An example of false perceptions..........

[Brian37]

Dawkins is absolutely right that evolution explains why humans believe false things, both inside and outside the issue of religion. It is simple gap filling where answers lack. 

Our brains gap fill every single day countless times most of the time we don't realize we are doing it. Yesterday I went to visit my mom, and when I left got back into my van. I turned the ignition which caused the air conditioner go turn on, but what I didn't know was I had not turned it far enough, so my brain gap filled thinking the engine was on. I put the van in gear, but it did nothing and the steering wheel wouldn't move easily because the power steering wasn't on. I thought "oh shit, what happened to the engine", for a second. Turned out as I said, I simply didn't realize the engine wasn't one due to the volume of the air conditioner.


God belief works the same way, we are merely gap filling and projecting our own qualities on non human things based on a false perception, that since we are cognitive some bigger cognition must have caused us. Humans simply do not understand how easy it is for themselves to fool themselves to see a pattern where none exists, and  or gap fill because they don't understand what is really going on, just like I didn't understand for a second, that I simply didn't turn the ignition far enough to actually turn the engine on.

So why do humans gap fill like this? Well it stems from evolutionary pattern seeking, and fight or flight. Life doesn't always have time to slow down and assess a situation and evolved to make quick decisions. So life evolved to gap fill in a rush, but while it does have success, that success can be based on a false perception. 

Another example. When I was a kid, I was walking with my dad, through a marina, saw what I thought was a green leaf being slightly pushed around by a soft wind on the ground. But when I got closer, I realized it was money, and picked it up. That initial false perception did lead to "success". But, the crap shoot of life was my father saying "let me keep that $10 dollar bill for you, and my other false perception of "trust", made me lose because I never saw it again.

False perceptions are why you can walk into a clean glass door because your brain thinks it is open. False perceptions are why people believe in conspiracies like Ouija boards working, or vampires, or even while driving, sliding and crashing because of black ice on the road, because your brain tells you there is no ice there, even though there is.

Humans simply do not understand in scientific terms how easily their brains can fool them. And god belief is a very easy delusion to sell and buy, especially because most of the time you implant that idea into a empty brain before it can develop critical thinking skills and before they child can learn how valuable the compare and contrast, testing and falsification and independent peer review, quality control the tool of scientific method is.

[Brian37]

One of the most annoying superstitions I see outside religion, is that of when a co worker is on a break and get's interrupted by a phone call or walk in customer and they always stupidly say "This always happens". Actually no, they only focus on the times it does happen and ignore all the times it does not happen, not to mention all the other workers and high traffic times of the day/year vs low volume. This is known as selection bias and sample rate error.

I once had an asshole shift manager, kept fucking claiming he could make the phone ring by lighting up a smoke. We worked at a pizza joint, and he lit up, the phone rang and he took 3 consecutive orders for the same pizza after 2 hours of no calls. Well what that moron didn't consider is all the other times that did not happen. On top of the fact that the company PUTS FUCKING ADDS on TV to countless homes at the same time, and it was just before lunch time in any case.

So this moron mentions this to a customer, "Isn't that amazing three people in a row ordering the same pizza". I embarrassed his ass by responding in front of the customer, "No, what would be amazing is if all three when they called asked us if we sold car tires."

Again, as per the OP, it really simply amounts to wanting something to be there even if it really is not.