True. And some of them are real and embrace the beauty in nature and in life, while others are analogous to mind altering substances that distort perception and help to artifically blunt the edges rather than to accept them as part of the human experience. Indeed, both offer comfort. But only one offers the ability to accept both the good and the bad with clarity.
They are all real. And yet all still arbitrary. Drugs are an interesting point, though... they can comfort, but are they arbitrary? Some are manmade, some are not. Hmm, but the decision to take them, that's probably not an instinctual action, thus we can safely say it's arbitrary.
nothing new here. science has known for some time that religion stimulates Dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is linked to feelings of pleasure. some of the other things that create this effect are drugs, porn, sex. so believing in a god is similar to a drug. of course none if this in any way makes what that person may believe real.
Fair enough. But let's consider "real" for a moment. Whose definition of that shall we use, yours, or mine? ; )