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The Reason for Religion/God
February 8, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Just wanted to share this with you...
" God is Man's response to a legacy of evolutionary discontent. The faculty of conceptual thought that raised Man above all other animal life was achieved only at the cost of a divided and tormented mind... Man's response to that awful burden of self-determination was to create for himself a god and to still his self doubts in the solace of religion".(p.1)
John M Allegro
Lost Gods
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 8, 2012 at 5:27 pm
(February 8, 2012 at 4:49 pm)Forsaken Wrote: Just wanted to share this with you...
" God is Man's response to a legacy of evolutionary discontent. The faculty of conceptual thought that raised Man above all other animal life was achieved only at the cost of a divided and tormented mind... Man's response to that awful burden of self-determination was to create for himself a god and to still his self doubts in the solace of religion".(p.1)
John M Allegro
Lost Gods
I'd say that it was the application of rationality combined with absence of knowledge that gave rise to the concept of god. Humans observed nature and understood the law of causality. Further, since they observed that in any actions undertaken by them they were the causal agents, they extrapolated it to everything else and assumed that any event occurring had a conscious causal agent behind it. When no knowledge of such obvious agency was forthcoming, they made one up.
What's sad is that the knowledge is no longer absent and still people cling to the made-up causal agency.
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 8, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Give us a few thousand years, and we might finally get rid of the need for religion.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 8, 2012 at 10:09 pm
(February 8, 2012 at 4:49 pm)Forsaken Wrote: "The faculty of conceptual thought that raised Man above all other animal life was achieved only at the cost of a divided and tormented mind..."
So you're saying non-theists are divided and tormented, and that's good, while theists have solved evolution's gap? By all accounts, tormented minds lead to more human bloodshed, and theists are as capable as ever of killing animals for food. Why should evolution take this backwards route to filling its voids? If people can develop moral consciences, surely they can develop a desire to kill for self-preservation without being tormented. If anything, morality and being psychologically restless are at odds. A religious person might not want to kill an animal, their being divided internally makes them want to after all, and finding a faith makes not want to again. Do you see the problem here?
Since we're trading thoughts in the media, check this one out:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article....eid=177228
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 8, 2012 at 11:07 pm
It is clear that undeceived has chosen an ironic name.
Trying to update my sig ...
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 9, 2012 at 2:29 am
I personally think ideas like this are way over-thought.
Here's a far more likely explanation for how mankind created God,...
Once mankind learned to speak Parents would start telling their children stories. They would tell these young impressionable naive children scary stories to keep them in line.
Stories like "And then God torn the arms off the snake and cursed it to crawl on its belly and eat dirt for the rest of its days! All because the snake did something that God didn't like. And you don't want to end up like a snake do you?"
She children would be frightened into becoming well-behaved kids.
Soon it became apparent to some of the more controlling social leaders that even adults were gullible enough to believe the stories, and thus religion was born as a means off frightening gullible people into doing whatever "God Says" even if it meant supporting male-chauvinism, etc.
And the gullibility never ceased to this very day. Now eat your cookies and drink your milk and don't forget to say your prayers before you go to sleep.
Christian - A moron who believes that an all-benevolent God can simultaneously be a hateful jealous male-chauvinistic pig.
Wiccan - The epitome of cerebral evolution having mastered the magical powers of the universe and is in eternal harmony with the mind of God.
Atheist - An ill-defined term that means something different to everyone who uses it.
~~~~~
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Clearly Jesus (a fictitious character or otherwise) will forgive people if they merely know not what they do
For the Bible Tells us so!
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 9, 2012 at 2:42 am
(February 9, 2012 at 2:29 am)Abracadabra Wrote:
I personally think ideas like this are way over-thought.
Here's a far more likely explanation for how mankind created God,...
Once mankind learned to speak Parents would start telling their children stories. They would tell these young impressionable naive children scary stories to keep them in line.
Stories like "And then God torn the arms off the snake and cursed it to crawl on its belly and eat dirt for the rest of its days! All because the snake did something that God didn't like. And you don't want to end up like a snake do you?"
She children would be frightened into becoming well-behaved kids.
Soon it became apparent to some of the more controlling social leaders that even adults were gullible enough to believe the stories, and thus religion was born as a means off frightening gullible people into doing whatever "God Says" even if it meant supporting male-chauvinism, etc.
And the gullibility never ceased to this very day. Now eat your cookies and drink your milk and don't forget to say your prayers before you go to sleep.
The indoctrination of religion is applicable to explain how the current generation are still religious. However, how religion and the concept of god began initially can be explained in a simple sentence: "Human need to fill in an explanation for the unexplained".
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 9, 2012 at 3:23 am
(This post was last modified: February 9, 2012 at 3:24 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Narratives like the genesis narrative weren't even close to the beginnings of religion. The faiths that survive today (all of them) are very very late to that party. There isn't any traction in referencing surviving faiths as examples when discussing the origins of religion overall.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 9, 2012 at 12:13 pm
(February 8, 2012 at 4:49 pm)Forsaken Wrote: Just wanted to share this with you...
" God is Man's response to a legacy of evolutionary discontent. The faculty of conceptual thought that raised Man above all other animal life was achieved only at the cost of a divided and tormented mind... Man's response to that awful burden of self-determination was to create for himself a god and to still his self doubts in the solace of religion".(p.1)
John M Allegro
Lost Gods
The huge lust for answers, to answer the unknown. To rationalise the world around us but without any knowledge of the world we inhabit. God is the answer to fill the gaps of knowledge. It's been made redundant centuries ago.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan
Mankind's intelligence walks hand in hand with it's stupidity.
Being an atheist says nothing about your overall intelligence, it just means you don't believe in god. Atheists can be as bright as any scientist and as stupid as any creationist.
You never really know just how stupid someone is, until you've argued with them.
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RE: The Reason for Religion/God
February 9, 2012 at 12:53 pm
(February 8, 2012 at 10:09 pm)Undeceived Wrote: So you're saying non-theists are divided and tormented, and that's good, while theists have solved evolution's gap?
This has to be one of the most consciously convoluted misinterpretations I've seen in a while.
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