My biggest fear (which still worries me) is that if I’m wrong, I’m being ungrateful to God. It would be a terrible person who refused to appreciate her greatest benefactor, right?
I’ve heard this argument before, and a good response occurs to me. This presupposes that the appreciation is useful somehow. If a human does you a favor, you show appreciation by saying things that make them feel good about what they’ve done, and maybe also by doing favors in return. The sort of god described in most religions, however, isn’t human; so he/she/it probably doesn’t “feel” in response to gratitude, and is already omnipotent, so would have no use for favors.
That argument works for those of us who have accepted that “God” is vulnerable to reason (that we can penetrate his supposed omniscience with rationality), but it won’t work for anyone who still buys, even in part, the theist position. So religions like Christianity have no problem building in ideas like “God demands prayer and gratitude”.
This whole “permeable to reason” thing seems to me like the primary hurdle to helping people overcome religious superstition.
I’ve heard this argument before, and a good response occurs to me. This presupposes that the appreciation is useful somehow. If a human does you a favor, you show appreciation by saying things that make them feel good about what they’ve done, and maybe also by doing favors in return. The sort of god described in most religions, however, isn’t human; so he/she/it probably doesn’t “feel” in response to gratitude, and is already omnipotent, so would have no use for favors.
That argument works for those of us who have accepted that “God” is vulnerable to reason (that we can penetrate his supposed omniscience with rationality), but it won’t work for anyone who still buys, even in part, the theist position. So religions like Christianity have no problem building in ideas like “God demands prayer and gratitude”.
This whole “permeable to reason” thing seems to me like the primary hurdle to helping people overcome religious superstition.