religious delusions

Good points, sop. It's not that *I* want it both ways. I think it's that I'd like the analysis of religion to be more, um, scientific and less religious. The 'sleep of reason' analysis is cliche as pointed out in the link.

I *do* believe that God is delusion, but I also believe that either (a) delusions are necessary (like the suspension of belief in stories), or (b) that delusions are a byproduct (a spindle, or whatever Gould called it?) of other necessary human psychological machinery.