I was brought up in a religious country. Even now, in Romania, religion is quite a big deal. Since now we're close to Easter holidays, you should know that foreigners witnessing the orthodox tradition are surprised by the amplitude of the events happening on Easter day. Basically everyone goes to church, listens to the priest's hypnotic discourse, and lights up candles, making sure to „take the light“, that is – to light their candle from the „official“ candlestick (or other candles as long as they are lit from there).

I have kept thinking and writing in the past about the arguments against religion, but never why it's useful in the first place. It's sometimes required to think from people's perspec­tive, so here it is – cases where I think religion could be a positive thing:

• Missionaries are the first to intervene in a third world country, wherever there is a society needing this, even if it costs them their lives – they try to educate people and get them to coexist peacefully.
• Sometimes (not so often today), people or groups of people are found in situations where there is no visible way out. Religion helps them cooperate in difficult settings and gives them hope to overcome hardships easier. It also eases the psychological pain when sacrifice is needed (for instance, there are 40 virgins waiting for you in heaven if you die). This may explain the emergence of religion through an evolutionary standpoint: the communities that were supported by a religious belief may have acted in bolder ways, and therefore had greater chances of survival.
• When someone dies, the priest giving the mess somehow provides comfort. This is something I experienced. I guess it has to do with the superstitious nature of humans. For example, think of a disgusting insect, but made of chocolate. It's not a real insect, you know it's edible, but would you easily eat it? In the same way, I guess priests provide some comfort for the loss of someone – somehow they appeal to our superstitious self, telling us the deceased are in a better place.

In conclusion, we are fortunate that today we are living a better life, closer to the truth, and in chance there is a God, then it's most probably something stretching a lot the definition that religions give of God.

POST#0070 2009-APR-15

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