(August 27, 2019 at 11:34 am)Simon Moon Wrote: So, you are trying to support your assertion that we all teleologically detect a god, with children's undeveloped brains? The same children that have imaginary friends? Believe there are monsters in the closet or under the bed? You might want rethink your examples.
You do understand, that there are and have been cultures and tribes all over the world, with no god beliefs, right? The Pirahã are one example.
I know that talk about teleology is sometimes associated with religion, but it doesn't have to be. It's pretty much just asking, "what's it FOR?"
So for example my niece took her two-year-old son to the doctor the other day. In an effort to make the office more kid-friendly, they had put up a bunch of odd and (IMHO) ugly decorations. The little kid said, "what's THAT?" and his mom said, "It's just decoration." So then he asked, "what's it FOR?"
First, I was proud that he had such good taste. But I think that's a non-religious example of teleological thinking in someone who hasn't yet been evilly indoctrinated into religious thinking. If he sees something odd, he assumes it's FOR something.
Likewise, if a child sees a diagram of the body, and asks "what's a heart?" the teleological answer will be more educational than the simpler answer. Answer with teleology: "it's a muscle in your chest that pumps the blood around." Non-teleological answer: "it's a muscle in your chest."
It's true that some religious people claim a sort of final teleology, in which all purposes, in the end, point to a single purpose, but we can think teleologically about lots of stuff without that.