Ushering In An Age of Reason....Or Not.....?

Sorry to be coming into this so late, RAZD, but I gather that the issues are quite familiar to you by now... I suppose you've probably been over this too many times already (I'm sure Straggler thinks you have), but I hope it won't be taken as off-topic if I ask: what would it take to show (to your satisfaction) that a "supernatural entity is a product of human imagination"?I suspect that this would actually be quite simple to demonstrate, and that it has probably been demonstrated countless times -- cargo cults in the South Pacific being a fairly recent and reasonably well documented category. Do you consider the creation of gods from imagination to be something demonstrable, or not?And are you actually trying to make a point that specific supernatural entities, as described in particular cultures and scriptures, must all be considered to have some non-zero probability of not originating from human imagination?If that's the case, and if I understand you correctly, this would entail that you are proposing we should acknowledge the possibility that any of the countless supernatural entities (indeed any combination thereof) have in fact been described on the basis of something other than imagination -- which in turn would entail any variety of suspensions or violations of natural laws.Edited by Otto Tellick, : minor correction to a quote

Is this "moral prime mover" an entity whose existence you would posit, RAZD? (I understand that you were replying to GDR, and I know that he clearly posits a deliberate and conscious entity as the "moral prime mover" -- I'm just wondering whether you share something like his conception.)Isn't it sufficient to posit that something akin to natural selection, operating on human social/cultural structures, is functioning as the "prime mover"? Or do you want to attribute some notion of awareness, deliberation, plan, etc, on the part of some entity in order to make things move?Indeed, looking at Robert Wright's book "Non-Zero", there seems to be a logical inevitability to the general improvement of the human condition -- despite the never-ending tension between forward and backward impulses, and the frequent lulls and setbacks. No deliberate agency is needed to plan it out, let alone any vague, supernatural entity to serve as such an agent.