OK, but neither was anything like our modern forms of religion.
really? I’m no expert, but I think you’ll find that the religions of even the most primitive tribes satisfy my conditions (1) - (4). This indicates that, although primitive religions are superficially different to, say, Christianity, the essential parts [1 − 4] are unchanged.
Regardless of whether that’s actually true or not (and I’m certainly no anthropoligist!), my real point is that it’s incredibly presumptuous of the religionists to assume that just because thing A causes person 1 to feel similar to how thing B causes person 2 to feel, that person 1 is obviously trying to fill an B-shaped hole with A, which is merely a pale substitute for B, whereas B is “clearly” the genuine article. They don’t even consider for a second that person 2 might be filling an A-shaped hole with B!
I think it’s important to note that an innate human tendency to believe in religious myths in no way legitimizes those myths. I think that religion is a way for weak-minded people to delude themselves, and I think that we should strive to get rid of it, even if people have a natural tendency to fall for it.
OK, but neither was anything like our modern forms of religion.
really? I’m no expert, but I think you’ll find that the religions of even the most primitive tribes satisfy my conditions (1) - (4). This indicates that, although primitive religions are superficially different to, say, Christianity, the essential parts [1 − 4] are unchanged.
Regardless of whether that’s actually true or not (and I’m certainly no anthropoligist!), my real point is that it’s incredibly presumptuous of the religionists to assume that just because thing A causes person 1 to feel similar to how thing B causes person 2 to feel, that person 1 is obviously trying to fill an B-shaped hole with A, which is merely a pale substitute for B, whereas B is “clearly” the genuine article. They don’t even consider for a second that person 2 might be filling an A-shaped hole with B!
I think it’s important to note that an innate human tendency to believe in religious myths in no way legitimizes those myths. I think that religion is a way for weak-minded people to delude themselves, and I think that we should strive to get rid of it, even if people have a natural tendency to fall for it.