Delusional Disorder

"Religion is ultimately dependent on belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces, and events and judgments that happen after we die. It therefore has no reality check. And it is therefore uniquely armored against criticism, questioning, and self- correction. It is uniquely armored against anything that might stop it from spinning into extreme absurdity, extreme denial of reality... and extreme, grotesque immorality."

This is a fantastic article by a very clever woman, and you should read it.

Just to restate something I've pointed out before, and discussed with prominent psychologists: there's not a lot of difference between the kind of  " belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces" held by the religious, and the " belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces" that holds those suffering from delusional disorder.

 In fact I would go so far as to say there is no difference; religious belief is merely a delusion that is widely suffered and largely benign (causing harmful behaviours in only a proportion of its worst sufferers) due to its variable position on the spectrum of unproveable certainties and delusions.

Nice to see it restated here again.

http://www.samizdat.li/2008/07/ubiquity-of-paranoia-from-human.html
http://www.samizdat.li/2009/04/faith-unjustified-certainty-and.html