A practical believer

This is getting serious[Ref: this article]. A profoundly philosophical debate (or rather, a thought) has been spurred inside me. And it only restrengthens my earlier thoughts.
Many times in my childhood, I recited a prayer from Ramayana. I exhorted Lord Shiva to come to my rescue whenever I was in trouble. I saw almost-miracles happen. But the fact is, I only remember those times when I prayed and it helped.
What about the time when I got sick with malaria and typhoid simultaneously? Imagine what it must have done to a person who weighed 45kg when he should be weighing 60kg. What about the time when I cried in agony? And at least some people will say, you did something that deserved the punishment. Nice! When prayer works, it is work of God. When prayer doesn't work, it is because I deserved punishment. Or may be, it worked in some other form. May be I weighed 46 instead of 45 after I recovered.
Can there be a better all-explaining hypothesis?

Similarly for God. So many people relentlessly try to prove the existence of God. How can you doubt a holy scripture- they say. Just because a million people believe in a book (whether Ramayan or Bible) is not a reason enough. For centuries, people believed that the Earth is round. And to top it all, humans were banished to painful deaths for contradicting that belief. Therefore, just because a million people believe something isn't enough for me to believe.

At the other end of the spectrum, some people adopt an ultra-rational and scientific approach to the issue. And that is where I intercept the logic.

I don't claim that Rama existed, nor do I deny it. Similarly for Jesus. However, I do think that historical and unambiguous proofs do not exist to collaborate such claims. That is where faith comes in, and logic departs. You believe what you want to believe.

On this string of thoughts is a very interesting article:(). Now I am willing to give credit to this theory.

Mind you, I am not an atheist. I am a practical believer. I pray to God, but I do that to compose myself. And it composes me because it takes my mind off the instant worries.

People say everything happens for good. What it actually implies is the widely known tendency of human brain to reconcile everything. There are popular theories in psychology about human brain trying to process information using models and templates. Religion, by the very nature of it, becomes an ingrained template in our mind and whenever a dissonance arises, we try to find the means to reconcile things. Given human capability for selective amnesia, we invariably end up with the belief that everything happens for good.

Think about it. . . Do you believe the scientific theory that we evolved from chimpanzees and apes? At what point in that evolution did the religions start? My conjecture is that all these religious practices are a result of evolution. Religious practices must have evolved as a means to strengthen the cohesion within groups. Over the years, the practices got intertwined with available scientific knowledge in those ages. Geniuses must have existed even in those times! This intertwining might explain why we are able to observe rational or scientific justification in many religious practices.
If you really believe evolution as a scientific theory, can you not see the immediate contradiction with the texts in Bible and

Are we willing to accept the fact the religion is a matter of faith, and not scientific debate? That when someone says, "There is no proof that Rama/Jesus existed", it is not equivalent to saying "You are an idiot if you believe in Rama/Jesus".

The missionary practices, or the practices of other religions to spread their own faith point towards the hypothesis that religions must have evolved from tribes as a means to ensure survival. The greater the numbers, the greater the chances of survival. Hence, there was a need to spread faith. But the spread of Buddhism may not be explained by such simplistic logic.

To conclude it all, ladies and gentlemen, the God (or His/Her representations) we pray to are human imaginations. And I stand by it.
But it doesn't hurt to pray to God if it brings calm and composure.