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@Salixes
Or are religious people deluded to start with?
It depends on the religious worldview for logically two opposing beliefs cannot both be true. Not only this, since we are limited beings we are not going to be correct in many areas of our understanding. But, a worldview is only as good as its starting or core presuppositions, the foundational beliefs that everything else is built upon. Thus, I would say that an atheist or agnostic can be just as deluded as a religious person, and in fact, I would contend an atheist or agnostic has a religious belief in the sense that their worldview also attempts to answer what any logical worldview holds to, that is, 1) What are we? 2) Who are we? 3) What does it matter? 4) What happens to us when we die? 5) How do you know? So, the atheist or agnostic worldview tries to answer life's ultimate questions just like a religious worldview does.
If we look at the first question, we would need to consider the effect religion has on followers.
And also the effect of atheism and agnosticism.
For example, followers are required to believe in an entity that is invisible, silent and completely unproven.
Regarding the Christian faith, there are many reasonable proofs so that argument does not wash. Making sense of the universe requires a necessary being of which you nor I am that being. Other than such a being why is your relative, subjective opinions and ideas better than mine in regards to origins and meaning?
Also, the fundamental principals of religions state that humans have a "soul". Again there is not one piece of evidence to support such a concept and the word soul is normally used as a metaphor.
On the other hand, are you just a physical entity and can you make sense of your being strictly from such a standpoint? I do not believe you can. It begs many questions. How does consciousness come from matter? How does life come from inorganic matter? What caused the material universe if you believe in a beginning? If you do not believe in the beginning of the universe how do we get to the present from eternity? You have an infinite regression of causes.
To this extent, could we say that religion influences or even, forces followers to become deluded.
Could we say atheism and agnosticism force followers to become deluded by that particular bias?
It could be that religious followers are deluded regardless of religion and find themselves attracted to the abstract, nature of believing in an unknown, contrived entity. For example, comprehensive research and authoritative studies have concluded:"The God gene hypothesis proposes that human spirituality is influenced by heredity and that a specific gene, called vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), predisposes humans towards spiritual or mystic experiences."
Could agnostic and atheistic followers be substituting their own selves in place of God? Do they want to be the necessary being in determining what is and what should be?
Could the delusion in some religious followers be due to both factors, i.e., hereditary and conditional? In which case would some religious followers be more deluded than others
And finally, since the post is highly speculative and conjectural, let us ask, could it be that atheism and agnosticism are more deluded than others? What about that question? Has it been considered? Could their hereditary and environment have conditioned them as they jump on the bandwagon of neutrality or elitist thinking? Could their thinking be funnelled by the popular propaganda machine of media, education and politics? Has the nuts and bolts of their worldview been dismantled to find out what is under the engine?
