Dear Socrates

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Having returned from the turn of the Fourth Century B.C. to the turn of the Twenty-First A.D., Socrates has eagerly signed on as a Philosophy Now columnist so that he may continue to carry out his divinely-inspired dialogic mission.

Dear Socrates,

I sometimes detect religious skepticism in your remarks, so I wonder what you think about recent scientific evidence that deep faith in God keeps people healthier, or helps them to heal faster?

Please understand the spirit in which I put this matter before you. I am not trying to persuade you to believe in God on the basis of empirical research. I appreciate that it would be fallacious to infer from the efficacy of faith or prayer to the existence of divine intervention. After all, just because somebody believes in something, and benefits from that belief, does not prove that the belief is true. I would feel better if I believed that I had just won a million pounds, even if my belief were mistaken.

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