Religion as a mental illness

[Aroura]

I would interject though that joining in a ubiquitous and socially accepted far-out belief is much less a sign of mental illness than being the only believer, because the genesis of the belief is usually very different. You can grow up in catholic dociety, learn to truly believe in the virgin mary and be a perfectly functioning member of that society. With that, the usual definition of a mental illness is afaik not met.

Isn't the fact that social norms are automatically excluded the point of contention?  A mass delusion is regarded differently from a single case, even if the beliefs are the same.

We can alter the example to bring the point in greater focus.  Suppose that we consider a fundamentalist Christian in a society in which no one else is a Christian, and everyone else is an atheist, with no one else being religious at all.  What would one say of that case?  Is believing that one has an invisible friend who one speaks with a sign of madness?  Is obsessively following strange, pointless rituals a sign of madness?


I think that the most important part of your claim is the first one about the genesis of the belief, as that may be a reason to classify it differently from what is generally regarded as insane.  "Sane" (or so-called "sane") people join up with crazy ideas after the crazies have come up with them.  One can see this in the case of the belief that we are being visited by aliens and people are abducted and medical experiments are performed on them.  The origins of such beliefs appear to come from people who are mentally ill (in a traditional sense), yet the belief has become more mainstream due to the persuasiveness of some of the crazies (and the poor critical thinking skills of "sane" people).

The upshot, though, is that one can have many crazy beliefs without being crazy, according to the current standards.  And there is something quite odd about that.  Even if one does not wish to change the classifications from the way they are at present, it is still good to remind people of this fact.

Actually, both religion AND alien abductions seem to be just the way our brains work.  
What I mean is, I don't think most people who claim abduction are mentally unstable, nor are most religious folks.

Religion is a very sane reaction to the unknown, IMHO.  Nowadays, we think it seems insane because there are better explanations for things, but for most of human history, people have been trying very hard to explain basic thing like natural phenomenon (lightning, rain, drought, birth, etc).  Pile on top of this natural disasters, death, and then add in human emotions + our pattern seeking brains, and poof, religion.

Don't we also have a part of our brain that can be triggered to cause us to incorrectly sense the presence of another "entity"?  This explains the very real sensations religious people can get that God is with them, or angels or saints or what have you.  This part, I think, is probably also responsible for some of the alien stories.

The other part is a something called Sleep Paralysis. I have narcolepsy, so my sleep paralysis is fairly frequent.  But for the vast majority of people experience this bain phenomenon once or twice in their lives.
It causes vivid hallucinations that seem very real (waking dreams), but you are unable to move.  I've often felt a presence with me, but I know now it's just my brain playing a trick.  It often causes a feeling of pressure on the chest or head (this is your autonomic breathing, but it feels like you CAN't breath, its alarming).  

Anyway, my point is that although religious people are sometimes delusional, I don't think they are any crazier than the average atheist.  I think those in charge of religion may prey upon the truly mentally ill, and religion may make mental illness worse, but it does not CAUSE it nor, is it, in itself, a mental illness.  It is just a product of how our brains work.  The more we learn though, the more we can help dispel the "unknown" and the fear that goes with it, and the less people will cling to those ideologies.