God: No magic required

[Darkstar]

On the other hand, prayers for personal courage, solace, liberation from substance abuse, endurance, discipline, personal commitment, and personal morality are dependably answered. I look at it as somewhat akin to tapping into "The Force," made famous by Star Wars movies.

If people are praying for these things, then they are already looking for them. Not to say that there can't be a psychological placebo effect of sorts, so there may be some truth to this.

And unlike medical studies of intercessory prayer, the medical studies of the physical and mental health effects of religiosity (referenced in an earlier post) are, on the whole, quite positive. Yes, these statistical associations doesn't prove causation beyond reasonable doubt, but, for me, the preponderance of evidence was sufficiently persuasive that I thought it was worthwhile to see whether or not it would be possible to turn myself from a secular agnostic into a theist. I didn't see a downside, and the potential upside seemed obvious. As I wrote earlier, this seems to be working out well for me, to date.

Forgive me for leaping to conclusions, but if I'm reading this correctly, you are suggesting that we become religious to make ourselves feel better, not because there is actually a god.

When you talk about "minority stress" from "oppressed atheists," however, I personally think that this is a bit of a reach.

If you are comparing to, say, blacks from the pre-civil rights era, then it is a stretch. If not...
Exhibit A: http://digitaljournal.com/article/315425
Exhibit B: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/edgell/home/Stri...alues.html

Basically, I think it's somewhat presumptuous to rule out all possibility of a higher order sentient being, in a universe made up mostly of dark matter and dark energy, possibly of 11 dimensions, and possibly only a one of an infinite number of other universes in an infinite multiverse. So agnosticism just made more sense. But I understand that it's quite possible to believe in atheism, just as it's possible to believe in Catholicism, for example.

Technically speaking, if I took what you just said purely at face value, there would be no error. It is both presumptuous to 100% rule out all possibility of any form of god whatsoever, and it is possible to believe in atheism (that is, hold active belief that god doesn't exist, as opposed to simply not believing that he does). And then there is agnostic atheism, which need not do either of those things (though agnostic 'atheists' who are highly uncertain my prefer just agnostic).

If atheists in the USA (I can't speak for the UK or elsewhere) are "persecuted," then I have to say that I truly can't think of another class of "persecuted" people less "persecuted" than atheists.

I'm taking it you've never heard of Fox News. Youtube is filled with their anti-atheist slander. And many people actually take them seriously.

Perhaps the Christmas holiday season imposes stress.

You mean the 'war on Christmas'?

Whether or not God really does exist, there are objective advantages to believing in God, which have been experienced by billions of people -- since the dawn of humanity and continuing on to this very day.

I guess I'm just not at good at self-delusion as you are. Sorry.