Greetings everybody!
We often see very prolific murderers and criminals, who, when they are brought to the court of law, defend themselves by saying they acted upon religious instincts, that their "gods" told them to act so and so for a said divine purpose. How can we use our knowledge of forensic psychology to counter such beliefs and are these people considered mentally sick and in need of psychiatric help or are they criminals who acted on their own will and are guilty of every crime they commit?
Belief that a god told them to commit a crime is widely delusional and a sign of mental illness. There are likely people who malinger on delusions and hallucinations to attempt to get out of trouble, but that's where psychological testing comes in handy.
This is a key issue, and again the defense could absolutely be used.
One may consider TLE (temporal lobe epilepsy) and the link to hyperreligious behaviour. Sme have theorised that Dostoyevsky may have had religious profound epileptic auras which was manifest in his novels. These hyperreligious experiences can also be linked to psychosis.
Auditory hallucinations too could cause someone to believe that an internal voice was the voice of a god or supernatural being.
To rule these out would require an extensive neuropsychological assessment, as well as a medical background check.
Links to find out more:
'Isolated Hyperreligiosity in a Patient with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy' = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550801/
The neurobiological basis of hyper-religiosity = http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=114836