Imagination vs. Reality...

I once heard it said that anything we can imagine must be based on something already perceived. I don't remember the circumstances, or even who the conversation was with, but this statement my mind has never left. When the Wright brothers imagined flight, they based it on birds. When dragons are told in legend and fairy tale, I suppose they are based on giant lizards and dinosaurs. We cannot imagine that which isn't based on something already in existence, having been perceived by ourselves or someone we know. Nothing exists man-made which isn't based in some way upon our senses.

Which brings up the question: where did the preconceived notion of a deity come from? Do we imagine him/her/it based on some past experience lodged in our DNA, senses of our distant ancestors reaching through time? Or is this notion based on our imaginings of what we could be as humans?

We constantly use our imaginations: "Oh my god, I could have just died!" (Our imagination when we have just avoided a near-collision on the bypass.) "Oh my god, the bank's going to repossess my car!" (Our imagination when we think we might not have enough money coming in for the bills going out.)

So when we imagine a god, or a deity, from whence does this imagining come? Religious doctrine dictates that this is god himself revealing himself to you, or the divine trying to "save" you if we follow a conservative Christian perspective. But religious imaginings span the globe in all forms, from Brahma, Vishnu and Siva to Jesus to the sun, moon and stars. From snakes and other creatures to elements like earth and water, fire and wind. Once could surmise from this observation alone that god is all. But why must god be? Why does the collective thoughts of mankind center on a divine at all?

Think of that near-car crash in which you imagined you could have just died. You know this could have been a cause of death from things you have seen on the news, maybe from a real-life experience of your own, possibly just from reading an article. You have never experienced death yourself (or you'd be already dead imagining you could have died!), but you imagine that you could have. You are forcing your mind to think of something that you have not experienced physically, but maybe through your ears and eyes. Your mind leaps to this conclusion based on those senses alone.

But to imagine deity, what sense has been invaded or overtaken to imagine this?

Some attribute random coincidences to the divine. Others see "signs," such as the woman in Texas who thought God was telling her to kill her baby when she saw a spider crawling on him. And still others think everything is planned by a deity, no ifs, ands, or buts. These are all certainly things our senses pick up on: the spider, the winning lotto numbers, grandma's sudden return from the brink of death. But why attribute them to an unsensible?
For eons, the very definition in a single society has changed with the times. Our imaginings of a deity must change with society, or society would die off, I believe. People used to believe you needed your physical things in the afterlife. Then the idea of god providing even in the afterlife lead to a belief that we need not be buried (cremated, mummified) without physical things. Then there was this discussion of hell, purgatory, heaven, Abraham's bosom, nirvana, enlightenment, all kinds of things I'm not even aware of were thought of the afterlife. But this is really a tangent.

The collective mindset of a deity has been discussed by ergo in several posts in various forms, but why... why why why? is there a concept of a deity?

I suppose some see it a "fire insurance." Others as the need for someone or something to give them values or morals. I believe this deity concept is rooted in our very need for non-responsibility. Our need to "blame" someone for that which we cannot understand in our world. This is certainly always been evident in the Catholic history. And when the church's beliefs were proven wrong by science, by man's imagination, our concept of god and his "word" has had to change as well, though the church made it very hard to do so. But there is always something we haven't answered yet. Why people die, why children die, why murder happens, why volcanoes erupt, why earthquakes happen. We have theories on all these things, and many others. An understanding of all things may ever be had, of course. And hence a belief in a deity will always persist, I think. And as long as we have god, we will always rail against that to find the answers. God is good for society in general, as people always need something to challenge them into doing something. Whether that be survival, or finding purpose, or trying to end an "act of god," as long as there is "god," we will continue to be enlightened in how we can live without this overarching concept.

Perhaps one could surmise that the idea of a deity is an evolutionary necessity?

Of course, maybe I just need sleep. At least I get a chance to use all my cool clip art!