Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention

by Henry Putnam Stearns

CHAPTER XIV.

RELIGION.

Two facts relating to the history of religious belief stand out with clearness and prominence in the past. The first is, that man’s belief in his relation toward and responsibility to a Supreme Being has been one of the most important and influential factors in guiding his conduct, and leading him on and up in the pathways of civilization, since his history began. Indeed, it has been the foundation on which governments and societies have been built up, and the relations and obligations of man toward man have been established.

The other, which is no less clear and important, is, that this belief has been made an instrument, in the hands of designing men, of vast suffering to thousands of the human race, and its history, under the influence of fanaticism, has been too often written in suffering. The most gigantic wars have been instituted, and the most cruel wrongs have been perpetrated; the advancement of science and liberty has been retarded, in too many instances, by those claiming to be the ministers of religion. Perhaps it is not too much to allow that some of the most bigoted cruelties which have ever disgraced the human race have been done in the name and under the garb of religion.

These things, however, have not resulted directly from the character of religious influence, but rather from an absence of such influence upon the conduct of men; and in some cases from the darkness of misconceptions and only partly realized truths.

If, then, religious belief has exerted so powerful an influence for good, and indirectly for ill, on human character and conduct while in health, we are prepared to appreciate the fact that, when weakened by the influence of disease, it still manifests itself, and that, in some cases at least, the mind is tinged with morbid views concerning it. When the brain is under the influence of disease, or when the will-power is much impaired, thought runs in channels long used, or where deepest impressions have been made during some former period of life, and hence it would be expected that the disordered mind, in some cases, would dwell more or less continually on such a subject as religious experience or a lack of it; and accordingly, we find in most asylums patients whose thoughts are occupied more especially on their failures in the past in relation to religious obligation and conduct.

In my view, however, it would be a mistake to conclude in these or other cases, that the insanity has been in any wise occasioned by any form of religious belief, or by the absence of it, unless in consequence, the individual has been more ready to violate the laws of health by courses of conduct which he would have been hindered from had he been under the restraint of such belief. That these religious sentiments have become excessive is a result of the disease of brain, and has no relation to cause; and, if the mind did not dwell upon this subject with a morbid anxiety and intensity, it would be sure to do so on some other. The fact that it happens to be upon religion, rather than on some other subject, is a mere accident, or rather is probably due to the past experience of the individual, or lack of it in this respect.

The truth is, that religious ideas and beliefs are innate in man. We find them in some form or other among all tribes and races, from the lowest South Sea Islander up to the representative types of the race; all alike realize, imperfectly it may be, and yet distinctly, that they are both feeble and ignorant, in the midst of the infinite variety and extent of the universe about them, and they instinctively look, in their feebleness, toward a Power above and superior to them, as naturally as the child looks to the parent for support and protection.