In most parts of our lives we would not seek out and employ delusional people to do tasks for us. If we were told that our doctors believed that magic mushroom people were able to heal us and that this belief was intrinsic to their world view, I think most of us would seek a new doctor. If we were told that the person educating our children would go into a closet and talk to the magical bunny of education for guidance and how to impart knowledge to our children we would be hesitant to let that teacher near our children. If we were confronted with the fact that the crossing guard believes that stepping off the curb with the left foot instead of the right foot would indicate a person was inhabited by demons from the planet Aknar we might walk our children to school. Especially if these people proclaimed that these delusions contributed to the way they deal with life. These delusions are relatively harmless, but show a disconnect in the reasoning software of the individual. We are especially troubled if the delusion becomes more pronounced and if the individual is in a more important role in society.
People in this country elect politicians only if they profess a deep and abiding delusion. The nature of the delusion involves magical invisible beings said to guide us. Knowledge of these beings come from ancient texts featuring talking snakes, unicorns, centaurs, dragons, demons, many gods (but one top guy) angels, and other beasts that there is no evidence for. Not only is it accepted it is almost always required that these people be deluded. We are seeing the results of this in almost every aspect of out lives. We see it in prejudice towards gays. We see it in hatred of individuals with different core religious beliefs. We see wars started because of these deep rooted delusions. These delusions lead our leaders to other faulty thinking methodologies.
When an individual proclaims to be free of delusion, people immediately think there is something wrong with the person. They judge the person as faulty because they use evidence and reason for decision making instead of guidance from invisible friends who openly declare that slavery, murder, genocide, infanticide, racism, and misogyny are to be carried out. There is something wrong here people.
There is a shrinking and increasingly loud core of extremists in this country who are so far into their delusion that not only can they not see the facts, they make up new ones to fill in the blanks left by their faulty thinking processes. Being gay must be wrong because if you look at God's magical "creation" you do not see animals engaging in gay sex. God designed us to be heterosexual. Except that the evidence is contrary to that. The natural world is full of animals engaging in gay sex. So when two people of the same sex love each other they are automatically condemned as being against God's law. What drives this conclusion? Evidence? No. Prejudice based on delusion causes these sage pronouncements..
Preceding almost every major scientific advancement, the clergy has firmly planted itself in opposition to the new evidence. The only way the church ever accepts this kind of new knowledge is after scientists and persons of reason staunchly prove over and over and over again that the evidence backs them up. The clergy dogmatically cling to their delusion until the facts can no longer be ignored. Then they frantically try and find Biblical evidence to support the new belief and twist what they can to show that God already revealed this. The problem is that if God had already revealed this, then why did the clergy fight it to begin with? Why, in fact, did the clergy in it's infinite wisdom not reveal this to us? The answer is all too clear.
Are you seeing how delusion can be harmful? I for one prefer that the individuals that I employ for any important task in my life be as free of delusion and rely as much on reason as possible.
I am not saying that delusional people are completely without any capacity for reason, I am simply saying that the delusion is a bug in the software of the reason. I think that this bug often leads to system failure.