I agree, it's a no brainer. I wonder if anyone disagrees that belief in the reality of an extrinisic being (or of beings) of great power has had utility for humans, or for a whole lot of them, anyway.
Some people don't think such a belief would have as much utility to them personally as as other ways of interpreting the world, but I don't know if anyone isn't convinced that some variation on the theme has been central for most people in most periods.
A personal experience: I talked a long time ago on feelies about having something devastating happen in my family at the same time some religious women were experiencing the same trauma, and about how clear it was to me that their belief that a Supreme Being willed their tragedy for a reason unknown to them, but by definition valid, made it more bearable to them. One needs "meaning," and postulating a deity is a way of making even the meaningless, or random, seem to have meaning.
Have you noticed that you can't turn on your TV these days without hearing somebody say, "I believe that everything happens for a reason"?
Of course because a notion has had utility doesn't mean it's true.
Scapegoating, for example, has had great utility in human communities. Doesn't mean we think witches are really casting evil spells and should be put to death, however useful the social mechanism has been to humans as a species. |
