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Can religion be positive
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RE: Can religion be positive
January 6, 2015 at 10:30 am
(This post was last modified: January 6, 2015 at 10:33 am by ManMachine.)
(January 5, 2015 at 12:45 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(January 5, 2015 at 12:33 pm)ManMachine Wrote: Religion has been around in some form since before written or even drawn records. There is evidence of ritualistic burial going back to Neanderthals. I'm not saying religion is important at all. I very clearly said 'belief is important to humans in evolutionary terms'. If a psychological function is hardwired into our brains then it must have evolved, originally as a mutation, that gave us an environmental advantage in some way, because that's how evolution works. Your view of religion is somewhat naïve. Religion is much more than idols and statues, for the Egyptians it would have been a vital part of everyday life; it provided structure for their society, their monarchy, their system of law, and although not exclusively, their daily rituals and habits are all derived from these structures. You cannot reduce the influence of religion to merely a drain on resources - reductio ad absurdum - and expect your point to be taken seriously. To bring it back to the question asked by the OP I then said if we are to understand religion we must understand its evolved function, admittedly I have linked religion with belief, which I think is entirely reasonable. MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment) RE: Can religion be positive
January 6, 2015 at 10:38 am
(This post was last modified: January 6, 2015 at 10:38 am by robvalue.)
Evolution producing a desire to believe in a creationist God is weird huh. Likes its trying to cover its tracks.
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I generally equate prayer to meditation, which is beneficial to health. That and the old ladies at my Lutheran church had some damn fine banana bread.
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(January 6, 2015 at 10:38 am)robvalue Wrote: Evolution producing a desire to believe in a creationist God is weird huh. Likes its trying to cover its tracks. Evolution doesn't produce a desire to believe in a god, just to have some kind of system of belief. The 'creation' of gods is a different function (but not unlinked), it's very similar to the spontaneous creation of supernatural, anthropomorphic causes for natural phenomenon often found in children, such as the man in the moon, the monster under the bed, the bogey-man outside the window, etc. it comes from the same psychological process, i.e. god is the supernatural, anthropomorphic cause of everything. This is an artefact of our developmental psychology, in particular the area of developmental causal reasoning. We usually grow out of it. MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment) |
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