Have Faith

I've never been a fan of religion and as I grew older I saw it more as a form of spirituality in a straitjacket - in short, I was scathing of much that was peddled by patently false prophets, how the Church was exempt from the burden of taxation, televangelists waxing virtuous while reaping the fiscal rewards and hypocritically sinning like demons and even more onerous - how it was used to manipulate people, politics and communities divisively especially as a disingenuous case for going to war.
But here's the thing - I'm not anti-religion per-se and I'm certainly not anti-faith. In fact, the swing by so many to the realm of cynical, biting, militant atheism is more distasteful to me than the bible-thumping proselytisers who might hang on to a belief in a 4,000 year old Earth and other such strange assertions.
Many of the atheist brigade though are just plain fucking nasty. Unnecessarily so.
They might also be surprised to learn that empirical science (their unacknowledged ism), while it may not yet have proved the existence of God in the singular omniscient omnipotent supernatural way using rigorous scientific methodology, it certainly has shown beyond any doubt (many studies show this: no matter how much they tried to dismiss this, it just couldn't be done) that people who pray and/or have a system of faith live longer and healthier lives than those who are bereft of any faith/religious/spiritual conviction.
There's much more to this world and life than just skin, bone, physicality and materialism and many anomalous paradigms cannot yet be explained by our material sciences - placebo impact and the effect of affirmation through thought and prayer (mind over matter) to name but two and there's a hell of a lot to be said for religions that consolidate communities and maintain strong moral and ethical parameters in which these things can be realised.
Besides, if nothing else, it lets you stay alive and healthier for longer - provided, of course, your belief system doesn't involve murder, mayhem and self-destruction to try prove your point.
Be kind, I say. My dear old dad used to say: you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar and he knew what he was talking about...although he was as profane as they come.
Namaste, humans. x