Excellent point, Italian978. And substantiated by the fact that there are currently only about 52,000 institutionalized people in America.

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Yes, Earllogjam -- people ARE better off believing in something. Death is scary. Beliefs make it easier to live side by side with death.

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I agree, TB and JA -- I won't point any fingers, because that wouldn't be fair, but perhaps some religions would have never come to pass if the founder had gone in for a psychiatric evaluation when he first started preaching?

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And maybe fifty or a hundred religions never came to pass because the founder didn't have time to gather a following before being locked up...