a guide to flaming out: faith

Well said.

I'm an atheist running into a lot of ideas from religion recently, so this is coming right as I'm primed to think deeply about this. I think I'm starting to understand how to the religious people that I think are genuinely good people, their world view is a tool to approach the world and themselves more compassionately. In Wake Up Dead Man, Father Jud talks about how for him, his faith is the thing that lets him get up every day with the guilt of what he did in his youth, and find the strength to keep going; "daily bread" as he calls it. By the end of the film, the minor character with chronic pain has found the strength to keep going despite her pain, because of her faith. Realising that such faith is a choice you can make, regardless of a belief in a higher power, is a really powerful tool I think.

Yes! This is a perfect articulation of something I've been thinking about for a while.