Shut me down

The only thing thats brought me close to wishing I believed in a Heaven was the loss of people I really loved. I had previously thought that the main catalyst for faith was for people to give themselves some solace that their lost family, friends , and lovers were actually in a better place.

Another point of view to consider, and one which I have considered before settling on the aforementioned thought, was that people are driven to faith in order to believe that they themselves are going to a Heaven. I entirely agree that self-interest is part of faith, but I don't think that it motivates people to adopt a faith in the first place. Most of our lives we are not worried about death or the afterlife, whereas we are witness time and time again to the deaths of those whom we do not believe should die.

Anyway, in finally finished A Brave New World, there was a conversation between two characters which offers a new insight to these considerations. Quoting from Maine de Biran, the character Mustapha Mond reads: "... religious sentiment tends to develop as we grow older; to develop because, as the passions grow calm, as the fancy and sensibilities are less excited and less excitable, our reason becomes less troubled in its workings ... whereupon God emerges as from behind a cloud; our soul feels, sees, and turns towards the source of all light, turns naturally and inevitably..."

Still, it could always just be mental conditioning.

sermotion:tired