I was wrong about religion
For as long as I can remember, I've hated Sunday morning mass.
I'm not a morning person, and a six day school week meant I had one day to sleep in. But Jesus had other ideas. He convinced my mother of them, and she was relentless. So I went.
But unfortunately for her, most of my time in church was spent convincing myself that religion (especially the organised kind that forced you to sacrifice sleep) was a scam.
And I succeeded.
Today, I wish I hadn't.
Religion has a few benefits that I miss out on as a non-believer.
On a personal level, it provides respite from responsibility in situations outside your control. You can just 'leave them to God' and get on with your life. Yes, Stoicism advocates the same thing, but it's harder to do when you don't believe you have someone in the sky who can carry your burden for you.
Religion also makes it easier for us to benefit from the Placebo Effect. It's been scientifically proven that patients who believe they have been administered a medicine (when in reality they haven't) show tangible, lasting signs of improvement. The phenomenon isn't clearly understood yet, but that doesn't make it less real. I'd wager that most religious 'miracles' are just the Placebo Effect at work. But without a belief in God, there can be no belief that God is ridding you of a problem, and thus, no Placebo Effect.
Lastly, religion provides easy access to a community in the real world. And in today's hyperconnected online world with shallow connections, deep connections in the real world are more valuable than ever.
Yes, religion does have its downsides, but I'll discuss those another day.
For now, I just wish religion had prioritised my sleep a little more.