Human Nature

[Alan V]

^I find myself overwhelmed with joy about your regret for turning this into a political thread.

Boru

This is partly my fault, since we could just as easily be discussing religious examples of how problematic human nature is.

In fact, posting at various atheist discussion forums over a period of years has likely been the greatest single reason I have changed my opinions about other people in general.  Unlike many other groups, atheists are highly conscious of how early-life conditioning often determines people's belief systems, how once people have identified with a certain group or ideology it distorts how they process information, and how so many logical fallacies depend on inherent perceptual biases.  And of course, being exposed to so many theists posting poor arguments which rationalize their beliefs, regardless of the logic or information contradicting them, could make up a course in human psychology all by itself.