When is a Religious Belief Delusional?

[Aroura]

I guess you could compare and contrast different types of beliefs.

The kind of theist who mostly accepts mainstream science, but just shoehorns in "but God did it", isn't operating under a delusion as such. It's just forcing a conclusion which probably won't affect them much.

The kind of theist who prefers their literal stories to mainstream science is pretty delusional, I would say. They're living in a borderline fantasy land version of reality. This still might not impact them too much in everyday life, although I find it hard to believe that this kind of thinking won't have some knock-on effects.

And lets see, how many is that?  What percentage of people deny evolution and/or Global warming in favor of their fairy tale? 30%, 40%?  More?  How many people watch Trump lie and then say deny it with him?  About the same percentage, I think.

Teaching people to value ANY kind of delusion (or whatever you want to call it) certainly seems to make them more prone to fall for other, possibly far more dangerous, delusions.