Is there any real harm to God as an imaginary proxy for goodness? Say you explicitly disbelieve, but consciously embrace the alief that there is a sentient embodiment of goodness responsible for creating you and saving your life from accidents. This has the advantage that you can "thank" the imaginary entity and thus trigger similar social circuitry in your brain to thanking an individual who has done you a personal favor.
It's not literally true or really being claimed to be true, but is it actually harmful to indulge in these kinds of fantasies? Or is denying this impulse the atheistic equivalent of right-wing parents who are afraid to let their kids read Harry Potter (because it is about witchcraft)?
This has the advantage that you can "thank" the imaginary entity and thus trigger similar social circuitry in your brain to thanking an individual who has done you a personal favor.
Why is this an advantage?
Well, I used to think that I do not believe in anything supernatural that affects what happens to me, but I'm wondering if maybe I actually do alieve in it. For example, a few days ago I had a close call in traffic, and when a collision I fully expected to happen just a second prior did not transpire, I mentally thanked... whom? I definitely had a clear feeling of gratitude for escaping, and I don't normally mean it literally when I say "Thank God!". So, who or what did I feel thankful to? I've never been religious, and I got rid of most of my superstitions over the years, but apparently there is still something there, and I do not know how to react to this knowledge.
What would be the proper reaction after a close call? Shrug and say "got lucky this time, should be more cautious next time"? What about when waiting for a diagnosis, what does sort-of-praying "please, please, let everything be OK" say about one's true beliefs? I know that I am much better at not blaming the world when something bad happens to me by chance than at not thanking the world when something good happens. Should it not be symmetric? Which part of a normally non-religious person wakes up and asserts itself in a crisis situation out of their control? Should it be embraced, suppressed, worked on?