People often say “You only believe in God because it makes you feel better.” They think theism is just wish fulfillment. The idea of God fulfills some deep longing in our heart, so we choose to believe there is a God.

This is not a good reason to think God doesn’t exist. Maybe belief in God makes me feel better because there is a real God who is meeting a real existential need that results in me feeling better. Could you imagine if we approached medicine this way?: “You only believe in medicine because it makes you feel better.” Yes, it makes us feel better because medicine is an objective reality that changes the way we feel. Similarly, God is an objective reality that changes the way we feel about life, about ourselves, and about the future.

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