The Social Benefits of Religious LARPing

A Noble Lie purposefully deceives someone with the intent of improving their mental state. Let's say there's a story you could tell someone. You totally made up this story but are adamant that the events occurred exactly like you said they did. The story is entirely deceitful, but let's say you know that by telling this story, the listener will be in a better mood. Would it be ethical to tell them? You could probably make an argument either way. But what if instead of simply improving their mood, this story comforts a person who just lost a family member. Not only does it comfort them, but this story gives them purpose, takes away their own fear of death, and gives them reason to keep going. In this scenario, it almost feels like we are obligated to lie to this person. Intuitively it feels wrong to me to not tell this person the story if I know it will have such a positive impact on them.

Religious people generally report a higher level of subjective well being than non-religious people (if religion is a social norm in their country). There's a lot of reasons that this makes perfect sense. As someone who grew up in the Midwestern US, I'm going to be talking about Christianity, but you could probably apply these points to most religions (Source: I just think so).

  1. Death Anxiety. Scared of dying? Well, if you believe the right things you actually get to have ETERNAL BLISS after you die! It's hard to beat Christian theology when it comes to dealing with the fear of your inevitable death.
  2. Social group. You get to be with people that more or less all believe the same things, feel safe around each other, and are usually willing to help each other. Being part of a church gives you access to friends and generally also some sort of social safety net.
  3. Purpose for living. Christianity does a really good job at making you feel like the things you do are really valuable. Your purpose is to glorify God. It's pretty vague which is nice because you can sort of make yourself feel like anything you do is glorifying God, as long as you aren't breaking any biblical commands. 
  4. Selfless behavior. Christian communities teach their members to put other's needs before their own and encourage people to be selfless. Mark 9:35 “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” This helps promote trust in the community and helps in avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons.

I'm sure there are a lot of other reasons religious people are happier, these are just the most obvious to me. But what if you don't believe in God? Luckily, you can have pretty much all the benefits Christians enjoy from religion without believing any of it! You are going to have to figure out some other way to deal with death anxiety, though.

I was born to a hardcore Christian family (my dad is literally named after his denomination) and grew up believing in God, mostly because I didn't have any other options. I went to a private Christian school starting in pre-k, and finished high school at the same place. After leaving the house and going to college, I realized that I don't actually have any evidence that God is real. I could never tell my parents this because I think it would be too harmful to tell them the truth. In their mind, their child would be going to be suffering eternal torment in hell, even though they did everything they could to stop that from happening. Not only would it completely break their minds, but they would spend the rest of their lives trying to convert me back. I don't want either of those things to happen, so as far as they know, I'm still a good Christian boy who is going to heaven. This is my Noble Lie. I roleplay as a Christian to save my family from psychological distress. Being "closeted" actually isn't very hard and I think I could probably keep it up for the rest of my life. 

I recently moved to a new state and going to church has actually been very good for me. Church people are great because they are usually really stable and predictable. The church I went to was super welcoming and kind to me. Not all churches are like this but I don't think a good one is hard to find. Maybe it's just easy for me since I grew up in that culture. One really nice thing is that I don't even need to pretend I believe in God. I simply told them I'm not a believer, but I am open to the idea. Most churches will love to have people like this since converting someone is one of the greatest things you can do. If you are going to try this method where you are honest about being a nonbeliever, just be chill about it. Don't go around debating everyone and you will fit in just fine. Most Christians are basically LARPing anyway, they don't try to follow the Bible 100% and probably have never questioned any of their religious beliefs. I highly recommend finding a good church, especially if you are in a new city and don't have any connections. If you want help joining one, feel free to message me and I can find you a good church to try out. Happy larping!


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