[Serious] Comfort in Faith at Death

[The Grand Nudger]

People may draw strength from other things, but religion is definitely one of them. It’s well known as a balm for the frightened. I think we’re well past that being up for debate.

It’s well known that people assume as much, but it’s entirely unclear that or how it actually is. We’re also well beyond the point of debating whether or not human beings are anxious about their mortally, I assume.

We could always ask ourselves what the difference is between two believers, one calm and one afraid....and unless the answer reduces to one of them believing harder than the other....were discussing individual resolve and comfort that’s been misattributed.

If we were trying to be very generous, and ignore that any comparison of benefit would have to begin by establishing that specific benefit.....and imagine that religion has some placebo like effect-

The question becomes “what’s so wrong with placebo”. Nothing, unless you have cancer, or unless the placebo is a cancer. This is the contention of antitheism.

We dont tend to seriously entertain questions like these in other contexts, beyond some charged scenario or a valued person. “Look, strangling one more puppy will make Poppy feels better before he dies” isn’t something that we toss out there seriously. There’s an infinite number of things that may bring people comfort, and plenty of them assumed to do so regardless of whether they’re it’s cause- but so what if they did and there really were no other way or thing that same person would or could draw comfort from? It doesn’t speak to or against what anti theism is commenting on. The simple fact of this conversations existence only reenforces the broadest objections to theism.

Just how much is the comfort of a dying person supposed to be worth against centuries of others suffering....and dying? If telling my kids to put pennies on my eyes when I died gave me comfort, would that be an argument for capitalism?