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And four, I think its just tradition for many people. People teach their kids what they believe and parents who believe in gods will teach it to their kids just by nature.
Very few parents will say 'these are my beliefs but when you grow up and explore the world, you decide for yourself what you want to believe'.
People naturally raise their children to do things they way they do them.
For instance, I was not raised with religion. So I never felt like I had to be. Not raising my child with religion either.
I think this is very important.
It is not simply belief existing in a vacuum. Society is imbued with belief. It is not starting fresh from a blank slate. This, of course, is why belief is society-relative. It's why most people in, say, Boston, believe in the Christian God, not the Muslim God (or Zeus, or Odin, etc.). It's why most people in, say, Tehran, believe in the Muslim God (and of the Shiite flavor) rather than all the other thousands of deities humans have claimed to exist, and their millions of permutations.
That, and the fact that people believe all sorts of things that aren't rational. Pseudo-science. Inane conspiracy theories. Bigfoot. So it's not surprising that they believe in things with a big emotional payoff regardless of the absence of substantive affirmative evidence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David A Stone
There are people a whole lot smarter than me who believe in a God.
There are people a lot dumber than me who are atheists.
And Mugsy Bogues was 5'3", yet had a long and successful NBA career. That doesn't change the fact that success in the NBA statistically correlates with greater height. And exceptions to the trend don't change the fact that religious belief correlates with lower levels of education and lower IQs.
That's a relevant point. I was hoping someone would make it. Yes. Whie it is a question of information, rather than itelligence, it is how we use the information -accept it uncritically, selectively, analytically or dismissively. And the reason we do that is because of our mental approach. 'Emotion' is fair enough, but it's the way we were brought up to think, or have brought ourselves up to think. When you come down to to it, it's a matter of education. You can be educated out of faith, or emotionally cling to it.
Belief, I have said, is something of a choice; we can decide whether we want to know or whether we want to just believe.
but we are still the same basic homo sapiens we used to be a thousand or ten thousand years ago.
I suggest you read up on the history of humans and what they believed during their time. Here is just one small example. We are not the same basic homo sapiens...especially how we live, behave, and believe.
There must be a reason for it. Why do we believe in ghosts? Why do we seem to prefer fringe -science nostrums explanations and history, rather than go with what seems supported and not invest belief in what we don't know. Is it that we like to feel part of a privileged few who have been allowed secret knowledgethat the rest..poor fools...don't have and therefore we can feel better than the rest? That's the way I'm thinking at the moment.
that describes the attitude of many atheists on these boards to a T
that describes the attitude of many atheists on these boards to a T
Correct, dear lady! But the difference is that the believers have no valid basis for their "Knowledge" other than feelings and experiences which they only think they understand, whereas the atheists have knowledge which is not so much secret but is largely ignored, and the confidence we have in what we know is entirely justified.
Perhaps it is a matter of compartmentalized intelligence. That someone is very good at language skills, does not mean that this person may also be a math whiz or a chess grand master.
I have the examples of myself and many people that I have known. I'm pretty darn good in certain areas and rather embarrassingly hopeless at others. I've only known a few people who seemed well rounded at most things, and no one who was excellent at everything.
Further, who knows to what degree our intelligence is influenced or overcome by our emotions?
Yep, good post. Totally agree.
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But the difference is that the believers have no valid basis for their "Knowledge" other than feelings and experiences which they only think they understand, whereas the atheists have knowledge which is not so much secret but is largely ignored, and the confidence we have in what we know is entirely justified.
