Religion as a mental illness

[robvalue]

Interesting discussion

If I had to describe religion as accurately as possible, I'd call it superstition. I think it can easily cross the line into self delusion, where someone convinces themself they are experiencing "voices from God" or whatever, while part of their brain knows that they are not. Also, it's pretty clear from this forum alone that people think they are "experiencing God" just by assigning their own meaning to perfectly normal events.

The difficult part is whether or not this can develop into full blown delusions, where people actually see things that aren't there and really "hear" things. Can someone do this to themself, obviously with the help of those around affirming the semi-delusions they already have?

Someone who is already genuinely delusional is sadly going to be sometimes missed amongst all the people pretending to be so, or the ones that have convinced themselves they are. This makes mental illness harder to diagnose, and this is yet more harm that religion does. In extreme communities, I think these delusions would be encouraged rather than recognised as symptoms of a problem.