Religion can be a good cope, if you are able to believe

When I first believed on Jesus Christ and became a Christian, internally I felt pretty good and after joining a church I had many new friends to spend time with. Religion brought some structure into my life. I studied the Bible, watched lots of sermons online and attended church regularly. I won't dispute that religion has some benefits. I also felt the presence of what I thought was God, and that was comforting.

But once I did a particular "sin", God's presence left me and I began to suffer from what I thought was demonic possession. I was later diagnosed with schizophrenia by secular doctors. Basically, many of the benefits of Christianity disappeared in one moment, and I was left with mental illness and suffering. Something went wrong.

So I think that for some people religion can help them to cope with adversity and some types of suffering. Even if your life is objectively crap, you work a dead end job and have no significant other, religion can make you feel good internally. It can also give you hope for the future, if you fulfill the criteria set by your religion for what is required to enter eternal bliss in "heaven" or some sort of afterlife.

That said, for some people (like myself) religion can go wrong and cause you to bear heavy burdens that you might not want to do. I think in those cases it will lead people to critically examine their religion and then possibly leave it. But others will endure in the faith because they fear hell and hope for the future. Some religions are really serious and may even result in death threats for those who leave the faith. Thankfully for me that was not the case when I left Christianity.

Basically religion can help people cope with adversity when they believe there is a higher power looking out for them and a promise of a good afterlife. But the question is, are you able to seriously believe this in the modern world with science and technology? If you want to maintain your faith, it is best to not ask too many questions. Ignorance is bliss.

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