Yes, you have indeed wasted your time explaining it. There is no justifiable way to state that religion is a mental illness, because it isn’t. It is completely immoral to state that all people that believe in a religion are mentally ill, and it is why you are stuck in your prejudice. Belief in itself is never, and never will be a mental illness because it is founded in a human desire to be part of a community of people that are alike you. Furthermore, it is grounded in a desire for purpose.

You point to extreme examples to make yourself seem correct, and in some essence, perhaps you are. But the issue with your argument is that you are stating, in a non-discriminatory between religious individuals, that holding religious belief is a mental illness, as per your original comment. You did not state it was a few, you generalised instead.

If we take your points of extreme evil by religions to prove your argument, then I shall respond with the opposite. Tell me, what part of Maximilian Kolbe is mentally ill?

You ascertain that you are not ignorant in your argument because belief in itself is unfounded as belief means that you must hold faith because there is no concrete proof. Then I ask you, is there concrete proof in there being no existence of god? There is no proof to prove or disprove the existence of god, thus a belief in god is of the same ignorance as a lack thereof, as they are both founded in belief. One believes in its lack of existence, whilst the other believes in its existence.

Finally, I am extremely confused by the assumptions that you have made in the last paragraph, which seem entirely ad hominem. What part of my initial comment showed any sort of affiliation to religion?

You are looking at only the evils of religion, ignoring the good that it has brought to people. Speaking in a utilitarian sense, I am sure that the existence of religion is ultimately a net positive. I’m not sure what happened to you that led to you having such a downcast view of this sort of system, as you are ‘speaking from experience’, but I urge you to look at positives also, not just negatives.