When we deeply love someone, we are apt to raise them to a quasi-divine status in our hearts.
If naturalism is right, this is misguided, for the evolved clouds of particles that are the people we love do not in fact have any quasi-divine status.
If theism is right, then this quasi-divinization could well be appropriate: for persons participate in God in such a way that they are in God’s image and likeness. But although not necessarily misguided, the quasi-divinization is dangerous, lest it cross the line into idolatry. (See C. S. Lewis’s Four Loves.)
I think that the theistic outlook on the quasi-divinization in love better fits with the plausible observation that this kind of deep love is sometimes both laudable and yet still morally dangerous, while on the naturalistic outlook, it is merely misguided.
4 comments:
Alex
The "quasi-divine status" in our hearts is always a subjective feeling, but it is no more misguided than e.g. the fact that red is my favourite colour.
Walter,
Some ways of favoring the color red would be misguided, as when the preference for having something red overrides objectively more important considerations.
Pruss, it seems that you have presented many such cases where our everday behaviors, attitudes, and observations make more sense under Theism than Naturalism. Do these cases have a specific name?
SMatthewStolte
Yes, some ways of favouring the colour red would be misguided, and so would some cases of quasi-divinization of a loved one. But not all of them.
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