I was pretty much an atheist...
Reminds me of that quote from The Departed, “Years ago we had the church. That was only a way of saying - we had each other.”
A good friend of mine does a Santa gig during the holidays. He’s a big, burly guy – the type you wouldn’t mind having on your side during a bar fight – but he truly has a heart of gold. The stories he can tell you about visiting families with children who are battling cancer, or children who just lost a parent, or children struggling with any other hardships life unfairly throws their way, are truly, truly heartwarming.
Those kids actually believe he is Santa. And for all practical purposes, he really
is Santa. He plays that role of the warm, comforting figure that brings them moments of joy during the holidays. As he told me his stories, I told him, “Man, you’ve actually made me believe in Santa. I’d hate to live in a world that didn’t have the sort of magic you can bring to people who need it.”
And honestly, if that was all religion did, then I’d be all for it. It’s the rest of the crap that comes along with it – the guilt, the repression, the hatred – that makes it so harmful. And of course, not all religions are the same. Knowing what the most popular strands of Islam can do to a person who seriously internalizes them, I can’t help but remain wary of the benefits.
I think that spiritualizing agnosticism is also a healthy thing. It doesn’t have to be this stone cold, heartless, “there is nothing out there” attitude. A humble admission that we actually don’t know what happens to people when they die, that bad does not ultimately have a purpose, and that this life really is immensely valuable is, in my opinion, a good thing.