I have reached the conclusion that believers' and unbelievers' minds are wired differently. Why this is so, I don't claim to understand.
Believers are so put together that they must answer the big "Why?". They find that their lives are unsatisfied without a knowledge of the ultimate Cause for... well, for everything.
Unbelievers are wired differently. I can go for years on end without thinking about "why" I hold some things to be right and others wrong, or about "why" I am here in the universe. And when I do think about those things, they are more a matter of idle speculation than anything else.
Our minds are wired differently, not better or worse. Neither the believer nor the unbeliever is "wrong" or "stupid" or needs a "crutch". That's why I never attack God or belief in him.
The only time I take offense here on FR is when someone posts to the effect that as an atheist, I cannot be a conservative, or that my atheism is harmful to America. With those ideas up I will not put....
“I can go for years on end without thinking about ‘why’”
Yet everything you post and everything you say about yourself demonstrates the opposite—that your style of thinking is to pursue the “big Why.”
Faith in God is ultimately determined by will. Will, as separate from intellect.
This answers the “why” question about the difference between believers and atheists.
If it *is* true (I haven't thought it through yet, and I'm still in the Tigger-making-exploring-noises-with-his-tongue-and-what-have-we-here-noises-mode...)
it'd be consistent with many of the early scientists attempting to get to know "the Mind of the Maker" by investigating His handiwork.
What I *do* disagree with altogether, is the idea that science has "supplanted" religion as a superior model, i.e., that religion started out as an attempt to explain the wonders of the world around us, in the absence of technology, sophisticated mathematics, or empiricism. If religions *were* manmade, they'd more often be used to justify sexual escapades and wealth for the leaders -- just as fraudulent hucksters do today; or, give license to drinking & sex -- just as the ancient Greek religions did.
Atheism *may* be harmful to America, if it is used as a stalking horse, or if it either undermines the good results of Christianity, or hollows America out so we get overrun with Moose-limbs the way England is.
Cheers!
One's private belief is not an obstacle to being a conservative, Republican, patriotic American. If that were true, we would have to declare many of our Founding fathers as left wing, liberal misfits.