Hello Jim!
I suspect, based on my experience in Internet Forums, that some participants face psychiatric challenges.
They do not represent the attitudes or views of the vast majority of the mentally healthy in their religious communities.
This is a delicate topic to discuss, first because even if we were professional psychiatrists, a Forum is not precisely the place were a diagnosis can be made. Second, because there is a strong prejudice against psychiatric problems. To call somebody mentally ill is taken as an insult, when in reality it is no more insult that saying that somebody is diabetic.
However, it has been estimated that around one in two people will experience a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime. This includes a wide range of conditions, from anxiety and depression to more severe disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Personally I have an attention deficit disorder, which drives me sometimes to write posts with impulsivity, particularly in the afternoons and evenings (now, for example!)
When I find people who seem to enjoy insulting systematically other individuals or religious groups, I prefer to think they have a mental problem rather than a spiritual problem.
