From before recorded history, men have believed in a god. God made, he created, he controlled. God is the answer to why things happen that we don’t understand. SO is this god a real being or an imaginary thing? That debate will continue for as long as there are people to ponder it! How can you prove it either way?
What we can do, however, is look at the lives of the believer’s verses the lives of the non-believers. We can look for trends in health, and longevity. We can look for a difference in core values and apparent happiness. We can and do see the effect of faith. No one can see the wind, nor has anyone ever watched electron flowing in a wire, but we all know what the effect of those things is. High winds, wind storms, and cyclones, for example, can turn a town into a war zone in short order. If it were not for electron flow, you would not be reading this. We can’t see those things, nor do we see a god, but we can see their effects!
Science is showing us that people of faith have numerous health benefits.
They tend to recover faster and live longer. We can debate why that happens, but the point is, that it is real. It is an observable effect of their faith.
On the flip-side, medical care providers can relate stories about perfectly healthy people who simply gave up’. They lose all will to live, fall into a depression, and die for no other reason. Perhaps god is real. Perhaps the simple faith in god is positive energy where depression is negative energy. One will aid you, the other can take you out.
It would be great if this subject were so simplistic.
It isn’t. There are many other things to take into account. Faith, after all is a product of one’s religion, and not the religion itself. Let me explain this further. A religion is, by definition; a system of beliefs.
Every functional person has the knowledge and has made some assessments as to what they believe and what they choose not too. So by definition, everyone has developed a system of beliefs. What that means is, everybody has a religion.
Whether or not that religion is any main-stream, named religion, or not, they still have one. Atheism is, therefore, a religion. It is based on the belief that there is no god, and that is something that can not be proven. Things you believe but can not prove are those things you have chosen to take on faith. So atheists have faith and a system of beliefs built up around that faith. It is a religion without a church or pastor, but a religion none the less.
The only objective perspective we can take is to examine how that belief impacts their life. It has to affect the way they approach life, its difficulties and the decisions they make. We can contrast that with the impact we see in the lives of people of other faiths, walks, and beliefs. In the end, I think you’ll the one that suits you best.
