While religion may fill the spiritual needs that some people seem to have, and on the surface is pretty harmless; it can be extremely harmful to people that have mental health problems.

Take someone that suffers from paranoid schizophrenia; telling them God speaks to people and that they should obey him can have dire consequences! I've see this problem first hand, so I'm not just speculating.

People throughout history have claimed to be profits; but unless they are a fraud, it's far more likely that the voices they hear auditory hallucinations associated with schizophrenia!