Ego has stood in the way of truth on many occasions. Sometimes people have an idea in their heads and no matter the fact that there are many possibilities, they only consider one. Richard Dawkins is one such.

I have often remarked that though religion is absolutely a false doctrine, containing little truth, and because of its age of fabrication, is totally irrelevant, nevertheless there are people who cannot exist without it. Richard Dawkins believes such an assertion is condescending. I believe he simply is ignoring reality to promote his own beliefs.

The concept of an individual existing whose mental bearings are unstable without a stabilizing mechanism seems beyond Dawkins scope. In some ways you wonder if maybe he  has lost his ability to emphasize with his fellow human beings. Nothing is cut and dried in reality. There are always grays. That is a frequent claim of atheists when referring to morality. There are grays, I think, where belief is concerned as well.

Some people have mental states that require belief to hold the fabric of their minds in place. If the glue is withdrawn these people often end up discarding all morality and becoming depraved. They simply do not have the strength, the wherewithal, to be a decent human being without it. Others, not immersed in religious doctrine and raised in comparative secular settings, have a different kind of glue and easily maintain themselves as decent productive human beings.

In final analysis, what I am saying is this…

Those individuals who have been raised from toddler on to believe could end up as inhuman wrecks should the glue of religion be quickly removed. Under proper tutorage they might leave religion properly and establish a mental glue which works well. Not every atheist is qualified to perform this task. A lot of times the atheist simply rips the Christian a new one, delivers a devastating blow, then walks off leaving the believer lying on the ground, vulnerable and bleeding. I know, I’ve done that.

As long as the believer is doing no harm and is not actively spreading the contagion I would urge non-believers just to leave them alone unless you know what you are doing.