Strokeyadam:

Thanks for your extended comment. Yeah; my sister thinks a lot like I do.

While it may be true that a belief in a god can bring a lot of pleasure to people, I’m not sure that this alone justifies it “having it’s place.” Personally, I don’t see how a belief in a god can be justified for the happy fluffy feelings it gives in any greater a way than anything else must. Moreover, the psychological benefits of theism are only ever benefitial, surely, to those that believe faithfully enough that they could not be persuaded otherwise anyway, making a study of this – like any study of belief – somewhat difficult.

In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.”