Or "how I'm not such an extreme douchebag as some people here think regarding religion matters"I've been speaking frankly here about what I think about religion, and many people here have been quite hostil to my endeavours, you know who you are

. Some people have publicly and privately told me that it was perhaps not exactly what I said, but how I went around saying it. I think that focusing so much in how religion is a factor in so many bad things really irritate people enough for them to start becoming annoyed, see me as a closed minded fanatic parroting atheistic tropes and memes.
That wasn't really my intent nor who I am really, so I thought of making this thread as both an amending effort to the offended parties, and as a novel curious exercise: having what you would call an "anti-theist" atheist forcing himself to state only
good things about religion.
This isn't a "therapy". I do think that religions do have positive things that, if they do decay into marginality, these things ought to be cherished and thought over of a way to "translate them" to a secular world. It doesn't mean that I see how that could go, it could be an impossible feat, and thus only possible within a religious "setting".
I don't know, but it's a curious thing to think about. In this thread I'll forbid myself of being critical to religion, but I obviously can't force anyone else to commit to the same diet

.
So, here's what I think religions are (and/or were) pretty good at:
1. Sharing a transcendental desireA world driven by scientific reasoning could become too cold, a believer would fear. And I share the same core of that fear. I also think that the desire of the transcendental is core to being a human, and the way religions organize a community and make sure everyone is aware that their neighbour has the same transcendental desire, really does humanity a favour. This desire is seen in many art forms, from music, painting, architecture, literature. This desire should be cherished and nurtured, I feel. I might even be wrong at this, but I couldn't really trust a fellow human being if he didn't have this drive inside of him. And religions do this really well.
2. Proposing a supernatural worldAwkward, innit, to see an atheist listing this one as a positive. But it is and I'll explain it shortly, by making a semantical case of what I understand about the word "Supernatural" that isn't exactly what other people may understand about it.
For me, "Supernatural" is the proposal to see human feats as opposed to "Natural", to see them as acts of volition, of
will, to try to imagine an
utopia that is unreal and apparently impossible. This attempt to get out of the cruel natural order and create a "civilization", an attempt to create "heaven", a secure place where we don't die cruelly, we aren't arbitrarily murdered and raped, a place where we can dream about the impossible and making it possible, that is what I call "Supernatural": the human volition.
It is of course, quite "natural" in a deep sense, but the distinction is useful and daring. And I think it was key for the constant revolutions of egalitarianism, of liberalism and freedom.
3. ChurchesInevitable, since I'm an architect, but I'm not going for the easy stuff, clamoring their amazingness, the richness of the styles, etc. No, I'm much more less demanding here. The key thing that humans make when marking a territory is to make a distinction between two types of territory: the sacred and the profane. The sacred is the center, the most secured, safe haven, the thing everyone will protect, the "womb" where everyone, even your enemies, should feel safe and peaceful. This is *always* done in architectural means, from simple vertical rock pieces to extremely complicated architectural buildings.
And I have to say, I really feel peaceful inside an (almost) empty church, sit in the chairs and just letting my mind rest a bit. This has deep psychological and sociological reasons, and it doesn't only happen in churches of course, but it doesn't mean I could be without it. A place that is solely built for humans to ponder about the transcendent means it is a place that
isn't built for anything else, which means I am free not to do anything else that I am meant to do in any of any other buildings (like a library, a museum, etc.). I am free to be only with myself. And for this I have to thank religions for providing such places (and they are really beautiful, most of them anyways.... since they are designed with exactly the transcendent in mind).
I may have more (positive) things to say about religion. But I wanted to post this and see what happens, if the thread is merely ignored or what kind of discussion ensues. I'm somewhat curious in that respect.