Religion is a Delusion/Mental Illness

[AFTT47]

I'm going to butt in here with the practical reason why you shouldn't call religious belief a mental illness: The majority of people (at least in the USA) have religious beliefs. They have more voting power than we do. If you call them insane, you will just piss them off. That's important because if we want to be accepted, if we want atheists to be viable candidates for public office, we can't be making blanket statements like this - even if it's true.

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I would like to see the demographics of religion in the US and other countries. I think that secularism is on the rise everywhere.

It is indeed. Polls in the US indicate a slow but sure increase in secularism and a corresponding drop in Christianity. That's good news. Christians still rule in this country, though and we need to act accordingly. Failure to do so would be denying reality  - the same thing we accuse Christians of doing.