Belief

Various debates and posts(where I realised my comments were getting a tad too long) have prompted me to write a post on the topic of God and faith. Plus I've been nagged enough about updating my blog ; ).
We humans are second-handers by nature. Even an unflagging confidence or belief in yourself stems from encouragement, appreciation or atleast acknowlegdement from others. Hence the need to look to someone else when challenged by the unknown. This deep-seated and primal fear of the unexplored lead to the earliest tryst with with faith and God. What couldn't be explained was attributed to God.
This phenomenon has several names and explanations. Some call it God, some destiny, some call it an unknown primeval force, some nothing. For aeons God was a self-explanatory word and it is only in the recent centuries that people have been questioning this blind faith in God and have been trying to experiment with and analyse faith in God in order to understand it.
This faith exists, probably because it is unburdening and liberating. It's this belief that there is a saviour out there, an entity to transfer our worries and responsibilities to. Whether he exists or not is immaterial.
Consider a placebo. It is a harmless pill that in actuality does nothing. Except that it does mitigate the patient's anxiety about his health. Although the placebo has no effect whatsoever on the patient, he believes it does and that is the cure. The principle of God works in the same way( It is just an analogy and is not intended to hurt anyone's sentiments). He can be whatever you want Him to be. Maybe it's the extra-edge kick you got during some paper and you don't know where it sprouted from. Maybe it's your aunt's miraculous recovery from a terminal disease. It could be anything. Or nothing.