Do some atheists still thin Religion is a mental illness?

[Liam]

A few days ago, in a post on faith healing, American Atheists president Dave Silverman wrote: “We must recognize religion as brainwashing. We must recognize the (hyper) religious as mentally damaged.”

He’s not the first to equate religion with mental illness or “mental damage.” Bill Maher has called religion “a neurological disorder.” Sam Harris wrote in The End of Faith, “it is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.” Facebook groups claiming religion is a “mental disorder” or “mental disease” boast hundreds of members, and a list of “7 reasons why religion is a form of mental illness” has been shared on a number of atheist blogs.

It seems clear to me that religion isn’t a form of mental illness, and that calling it one reflects a shallow understanding of both mental illness and religion—or, worse still, a knowing attempt to use mental illness as an insult.

While this discussion is worthy of lengthy consideration, I consulted with two atheist activists and compiled five reasons atheists should avoid this problematic parallel:


http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/201...l-illness/
Save The Planet - you do not seem intelligent enough to be on here
DogofMan - is it possible you may have been programmed to think that way
Spam Mohan - your answer was silly and hateful (as usual)
Sans Deity - you appear to be delusional - you seem to be hallucunating
Sirensong sunshine - your beliefs seem ridiculous - you seem to have programmed
Alex - Sans the Mercy - who mentioned crackers and wine lol? You are wasting your life with these crazy delusions - get help
Spencer - you're mind seems a little dazed and confused
Kal Alvar - censorship and sketicism is much more common with atheists/materialists.

Jea - you mean secular indoctrination right?
Ricardo - you seem to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic