Yesterday several news outlets ran a story which vaguely went along the lines, "Here's why you believe in God." The source was a new book by a professor of psychology at Ohio State University who has said the reason people believe in God is because it satisfies the 16 most basic human desires.
The new theory espoused by Professor Steven Reiss in The 16 Strivings for God is the latest in psychologists' fascination with trying to explain the phenomenon of religion which extends as far back as Sigmund Freud. In each case, the assumption seems to be that either God does not exist and anyone who is vaguely intelligent knows this (obviously!) or that it is an irrelevant question. This premise alone is intriguing given that the majority of the world's population believe in a god.
However Reiss' argument is different. Previous attempts to explain religion from a psychological standpoint focus on how it provides a moral framework or a way of coping of with death. However this is too narrow an understanding, said Reiss. Instead religion addresses all 16 of the basic human desires at once – curiosity, acceptance, family, honour, idealism, independence, order, physical activity, power, romance, saving, social contact, eating, status, tranquillity and vengeance.
The lecturer at Ohio State University insists that it is impossible to reduce religion down to a single motivation but that it appeals to a range of desires.
"I think just about everything in religion is an expression of one of the 16 basic desires or a combination of them.
"For example, if you are extremely ambitious, you will value achievement much more than the normal person. God is seen as the creator of the universe, which must be the ultimate achievement, so that will appeal to you.
"If you are a penitent person, then the wrath of God in the Bible will have value to you. But if you are the opposite personality type – a peacekeeper – you will be turned off by a wrathful god. They instead have the God of turning the other cheek.
"Religion comes in opposites to be attractive to different personalities of the population."
However for Reiss, the question of whether God exists does not actually matter because it all hinges on whether our human desires are satisfied.
"It doesn't matter whether God exists or not as religious belief is aimed at fulfilling our basic human desires.
"If you want to build a religion that will have a lot of followers, you have to address all of the human desires in strong form and weak form."
The problem with Reiss' position is that it tends towards the argument that, because basic human desires are fulfilled in belief in God, then belief in God must be a construct of our imagination.
So should this argument worry Christians? Not at all. Firstly it is just a re-hash of an argument made by a 19th century philosopher called Ludwig Feuerbach. His arguments did little to disturb Christians then and Reiss should not worry us now. Reiss has even admitted his theory no implications for the validity or invalidity of religious beliefs.
But he should go further. If anything, the fact that our desires are fulfilled in belief in God adds weight to the argument that God exists. If we briefly look at our basic desires, we are hungry; and there is real food to satisfy that hunger. We are thirsty; and there is real water to quench that thirst. We have sexual desire; and there is sex. And so on.
We are made with desires and those instinctive desires are satisfied in creation. We also have instinctive spiritual desires such as the desire to worship, the desire for eternity, the desire for the supernatural. The fact that we have these desires does not mean that God must therefore be a creation of our imagination. If anything it points to the fact that God is more likely to exist.
So Reiss is quite right that our basic human desires are satisfied in belief in God. That is exactly the point. It is how we were made and there is a reason we have those desires. But far from meaning God does not exist, it actually supports those of us who think he does.
