How can religion be replaced with a more secular and scientific alternative?
In order to answer that, we would need to answer the question
>What is Religion?And no, I am not talking about the set of beliefs and supernatural stories that are nothing but living mythology. But an all-encompassing context.
For example, religion can be classified as proto-psychology. It developed ideas to cope with plenty of mental illnesses which gave a placebo effect of working. For some, that was all they needed.
When I was a kid, I was dealing with depression a lot. I'd have negative thoughts and memories that get stuck in my head and loop in a cycle. I'd do what any kid knew best.
I asked mom for help.
She used to tell me that these ideas come from Satan to discourage me and bring me down for my faith, and that I should pray to god to get rid of them. It worked.
Does that mean that Satan is real? And that god helped me? Was it simply "placebo" and I am cringe for mentioning that? No. No to all.
I came to learn later that this is actually a very powerful technique. Simply personalizing these negative thoughts and making them talk, sound silly, or even just walk away is a very effective method of dealing with bad thoughts. Sitting on them for a long while can actually develop into symptoms of depression and anxiety.
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