One thing I've noticed about many religious people is that they seem to have a strong desire to prove the existence of their God. They'll point their fingers, for example, at a rust stain in their bathtub that they claim looks just like the Virgin Mary. (As if they have any idea at all what Mary would have looked like.) And they'll gush with enthusiasm as they talk about it, as if they were trying to convince everyone around them of the truth of the situation.
My opinion, though, is that they're trying to convince no one so much as themselves. But this begs the question: If faith is supposed to be enough, and proof unnecessary, then why are so many trying to find proof? I think it's because for many, they're having a problem accepting faith as being enough.
Our world isn't the same as when our religions were formed. We are no longer ignorant of basic laws of nature. We no longer wonder what causes thunder, for example. We understand what stars are and why the moon sails across our sky. Every day we learn more to put our minds at ease about these things.
On the other hand, every day we are faced with more and more truly frightening things. Global warming. Killer viruses. Road rage. It's a scary place and many people need the refuge of their religion. But we're not as ignorant anymore. We can't swallow it as easily as we used to.
But because people want to believe, they look for anything that could remotely pass as evidence and label it "proof." They want to justify their beliefs because, unsurprisingly, they have doubts. The sad thing is, people want to dispel these doubts and cling to their superstition, rather than embrace the doubts and discover the truth.
There never will be proof of the existence of gods. Prayer and faith will not avert any catastrophe. At best, it's a waste of time, at worst it's a relinquishing of our responsibilities, not to mention our reason. Faith will never replace science as being the cure for our ills.
If you want proof, look to science, not to mythology. If you want to believe in something, believe in what has consistently shown itself to be reliable, not ungrounded fantasies.
