Many religious people do argue that there is an instinct toward religious belief - the “God shaped hole”, if you’ve heard the expression
I’ve heard this argument for a certain kind of spirituality. And that’s one reason I’m loath to hate on people for being “religious” in the abstract or to dump on “belief in god” as this singular root of moral failing. Just feels like you’re going after people for being neurodivergent.
obviously they won’t fixate on Christianity without prior exposure
Right. Shy of the grand standing bullshitters and would-be prophets, I suppose.
There was a time when I thought that the arrival of easy global communication and information would lead to the decline of religion, but I don’t anymore. Christianity may have declined to some extent, but a lot of the people leaving the church(s) have just replaced it with vague spirituality, homebrew beliefs, or other looser faiths.
These days I’m much more inclined to take seriously the idea that supernatural belief is instinctual. Materialist atheism will, unfortunately, probably remain a fringe belief.
I’ve heard this argument for a certain kind of spirituality. And that’s one reason I’m loath to hate on people for being “religious” in the abstract or to dump on “belief in god” as this singular root of moral failing. Just feels like you’re going after people for being neurodivergent.
Right. Shy of the grand standing bullshitters and would-be prophets, I suppose.
There was a time when I thought that the arrival of easy global communication and information would lead to the decline of religion, but I don’t anymore. Christianity may have declined to some extent, but a lot of the people leaving the church(s) have just replaced it with vague spirituality, homebrew beliefs, or other looser faiths.
These days I’m much more inclined to take seriously the idea that supernatural belief is instinctual. Materialist atheism will, unfortunately, probably remain a fringe belief.