I believe religion is like national pride (an example), it is taught or indoctrinated and reinforced by propaganda and a sense of social conformity.

Yes and No.

I think fanatics are mentally ill.

I don't think that belief in god as an explanation for the unexplainable is a mental illness. Although, I do think it is more wishful thinking than rational. Not having learned critical thinking skills or not having learned enough to have alternate explanations is nto a mental illness in itself.

Faith is belief in the absence of facts. When evidence and facts contrdict one's beliefs, and one chooses to believe in spite of the facts, than beliefs crosses over from faith to willful ignorance, which starts one down a road to mental illness and fanaticism. It is difficult to say just how far down tha road a person would have to go before they cross the line into "mental illness." Almost everyone would draw the line at different point.

I am only 100% sure that once a person become a fanatic, they have definitely crossed the line... probably a while back.

You don't have to be sick to harbor some sick ideas. It seems to me that many, if not most theists were brainwashed from birth into the belief system of their parents. That makes them victims. When religion is mixed with mental illness behavior becomes even more bazaar than normal believers..

Of course not .If it was mental illness then I was evidently mentally ill untill I was about 10 years and then recovered without intervention ,medication or treatment .As I stated in a previous comment, Isaac Newton and many other scientists and mathematicians believed in a god .Were they mentally ill? .This idea that a belief in god is indicative of mental illness would infer that all atheists and nonbelievers were once mentally ill before their non belief.

I think it is ridiculous to think they are mentally ill.I once believed in a god and so did a good many people on this site. Were they miraculously cured from mental illness when they ceased believing in a god .Some people are satisfied in believing in nonsense that was told to them from birth and lack the will to change .This does not indicate they are mentally ill.

No unless you will like to include alcohol consumption is a mental illness, or playing a sport or being a fan is a mental illness... or liking music is a mental illness... or being an atheist is a mental illness.

I was taught religion and belief in god for as early as I can remember. Think for some people the idea of god is okay with them. For the others, the idea of an imaginary being in the sky is just not working. By six, I didn't believe there was a god. But in my family, I was the one with all the questions.

Yes. it is a mental illness. it requires One to disregard their mental faculties and ability to think in favour of an emotional comfort zone.

when someone says they can hear Elvis speaking to them, or if they think Elvis is still alive, or that they think Elvis faked his death to live forever on a private island where he will never age, they are considered crazy. they are considered crazy for the simple fact we know Elvis was human, Elvis died with a very human condition due to his lifestyle which doesn't really surprise normal people.

belief in god is the same. you need to think you're communicating with a thing, you think that thing is real and exists, you think it's just absent living in a place where it never ages or gets older, but that's just "a harmless belief" until you remove "god" and replace it with literally anything else.

we put people in crazy houses for exhibiting signs of being incapable of thinking properly and could cause severe problems for other people.

Charles Manson never killed a human being. he was put away because his influence wasn't in line with the safety of other people. despite my disagreement with his imprisonment, the bullshit reasons they put him away for can make sense. he thinks he knows things, people who believed him went and did the unthinkable, supposedly. now, are the people who believed him mentally ill? yes, they are, they surrendered their thought processes in favour of accepting something which was detrimental to the lives of others.

as soon as you think you can hear, smell, feel, touch, experience a god, you have lost your mind. you have given up on critical thinking. you disregard Zeus, you laugh at Poseidon, you ignore the ancient gods which have just as much credibility as every other god ever proposed, yet your god is the right one? fuck off with that shit. you surrendered your mental faculties because you think you deserve special treatment and you think you're smart enough to choose the correct god out of every single god ever proposed, yet, can't say a damn thing except be vague as fuck, use nonsensical words like "spiritual" to mask your ignorance and come off as a deep individual. get fucked.

belief in god isn't only a mental illness, it's a cover for committing heinous crimes and asserting the god which you believe in says it's ok. what's worse, if someone has a different god, they're idiots. I've got a lesson for you idiots who actually believe in a god.... if your god is really real, why is it humans have done a better job at creation and a better job at sustaining well being compared to your god who is supposed to be responsible for us? your god, if real, created beings with immense capabilities and incredible adaptability, then dropped them in a volcano and is watching each and every one of us burn and struggle to find a way out.

because I know your god isn't real, we're just victims of circumstance. at the exact same time we're the most powerful beings to ever live in our universe as far as we can tell. we have the ability to change the world, save lives, show mercy, show pity, empathy, we can invent, create, destroy, rebuild, fall over, and every time, we get back up. every single god to have ever been proposed, never got back up once it was declared a dead god. it never returned. those who claim to believe in those dead gods are just seen as crazy people. why? because believing in a god is a mental illness.

as soon as we were no longer at the mercy of the masters of the universe, the top brass of humanity, the rich and the educated, we realised belief wasn't something to rely on. education stopped us from accepting ideas based on blind faith. we changed our ways from being biblical, theological sheep who enslaved other human beings and treated them as "the lesser kind", we realised that theological values were just old men making shit up.

where there is education, there are atheists.

oh, and all you agnostics, stop bastardising the english language to hide your ignorance. agnostic is a word used to deal with knowledge, not faith or belief in a fucking god.

