(July 9, 2019 at 8:28 am)Belaqua Wrote: I think I was clear that I wasn't talking about modern humans. I think the concepts were still fuzzy for very early humans, and the ideas of what was alive, and what had emotions, and what needed to be cooperated with, was nowhere near what it is for us on this forum.
So the early humans were by default, atheists with questions.
Quote:I think we have built in desires to explain how the world works. Maybe it works like a language -- the desire and the basic structure is built in, but the specifics are learned from whatever society the child finds herself in. In a religious society, she learns religion as the explanation. In a logic-only society, she learns logic as the explanation.
Yes, which just backs up what I said about the default position.
Quote:If we take the term "faith" in its simplest sense, to mean "I'm pretty sure it's true," then a child raised in a logical household will have faith in logic.
In a theistic sense, I take the term faith to mean "I'm believing this on poor, or no evidence." I wouldn't use the term faith in the way that you describe.
Quote:That particular woo isn't hardwired into us. The general desire to find explanations probably is. Some explanations will be a lot better than others.
So why did you object to atheism being the default position in human beings? (Yes I know atheism wasn't even a thing back then, but I'm sure you know what I mean)