T.G.G. Moogly
Traditional Atheist
The thought occurred to me today that this is precisely what people are doing when they say they believe in god and go on about it. They're telling me they have a superpower. It's the same thing we did as kids when we pretended to have guns and shoot the bad guys. I'm going to have to use this in the future, casually of course, when someone gives me some god bullshit.
Always gotta know the audience and have an idea of the person's likely reaction. I wouldn't tell a kid who venerates Santa that there isn't one but an adult is different. And some adults are still kids in how they think about these things. I'll have to be careful.
But the fact is that humans love to pretend. We love pretending so much that we actually pay people to pretend for us so we can enjoy watching them pretend. I think this is what is happening with religion primarily, pretending there are answers and getting together with people who like to pretend in the same thing, their shared superpower they call god.
Always gotta know the audience and have an idea of the person's likely reaction. I wouldn't tell a kid who venerates Santa that there isn't one but an adult is different. And some adults are still kids in how they think about these things. I'll have to be careful.
But the fact is that humans love to pretend. We love pretending so much that we actually pay people to pretend for us so we can enjoy watching them pretend. I think this is what is happening with religion primarily, pretending there are answers and getting together with people who like to pretend in the same thing, their shared superpower they call god.