Are people who take religion and the Bible too seriously delusional?

I mean, religious delusions do factor in to a number of mental health disorders...and when you've got a mental illness that is severe you are not always aware of it. Believe me, I've seen it.

Thoughts??? Or maybe we could find a specimen to examine???

Not all people who take the Bible and religion too seriously are delusional. However, there are some instances when this can be the case.

A schizophrenic with delusions of grandeur may think that he is Jesus Christ.

A paranoid schizophrenic may be worried about the anti-christ and demons and what not. They are all out to get him/her.

Someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder may read the bible over and over again or pray excessively for forgiveness or whatever.

And then there are those people on street corners who rant and rave about religion. I am not sure what is going on with them. They may have multiple mental illnesses.

Again not all people who appear to take religion too seriously are mentally ill.

However, a psychological healthy person always strives for balance in their life. Few people ever really achieve full mental health, which is really a relevant concept.

One could ask: How sane/insane are you?

Seeing God is a mental illness. I'm afraid that is just the truth people do not want to face. The hide their weakness with a word that supposedly holds meaning, this "faith."

Ah well... It keeps the masses under control at least.

It's kind of something I hate to admit because I don't mean to offend anyone, but at times I feel like religious beliefs are socially acceptable delusions.

Tons of psychologically well people have "religious experiences" and aren't considered to be hallucinating. Millions of people have religious beliefs and aren't considered delusional. Religion is socially acceptable. Claiming you're Napoleon or that you see pink elephants climbing on the walls, however, aren't.

But if a delusion is a false belief and a hallucination is an illusory perception....then yeah, I'd expect many religious beliefs and "experiences" fit those definitions.

I don't know if religion is a manifestation of mental illness but more just a carnal desire for mankind to make sense of our existence. Believing that we were put here for a divine purpose sounds better then saying that we are just random collisions of atoms and that consciousnesses is just an illusion.

Surely people can take it too far and I believe that what you know is a part of mental illness. You can't hallucinate and see things that you cant imagine therefore you take with you what yo have. If that happens to be religion then there you go.

Mental illness is really a matter of opinion. I mean who is to say what is normal? Society does and they just go with what the majority thinks. Maybe the majority is wrong. Maybe Fred in Times Square wearing his bathrobe and rubbing cottage cheese on his face really was told to do it by God. Only God knows for sure.

Would you believe it if you neighbor told you that the whole world was gonna flood and only he and his family were going to survive and he was going to round up 2 of every animal in the world and put them on a ginormous boat? By the way God told him to do it.

-NinJaBob