all babies from the instant of birth, are aware that something apart from them is taking care of them, warming them, feeding them, loving them unconditionally.
For many years, the knowledge of a caring, loving being powerful and yet knowing their slightest need, is deeply imprinted in everyone.
They are helpless and a wise and strong entity loves them and punishes them as well. Their entire existence is dependent upon the this omnipotent large being who comes out of nowhere to alleviate any discomfort.
This the common experience of every living human being.
Is it not inevitable to believe that this pattern is the way of the world?
That there must be powers that control and guide you forever?
The search for God is a normal human trait.
Are you implying that an infant is aware of love?
Maybe a “Need-love”, as C.S. Lewis would call it, but Affection or Charity?
An infant could not comprehend an idea as elaborate as unconditional love.
Still, I liked the theory’s correlation between the idea of God, and a Guardian/Parent. The microcosm of man’s quest for enlightenment, hm?
About powers controlling me and guiding me forever… Well, we’ve proven the existence of one. We call it gravity. There are many others including the Sun. I am the culmination of Sun, Gravity, Elements, etc… But something else? I try to stay in the mindset that if I am appreciative of this magnificent spot in the cosmos, and of the powers that are in motion then I will not be forced into the audacity of questioning the existence of a God.
Praise the Sun, this Earth, and your Ancestors. These are aspects of existence that we take for ‘granted’. We know they constitue an integral part of our existence. Must we have personal definition for the mysterious? Why this fascination with the incomprehensible? Is your conscience not enough? Just be thankful. Why humanize the superhuman?
Relax and release your definition of God, for any attempt at a complete definition is ultimately fallible.
Or just do your own thang.
My body is within the soul,
Pantheist Entity
All l meant to show was that there is a universal human experience, one of being nurtured and cared for by external sources that are imprinted at birth.
As we mature, this sense of a loving caretaker does not leave us readily.
Many people find this in an anthropomorphized figure of a God.
Many others find this irratrional, but I think that it is a very human concept and difficult for many to abandon.
I think it’s a good point. So basically what you’re telling religious believers is grow the fuck up already. I can get behind that.
I am by no means a religious person, never was.
But I realize how human it is to sense the existence of a divine protector.
I can sympathize without derision.
Our history is replete with acknowledged geniuses, in all disciplines who, amazingly, believed in God.
When you use words like “sense” you don’t mean empirical sense like seeing, touching. But you said sense, so you’re not arguing for rational deductions either. What you’re describing is a person’s inherited sense of justice.
I wish I believed in God. I really do. Because that’s part of being human, buying into things real and not real, constructs that shape our life and make things less painful. But being philosophical has lead me to break down constructs. It’s a trade off I was willing to make.
We have chosen to live with uncertainty.
Yes! Life is uncertainty. Life is risk. Living requires courage.
The only thing that is certain is death.
Are you sure? I don’t remember anything of the sort. I’m pretty sure no-one remembers anything at their instant of birth and for a while after that too. I was aware of my perception of nature after a while. Once my head put together a few consistencies and associations from my senses and I developed concepts of things, I developed some idea of my surroundings and my role & abilities within nature: nature which neither loves or hates me neither conditionally nor unconditionally. It feeded and warmed me and at the same time both cared and didn’t care for me.
God just came from an ignorant romanticised personification of the side of this nature that causes life. Thats where religion comes from.
The search for knowledge is just a survival thing. The more you can understand the world, the more you can predict it, the better prepared you are to survive. And this involves coming up with the best solutions at the time we think them - to fit things as well as we can make them. And sometimes they’re a bit supernatural, like ideas of gods, when all we’re trying to do is understand the natural.
And genius has no correlation with belief in god whatsoever. I’m sure just as many non-genii believe in god as genii. It is impossible to disprove god, so you either believe it or you don’t with slight deviations from a 50:50 distribution of believers:non-believers depending on the culture you grew up in and the time at which your life took place.
I think that religion was spurred by our human fears.
It was practical to form some order to keep people’s apprehension at bay so that society would be able to prosper.