Compensation

Several times over the past week, the subject of why people would choose to follow a religion has come up in class.  While I think there are far too many answers to that question for me to address here, I thought I would bring up one particularly strong reason which may, in many cases, lead to the conclusion that religion is not only a valid option, but a better option.

This reason is that, in many traditions, religion provides the believer with a source of unconditional love.  In many denominations of Christianity, this source is Jesus.  According to the literature of these denominations, Jesus gave his life for all of humanity, sinners included.  In a world where unconditional love is often spoken of but rarely actually present, such a figure might well appeal to many, particularly those who feel especially alone.  I think that in such cases, religion might be a better option than atheism, because having a belief that a person (or rather, a deity) exists, who loves one despite all of the flaws one may possess, can be a powerful motivation to continue living in circumstances which might otherwise cause one to give up.

Clearly, such a belief tends to be inferior to unconditional love from another tangible human being, but it can be a form of compensation which will hopefully in time become unnecessary.  This is not to say that people who are happy should not be religious; as I have stated in my earlier posts, as long as a person's faith causes no harm to anyone, and is not irrational (some may dispute that faith is always irrational, but I disagree; I brought up this issue in my earlier posts) then it is no less valid or good an option than atheism or agnosticism.