No apology needed. If what I’m saying seems vague, it may be because it is vague.
I’m not sure what counts as a biological need. Do people have a television-shaped hole?
The whole thing is very weird for me, possibly because I don’t have a God-shaped hole.
I’ve just been reading somewhat by people who hate a great deal of what the Catholic Church is doing, but they’re still Catholics because they can’t imagine being anything else. And these are smart people.
I don’t think the human psyche has a “god-shaped hole”, but I do think there are a bunch of other things people need which religions provide, including weekly community gatherings (services), an inducement to concretely specify desires (prayer), a person to talk to about sensitive topics confidentially (confession), and a moral framework. All of these can be had elsewhere, but lacking any one of these is a big deal and non-religious people often end up missing one.
A very important (and often overlooked) one is a setting in which it is socially acceptable to express strong positive emotions and very high levels of enthusiasm.
No apology needed. If what I’m saying seems vague, it may be because it is vague.
I’m not sure what counts as a biological need. Do people have a television-shaped hole?
The whole thing is very weird for me, possibly because I don’t have a God-shaped hole.
I’ve just been reading somewhat by people who hate a great deal of what the Catholic Church is doing, but they’re still Catholics because they can’t imagine being anything else. And these are smart people.
Perhaps they do. But more likely the adoption of the “God-hole” term is a mistake. Adoption of concepts made by theists is a mistake relatively often.
I don’t think the human psyche has a “god-shaped hole”, but I do think there are a bunch of other things people need which religions provide, including weekly community gatherings (services), an inducement to concretely specify desires (prayer), a person to talk to about sensitive topics confidentially (confession), and a moral framework. All of these can be had elsewhere, but lacking any one of these is a big deal and non-religious people often end up missing one.
The way I’ve seen it phrased here before is that people do not have a god-shaped hole, rather they have a hole-shaped god.
A very important (and often overlooked) one is a setting in which it is socially acceptable to express strong positive emotions and very high levels of enthusiasm.