zodiac31 Aug 2004

In all seriousness, does worrying about death and some vague and sort of unpleasant-sounding Hereafter keep you from being comfortable? And is it really fair or very well-informed to propose that people with religion feel, on average, more comfort than nonbelievers?

As far as "Discrepancies are expunged for them by faith" goes, well that's a load of wash, isn't it? There wouldn't even be a sense of there being "Discrepancies" if there weren't a religion saying things are or should be some way and anything else is a deviation.

In short, I think you're going about it kind of backwards. Even here, within sight of Palestine and a 5-hour bus ride from Iraq, I'd say religion mostly keeps most of the people in the world from killing me whenever they feel like it - or, say, taking my stuff or my wife. It does this by making them feel bad about nearly anything harmful they might consider doing to me. Since I do (or keep from doing) all of these things for perfectly sensible reasons of my own which don't have anything to do with guilt or conscience or whatever, it's likely that I'm slightly more comfortable than most believers, isn't it? Why shouldn't it be for all non-believers, including yourself?

Please, please take this comment seriously. I'm sorry for making fun of you so much before. Thanks,

zodiac