FRAP38 wrote:Great stuff....this is why I love this forum. Anyway, so not to be picky but what then can be said of "The God Delusion." (Obviously, Dawkins wasn't concerned about a clinical definition, but nonetheless...)

Basically, Dawkins is using the term "delusion" loosely to satisfy political goals, rather than scientific or intellectual ones. Under this definition, creationism can be viewed as a "delusion", the idea that we didn't land on the moon, the belief in the concept of memes, even the belief in free will can be viewed as a persistent belief held against strong contradictory evidence. The important point is that being wrong about something you're too stubborn to give up on is not enough for us to classify it as a delusion (as Dawkins uses the term), and instead there needs to be some negative impact on the individual. This becomes even more difficult in the case of religion, where we can show a number of positive effects stemming from this "delusional" belief, e.g. better general health, better mental health, better recovery after surgeries, longer lifespans, etc (of course, these are all incidental effects from having an overall positive belief that everything happens for a reason and that even if you die you go somewhere nice, as well as large social support networks, but the positive effect still remains).