Psychiatry: Belief in God is not a delusion because it's a culturally supported delusion

OK. I'm fairly new as an agnostic, so this point of view is eye-opening for me. I haven't read Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion yet. So this is very interesting to me. Apparently, psychiatry has to walk a razor-thin line to distinguish between behavior that is a result of religious belief and behavior that is a result of mental illness, specifically delusion. I've read a few articles on this matter and I thought I would share them here:

" Take an example of a man who walks into an emergency department, mumbling incoherently. He says he’s hearing voices in his head but insists there’s nothing wrong with him. He hasn’t used any drugs or alcohol. If he were to be evaluated by mental health professionals, there’s a good chance he might be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia.

But what if that same man were deeply religious? What if his incomprehensible language was speaking in tongues? If he could hear Jesus speaking to him? He might also insist nothing were wrong with him. After all, he’s practicing his faith."

I love the title and subtitle of this article from Scientific American "How Do You Distinguish between Religious Fervor and Mental Illness?
It's not meant as insult to believers; the two states of mind can share many similar characteristics"

[blogs.scientificamerican.com]

So they've tailored their definition of delusion to explicitly give religion an exclusion from their DSM manual (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - American Psychiatric Association). After all, they can't pathologize billions of people, right?

"Definition of a delusion: A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith).

Note that the manual almost gives religion a free pass on the delusion issue "

[huffingtonpost.com]

“You talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you, you’re psychotic.” That’s a line from the TV show House MD"

"If someone told you, in all seriousness, that they talk to invisible beings who control the universe, you’d probably back away slowly, nodding and smiling, while desperately looking for the nearest exit or escape route. If this person then said they wanted to be in charge of your life, you’d probably do the same, but more urgently, and with a view to finding the nearest police officer.

And yet, this happens all the time."

"Visited by aliens? Ridicule. Visited by angels? Book tour"

"I can believe that a stone age man built a wooden boat large enough to house every species on Earth, but climate change just seems a bit of a stretch to me"

"...delusions are only diagnosed if they’re not consistent with the person’s existing belief system and views. A devout creationist talks to God while in church, that’s fine. An avowedly atheist lawyer starts doing it in the middle of a meeting, they’re probably delusional. If both of them suddenly started saying the world is going to end in 30 minutes because of angry frogs living in the sun, they’d both be considered delusional."

[theguardian.com]