Religious belief is a mental illness

There is a reason anti vaxxers are often religious. The same encouraged mindset that disbelieves the science of vaccinations is the very same mindset as that of a religious believer that disbelieves in science because it contradicts the bible.

A steadfast disbelief in evidence is necessary to believe in fiction.

I find this spreading of the religious denials of evidence to be unsettling.

If you walk the streets telling people that you're Napoleon Bonaparte and that you are the Emperor of the world, you're going to get some psychiatric attention.
But if you walk the streets telling people that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and that an invisible old man in the sky has told you that his son who was crucified 2,000 years ago is due to return any day now and take only those that believe this to an invisible place of unending happiness in the sky, the majority of people will accept you, in spite of the lack of any evidence for your claims, or any evidence that disproves your claims.

This must stop.

Religion is responsible for a very large part of the pain and suffering in the world.
We will not be rid of the evils of religion until we are rid of religion.
We must treat it as the mental illness it is and use every humane method at our disposal to cure it.

"A mental illness? That's a bit harsh," I can hear some of you say.

I say it's accurate.
If a person believes in something with no evidence and disbelieves any evidence that contradicts the belief, then that person is delusional and mentally ill.
This disbelief will allow the religious to invent all sorts of outlandish explanations to rationalise advances in science and let them believe in their religion's stories, such as dinosaurs on Noah's Ark.

If that same person believes that the rest of the world is out to get them because of their delusional beliefs, then they're paranoid and mentally ill.
Sometimes, they even make up words to describe those who don't believe as they do... Islamophobia, for example.

The sooner we admit that religion is a curable mental illness, the sooner we'll be on our way to becoming a species united in moving into the future in health and peace.