. Especially the religious people - other than prison gangs. There is no place for reason in religion.  You can be certain about this. In any religion, the grand archway at its entrance must proclaim "No more reasoning beyond this point". 

Hence we see religion sanctioning the use of force to enforce its edicts. It is still violence. Force means violence. 

You will never see a scientist kill another scientist over which is the best spot to land a spacecraft on the moon. But religion regularly advocates force (including state sanctioned force) aka violence against people for all sorts of infractions. 

The most dangerous religious violence is of course the violence of the village mob which can burn down peoples' houses, kill and maim without undergoing any rational thinking.

The staple of religion is force. Also known as violence. First they raise their voices. When that does not work they raise their hands.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.