How atheists can still believe in God?

[Confused Ape]

I agree with Kearney about God being a symbol of something. Hands up everyone who guessed I'm going back to God On The Brain. This time I'm going to quote Richard Dawkins who took part in the documentary.

DAWKINS: If you ask the question 'what's the survival value of religious belief?' it could be that you're asking the wrong question. What you should be doing is asking what's the survival value of the kind of brain which manifests itself as religious belief under the right circumstances.

DAWKINS: The human religious impulse does seem very difficult to wipe out, which causes me a certain amount of grief. Clearly religion has extreme tenacity.

Research so far indicates that humans, as a species, evolved to produce subjective experiences of something which has been given different names, including God. Humans then decided that God exists 'out there' and went on to claim that they know how God thinks and what it wants. As different groups of humans believed different things they ended up with competing religions and we all know what that has led to.

I also agree with Kearney that the symbol needs reinterpreting. Maybe neuroscience will be a very useful tool for this. This doesn't automatically mean that neuroscience will lead to the new interpretation that Kearney would like, though.

*Yes, this isn't just restricted to Christianity/Islam, though I may argue that in dogmatic states such as Stalinist Russia/Nazi Germany/North Korea the symbols may be different, but the outcomes almost the same. Actually the symbols are similar to those of religion, with a near supernatural leader who is perfect and must be worshipped.

A very good point. I wonder what goes on in the brains of fanatical followers of an ideology when they're focussing on the object of their devotion. (Hope that makes sense.)