A God Shaped Hole.

[kellyb]

Recently some of my christian friends told me they thought secular humanists were mean, bitter, angry people because they were trying to fill a "god shaped hole" with "something else".

Of course, this kind of hurt my feelings.

 

Do humans have a "god shaped hole" or a "religion shaped hole"?

[Ouroboros]

There is a built in need for most people, but not everyone has it. I've met people that never had a thought about god, and never cared. So if the hole is created by god in every human being, how can some humans be without it?

 

I think the explanation is in evolution, that groups that had strong unity and same goals/visions were just stronger. Say for instance a group of savages that believed they had the super natural powers behind them when they attacked the other tribe, had a certain advantage because they didn't fear failure, they believed in success. And positive thinking does affect peoples behaviors. That's one explanation, but there's others. For instance, we (as humans) can't accept things we can't understand, so when the primitive humans saw nature, the moon and stars, and the changes in weather, they wanted to find an explanation. They basically took the second best after science: fantasy.

 

Human are very imaginative and very easily convinced, that's our strength and our weakness.

[willybilly30]

christians think no one could possible be happy without their god and must be angry and depressed. i never got the 'hole thing' i hear it evertime i get around a fundy tho. i have never met a secular humanist in person but i have met a few athiests and they seemed happy. the angry bitter athiest concept is a fundy idea.

[Godless Wonder]

I suppose a person might perceive themselves to have a god shaped hole if they were made to dig one for themselves, as most children in the U.S. are either tricked (by unwitting tricksters who were themselves tricked) or forced into doing.

 

As a lifelong atheist, I have no such hole.

 

I do have anger, but considering that 90% or more of the population has had their minds poisoned against people like me who question the notion that believing things to a degree of certainty which exceeds that warranted by the available evidence is a virtue, nevermind one who goes so far as to say that faith is a vice, of course I'm angry..

 

My only hope is that the internet will stamp out religion - a questioning kid is a google away from the information he needs and the knowledge that he's not alone, something untrue in years past. But my fear is that religion will stamp out the internet. It's already begun with the recent acts of Congress (in the U.S.) to allow the owners of the pipes to be non-neutral wrt what information is going through those pipes -- a horrible horrible unconscionable shooting offense, in my book.

 

Gah. so much to be pissed off about, so little time. Oh, to be fat dumb and happy. Fat, I can probably manage. Dumb and happy -- happy seeming to follow dumb -- I don't think I can manage.

[Japedo]

By the example of his Fundy followers a filled god shaped hole is equivalent to Asshole so apparently they like living up to "HIS" standard.

 

Personally I think they are the most judgmental, condescending people and I would have replied, mean and bitter? you mean like how you're being now with the added judgment?

[BlueGiant]

There is a difference between a "god shaped hole" and a "hole the size of god" the former is a figment, something evangelicals/fundies say to convince themselves that they are, indeed, on the right path (in other words, a delusion). The later can be demonstrated by nivek, I'm pretty sure.

[Guest Emerson]

Well I was a psych major before. Basically, psychology tells us that we have different needs. Like physical needs such as food, shelter, then emotional needs, social needs then it goes on. There's like a pyramid of needs that was developed by this one psychologist Maslow and his pyramid of needs.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_Pyramid

 

I think willy hit a great point, in that people in their religion think that anyone who doesn't have a spiritual life is a wasted soul. If a person is living a full life then I don't think there's going to be a hole per se. I don't think the pyramid covers spiritual needs and some people have "god needs" where they need god to make it through life.

 

Everyone gets lonely and sad and depressed, that's just life. It doesn't mean that you're missing a part of yourself. Sometimes different things make us fulfilled, that may mean religion to some, art to others, knowledge to someone else. Everyone's different.

 

As a xtian, even though I had what I thought was a relationship with god, there were times when I felt unfulfilled. So it didn't fill up the hole for me. Now as an exchristian, I know why. What makes me fulfilled isn't religion.

[narcissist]

Of course, this kind of hurt my feelings.

To me, this statement is telling.

 

I wonder if this has anything to do with transference?

 

Perhaps they are transferring their own meanness, bitterness and anger onto their secular humanist "enemies" and onto you because their god has failed to fill their own "god shaped hole" that they have been convinced that they have.

 

They see how happy you (and we, and the secular humanists) are, and our happiness doesn't correspond with what they've been taught about us. They then combine this with the promises of happiness that god hasn't fulfilled in them. I can see how it would make your christian friends, at least on the inside, mean, bitter and angry.

[nirrti]

I don't think the void some people have is caused by lack of belief in a supreme being. Many times, people are drawn to religion because they never had their emotional needs met by their parents or they're lonely because they may not have the social skills to make lots of friends. So they seek a supernatural parent to love them, hence the perception of it being a god-shaped hole.

 

Then religion oftentimes purposely creates that "void" by constantly telling people they're not good enough. Then they're told that a god is the only thing that'll make them "whole" and if only they had it, they would be better.

[chefranden]

Just what the hell is the shape of an amorphus non-material thingy?

 

Just why did the amorphus non-material thingy dig the hole in the first place? Did it feel the desire to be a luscious custard filling?

[Fweethawt]

The only "hole" that I have that I can think of at the moment isn't exactly shaped like God.

 

At least I hope not, anyway.

[Gnosis of Disbelief]

By the example of his Fundy followers a filled god shaped hole is equivalent to Asshole so apparently they like living up to "HIS" standard.

 

Personally I think they are the most judgmental, condescending people and I would have replied, mean and bitter? you mean like how you're being now with the added judgment?

 

 

I was going to make a wisecrack about a god-shaped hole in

the head, but I think I like yours better, Japedo!

