the god necessity
As we look back through the religious conceptions of human nature - and indeed we need not look so very far back because the same doctrine can be found in Freud - it becomes crystal clear that any doctrine of the innate depravity of man or any maligning of his animal nature very easily leads to some extra-human interpretation of goodness, saintliness, virtue, self-sacrifice, altruism, etc. If they can't be explained from within human nature - and explained they must be - then they must be explained from outside of human nature. The worse man is, the poorer a thing he is conceived to be, the more necessary becomes a god.
- Abraham Maslow, from 'Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences' (1964)