It is being reported that the lawyer for the confessed mass-murderer Anders Breivik says that the current evidence "suggests his client is insane". No kidding. They apparently found quite the sharp tack to defend Mr. Breivik. Breivik claims to be a Knight Templar, and is trying to launch a crusade of extermination against non-indigenous inhabitants of Europe. I'm not sure at what point his lawyer noticed the crazy train had left the station.
A lot of people do not understand what the term pyschopath means because it gets misused so often. Psychopaths are often otherwise well-functioning individuals who have none of the classic signs of mental illness, such as hallucinations or depression, but who often are extremely manipulative, good at playing false roles, have a very high opinion of themselves, enjoy taking extreme risks, and have a complete callous disregard for others. In some ways they are similar to people with borderline personality disorders, only more pronounced.
Of course his insanity brings up the chicken and egg riddle of religion. Is he drawn to extremist religion because he is crazy, or is he crazy because of his extremist religious viewpoints. It's often hard to tell. Some have said that he is not really religious and just uses that as an "identity". However, that is true of a great many religious people, including many of the crusaders, templars, and even modern terrorists like bin Laden.
Of course they use religion as an identity. That does not mean that we can entirely discount the influence of religion upon their minds. Yes, they manipulate religion to suit their purposes, but so do Pat Robertson and and Tim LaHaye. That doesn't mean that they don't believe it in any sense. They love religion all the more because of its inherent usefulness in manipulating others. They probably think God made it that way, and they probably think they are going "the Lord's work".
In reality their massive egos conflate God's will with their own. This is part of the reason that religion can put one in a dangerous frame of mind. There is nothing more grandiose than the belief that you are infallible because God is on your side. This is a characteristic that is often also found in far right-wing ideologies, who model their love of authoritarianism upon the authoritarian nature of God and religion.
Perhaps we can finally taste the bitterness of that toxic admixture now.
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