"Recognizing religion as a class of mental illness would be a start in curing this disease."

This post is a cut and paste job. I found this at the Richard Dawkins website.

What could possibly be more damaging to a child than telling him over and over from the time he's an infant that there exists an invisible person who is unwilling to prove he exists watching him every second of every day and reading his thoughts and if he doesn't believe in the invisible person he will be tortured for eternity? Yet we tell that same child that monsters don't exist so it's silly to be scared of monsters.

Religion is one of the most serious mental illnesses of today. It is the inablity to face the reality of life and the finality of death. It affects as high as 85% of the American Society. Approximately 75% of the American victims of this mental illness are Christians. The strongest of believers would admittedly be suicidal without religion and/or a god in their lives providing a mental safety valve.

Many Christians have made statements like, "Doctor Smith is a good man, he is a Christian". If a doctor believed in the Easter Bunny, would you allow this doctor to operate on you? The belief in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is no more than the adult version of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. The next time you go to a doctor, you may want to consider if you want to put your health in the hands of a delusional person.

It is a statistical fact that the higher your education, income, and intelligence, the more likely you are not to believe in a god. For every college student that converts to a religious belief system, 17 college students convert to secular or atheist beliefs. "Secular Humanists" have an average intelligence of 15 I.Q. points above their Christian conterparts. Studies have shown the average atheist to have an I.Q. of 9 points higher than the typical Christian.

A religion by definition is a superstition. A religion is the belief in a supernatural being or beings. A superstition is the belief in magic or phenomena beyond or outside of nature. A religious belief then is a superstitious belief.

Religions seem to usually require a God, Prophets and Profits. God is usually very powerful. Not too powerful because that messes up convenient concepts like free will. Too much God power makes bad things hard to explain. The optimum amount of power can be vague and variable but usually permits granting of certain perks, like an after life. This provides a useful motivational tool. God supposedly talks through Prophets. Prophets are like schizophrenics but since most lived before psychiatrists diagnosed schizophrenia they were believed to be really talking to God. Nowadays they would be sent for treatment.

A common symptom of religion is delusion. Often including notions of resurrection. But face it, you are not coming back. Well, no one has yet, with any convincing evidence, and an awful lot of people have died.

Religious people are dangerous. They can not think for themselves, but instead cling to every word the bible says. Religious fanatics can somehow throw out all scientific evidence and replace it with the word of one book that has no credibility. They want to spread their illness to the rest of the world and contaminate the remaining 10% to 15% of the sane population. Atheists usually know and understand what is written in the bible better than those who claim to follow its word. Religious fanatics want to convert your children and will stop at nothing. They want the right to force you to follow their ideas and beliefs and restrain any conflicting beliefs or activities.

Recognizing religion as a class of mental illness would be a start in curing this disease. We should develop support groups, maybe along the lines of Alcoholics Anonymous - “My name’s (fill in the balnk) and I’m a recovering Christian ...