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This just boggles my mind how such a large percentage of the population goes to church to worship a God that doesn't exist and shows absolutely no signs of existing. Its just so primitive. Realistically it seems like once humans became smart enough to build things, have reasoning skills, write, speak, create civilizations, we would have reached the level of intelligence to realize there is no God. I just don't get it.
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 knowledge that 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.
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 knowledge that 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.
Not many people believe in Ghosts. I suspect religion is for a few reasons.
One is people want to believe in an afterlife.
Two is people use it to make sense of things they don't understand.
Three is that religion is an evolutionary advantage. Groups of humans that had religion could control the massess better because they thought they had to obey the religious laws to have an afterlife. Religion is also a great motivator. People who fight in the name of Islam will die for their religions and fight viciously. So our brains just evolved to believe it.
Not many people believe in Ghosts. I suspect religion is for a few reasons.
One is people want to believe in an afterlife.
Two is people use it to make sense of things they don't understand.
Three is that religion is an evolutionary advantage. Groups of humans that had religion could control the massess better because they thought they had to obey the religious laws to have an afterlife. Religion is also a great motivator. People who fight in the name of Islam will die for their religions and fight viciously. So our brains just evolved to believe it.
I would not under estimate general dullness of mind as a factor. My mother was the sort to accept what she was told and never challenge it, even to the point of being shocked that anyone would challenge it. I vividly recall the time I asked her what would she be feeling if she went to heaven, but all three of us kids wound up in hell. She got this look on her face like she had just seen a dog talk.....my concept was simply beyond her imagining.
Then there was my father who pretended to believe because:
A. He thought being a Catholic with all its obligations was good for self discipline
B. He was an attorney and had several major Catholic interests as his clients.
And there was me who had the strange notion that the only reason to believe something was true was if it actually was true.
This just boggles my mind how such a large percentage of the population goes to church to worship a God that doesn't exist and shows absolutely no signs of existing. Its just so primitive. Realistically it seems like once humans became smart enough to build things, have reasoning skills, write, speak, create civilizations, we would have reached the level of intelligence to realize there is no God. I just don't get it.
I do not think humans became somehow less "primitive" now - or that the previous generation were somehow primitive just because they had less of the bookish knowledge we have now. We have learned a few things (and probably forgotten a few more important things our ancestors knew), but we are still the same basic homo sapiens we used to be a thousand or ten thousand years ago.
Furthermore, some of the greatest geniuses in history who really did outstanding things to advance civilization, believed in a god. If they did, what's to expect of the ordinary puny human?
Not many people believe in Ghosts. I suspect religion is for a few reasons.
One is people want to believe in an afterlife.
Two is people use it to make sense of things they don't understand.
Three is that religion is an evolutionary advantage. Groups of humans that had religion could control the massess better because they thought they had to obey the religious laws to have an afterlife. Religion is also a great motivator. People who fight in the name of Islam will die for their religions and fight viciously. So our brains just evolved to believe it.
I think you have it just about right, there.
Except that I think the evolutionary advantage is for the survival of the tribe, rather than the individual or species, and thus the links between religion, flags and leaders is quite close.
I don't know what the evolutionary purpose is for the alpha pair and their protectors to get the best of everything, but it is no accident that the privileged elite group naturally assume they get the best of everything and any suggestion that they shouldn't would be freeted with frank astonishment..."Not have lot's more than you? well, damn it- that just ain't natural..."
I do not think humans became somehow less "primitive" now - or that the previous generation were somehow primitive just because they had less of the bookish knowledge we have now. We have learned a few things (and probably forgotten a few more important things our ancestors knew), but we are still the same basic homo sapiens we used to be a thousand or ten thousand years ago.
Furthermore, some of the greatest geniuses in history who really did outstanding things to advance civilization, believed in a god. If they did, what's to expect of the ordinary puny human?
Our problem -solving instinct seems to have evolved at a rapid rate at one time, and the theory is now that near -extinction bottlenecks accelerate the process. I suspect it might be ice age survival concentrated the mind wonderfully. Evolve or die - as the Neanderthals did (1) and the tool making was a help too. And don't be misled by the God -belief. That was the only explanation on the table before Darwin really. But while they thought they were discovering the designs of God rather than the result of nature, it was not revelation, doctrine or the scriptures that revealed the secrets to them but the methods of science. They did not make their discoveries as Creationists but as scientists.
Yes, technology has advanced like mad, but how little man himself has changed.
(1) just as well as the Bible would be a mess.
"and the Lord did said unto them that of the children of men they shall not eat, but of the animals who ape the form of men, they may eat..."
And the you - know- who will be raging about Neanderthal liberation when the Good Book says plainly that God did give HUMANS the right to eat of all animals in the garden. It does not say 'All animals but those who are able to speak and wear clothes". Next thing, is these unnatural liberal perverts would be wanting to give them the vote...education, even interbreed with them.
It's probably a mercy we are the only human species left. We treat each other badly enough.
I think Temporal Lobe Epilepsy is brought on by severe anxiety of death at a very young age especially with a dry young person that has TLE adults indoctrinating the young minds.
Any doctors out there? Is there a test that shows someone has experienced a TLE other than a unwavoring belief in god?
"Life after death" would probably be the first answer on Family Feud. That's the ace religion holds.
But for many of us who do believe in God, or that which we call God, it's a sense that there is something that connects us all, something beyond that which we can see and feel and touch. Religion is nothing more than an attempt to explain that sense and/or a path to follow to try to reach it. It's not an "emotion" or "just what you were taught", as is too often the dismissive response. The belief is actually devoid of emotion, just as I feel no emotion about air.
Trust me, I am certainly not here to try to persuade atheists to believe. Atheism is the logical, default position of a rational human mind, and I will sit and have a beer with an atheist any day over someone who thinks they have it all figured out.
This just boggles my mind how such a large percentage of the population goes to church to worship a God that doesn't exist and shows absolutely no signs of existing. Its just so primitive. Realistically it seems like once humans became smart enough to build things, have reasoning skills, write, speak, create civilizations, we would have reached the level of intelligence to realize there is no God. I just don't get it.
Well yes and no. I do understand the reasons why humans believe in god. Humans have believed in a god or gods since the dawn of civilisation as a way to explain away the unexplainable. As humans we need answers, and for millennia 'god/s' was a way to fill in those gaps.
But old habits are hard to break. How do you let go of something when much of your worldview rests on that belief going back for centuries?
Being smart enough to build things doesn't seem to have much to do with it either. Looks at the ancient Egyptians. Look at the Romans. They had their own gods too.
I do understand all the reasons why people believe. Just my brain isn't wired that way.
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Isn't it bizarre humans still believe in God?
