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Scheler on how we're all seeking God, but some idolatrously

found this at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scheler/ : 

 "...Scheler's claim that the human being is a God seeker allows for atheists and agnostics, but it does lead him to a much stronger claim. “Every finite spirit believes either in a God or in an idol” (GW V, 261). An idol is a finite object that is treated as if it were infinite, as if it were God (GW V, 263). The atheist is not really, according to Scheler, a non-believer. Rather the atheist believes in a no-God, believes that there is no absolute value or meaning. This is still a religious act and a religious belief. Scheler's point is that there is always an intending of the absolute, a seeking of a God. What is in question is necessarily what fulfills this intention. The human being is always already taking some object as a God. In the act of idolatry, this God is a finite object or good such as wealth, fame or power..."

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