I became an agnostic at a young age after exposure to several religions. I decided that there were too many opinions on the nature of God, or gods, for anyone to actually know anything.
It was not my experience, as a child, that there were many opinions on the nature of what makes a tree a tree or a stone a stone. It dawned on me that there was a simple reason for this -- you can observe a stone. It occured to me that no one, at least in our life time, had ever physically observed a god in the way that one could observe a stone. I didn't think much of intangible observations, as many of my friends at the time believed in Santa Claus and said they could "feel" that he had been in their house. I was not taught to believe in Santa Clause (my mother thinks it's cruel), so the idea of "feeling" Santa Clause seemed like it must be self induced.
Around the age of 12, I was exposed, through English class, to ancient Mythology. I was instantly hooked on it. I got into those worlds and characters like other kids might get into Superman. While attending an Easter service at my grandmother's Pentecostal church, it hit me that the people of the ancient world felt about their "myths" the way the people in the church felt about the stories in the Bible. The ancient people had much FAITH in Zues, Poseidon and Herculese. They prayed to and venerated these figures in honesty and sincerity. In a flash, my agnosticism took the plunge into atheism.
After years of debating with theists and other atheists, something old came back to me -- nobody knew anything about the nature of the things they were discussing in regards to gods. How the universe came into creation is neither here nor there in the discussion about the nature of a god figure. A god figure has never been empirically observed; so, any discussion pertaining to such a figure is made entirely of speculation and anecdote. In so being, any discussion of the phenomenon, or lack there of, was pointless until a definition of the phenomenon could be offered that satisfied empirical requirements of absolute knowledge. After several years as an atheist, debate had turned me into an ignostic.
While I wouldn't say people "should" have a religious belief, I think all people should have outlets of "suspended disbelief." This very idea is one of the foundations of "Satanism." While I am not a Satanist, the need for this outlet is something with which I agree.
I am a writer by hobby. I feel very good when I am deep in the crafting of a story. I enjoy allowing myself to suspend my disbelief for a time and feel as though the things about which i am writing might actually be occuring in some weird dimension. Suspension of disbelief is fun and healthy.
I would classify faith as a very strong suspension of disbelief. In this way, faith is probably healthy. However, I believe faith (religious belief) is only one possible plank in the greater platform of the suspension of disbelief.
