Thought this post died... Must be philosophical Thursday!
My line of thinking was more along the lines of how the concept of god and spirituality are interwoven in culture and evolve as we come to a better understanding of our world. As societies modernized the isms too precedent over organized religion as the primary means for ordering societies, fascism, capitalism, communism etc, while religion remained a choice as a spiritual outlet. Specifically applied to modern addiction recovery; I think it means that everyone has choice to figure out how fill the void/ rebuild oneself without their doc. It implies different paths for different people. It's why AA works. AA teaches a discipline that ultimately enhances personal growth and awareness. It's spiritual, which validates our emotions as experiences sober, and open ended enough to allow a person to grow as an individual. The god reflex, then could be considered a necessary human quality for social order, whether channeled into denying, believing, or embracing the isms. The Jungian concept of collective conscious involves more than I could explain with any brevity, but includes aspects of budhism, Freudian psychology, sociology and many other things. It's sort of an overlap or shared understanding among people in general or a subgroup in specific. His dream analysis is both fun and informative. Sorry for rambling, reading everyones posts helps me keep it real and clarifies my own thoughts. Humbly on day 93.