New theistic chew toys wanted!

[Angrboda]

As for athiesm, it is only one possible conclusion of applied skepticism. And it is interesting to see the various outward forms of belief resulting from all the different kinds of patches atheisticly inclined skeptics put over the "god shaped hole" in Man's heart.

Yeah, just no.

We all have human needs, and it is only your own bias and presumption that any of those needs are "god shaped".

Perhaps they are for you.  Perhaps your God exactly conforms to the shapes of your fears and needs.  If so, I suggest that YOU created your God to be that exact shape.

For me, your Christian God doesn't haven anything close to the correct "fit" for my human needs, if the the thing did exist.  Eternal life?  Boring and meaningless.  Comforting?  Not when the thing can't even prove its existence.  Provides meaning?  Not at all - I find meaning in life, people, and this moment.

The term god shaped hole may suggest things that don't exist and it may offend some, but I think there is a core to it that makes sense. In Japanese culture, the concept of wabi sabi is an aesthetic that acknowledges that things are always incomplete, imperfect, and unfinished. For better or worse, a god answers these "flaws" in reality by giving us an alternative in a perfect form that transcends the limitations of reality. A god provides things that a secular philosophy cannot, and such things are desirable; they're a reflection of our desire for the good. A god can provide answers to questions which we otherwise have to rest uncomfortably with. I think there are a lot of desirable things about a god.

And a god drives religion. People in atheists groups have speculated about how to infuse atheism with some of the ritual aspects which make being part of a religion desirable. Things like community, regular holidays/rituals, forms that people can cohere around, and so on. Generally we think the bad outweighs the good with respect to gods and religion, but there are good sides to them, and I think it would be an exaggeration to say that their absence doesn't in some sense leave a hole needing to be fulfilled. Look at nihilism and absurdism; would people willingly choose these if there were a verifiable alternative?