Give me my opium

Here is a link to an article that delves into the issue of whether or not we are hardwired in our brains for religious belief. Normally, I really don't care too much about these kinds of issues, but I found some things interesting in the article.

First, the author questions how far genetic and brain hardwiring really can go. She tends to place a lot of emphasis on experiences and outside conditions shaping who we are, and of course notes that there's some pretty complex interplay between hardwiring, circumstances, and environment that go into making up who we are. I think this has interesting implications for a lot of things, including current debates surrounding homosexuality and religious belief.

But, what really interested me from the article was this quote:

...if social progress can snuff out religious belief in millions of people, as [author Gregory] Paul notes, then one must question "the idea that religiosity and belief in the supernatural is the default mode of the brain," he told me. As he wrote in his new paper, "The ease with which large populations abandon serious theism when conditions are sufficiently benign . . . refute[s] hypotheses that religious belief and practice are the normal, deeply set human mental state." He posits that, rather than being wired into the brain, religion is a way to cope with stress in a dysfunctional society—the opium-of-the-people argument.

To that I say: "I don't care - give me my opium." It makes sense to me that this would in fact be the case if Jesus is truly known through suffering, and if (as the blog title suggests) the cross is the test of everything. If billions of people want to live cross-less lives and imagine themselves having a benign existence and no need of God - good for them. But, I think reality itself is about far more than "sufficiently benign" conditions, and is that way for the majority of people in the world and for the majority of people throughout history. I would rather know Jesus through suffering than imagine myself sufficient to exist without him. So, like I said, "give me my opium." You know where you can put your sufficiently benign conditions.