
…irection. The arguments that staunch atheists — like, say, Sam Harris whom I respect — make is that civilization and its norms have come far enough that we no longer need God to provide a moral framework — something I agree with, but it doesn’t mean that we have replaced the purpose and the meaning functions that God once provided us with. On the other side, you have people like Jordan Peterson — whom I also respect —arguing that humans …
To condense complexity, we use heuristics, particularly stories. These are never literal truths, but they are both true and simple enough for practical purposes, like providing moral frameworks that we can use to build the backbone of civilization. Hence, God and religion aren’t about metaphysics; they are about survival. Given that we are animals, survival comes before truth, and these beliefs are indeed logical from a…
…ernal world. Happiness is relative to your relationship to things, which is (mostly) an inside job. Sure, living in a world with lower child mortality and less total crime matters, but once you learn to expect that, your anchor readjusts. In fact, in many ways, given the diverse world we live in, with the constant choices and comparison, a world so different from the environment we evolved for, we are now perhaps more depressed and anxious than we have ever been, at least in the West.