It has been said that, "If God didn't exist, it would be necessary to create Him." (Voltaire)
It strikes me that, as far as I know (and I intend to research this), there has never been a truly atheist society.
Every society of humans–no matter how primative or advanced–has believed in some form of Diety.
In fact, we (USAnians)–arguably the most advanced society ever–proclaim our belief on our money! (And this despite our vitally important separation of Church and State.)
What does this mean, this apparent universal human perception that, “There is a God!”
And, yes, I quite realize that atheists proclaim to have no such belief, and I'm quite willing to substitute general for universal.
I do wonder, however, to what extent this belief extends from their intellect to their gut. As the saying goes, “There are no atheists in the trenches.” Given the right emotional stresses, how many atheists would find themselves praying?
Early humans saw meta-physics in everything about them. The wind, the sea, the path of the sun across the sky; all these were inhabited with meta-physics. In attempting to explain what was to them unexplainable in common terms, early humans invented a meta-physics we now know to be false.
Beginning with the ancient Greeks, the human exploration of the physical world has set aside the early meta-physics. We now have knowledge of the wind and the sea and the sun.
And yet, the idea of a meta-physics remains with us as strongly today as it did in any age.
Which suggests one of two things must be true:
As mentioned above, I have a sneaking suspicion that many who are intellectually atheist may have an emotional sense of a greater meta-physics. Most staunch atheist will tell you that this is a remnent of some ancient hysteria.
It does seem natural that, given our perception of the vastness of the universe, it seems natural to wish for meaning and purpose. No one can be completely comfortable knowing that they are just one brief candle in a universe as vast and ancient as ours. Even knowing one is–today–just one of the billions and billions of people currently inhabiting the earth can be daunting and depressing.
How nice if there is a God that cares about us and guides us. How wonderful if it all does have meaning and purpose!
So it's quite logical to suppose that simple human smallness leads us to wish for and believe in something much greater.
And yet...every society in the history of humans?
Are all of them just completely wrong?
Or is there, just maybe, some grain of truth there that we all see?