I guess what I’m saying is that if filling “god shaped holes” becomes the most important motivating factor in an individual’s life, he or she is likely to grasp onto some kind of religious belief regardless of their upbringing. If another individual is more concerned with what is actually true, that will take precidence to a quick fix sort of peace of mind.

Everybody’s wonderin’ what and where they all came from.
Everybody’s worryin’ ’bout where they’re gonna go when the whole thing’s done.
But no one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me.
I think I’ll just let the mystery be.

Some say once you’re gone you’re gone forever, and some say you’re gonna come back.
Some say you rest in the arms of the Saviour if in sinful ways you lack.
Some say that they’re comin’ back in a garden, bunch of carrots and little sweet peas.
I think I’ll just let the mystery be.

Everybody’s wonderin’ what and where they all came from.
Everybody’s worryin’ ’bout where they’re gonna go when the whole thing’s done.
But no one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me.
I think I’ll just let the mystery be.

Some say they’re goin’ to a place called Glory and I ain’t saying it ain’t a fact.
But I’ve heard that I’m on the road to purgatory and I don’t like the sound of that.
Well, I believe in love and I live my life accordingly.
But I choose to let the mystery be.

Everybody’s wonderin’ what and where they all came from.
Everybody’s worryin’ ’bout where they’re gonna go when the whole thing’s done.
But no one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me.
I think I’ll just let the mystery be.
I think I’ll just let the mystery be

Yes, prayer is like a knife, and different prayers are different knives, as are rituals, doctrines, institutions, congregations and leaders. Some of them are paper knives that aren’t worth a damn, as I discovered when I tried to use them, but some of them are as underrated by atheists as evolution is underrated by Bible-believers.

I’ve benefited from prayer for the last 20 years and from a personal companion named God. I’ve received direction, strength, comfort, hope, and love this way that I can’t find in me otherwise. It’s not so simple as saying God runs everything, so no worries. I knew God didn’t run everything when I was raised in science. I know that now, even though I was willing to consider that traditionalists are right when religion started paying off for me. They aren’t right, for many reasons, but it’s not so simple as saying it’s just a grand illusion.

The term “God-shaped void” doesn’t come up explicitly in the book Religion Explained by academic anthropologist and apparent atheist Pascal Boyer, but I found a new way to think of that idea from his book. There is a God-shaped void that evolution created in our brain through a number of needs, such as the desire for power, knowledge, love, and goodness, along with our neurophysiological bias toward hidden causes. Atheists say they can fill this void better than theists, or they would if this concept were universally believed, and that theists are really just delivering smoke and mirrors, not any real benefit. I’m quite sure atheists are wrong on the latter point, from the benefits I’ve received, despite the skepticism I learned in science and remain grateful for, and they’ve yet to prove the first point. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors from everyone about this. That’s human nature, theist or atheist, but that is never all reality is.