(December 10, 2015 at 4:39 pm)RobbyPants Wrote:(December 9, 2015 at 8:12 am)Aractus Wrote: Religion still does more good than harm. It still provides people with the benefits that they've drawn from it for 300,000 years - in all of its various forms and belief systems.
[Citation needed]
From what I know, people haven't been around that long. By what metric are you measuring more good than harm?
People have been around for 6-13 million years, depending on how you want to define our ancestry. But 6 million years ago is when our oldest known ancestor lived that was separate to chimps (and it could stretch back 13 million years), thus from that time our species was "special". Perhaps not as special as it is now, but it was different enough to eventually lead to modern humans.
Belief in the supernatural has been around for as long as we know. The Aborigines here in Australia have a belief system that stretches back at least 40-60,000 years, and theirs is the oldest known & still present belief system. My point is these beliefs are part of human nature.
I don't need to measure it in antiquity, I rely solely on the scientific theories of game theory and evolution (as applied to systems).
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
