(November 25, 2015 at 3:07 pm)AFTT47 Wrote:(November 25, 2015 at 1:17 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Being open minded does not have to include clinging to the past.
Indeed not. But some things will not change - short of altering our genetic code and rewiring the brain.
We have seen that there is a fair range of flexibility regarding religion adherence. It's really high in middle eastern countries and very low in the UK and Nordic countries. So outside influence can make a difference there. When you get to more basic stuff though - like the human mind's tendency to fill in voids with patterns that aren't there - we're pretty much stuck with that. The best we can do is be aware of it and compensate for it - like we do with peer review when doing science. But sometimes these quirks of our minds come into play outside of science where they are not corrected for. That gives us bad shit like religion but it also generates things like literature, music, philosophy and culture. I question whether any of those latter things could exist if it were not for those "flaws" in the way our brains are wired. Trying to compensate for our brain wiring there comes across as misplaced and a little crazy.
Not seeking a utopia, just a priority shift in my fellow humans. Utopias are what the right seek in domination, but utopias are also what the left seek in political correctness out of a well intended but false sense of fairness.
Yes some things will NOT change, like our species ability to be cruel or compassionate. What religion does is take what our natural evolution does, and twists those behaviors into a comic book explanation of good vs evil. Since you cannot rid the world by force of any religion, without becoming a monster yourself, you can seek to shift priorities away from tribalism and to our common existence.
