(February 19, 2015 at 12:19 pm)YGninja Wrote:(February 19, 2015 at 11:09 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: I'd actually be willing to agree that a study like that is likely to exist (though in a much more coherent and less pulled-out-his-ass form, certainly not just 'dropping kids on a desert island'), but that just illustrates the process through which religions are started. Creating stories to explain unknown events and attributing them to higher beings is the modus operandi for fledgling religions. I don't know how YGninja thinks the Egyptian or Greek or Hindu pantheons started, but it's very much like people experiencing natural phenomena and, lacking sufficient explanation with the information we have nowadays, creating their 'best guess' usually illustrated through stories and myths.
YGninja's own points undercut his conclusions from the very start.
(Not even mentioning the tribes in South America that have no God concept at all)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion...laims.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics...study.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201...103828.htm
Yeah, I came across those sites too. I'm not sure what your point is in mentioning this. Children mistakenly attribute agency to non-sentient objects, indulge in magical thinking, have poor skills in determining what are and what are not good analogies, and are likely to cling to an idea that they will live forever. You're going to hang your hat on that peg? Seriously? And then you perhaps wonder why non-believers characterize religious belief as childish?
