Okay, I'm going to try to stay on topic and NOT think about naked high school girls.
It seems to me that there are 3 underlying issues here:
1. The distinction between religion and magic.
I'm very taken by the analysis of Levi-Strauss on this one (see The Savage Mind). According to Levi-Strauss, Religion is the projection of human qualities on to the non-human universe. A clear-cut case is the belief in divinely-ordained morality. Morals are human constructions that exist only because of human beliefs, desires and social conventions, but the religious mindset projects these human constructions on to the inanimate and meaningless universe. Magic is in a sense the reverse of religion- the projection of natural categories on to people and human institutions. A good example is Totemism, in which the differences between human tribes are understood as being the same as the differences between types of animal- so the Eagle tribe is to the Bear tribe as Eagles are to Bears. A more familiar example is Astrology.
It follows from this that there is nothing contradictory about viewing the world in mainly magical terms, while eschewing religion- they're actually 2 distinct ways of looking at things.
2. The Consequences of Materialist Philosophy
If you're a physicalist (materialist monist) then pretty clearly you don't believe in anything supernatural- religion and magic seem equally wrong. However, being a physicalist involves the denial of any sort of meaning or purpose in the universe beyond that which we, as conscious agents, create. Now personally, I'm very happy with this position, but IME mine is very much a minority view. Most people want the inanimate universe to have meaning, and they want to believe in something 'higher' than themselves.
Equally, many people can't handle the fact that when you die, you simply cease to exist. They believe that there must be something more to it than that.
Thus there are a large number of folk who are atheists (for whatever reason), but are psychologically unable to make the final step to an outright materialist metaphysics. They need some sort of 'comfort blanket' of spiritual/ supernatural beliefs.
3. Poor Understanding of Science
Another issue is that the general level of scientific literacy is shockingly low. Thus many people find it very difficult to distinguish science from pseudo-science. Homeopathy, crystal healing, and the widespread belief in ESP are imo largely the product of general scientific illiteracy.
Finished. Now I can think about naked high school girls again.
It seems to me that there are 3 underlying issues here:
1. The distinction between religion and magic.
I'm very taken by the analysis of Levi-Strauss on this one (see The Savage Mind). According to Levi-Strauss, Religion is the projection of human qualities on to the non-human universe. A clear-cut case is the belief in divinely-ordained morality. Morals are human constructions that exist only because of human beliefs, desires and social conventions, but the religious mindset projects these human constructions on to the inanimate and meaningless universe. Magic is in a sense the reverse of religion- the projection of natural categories on to people and human institutions. A good example is Totemism, in which the differences between human tribes are understood as being the same as the differences between types of animal- so the Eagle tribe is to the Bear tribe as Eagles are to Bears. A more familiar example is Astrology.
It follows from this that there is nothing contradictory about viewing the world in mainly magical terms, while eschewing religion- they're actually 2 distinct ways of looking at things.
2. The Consequences of Materialist Philosophy
If you're a physicalist (materialist monist) then pretty clearly you don't believe in anything supernatural- religion and magic seem equally wrong. However, being a physicalist involves the denial of any sort of meaning or purpose in the universe beyond that which we, as conscious agents, create. Now personally, I'm very happy with this position, but IME mine is very much a minority view. Most people want the inanimate universe to have meaning, and they want to believe in something 'higher' than themselves.
Equally, many people can't handle the fact that when you die, you simply cease to exist. They believe that there must be something more to it than that.
Thus there are a large number of folk who are atheists (for whatever reason), but are psychologically unable to make the final step to an outright materialist metaphysics. They need some sort of 'comfort blanket' of spiritual/ supernatural beliefs.
3. Poor Understanding of Science
Another issue is that the general level of scientific literacy is shockingly low. Thus many people find it very difficult to distinguish science from pseudo-science. Homeopathy, crystal healing, and the widespread belief in ESP are imo largely the product of general scientific illiteracy.
Finished. Now I can think about naked high school girls again.