Yes.

Schizophrenics can also tend to 'feel' that their dog is talking to them, and people who get severe brain damage can sometimes act violent even 'feel'-ing the need to randomly butcher their own family on a Sunday afternoon.

There is NOTHING more foolish than basing reality entirely on your own perception. The human brain is an extremely fragile chemical device.

Yes, but the belief in a higher power is entirely normal -- while schizophrenia is not. The concept of God in mankind stems from the psychological need of knowing there is a "fatherly figure" watching over them. Why do you think different peoples across the world developed theistic religions (even though they were completely isolated from each other)? Now, does this mean there is or isn't a god? I cannot say for sure.

It all comes down to these questions... why does it matter if a person is theistic or not? What will you gain from it? What will they gain from it?

Schizophrenia deals with auditory and visual hallucinations. Now if she said that she felt like God was speaking to her directly and she can repeat word for word what he said to her. That's schizophrenic but not just a general belief in a higher power.

The reason why it matters if someone is theistic or not is because people tend to judge all theistic people in the same way. They lump them into a certain category based off of previous experiences and so they feel like they know exactly how they will react to certain situations ahead of time based on their level of commitment to a God.

I know this wasn't entirely your point but I wanted to point out that this statement is not true. In the original concept God was not defined as male or female and a lot of religions stressed the point that giving God a sex, a name or any other human characteristic is dangerous and lessons 'his' greatness. The patriarchal nonsense came much later than the founding ideas.

I didn't seem logical that you would be religious for some reason.

I was quoting Freud... I could have referred to it as a "motherly figure" instead, but it wouldn't change the meaning of my original statement at all (the quote would be incorrect as well). Also, it is true (or highly believed) that the concept of god was created enable to fulfill the desire of having a "fatherly figure (or motherly figure) to loom over them and protect them from harm. It was also created as a way for mankind to aid in quenching its curiosity of the creation of the universe. I don't think you were implying that it wasn't true, though... So, I'm not really sure what the point of your comment was because the gender of a deity is irrelevant in the context of my original statement...

I know it wasn't your point and I acknowledged that. I guess there wasn't a necessary point to my post, and I'm not disagreeing with you, I've just been doing a lot of reading on that topic and think it's interesting haha.

Oh... okay. Yea, it is pretty interesting.

Ok, I haven't read the whole of this thread, but as I'm a christian myself, let me say this, there is nothing worse than a self-righteous religious person.