[5upplied_demand]

> The idea that human beings are the end-all to reality, the highest form of consciousness and most powerful being, just seems hopelessly self-centered to me.

I don't understand how this needs to be connected to the idea of God. Couldn't one believe that there are alien life forms with more power and higher consciousness without believing in God?

In contrast, the Christian followers of God believe he made us (humans) in his image and sent his son explicitly to save us (humans). Isn't that a more self-centered view?

[keiferski]

Why does it need to be a competition? I think both "typical materialist atheism" and traditional Christianity are self-centered views of the universe. Hence my comment. Modern atheist movements/positions in the West are themselves heavily in debt to Christian metaphysics and psychology in the first place, so it is not really surprising that they have similar structures.

And the idea isn't so much about aliens, more powerful beings in the universe, etc. rather that (I think) we can't understand or know a lot of fundamental things about reality; therefore, it seems logical to me that there is some higher form of intelligence or creative being beyond human understanding. Otherwise it implies that humans are the end-all, which I think is self-centered.