I was chatting with a friend of mine and he brought up some points that I think are pretty interesting. We were talking about how we were raised in regard to religious preference.

I have been what most consider to be an atheist since my early teens. My mother struggled with her faith all of my life, so I was never propperly indoctrinated into a particular set of beliefs. This left me sort of in limbo, dangling just outside the realm of faith but with no ideological structure to turn too.

I made a friend who was passionately atheist, anarchist, racist, you name it. He was a powerful figure. I was old enough to realize that his racism was not any good and that anarchism is a complicated issue... but he was unabashedly atheist. Now that was pretty exciting! I did not really learn to have much of an opinion about the topic of religion until years later, but I had already learned that I should not believe everything I hear. I was a skeptic.

The more I exposed myself to both religious persons and skeptics / atheist / freethinkers, the more I realized that I was taking a side. I decided that religion was indeed a hoax, the greatest hoax ever played. Religion was a mixture of foolishness and greed.

Now, the fellow I was having this conversation with, on the other hand, was raised in religion since he was a pup; went to church, prayed at his bedside, etc. He felt the presence of God in church, and even felt a call to the front, as if God were really present. It is this warm fuzzy feeling that I am currently interested in. What is it? How does this happen and why to we associate it with the existance of invisible sky pixies?

I am sure there are scientific reasons for the human mind to get lightheaded and for our little hearts to flutter, but I am not versed in such knowledge. So I will just take a realistic standpoint to argue, a skeptical approach.

Here is how the process begins:

We are told from hatching that Jesus (or whoever) loves us and protects us. We sing songs that repeat this ideal, we paint pictures that propagate His existance, and we go to church and hear seemingly important men praise His name. Our parents force us to pray at the bedside each nite and thank him for all of the good things that have happened to us. We pray for Him to watch over our loved ones and protect them.

Ad nausium.

Once this has been done for several years durring our most impressionable days, we believe unflinchingly that what our parents and community has told us is true. Why would we doubt it? Why would people lie to us for our entire lives?

Then we get into our formative years and rebel from everything; even the power of God himself. So our Shamen (or whoever) reafirms that God is allpowerful and good.

Q: I am strong and healthy, my mind is sharp and my attitude is ameable. Why am I so lucky as to have these qualities?
A: The good lord has blessed you. Get on your knees and thank him.

Q: I was in a horrible car crash, the car flipped over three times and went into the guard rail. I only received a few cuts and bruises. How is this possible? Shouldn't I be more injured?
A: God must have been looking out for you. Get on your knees, on your knees and be thankful.

Then we get big balls and ask the dreaded question.

Q: How can God be loving (or even exist) with so much suffering in the world.
A: God works in mysterious ways.

"Oh! He works in mysterious ways? Well that clinches it." so we continue on, happily worshiping our imaginary friends, as we are taught to do from birth.

Then we walk into what we are told is the House of God.

"Wow, Gods house, nice digs" we observe "God must have a lot of money, cuz he place is rockin".

We hear the powerful sermons of the professional preachers as they select pieces of the *enter religious book of your pleasure here* and somehow they all make sense. Each word he utters has profound relevance to the days events.

Then the singing starts as we repeat the same mantras we have been singing since birth. Over and over again "The Tooth Fairy (or whoever) is real, The Tooth Fairy loves us, The Tooth Fairy is real" as we have done all of our lives. The singing gets louder, the preacher preaches in rhythm, the tempo rises!

Then, lo and behold, we have fuzzy feelings. We feel as though we can fly. We think that our imaginary friend is watching us and loves us and will protect us from all harm. Our skin tingles and we feel as though we are at one with the universe. We don't know what that means, but this MUST be what that would feel like.

Next year, we stand at the altar waiting for our bride to come down the isle. We have been dressed up all day, we have been stressed out all month, everyone is watching us, and the moment is about to arrive. In just a minute or two, we will ally ouselves with another person officially, until we die, forever...until we die. We probably start to hyperventilate and realize that we are still a tad hungover.

Our beautiful wife comes out, dressed to kill, looking the most fabulous we have ever seen her. We get warm fuzzies. It must be God, right? God stopped by, cuz well, he lives here.

So what does all of this rambling mean? First off, you're daft for having read this far and you need to get a hobby. Second, it means that we have been trained to believe that He is real, trained to believe that He is responsible for all things that are good. We have also been trained to believe that He has some elusive Get Out of Responsibility Free card, because he is not responsible for EVERYTHING else that happens in between the good moments. Why wouldn't we get warm fuzzies when something amazing happens? We are told that at that moment God is watching us and all is well.

Our bodies are complicated machines full of endless moving parts and chemicals. We respond to our environment in a variety of ways depending on how much sleep, nutrition, and exercise we get. Along with a myriad of variables that I am nowhere near educated enough to comment on. I get warm fuzzies when my puppy pisses somewhere other than my favorite pillow. I get warm fuzzies watching a romantic comedy. This "feeling" is something that we should probably hesitate to make major decisions based on. There are lots of reasons for a head-rush, tingling skin, and a sense of security / happiness.

However, if you are content to attribute warm fuzzies to imaginary sky pixies, here are a few more examples to add to the list.

The same fuzzy feelings were given by God to His loyal followers when they:
- worshipped the sun
-when they danced in the light of the full moon and shagged everyone in site
-when they pealed the flesh from someones bones in his name
-when they burned rivals at the stake because they believed differently
-when they endorsed mass murders and genocide in His name.

Yep, they all got the EXACT same warm fuzzy feelings. Because God was right there with them, every step of the way.