Crank calls from god

This article explores the dilemma of obedience to god when that obedience would mean doing something you and the rest of society would consider wrong or evil. If god commanded you to kill your (or another person's) kids, would you do it? Austin Cline writes:

The above question opens a huge can of worms for believers, which is why I think many simply try to avoid dealing with it. If you think that you have received such an order but believe that it’s from Satan rather from God, or merely a delusion, then how can you believe that anyone else who has claimed to received communication from God also wasn’t deluded or tricked? If you accept that such an order is genuine, how can you dismiss anyone else as being deluded?

In short, how would you have any way of knowing that it was actually god giving the order, and not a delusion?

At some basic level, humans often fall back upon their own judgement and values. If another person says they received orders from (or merely talk with) god, it's much easier to dismiss it as a delusion (or deception) if it's something that strikes you as being self-serving or not right. But people are much more hesitant to dismiss such things when it happens to themselves rather than to other people. The reason for this is that because hallucinations and other mental anomalies happen internally to one's mind, they can seem very real to the person they're happening to. Our real-world perceptions share the same mental space as hallucinations, thus the two can be hard to distinguish. So if a person thinks they are hearing a voice from god, it may be really quite difficult for that person to realize that it is, in fact, just an auditory hallucination. And of course, people generally do not want to admit (even to themselves) that they're not actually hearing real voices, because that would mean there's something wrong with them mentally.

I think it may be the case that those who are of a more rational mind, who practice rational thought regularly and are not prone to belief in things without evidence, may have a mental edge in protecting themselves from such rogue mental occurences. A person with a firm grip on reality may have a brain that wired to better protect against certain mental disorders and hallucinations. I'll admit I have absolutely nothing to back up this assertion with, and I do recognize that some mental disorders are unavoidable due to hormone imbalances or drug use. But if a person has the mental tools to recognize when his perceptions don't match with reality (i.e. that he's hallucinating), he may be less prone to "hearing voices from god" or "talking with god."

I think there's a good reason why atheists and other non-theists don't receive personal communiqués from god, and it's not because god doesn't like them.