Theist = with god / religion
Atheist = without god / religion / lack belief
Gnostic = has knowledge of
Agnostic = lacks knowledge of

you idiots who ruin language to suit your needs and pitiful ideas are the reason we have so many different descriptors for shit to do with religion.

if someone asks you if you believe in god, your answer is never "I don't know" of course your fucking know. it's yes or no. if someone asks you what you think about the existence of a god, only then can you say you don't know.

is there a piece of paper on the underside of the table next door?

I don't know, I'm agnostic with that question.

do you believe there is a piece of paper on the underside of the table next door?

no I don't believe that. it's possible but I don't believe it. do the people next door need it there? do tables come with a tag taped to the underside for proof of purchase?

belief is based on reasons and evidence as a whole. without any information you can't believe anything honestly. you will be lying to yourself and thus surrendering your mental faculties in favour of accepting something as true. if you jump off a cliff, do you believe you will you fly?

the answer is no because we have enough information and knowledge to make an informed decision without actually leaping off a cliff. if someone says they can fly and you're right there watching them just jump off a cliff, are you going to stop them knowing full well they're wrong, they're deluded? what if other people think they will fly too, because of this person? how far will it go before you step in and try to reason with illogical beliefs?

god or no god. belief is not a path to truth. logic, reason and understanding lead to truth. children know a fire is dangerous because they understand the reasons behind what fire is and does. if you try to convince a child fire is wonderful and we should just jump in, you're a dangerous cunt who needs to be shot for spreading such bullshit.

you can hope there is a god, you can wish it. you can even worship it, but believe it's really there and you're treading on mental illness. crazies are crazy because there isn't a religion/cult to cover their idiocy. if we all forgot about the propositions of religions and gods, and someone started saying shit like "I'm hearing our creator speak to me." we'd question, we'd prod and poke, we'd probably try to understand why this person thinks this way... probably a brain tumor or a defective brain.

I don't believe in anything where I can help it. I can understand, I can know or I can reason. these are the only things which matter and are the only things which actually better the human condition. if you believe because it makes you feel better, then you're mentally ill and we humans have solutions to these depressing emotions. we have ways to improve your life conditions, we have people who you can talk to and confide in. speaking to an invisible best friend is what children do when they are trying to make a choice. imaginary friends go away when you get older because there's other people around and you're not stuck around mam and dad 24/7, you get to socialise on your own merits instead of being nice to the kids at school. if you're 10+ years old and you're talking to shit that's not there and nobody else can actually hear, you are not mentally well.

I'll say it again, belief in god is definitely a mental illness. the worst part is, it's an illness people choose to ignore in favour of emotional confidence. fuck that, there are humans who will love you and care for you a lot more than a god who gives babies aids, lets children get fucked by old men, children kept as sex slaves and forced to birth their own fathers inbred offspring in a dungeon for 25 fucking years.

oh, and all you idiots who believe in karma, I dare you to go to an orphanage and tell those kids they're there because they deserve it. or worse, they deserve it because they will be rewarded for perseverance. belief.... what a fucking joke. replace god with anything your heart desires and it's instantly understood you're crazy. keep saying it's god and you're a model believer.

Not by itself, however it definitely makes some worse. Like my sister who believes god talks to her, and somehow, conveniently only tells her to do what she wants to do, or gives her justification for not doing something she dislikes. Sigh

No, except in cases where one obsessed and/or immobilized by such belief.

I think it's mostly based on brainwashing of impressionable children before they develop critical thinking skills. Positive and negative reinforcement are used to maintain one's belief.

It seems just like a mental illness, except for the fact that: if you take away the religious aspect, the rest of the believer's behavior is more logically based.

It's a learned concept, from a need to explain seemingly supernatural events.

Not by itself. People have different reasons for their beliefs, including, usually, childhood indoctrination. A mental illness is defined as “associated with present distress.” But many people do hold onto harmful delusions, behave in dysfunctional ways or experience distress because their religion demands that they conform to beliefs that don’t align with their identity.