Brain rejects negativity

[Welsh cake]

I thought as much. A lot of people have a positive outlook even in the face of evidence to the contrary, underestimating risks and potential hazards in their lives:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15214080

Heck, I know people in work who pretend the 9/11 attacks never happened, they just can't deal with anything negative at all.

[Rev. Rye]

I thought as much. A lot of people have a positive outlook even in the face of evidence to the contrary, underestimating risks and potential hazards in their lives:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15214080

Heck, I know people in work who pretend the 9/11 attacks never happened, they just can't deal with anything negative at all.

Wait, they pretend 9/11 never even happened? I can understand people who claim that the towers were destroyed by a bomb, and not the plane. But that they totally refuse to acknowledge that the towers even fell? That just strains credulity.

[Faith No More]

I think this helps explain why religion is so prevalent and why people think it's 'so obvious' that god exists. Their brain rejects the idea that their life is meaningless beyond what purpose they can themselves can create.

[searchingforanswers]

I'm also curious. There are people who believe 9/11 never HAPPENED?

[Welsh cake]

Yes, sadly there are people who deny real-world atrocities and disasters out there. They've shut themselves off in their own little worlds. Several of my colleagues at work simply cannot cope if they hear any story or news item where there was any loss of life, whatever the cause, from 9/11 to world wars they "shut down" and blot out the information, rather than confront reality head-on. Decent respectable people would acknowledge what happened and pay respects to those who are no longer with us, or at least be a little constructive and help victims' families affected by said events. Interesting mindsets these individuals have.

I think this helps explain why religion is so prevalent and why people think it's 'so obvious' that god exists. Their brain rejects the idea that their life is meaningless beyond what purpose they can themselves can create.

Indeed, it seems most humans are, according to proponents of neurotheology, 'hardwired for religion' within this aspect of their genetic makeup. It may have something to do with the evolution of the brain in that, irrationality and people's preferences for superstitious beliefs were necessary to help keep the majority's emotions in check. Religious beliefs seem to keep their egocentricity appeased, or at least give it an outlet, in a reality where we're without inherent purpose and crushingly insignificant in the face of the cosmos, otherwise without these, we as a species would almost certainly destroy ourselves.

[paintpooper]

I would slap those people in the face.... tower there tower not there. We can debate how they got destroyed and reasons behind it, but to deny that they are gone is ludicrous

But regarding brain function. I feel the human brain has no reason to comprehend a "lie". So anything a human hears or see's should biologically be "true". I see giant orange cat, it likes to eat me, let me store that in my memory that big orange things with teeth like to eat me. Now if someone dressed up in a big tiger suit, I would still run like hell but the reality is there was no tiger. How is modern man suppose to filter through truth and lies with our brains that like to think everything is reality.

I don't think if all people were informed that we are just a tiny insignificant speck of space dust that the species would destroy ourselves, I find that an absurd assumption.

[BethK]

Yes, sadly there are people who deny real-world atrocities and disasters out there. They've shut themselves off in their own little worlds. Several of my colleagues at work simply cannot cope if they hear any story or news item where there was any loss of life, whatever the cause, from 9/11 to world wars they "shut down" and blot out the information, rather than confront reality head-on. Decent respectable people would acknowledge what happened and pay respects to those who are no longer with us, or at least be a little constructive and help victims' families affected by said events. Interesting mindsets these individuals have.

I think this helps explain why religion is so prevalent and why people think it's 'so obvious' that god exists.

Indeed, it seems most humans are, according to proponents of neurotheology, 'hardwired for religion' within this aspect of their genetic makeup. It may have something to do with the evolution of the brain in that, irrationality and people's preferences for superstitious beliefs were necessary to help keep the majority's emotions in check. Religious beliefs seem to keep their egocentricity appeased, or at least give it an outlet, in a reality where we're without inherent purpose and crushingly insignificant in the face of the cosmos, otherwise without these, we as a species would almost certainly destroy ourselves.

I'm wondering if this bias toward optimism and rejecting negative information outright might be what's behind some of the Holocaust Deniers. These people completely deny that the Holocaust ever happened, and that it's just some sort of propaganda. Some of them are on the right-wing nut bandwagon, but some of them are just ordinary people without any real issues one way or another.

I'm running into other groups of people who say that the US never used the atomic bomb, or didn't use it on Japan, and that the United States has never been attacked, or was never attacked before 9/11. Come again? Santa Barbara was shelled during World War 2, some of the battles in the wars between the United States and Mexico were fought on US soil - "Remember the Alamo", there were German submarines in New York Harbor during World War 2. Some of it is a sort of misguided patriotism - "Our country is THE BEST and THE GREATEST, and NOBODY would dare attack us." These things get in the way of that belief. Sometimes it's augmented with God having blessed (The United States of America) and that's why it's been safe from attack. Proving that latter part of it wrong would question the whole God thing.

[Shell B]

Fuck, I wish that worked for me. I just soak it up and get super stressed out.

[Minimalist]

There are nut jobs who insist that there were no planes hitting the towers....they claim they were "missiles" disguised as "holograms."

Been watching a tad too much Star Trek TNG I suppose.

[Rayaan]

I think this helps explain why religion is so prevalent and why people think it's 'so obvious' that god exists.

But there are also negativities in religion itself such as the idea of eternal punishment in Hell.

Also, there are many evil things done in the name of religion, and yet there are so many people who believe in those things.

So, I think what needs to be first estimated are the 'positivities' of religion and the 'negativities' of religion and then try to determine which one has a greater weight or significance (for most people) to be able to test the validity of the argument that it is specifically because of the "rejection of negativities" by the human brain that religion is so prevalent. However, I don't even think it's possible to tell whether or not religion actually helps to reduce the negativity from our minds because religion can be a negative thing for one person and a positive thing for another.