It's very hard for those invested in the "religion" story to look at things without bias.
And no doubt there is probably some "placebo effect" that an intense belief helps to create.
That's why there's such extreme attempts at exploitation regarding anything that is not completely known through science. People who believe in the super natural point at something science has yet to fully and testable able to explain with 100% assurance and say... See, that's just like my religion not being able to explain something.
The difference is most things are able to be explained through science... and man made religion lacks proof on every level except that it was a set of rules laid down a long time ago.
No miracle has ever been proven... no act of a "God" has ever been proven. There are often some good rules to live my in there. But once again good rules to live by don't have to be authored by some Supreme Deity. People make good rules and laws all the time to address various problems that come up as time & conditions evolve.
I think religion is something best kept and acted on internally. If it makes someone feel better living by some religion based scenario good for them.
The problem ever since the dawning of all the many man made religions though is the compulsion to have to convert others. History is riddled with wars, death & destruction in the name of religion... and that's a very sad fact indeed.
This is a good clip for someone that was a HUGE part of the Christian Conservative movement and was brought into it by his father. He however was eventually able to see it for what it was... for lack of a better word... a sham.
He has a great new book out called CRAZY FOR GOD.
[media=youtube]2E1SLJgATvM[/media]
