Do you think that most people NEED to believe in God like children need to believe in fairy tales?

[itlltickleurinnerds]

I think some people have such a fear of the future and want security that they will believe in anything that can provide that stability in their life even if its a false sense of security. There is life after death, there is a god that will not let things go too far wrong and make it right in the end. Good always wins. Well good does not always win and there is no man in the sky that will make it all OK. When we die its game over no moving on to some other side and playing a new game. People believe that they can actually win the Lotto, hence the big pay outs, some do win but the stats show you are more likely to be struck by lightning on a clear day then win.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by Apathizer

At one time most persons believed the sun revolved around the earth. It was also widely believed that the earth was flat, and it you went over the edge there were Sea Monsters.

These are just a couple examples of things once widely believed that we now know are not true. It's actually not possible to now if god is or is not. Believing in something doesn't make it so, otherwise I'd be naked in a hot tub with a dozen 20 year old girls right now!

Why, are they cannibal girls making soup? Hehehe, couldn't resist.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

Heavenwood and mordant.....

I think you are placing the focus far too much on event/experience, as though one's entire philosophical outlook is formed and controlled by a singular traumatic event.

I'm simply saying that my own outlook has been altered by several traumatic events over an extended period of time, which made it simpler for me to sort out the (un)reality of religious teaching by providing graphic examples of many of its false claims.

I don't see a particularly strong connection between intelligence and (a)theism in either direction. Even when someone is very intelligent, their intelligence can be compartmentalized and/or they can have huge blind spots where they suspend disbelief in huge ways.

I see it more as a combination of how you make sense of life (more subjectively or more objectively, for instance), combined with personality, personal experience and blind luck. Conceptually I've always felt that religion worked for me so long as my Rationalizer (tm) was functioning. Various things happened that burned my Rationalizer out, and I did not choose to trade it in for a new model. That would have taken me to new heights of reality-denial, bordering on mentally deranged.

In short, I'm an atheist because the cognitive dissonance caused by the bare-metal absurdity of life, has become far less than the cognitive dissonance caused by the superficial comforts of theist beliefs contrasted with life-as-it-is. I have come to find relentlessly dealing in empirical reality, no matter what, to be the better path, on balance.

[Nozzferrahhtoo]

I would not say "need" is the right word for the OP but there are strong factors in the human condition that do very much lend the human mind to being susceptible to that way of thinking. Our penchant for personification coupled with our "Agency Detection" wiring where we see agency and pattern and intent in all and sundry for example are all powerfully compelling and make deistic and theistic thought very convincing to the minds of many.

[Arjay51]

Originally Posted by Nozzferrahhtoo

I would not say "need" is the right word for the OP but there are strong factors in the human condition that do very much lend the human mind to being susceptible to that way of thinking. Our penchant for personification coupled with our "Agency Detection" wiring where we see agency and pattern and intent in all and sundry for example are all powerfully compelling and make deistic and theistic thought very convincing to the minds of many.

In other words, they make up this deity and declare their belief in their own fantasy.

Is that what is being said here?

[Nozzferrahhtoo]

Originally Posted by Arjay51

In other words, they make up this deity and declare their belief in their own fantasy.

Is that what is being said here?

I would not reduce it to that no. "Made up" sounds like they pulled it out of nowhere, for no reason, with no motivation.

What I am saying is that there are genuine aspects of the human condition which lend people to that sort of thinking. They do not invent agency in the world just because it is a nice idea to them. Instead Centuries of Evolution have adapted us to seek patterns and agency even where there is none and this makes us very strongly feel that ideas like "god" are credible.

So while your reduction of my post is essentially correct I think it misses the point I am making and over simplifies much of what is going on there.