[dagw]

From personal experience, very much so. I really miss the spiritual and mental calm and resilience that the faith of my youth brought me. I have several personal examples of where prayer brought me the calm and clarity I needed to focus my mind to get through tough situations.

Once I realize it wasn't true and stopped believing all that went away, and in some ways I still mourn that.

[Retra]

An anecdote isn't evidence. I was different when I was younger, too. One data point doesn't make a pattern. A bunch of data points don't make a pattern when you over-fit your description to match them. I'm asking for objectivity here.

You can't look at a bunch of planes, recognize that there are more dead people in planes lying on the ground than there are in those flying through the air and conclude that planes in the air are safer than those on the ground. What is unsafe here is a rapid transition, not the state of being. You can't ignore those kinds of possibilities and draw meaningful conclusions.

[NoGravitas]

Take up meditation. The best techniques were developed historically by Buddhists, but you don't need to be Buddhist to benefit from them. [Mindfulness In Plain English][mpe] is a good introduction.

[mpe]: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html