To live one's life by the words of an imaginary being is, indeed, a sign of brain damage. JMHO

I look at it as a mental illness, but in doing so, the vast majority of the human population are mentally ill. That does not bode all that well.

No, I don't. I believe it is an expression of hope by people of faith who require the reassurance of a deity to handle the existential bummer of mortality. It is the structure of a belief system with set of morals that come packaged and ready to comfort those who need that particular reassurance. Challenging someone's deeply held religious beliefs threatens their only protection against their mortality.

Yes, but I can personally attest that it can be cured.

Emotionally disturbed would be more accurate, for ALL of them, yes.

Not normally, but extreme religiousity comes close.

I see it as a social illness. Its a bug in the system of life that man has developed, which isn't surprising considering we've done it largely by accident.

Absolutely ! Christians definition of faith is one of my definitions of insanity. For otherwise intelligent people to be able to turn off logic and reasoning and good ole common sense to ignore all overwhelming facts and evidence because someone said to is frightening. Ever watched old film of Hitler. My mind says how could people allow that to happen to them. Then I look around and see that intelligent individuals, people that demand facts and make their own minds up, people who will not be lead like sheep are a small minority and it's scary as hell. Our future is in the hands of fools that believe in fairy tales and will kill or die for the cartoon character of their choice.

No. But I do think it is a form of delusion which requires the most impressive, gold-standard, 10 out of 10 mental gymnastics.

I agree that many with mental illnesses seem to me to be prone to adopting religion, depending on the nature of the illness.

Sure, plenty of people manifest their mental illness in religion. But there are plenty of people with faith who are generally rational, reasonable and highly functional “normal” people. My grandparents were very faithful and also the best people I have ever known. I think at the point when 2/3 of a population believes in something, even something ridiculous, you call that “cultural” not “psychological.”

Mentally ill people just attach themselves to religion. Regular religious people are just stupid, but you take someone like mitt Romney and now you have a true psychopath. Anyone that can say they are Mormon has to choose between being a complete idiot or a psychopath positioning themselves to abuse idiots. Mitt Romney knew damn well Mormon religion is the easiest of them all to research and find out how fake it is. It's super fake, but there he was running for president as a Mormon.

I was going to try to share the thinking of the American Psychiatric Association on the definition of mental illness. It is very lengthy and ends up being a discussion rather than a clear definition.The discussion acknowledges the difficulty of coming up with a simple definition. Part of this says that if a person;s behavior is part of a normative response in a cultural context it is not a mental illness.

so by their definition atheism may be considered a mental illness.

I only try to make the point because the term "mental Illness" can have so many associated negative consequences and has throughout history. I agree there is something weird from the skeptical thinker's perspective about religion but I think using a different term would be better. if someone wants to make a generalization about religions.

I also do not agree that the APA is the last word but they are one of the organizations that currently have authority in the matters of mental illness

In a sense yes, i think most are out of touch with reality.

I have certainly met a lot of mentally ill people who have overly strong religious convictions, and fewer non believers that I know exhibit any straits of mental illness. My concern is that in this time when we have so much knowledge at our fingertips that people still follow superstitions that are so contrary to every day reality. This is probably a mild mental illness and certainly indicates very low intelligence. I believe religious people should be banned from holding positions of authority.

Yes! At best , it's a delusional mind set.

Being manipulated and lied to isn't a mental illness.

I'd say you coined it fairy well. A group psychosis. But the voices have an intruiging source. Look into the work of Michel Persinger and the Shaki helmet. He reproduces religions visions and voices and feeling a prescence, all in a lab. Amazing work.

LOL... No... It is a reason to connect with others.

Mental illness is not voluntary, it is not learned or embraced like a belief system and religious elements and behavior in the context of mental health is symptomatic.

Faith and certain religious beliefs or practices may lack logic or appear similar to behavior and statements of mentally ill people but they do not have their basis in mental illness.

Maybe not a mental illness as such, though at its core religious believers have bought in to a sort-of mass delusion (albeit a socially accepted one which is usually well-funded...and it even has its own book!). Children are recruited by their parents into the delusion, as are there children, etc,, thereby perpetuating the delusion. Essentially, most major religions attempt to be a guide on how to live acceptably in a society where people are not the same as you (to varying degrees of success). The problem with any religion arises when people become extremists in their delusion, and begin ignoring one part of their book in favor of another (...Just as an alcoholic damages himself by drinking more alcohol instead of eating food, for example). The real danger with religion comes when people cling to their delusion and ignore reality, including such concepts as evolution, climate change, paleontology, and the like...

Religion is mass delusion. Some, but not all of the religious are mentally ill.

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