(April 18, 2016 at 1:55 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(April 17, 2016 at 12:56 pm)Stimbo Wrote: And you only say that from your own opinion. Now, how do we determine whose opinion, if any, is closer to The Truth™?
Brian37 has said, and I'm paraphrasing, that it is a scientific fact that belief in god results from mistakenly inferring the existence of God from patterns found in Nature. The set of all possible patterns is a pretty large one. I don't see how he, or anyone for that matter, can exclude all possible pattern sets. If someone has definitively done in a scientific manner, then I invite Brian37 to share something specific rather than make vague appeals to evolutionary theory, etc.
I would take it to a somewhat deeper inquiry. When people study the patterns found in Nature are there in fact patterns that objectively exist independently of any particular person's observation?
What "vague" appeals? Evolution is fact, and we know cognitive life forms bad guess, for the same reason a cat or dog will mistake it's own reflection in the mirror for a rival. Our evolutionary flawed perceptions are a result of false input and ignorance. If you want to believe in Santa badly enough you will. If you want to believe in a god badly enough you will.