Are religious people more crazy than non-religious people? Hard to tell...
In the news, one of those connect-the-dots things that makes you wonder. A guy steals an airplane and crashes it to the ground. His relatives say that "Jesus is holding our family together" and that the man was a "good Christian."
Meanwhile, in California, the unhinged individual, who lived as a hermit in a cabin and started the largest wildfire in California history (apparently to get even with his neighbor over a long-standing feud) is described by some as "a good Christian."
It seems that whenever someone goes off the deep end, they turn out to be fundamentalist Christians.
Or does it just seem that way? In a country where the majority religion is Christianity, the majority of crazy people are likely to be Christians. So maybe it is just that. Or maybe it is just religious people in general - folks who put belief ahead of rational thinking - who are crazy. It seems that half the problems in the world today are being caused by religious extremists. Take for example, the Middle East...
But does that mean, by default, that non-religious people are more sane? I doubt it. Or at least, it is hard to prove. The problem is, of course, that you have non-religious people making a religion out of non-religion. Many atheists make atheism a central part of their life, just as Christians make Jesus the central part of theirs. Consider Matty O'Hair and her particular brand of crazy.
So maybe the answer is, the world is full of crazy people. In fact, probably the crazies outnumber rational thinkers by 2:1 - at least. Act rationally in an irrational world. It is all you need to do to get ahead, I think.
