This Christian argument looks at innate human desires and sees a hint of God. We feel hunger so therefore there must be food, we desire companionship and therefore there are other people, and we yearn for the supernatural, so therefore there must be a god.
This reasoning is easy to understand and has an intuitive appeal, but it fails under closer inspection. If our feelings are a reliable instinctual pointer to the supernatural, why then do we fear death? If we instinctively know there is a god and an eternal place for our soul after life on earth, humans should differ from other animals in having an ambivalence about death or even a longing for it. We don’t.
This argument imagines that hunger points to the existence of food, but it’s the other way around. It’s as backward as the thinking of Douglas Adams’ puddle, which marveled at how well-crafted its hole was. We don’t notice hunger and then conclude that food must exist; rather, animals need food to survive, and evolution selects those that successfully strive to get it.
This argument lists fundamental, innate, physical needs and drives like food, water, sex, safety, and sleep. It could also add higher-level desires for beauty, justice, knowledge, friendship, love, or companionship. The Christian may want to avoid the skeptic adding Aladdin’s lamp or superpowers to the list and so reject anything that doesn’t obviously exist. But if we’re to keep food and drink (which we know exist) and reject magic lamps and superpowers (which we don’t know exist), we must be consistent and discard God. And note that if the desires for food, water, sex, and other basics are never fulfilled, the human race dies out. By contrast, hunger for the supernatural has nothing to do with survival. The hazy desire for a god to make everything right doesn’t logically fit in with mandatory drives. Calling the desire for God innate is hard to justify when we share basic drives for food, water, and so on with other social animals but not a desire for the supernatural.
C. S. Lewis said, “It would be very odd if the phenomenon called ‘falling in love’ occurred in a sexless world.” But is it odd? People believe you can talk to the dead or that the motion of the planets affects your life, and yet these beliefs are false. It’s not at all odd that humans desire things that don’t exist.
We can imagine perfect justice, world peace, or a loving god, but that doesn’t make them reality. As with the Ontological Argument in chapter 8, thinking of it doesn’t make it so.
Wishful thinking in religion is like wishful thinking in a store’s health and beauty aisle, or in diets, or in end-of-life care. It’d be great to look younger or live longer, and it’d be great to have an all-powerful Friend looking out for you. That doesn’t make it so. As with claims for cosmetics and cure-alls, we must be skeptical.
Continue to chapter 7.
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What do you mean by the word “God”? This started out as a tribal identity and gradually expanded. The ancient Israelites associated God with life in all its complexity unlike the empires around them that had gods for war, death, fertility etc. The question is still relevant in do we value life and healthy community above all other competing desires?
Another is the fact that the earth was once a dead ball of matter and now we are here to witness this. Is life inherent in matter and the rules of the universe given enough time and the right ingredients?
What is consciousness and where does it rest in the brain? Is this a circumstance or something divine that we all have yet fail to appreciate?
The first part of being spiritual is to treat life and consciousness as divine especially with a call to see this in others with love and respect. You are right to be skeptical of those that fail to do this yet claim to be blessed by an anthropomorphic notion of God. The better question is what do you love with your mind, heart, soul(voice), and strength?
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“This started out as a tribal identity and gradually expanded.”
Right. Yahweh was the god of the chosen people, and now he’s the god of everyone. It’s odd that the mission of a perfect god would expand like that.
“The ancient Israelites associated God with life in all its complexity unlike the empires around them that had gods for war, death, fertility etc.”
Early Judaism was polytheistic (technically, henotheistic) as well. See Deut. 32:8-9.
“Another is the fact that the earth was once a dead ball of matter and now we are here to witness this.”
I don’t think supernatural explanations are necessary for what we see on earth. It certainly isn’t a part of any satisfactory explanation of some part of reality today.
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You are right. Supernatural explanations are enough for simple people. We with a scientific background are a lot harder to please. The question is what are we trying to encourage? Love is a rather mysterious thing when you get down to it.
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“what are we trying to encourage?”
Seeing reality as accurately as possible. There’s where technological progress comes from. Religion has taught us zero new, correct things about reality.
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Are you concerned about anything of an emotional nature like Love, Fear, Disgust, Anger, Sadness?
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I don’t see how that’s relevant. My point is that science delivers and religion doesn’t.
Do you agree?
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Yes, Science or careful observation and analysis delivers technical progress. Religion or in this case Christianity focuses on the meaning of this technical progress and how it relates to our lives, relationships and future. If equipping your neighbor with technology is helping them then it is a form of love. If it harms your neighbor it is not.
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That’s fine, but notice that any religion can claim to interpret meaning in this way. Why choose one over another? Indeed, why choose any one at all? Science delivers reality without asking for you to believe the unbelievable.
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In a time of peace and prosperity this is perfectly fine. No acts of self sacrifice or bravery are needed. As Jesus points out, a doctor is for the sick not the healthy. Nowhere in this dialog have you defined any need other than a focus on science so you must be healthy.
When facing a time of troubles or dehumanizing systems of domination like the Antebellum South or Roman Empire, you will see religion flourish because it is problems like this that start religions.
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zarhoth said: “When facing a time of troubles or dehumanizing systems of domination like the Antebellum South or Roman Empire, you will see religion flourish because it is problems like this that start religions.”
Exactly. Bad social conditions encourage religion, and good social conditions mean religion has little to offer. When I’m puzzled at the crazy, hateful policies that Christian fundamentalist leaders are pushing, it could be that that’s just the meme talking. When conditions get good, their religion can’t thrive.
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