that believers share together?
Dawkins wrote a book named
The God Delusion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Delusion
now suppose that most believers would say that Dawkins is wrong.The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book
by English biologist Richard Dawkins, ...
In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator
almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god
qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief
held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.
...
The believers maybe say their personal experiences tells them
that God is alive and answer their prayers and that they feel God.
Atheists would say that most likely God is a delusion or some atheists
would only say. I lack believe in gods.
suppose I as an experiment just accept what Dawkins say.
suppose I say. Yes God is a shared delusion by some believers.
what if I say God is a delusion that believers share together?
And if I really take that seriously and believe in it.
I guess some believers and some atheists would
find my assertion rather ridiculous? why is that so?
Why can it not be the best explanations there is for the presence of God
in human culture. some 6000 named gods that almost none believe in now
and a few remaining gods that very many do believe in.
Why did some gods die out or why did the believers stop believing in them?
My wild suggestion is that as long as
God is a delusion that believers share together
then that god may survive for as long they act on
that belief together.
sorry confusing logic there but maybe you get what I try to say.
the important thing is not that it is a delusion the important thing
is that they act upon the delusion together in a way that works for them.
Their acts of faith support that delusion of their particular God
and depending on how effectively their acts of faith get spread
that particular delusion of God get more supporters and stay alive.
What does the word delusion mean?
a false belief or opinion
Psychiatry. a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason
or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion.
Delusion come from verb to delude
to mislead the mind or judgment of;
to deceive
the important things is that it is a shared delusion. that the believers
delude each other together for to support each others faith.
I find it rather likely to be the best explanation of why it works.
Now the big difference. AFAIK many atheists wants
to use this idea as a mean to make religious faith obsolete
or to be as little exposed as possible. A private faith not public.
My suggestion is that one do the opposite.
One trust this is the truth about God and religion
and take responsibility for making the delusion
better and better until it is a safe product that one
can make use of without it being harmful to anybody.
Humans made the gods and we should take responsibility
for what we make belief and make it safe to use as a tool
for togetherness.