Reality Dissociative God Disorder. That's the term I'd like to coin in reference to so many problematic personalities in our society today.
For as long as I can remember, the Republican establishment, and people who tend to associate themselves as being conservative (even some relatives of mine, I am ashamed to admit), seem to consistently fall back on a behavior that I feel compelled to place a name to.
The conservative movement prides itself on being religious. This is no big revelation, we all know this. But it has a direct effect on their interaction with the world around them.
Generally speaking, every religion of judeo-christian origin, regardless of denomination, holds that God is an all powerful deity responsible for the generation of a universe from nothing, and throughout time several individuals have been recognized as prophets of God. People who could speak directly to said deity and convey its will.
These people are venerated by their religious adherents.
What I've noticed that boggles my mind, is that there are SO MANY people out there right now who can apparently talk to God! Every time I turn around, there's a conservative stating, as if it were factual information, "God says -insert commentary here-."
"God hates -insert population to be disenfranchised here-."
"God did this because -insert mind numbingly stupid assertion that some natural catastrophe was the result of some social behavior you in particular happen to have an unwarranted negative opinion about-."
To that I say - WHOA! Hold the phone and pass it here! I'd like to have a chat with God, because everything that I've read in his book says that I'm supposed to be kind, honest, courteous, respectful, and love thy fellow man even for all his failings, no matter what, because we are all his children and all his creation.
Now all of a sudden, without having the courtesy himself to give us a little forewarning, God has decided that the return of Jesus (ONE individual mind you) has been foregone in favor of turning half the population into prophets capable of speaking in the name of an all powerful deity and directly relaying his thoughts, feelings, and uncharacteristic vitriol?!
What the hell?! Why wasn't I picked?!
Well... you could just be snarky and say it's because I'm an atheist and God don't cotton to no heathens.
Or we could look at this rationally and just say I wasn't picked because neither were they. Here's what's really going on.
But you need to read below the 69'ing ampersands to find out what that is.
In the conservative mindset, faith and belief are central to self validation. The problem with that process, is that it reinforces cognitively dissonant behavior. It emphasizes denial of reality in favor of steadfast belief in whatever fantasy it is they've chosen to embrace. Whether it's the absolutely absurd assertion that "God hates gays" or the equally rediculous assertion that someone who has spent their entire life walking around with a penis between their legs somehow knows what's better for women than women do - when you tell these people they're wrong, it only reinforces their conviction that they're right.
When that happens, they need to validate their opinion in the only way they can. In the absence of fact, and in the absence of scientific evidence, they have nothing in there arsenal that holds any validity what-so-ever... oh...except that only a rational person who uses fact based information to make decisions would think that.
What they end up doing is falling back on their only survival mechanism. When presented with information contrary to what they believe, they try to justify their opinion with, you guessed it, faith.
What is the definition of faith by the way? World English Dictionary, definition #1. 1. strong or unshakeable belief in something, esp without proof or evidence
There's a bit more to their unwillingness to admit when they're wrong than that. Quite a bit of which revolves around a generalized over-abundance of self importance, an obliviousness or careless ignorance of the effect their actions have on the world around them, and either a lack of education or the misfortune of having a poor IQ and physically not being able to make the cognitive connections they need to make in order to be useful members of society (this is my nice way of saying some people are just downright stupid). But ultimately it all relates back to the same behavior.
So what do you call that? When someone is so blinded by a belief that denying proof is somehow an intelligent action, and they try to back up said claim with even further unprovable commentary?
You can't really blame religion. Because it's the individual who has to choose to believe in something they can't prove. And it's the individual making the choice to believe in the ignorant and hateful garbage that they spew on any given chance they get. You have the blame the person. Bad people make bad religion. Because the religion is nothing more than the collective ideas of a group of faithful believers.
So, if you want to be appropriate about it, you can call it Reality Dissociative God Disorder.
Personally, I just call it being a dumbass.