I was a theist for the first decade or so of my life, and I took no comfort in it.  I didn't get along with my dad well whom represented god as a preacher, so of course the term heavenly father didn't sound all to appealing, and it got even worse when I actually read the bible.  On top of that, imagine being told you be stuck with that awful asshole forever, and that's the good outcome...

Yeah, the whole taking comfort in being spied on by god is a feat of intellectual compartmentalization. If people would put that kind of mental energy into *reality* the world would be a better place.

From what I've read, your view is pretty much in line with the material pantheists. The kind of worship of the awesomeness that is reality. I personally find a lot of comfort in that kind of realization. That I'm part of a big picture, a vast, everchanging, organic symphony.

It's good stuff. I approve this message.

I was raised Catholic, and it was not a comfort. I remember feeling immense guilt for any "impure thought" that would pop up in my head (because, of course, I was taught that sins can be committed inside the mind). Even worse, God knew every detail. To me, God was a voyeur. An omniscient, omnipresent authoritarian voyeur. I remember wondering if God watched me while I was naked. This thought always disturbed me, especially since the Bible (and anybody I knew who was Catholic or Christian) always referred to God as male.

Now, I feel so much better - just to know I'm not being watched by a watched by surveillence camera. I have actual privacy. That's comforting.

1. The patient expresses an idea or belief with unusual persistence or force.
2. That idea appears to exert an undue influence on his or her life, and the way of life is often altered to an inexplicable extent.
3. Despite his/her profound conviction, there is often a quality of secretiveness or suspicion when the patient is questioned about it.
4. The individual tends to be humorless and oversensitive, especially about the belief.
5. There is a quality of centrality: no matter how unlikely it is that these strange things are happening to him, the patient accepts them relatively unquestioningly.
6. An attempt to contradict the belief is likely to arouse an inappropriately strong emotional reaction, often with irritability and hostility.
7. The belief is, at the least, unlikely.
8. The patient is emotionally over-invested in the idea and it overwhelms other elements of his psyche.
9. The delusion, if acted out, often leads to behaviors which are abnormal and/or out of character, although perhaps understandable in the light of the delusional beliefs.
10. Individuals who know the patient will observe that his belief and behavior are uncharacteristic and alien

Above are the ten principle symptoms which typify psychotic delusion (after A. Munro,  "Delusional Disorder", Cambridge Press, 1999)

With the possible exception of 3 and 10 the qualities listed above are typically observed in a person with strong religious leanings.

According to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), used by psychologists as a standard by which to test and generally classify personality disorders, exhibition of most or all of these symptoms places the patient firmly within "Class 6" disorders, those related to paranoia of which the standard criteria for inclusion are "suspiciousness, feelings of persecution, grandiose self-concepts, excessive sensitivity, and rigid attitudes". Scoring high in this group means the patient can be clinically classified as paranoid.

One of the commonest expressions of paranoia is an externalisation by the patient of the source of the his insecurity, normally typified by a vague entity perceived nevertheless as one which is very real and which "watches" and "evaluates" the patient's thoughts and actions.

Since paranoia in this sense is a disorder in which fear plays a large role, and since fear itself is a natural and universal trait common to all sentient life, it is therefore acknowledged that the disorder can be artificially induced in subjects.

Ring any bells?