Recently I have followed  a few of NPR’s interviews with their staffer Barbara Bradley Hagerty concerning her new book Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirtuality.  Based on the interviews and the reviews, I plan to read the book in the very near future.  As a devout agnostic, I am always fascinated by well thought out arguments concerning the existence of a god.  

Further, as a life long neurotic, I have been pondering the seemingly convoluted logic of Patricia Pearson in her book A Brief History of Anxiety.  Pearson makes the compelling argument in her book that much of the thinking that supports feelings most anxiety is irrational.  With that, she asserts that engaging in seemingly irrational thinking and behaviors such as believing in god and going to church is rational if it is effective in relieving anxiety, especially anxiety that is debilitating.  This makes pragmatic sense to me, although I can’t bring myself to believe in god(s) or attend church on anything but a very episodic basis. 

So dear OSers, what would it take to make you believe in god(s)?  Or, if you do believe in god(s) what drives you to believe in god(s).  I am interested in both empirical arguments and pragmatic arguments similar to Pearson’s.  Further, if you believe in god(s), what are some of the important qualities of god(s) that you feel it would be important to convey to nonbelievers or agnostics?  And whatever your stance on the existence of god(s), how important is it that others share your perspective?  Thank you for indulging my curiosity.