Question For Fellow Atheists...

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't view them as messed up.

I see that there are quite a few here who feel the same way.  If you don't see belief in non-existing critters being 'messed-up' then what then?  Can you give me an example of what you would consider to be a delusional belief???

I think you're mixing apples and oranges. Perfectly reasonable people often hold irrational views (cf. my comment about compartmentalization), because emotion vs logic is not a black-and-white thing in people. We lie on a spectrum where those qualities are polar opposites, but in my experience the vast majority of those I've met lie somewhere in between.

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After all, why would Mr. Jones lie to me? Jim is a good, Christian man.

I heard that he's quite a party animal too! His backyard get-togethers are to die for...

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Right, "Delusions are distinct from culturally or religiously based beliefs that may be seen as untrue by outsiders."

...Just as you wrote above. So, why are posting this?

The point I want to underscore is that the only thing that separates religious belief from the mental illness of delusion is that religion is a 'shared belief'.

If I believed in the Tooth Fairy and I lived on a secluded island where everyone else believed in the Tooth Fairy, then my belief in the Tooth Fairy would not be considered a delusion or a mental illness...

I think it was Sam Harris who wrote, "There is sanity in numbers." I regard belief in gods as delusional in the sense that it is impervious to countervailing reality and arguments supporting that reality, but it is not delusional in the clinical sense of the word.

You seem intent on ignoring the social programming that goes into religious belief, and as Rob mentioned, the pressure for conformity that affects people and their outlooks.