What would God have to do, to avoid the accusation that religion is merely a wish fulfillment?

In response to my post on why human beings believe in God, Clark Coleman writes:

I recall thinking long ago that if God reveals Himself to human beings in a religion, and then provides any benefits to them (eternal life, Providential care, just listening to their prayers, etc.), that would serve as an argument for skeptics that we had invented God because we desire those benefits.

Therefore, in order to forestall future arguments by skeptics, God would have had to constrain Himself to act eternally in a random and unloving manner, and deliver a revelation to men in which He claims to be nothing else. This is the reductio ad absurdum of the skeptical argument that our faith is just a subjective wish fulfillment.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 21, 2005 09:12 PM | Send