(January 18, 2015 at 12:08 pm)Drich Wrote: Again, if Christianity provided what people are looking for then why wouldn't it be popular?
Lots of things are sold as "what people are looking for." The thing is, most people don't know what they're looking for.
If one can provide a close facsimile of what people are looking for, one can become an overnight billionaire. Cult leaders depend on this truth.
Underlying "what people are looking for" is a cocktail of brain chemicals and electrical impulses. Serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine - these are what people really want. The more complex and satisfying doses of this cocktail appear to be linked to things like community, working or singing or chanting together, a sense of family, security, sufficiency, safety.
These are things which Homo Sapiens is hardwired to desire, because these things mean survival. And so those populations in which our ancestors got a nice cocktail of brain activity when they engaged in these activities, well they had a head start on other populations, because they naturally sought after things that feel good.
That's what you were looking for in church. And you found it, because church provides those activities which cause your brain to hit you up with nice juicy squirts of dopamine and seretonin and oxytocin.