If a rocket launch is what it takes to give me a feeling of aesthetic transcendence, I do not see this as a substitute for religion. That is theomorphism—the viewpoint from gloating religionists who assume that everyone who isn’t religious has a hole in their mind that wants filling.
Eliezer, there is evience that people do have a God-shaped hole in their minds. Razib @ gnxp.com has documented this extensively. For instance Buddhism is a nominally non-theistic religion, yet it has independently evolved into worship of the “Lord Buddha”, or some Bodhisattva, etc. [1][2]
But is the hole really “God shaped” or is it, in fact, “big powerful human” shaped?
Because theologians describe God with specific terms, and properties; but most religious people I know just think of God as a “big powerful human” even when their preachers tell them all these theological properties, their mind seems to shape it into “big powerful human” shape.
If a rocket launch is what it takes to give me a feeling of aesthetic transcendence, I do not see this as a substitute for religion. That is theomorphism—the viewpoint from gloating religionists who assume that everyone who isn’t religious has a hole in their mind that wants filling.
Eliezer, there is evience that people do have a God-shaped hole in their minds. Razib @ gnxp.com has documented this extensively. For instance Buddhism is a nominally non-theistic religion, yet it has independently evolved into worship of the “Lord Buddha”, or some Bodhisattva, etc. [1] [2]
But is the hole really “God shaped” or is it, in fact, “big powerful human” shaped?
Because theologians describe God with specific terms, and properties; but most religious people I know just think of God as a “big powerful human” even when their preachers tell them all these theological properties, their mind seems to shape it into “big powerful human” shape.