Godly

Lack of evidence indicates that a spiritual plane that relates to everyday experience probably doesn't exist. That's the agnostic stance. The non-theist would much more simply say, “There is no supernatural component to the universe of any kind.”

If the supernatural, in any sense, does not exist, why then is belief in things like “God,” or “the Devil,” or other spiritual planes in the universe so wide spread? It boils down to something fairly simple. Of the many mechanisms in a human body that handle information processing, only a small number of them can entertain the concept of “death.” The rest of these information handling mechanisms have no way of processing that idea. When I say they have no way of processing the idea of death, I don't merely mean that the idea is rejected. I mean the idea of death bounces off of them like acrobats on a trampoline.

It gets down to what we commonly call “drives” in living things. For instance, living things like plants have no drives. Yet the presence of certain chemicals or sunlight causes a plant to change shape to either increase or reduce exposure. Animals drives aren't very much more complex than these actions in plants, actually. Instead of changing shape, though, animals simply move as needed.

For instance, animals do not have a drive to survive. They don't know what death is, so they don't know what survival means. But they perceive pain, and they understand the effects of pain on themselves and others of their species. For this reason it can be said that animals have a drive to avoid pain or discomfort.

This drive is virtually all that motivates people as well. Two other sub-drives might exist. People seem to be driven to execute sexual behaviors, for one, and the drive to get the kids out of the house and on their own as quickly as possible might be a second. But both of these are easily rolled up into the main drive to avoid pain or discomfort. (The reader is encouraged to think out why this might be.)

Until human beings came along, it never occurred to members of the animal kingdom that avoiding pain or discomfort might have a bearing on life or death. And oddly enough, even our awareness of the certainty of death doesn't change the nature of this primary drive to avoid pain. What is the most common response in humanity to death?

Why, complete denial, of course.

Denial of death in the form of bodily resurrection. Denial of death in the form theologies of pre-existent souls that journey on to many levels of awareness through re-incarnation. Denial in any form that rejects the notion that this body and the human awareness it contains all goes away at death. It's a denial that builds many concepts of life after death.

This is the idea of death bouncing off an animal drive like acrobats on a trampoline.

Deities, whether good or bad, function as gate keepers in these universes-with-life-after death. Some deities are gate keepers to the resources which continue our animal existence, and some are gate keepers who tell you when it's time to leave “this life.” In other traditions, the deities are gate keepers to places of pleasure, and others watch the gates to places of pain.

Death is not merely scary, though that's bad enough. It also creates an extremely deep existential confusion. What's life about if it's all so transient? Who really can say?

Well, that's where all of these religious traditions come in. From an objective basis they don't solve the real problem, that being certain mortality. But they can provide a salve or ointment for the fear and confusion generated by the knowledge of death. Most people simply can't handle that bleak reality. But there's no weakness in that inability. It's an aspect of reality that simply doesn't fit with the way most of our information processing works.

Animals in general, and human beings are no exception, aren't built to handle many things that are true about the universe. That being said, humans do acquire a distinct advantage over other animals through this knowledge of death: they can create defenses against death for themselves to put it off as long as possible. From a Darwinist standpoint, knowledge of death becomes a critical differentiator. From this viewpoint, faith in a religious tradition could facilitate a variety of lifestyle strategies that help people play the game of natural selection more effectively.

Ironically, then, it could be concluded that faith in spiritual fictions describing various gods or planes of existence actually help you get along in a universe where they don't exist. But this isn't an isolated case. There are many other such fictions that help us get along as well. Color, for instance, is a fiction of perception. Democracy (or any “social order” for that matter) is a fiction. Yet they are very useful fictions. They help people get along better in life, but there's nothing real about them.

Joseph Campbell felt that we should be in complete control of our fictions, or what he called myths. When Bill Moyers asked , “What is the meaning of life?” Campbell said that life HAS no meaning. It's just a random occurrence in a universe that doesn't care. The power of myth, asserted Campbell, is that you can create all the meaning you want for yourself. You can create the meaning that you want or you need.

Many people need these fictions to create a less frightening world. Everyone else needs their fictions to create purpose for themselves. We ALL need our fictions to keep us sane, or saner than we'd be without them.