I don't think it's any wackier than faith in a supernatural creator/messiah/teacher. Most of today's theologists do indeed try to answer the questions posed by those with a more critical mindset, and those answers get pretty wacky, IMO. See [1] and [2].
If ancient civilizations believed in supernatural beings, then it stands to reason that perhaps their idea of a conscience was these beings speaking in their heads. I feel like the only exceptionally strange idea in this article is that humans weren't self-aware until these beings decided to STFU.
My own opinion is that we couldn't have organized into societies without self-awareness. And at some point, someone decided that societies needed rules, "higher purpose" was a bit abstract, so let's create beings to be feared ... and oh, yeah, that little voice in your head telling you not to do bad shit? The gods!
If ancient civilizations believed in supernatural beings, then it stands to reason that perhaps their idea of a conscience was these beings speaking in their heads. I feel like the only exceptionally strange idea in this article is that humans weren't self-aware until these beings decided to STFU.
My own opinion is that we couldn't have organized into societies without self-awareness. And at some point, someone decided that societies needed rules, "higher purpose" was a bit abstract, so let's create beings to be feared ... and oh, yeah, that little voice in your head telling you not to do bad shit? The gods!
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transignification
2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation