Theists used theism to "con" the illiterate and uneducated, which nonetheless aided social and material evolution.
So although I do not accept religious hypotheses as being 100% factual and therefore am not a practising theist, I still recognise the basic analogous principles of religion, and also the role religion has played in social evolution.
I also continue to propose that a Universe, it's laws and it's inevitable progression, is the GOD principle that we are all inextricably a part of, and therefore any religious idea that consequently manifests in a human brain is an essential product of that thinking unit and also a necessary component of collective thought and material development.
And now perhaps, we are being superseded by technology and a higher level of intelligence, the new theism, the new system of social control and material and Universal progress.
Or maybe everything that is occurring here on Planet Earth and it's environs, is just a freak occurrence that will eventually be erased by a local star...But for some reason I have an acquired notion that tends to think not...Could just be an acquired notion...Or perhaps it was written into my DNA...Anyway, however we choose to interpret such things from a human perspective, it can all be loosely categorised under the general heading of Uncertain Ideology.
And "mental illness" is one thinking units observation and consequent conclusions of another's. And it is more likely that in human times past, people who began to think outside of the controlling religious box, were regarded as mentally ill and suffered as a consequence. Nonetheless, theists are now just as addicted to social media and technology as atheists are...Such is the GOD principle.