200-250 words, adhering to course formatting guidelines, proofread very carefully, formatted as a single paragraph, with a topic sentence, a concluding sentence, three supporting points (and detail sentences for those points), clear transitions to signal shifts between points – a basic well-organized, well-proofread paragraph, as it were, on the following:

Prompt: In Maria Popova’s article in the reading this week, PEMA CHÖDRÖN was quoted as saying, “The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God… Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there’s some hand to hold: if we just do the right things, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. It means thinking there’s always going to be a babysitter available when we need one. We all are inclined to abdicate our responsibilities and delegate our authority to something outside ourselves. Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves.” (CHÖDRÖN qtd. in Popova).

In your paragraph, consider that she is correct; after all, the biggest two religions by some good margin are theistic (Christianity and Islam). Write a paragraph that argues why it is so attractive to individuals to follow a religion that provides this basis: “some hand to hold,” “someone” who “will appreciate us and take care of us…” […], having “a babysitter available when we need one.”  Why are most people so willing to mortgage so much of their life over to a higher power? 

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What to Do When the Going Gets Rough