> Which begs the question: Which is more appealing, to believe in God, or not to believe in God? I think it is certainly more appealing to believe that there is Someone watching over us and taking care of us, and that after we die we will live in paradise for an eternity, than to believe that we are simply complex physical anomalies and any perceptions of purpose we may have are purely arbitrary and ultimately meaningless.

I would disagree with you there. I have met plenty of athiests and agnostics that believe as they do because they do not like the idea of any outside force influencing their lives' courses.

>>That it is psychologically preferable to believe in God, I think, accounts for why 4/5 of the world's population does.

It is odd, at least to my mind, to think that even tiny, isolated tribes in remote parts of the world believe in a god of some sort. It would seem to me that the human psyche is programmed to need to worship something, thus the widespread belief in a supernatural power. But that's me.

> This is one of the reasons why I no longer believe in God. I think many of the people who do believe in God choose to do so simply because it feels good to.

I'm sure this is why the persecuted Christians in the early years after Christ kept practicing their faith even when faced with death. Or why when sitting in class, I grit my teeth when the teacher blames fundamentalist Christians for this nation's problems. Or why missionaries continue to go to foreign countries where they are imprisoned, beaten, and killed. You speak of the lukewarm Christians, the ones who go to church on Easter and Christmas Eve and don't bother with it much of the rest of the time except for an occassional, vague, warm feeling. I would argue that in this day and age, disbelief in God is the easier, more comfortable route.

La"Sorry if any of that offends; it wasn't meant to"Zorra