[kellyb]

Thanks for the heartfelt, scientific, and funny replies, ya'll.

 

I've been at work thinking about it all.

I do think I have a god shaped hole, but that's what I was conditioned to believe from childhood.

I've found that as an atheist, people matter more to me. My family and friends particularly.

Of course, people are imperfect...people betray and back stab and all manner of nasty things, so christianity says people will never fill the god shaped hole, but I've been reading about naturalism lately, and I've found that that view of forgiveness makes sense to me on some deep level that the christian "Just forgive them! God forgives you!" one never really did.

I mean, I understood the theory, but it never "worked".

But the view "If you WERE them, with the exact same genetic predisposition and upbringing, you'd do the same thing."

THAT, I can swallow.

That, to me, seems like a much more meaningful kind of forgiveness that doesn't cause a cognative dissonance.

[Asimov]

Do humans have a "god shaped hole" or a "religion shaped hole"?

 

It's called the anus, cuz that's where God first fucks you.

[Kuroikaze]

Recently some of my christian friends told me they thought secular humanists were mean, bitter, angry people because they were trying to fill a "god shaped hole" with "something else".

Of course, this kind of hurt my feelings.

 

Do humans have a "god shaped hole" or a "religion shaped hole"?

 

 

Ugg, these christians aren't even capable of being original. The first theologin to use the phrase "god shaped hole" was St. Agustine..... over 1400 years ago

 

Seriously, why can't christians say things with thier own words instead of borrowing silly bumper sticker like phrases from theologins who have been dead more than 1,000 years? Does being a chrstian kill the imagination center of the brain or something?

[Gnosis of Disbelief]

Do humans have a "god shaped hole" or a "religion shaped hole"?

 

It's called the anus, cuz that's where God first fucks you.

 

 

 

[nick5]

Of course, people are imperfect...people betray and back stab and all manner of nasty things, so christianity says people will never fill the god shaped hole,

Actually, if we're talking about bible god yaweh, he does the same thing and worse.

[LosingMyReligion]

Before I got "saved" I believed in that "god shaped hole." I became a christian simply because I wanted to stop being lonely and depressed.

 

And the void was filled. However, it had nothing to do with God and religion. It had to do with the members of the church embracing me with open arms. As a confused, lonely, and self destructive teenager that is really what I needed at that time.

 

Now that I don't have Bible God in my life I feel just fine. Infact, I am learning to love myself more everyday, inspite of some of the crap I am going through.

 

I think it depends upon the individual. Some people probably genuinely need an intense faith. And more power to you if you do. However, don't expect me to need the same. I believe in a higher power BUT I don't believe that said power is involved in every single minute detail in my life.

 

It all comes down to the individual. And I plan to be a sweet, kind, and loving non-christian. My morals and values haven't been compromised due to loss of religion.

[kellyb]

Of course, people are imperfect...people betray and back stab and all manner of nasty things, so christianity says people will never fill the god shaped hole,

Actually, if we're talking about bible god yaweh, he does the same thing and worse.

That's a really good point.

Come to think of it, that was one of the reasons why I deconverted in the first place...

[RedFox]

Maybe they identify the desire to socialize as the need for a god. Humans seem to be wired to be social like apes are. People understand what others do by thinking about why they would want to do things, modifying those thoughts to account for how other people could differ from themselves.

 

How does this begin? People anthromorphize things and that where ideas of spirits and gods could be from. Gods like Yahweh could be seen as the anthromorphizing of the ultimate reality. I see this anthromorphizing as using social thought processes on nonhuman things. The believers, having "socialized" with their vision of the ultimate reality, project their need for such a thing onto others, seeing the "holes" in the hearts of nonbelievers. It is a failure to modify their thoughts to account for others not believing in such things.

[♦ ficino ♦]

Of course, people are imperfect...people betray and back stab and all manner of nasty things, so christianity says people will never fill the god shaped hole,

Actually, if we're talking about bible god yaweh, he does the same thing and worse.

That's a really good point.

Come to think of it, that was one of the reasons why I deconverted in the first place...

 

I agree. I felt the God void but later I realized God, if he existed as the Bible describes him, was such a scumbag that it was better to have the void every so often.

 

After deconverting, later on I decided feeling of the void had a lot to do with my traditional attitude toward death - i.e. unless there's an afterlife, this life is meaningless. I realized that made no sense. When I accepted that I'm just part of the universe, I came into being and will pass away, the whole "what's the meaning of life" thing sort of faded away. My big issues in recent years have been with relationships to people, but the god-void part didn't come back to me again. I think actually I couldn't have made much progress with people if I were still a bible-believer. I would still be blocked from openness with other people by religious illusions of all kinds.

[Thackerie]

Recently some of my christian friends told me they thought secular humanists were mean, bitter, angry people because they were trying to fill a "god shaped hole" with "something else".

Of course, this kind of hurt my feelings.

 

Do humans have a "god shaped hole" or a "religion shaped hole"?

 

The folks who got here before me have already done a fine job of expounding on the nature of holes, god-shaped and otherwise. I do want to comment, however, that your christian friends apparently have no idea what a "secular humanist" is and just believe in the bogeyman that their minister, or Faux News, or some other "authority figure" with a far-right agenda taught them to fear. Here is how the Humanists define themselves:

 

"Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity."

 

Sounds like some pretty good people, to me. Not angry or bitter at all, and certainly not unfulfilled.

 

Why don't you do your friends a favor and point them in the direction of some education and information that counters the nonsense they've been taught? It's the only cure for the mindfuck that christianity inflicts on its victims.