“We’ve evolved to be creationists”

“We’ve evolved to be creationists” is a quote from the “The Atlantic Monthly” article “Is God an Accident?”—December 2005 issue.

Paul Bloom, author of the article, informs us that “human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena…this predisposition is an incidental by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry”.

Paul Bloom informs us that nearly everyone on earth believes in miracles, afterlife, and the creation of the earth by some supernatural power. While doing research into infant behavior, psychologists have recently discovered that humans are born with a predisposition to believe in some supernatural actuality. These scientists conclude that this predisposition is a random happenstance of cognitive functioning gone awry. These conclusions led to the question “Is God an Accident?”--the title of the article.

I have just found the answer to a question that has baffled me for years. Why do non-believers love to talk religion? Perhaps talking about religion is much like ‘whistling past the cemetery’.

Everyone loves to talk religion because we are all born with the “gut feeling” that there is a body/mind duality. Because we “feel” that mind is a “spiritual” entity we easily accommodate heaven, soul, god etc.

Science says that this gut feeling is a result of “cognitive functioning gone awry” and religion tells us that this is a matter of faith. What do you think?

I'm on the side of faith.

I like the whistling past the cemetary analogy and will use it in the future when talking with Freethinker. Whistle while you work, :lolhit:

Everyone loves to talk religion because we are all born with the “gut feeling” that there is a body/mind duality. Because we “feel” that mind is a “spiritual” entity we easily accommodate heaven, soul, god etc.

Science says that this gut feeling is a result of “cognitive functioning gone awry” and religion tells us that this is a matter of faith. What do you think?

Although my concept of God has altered over the years as I no longer embrace the Christian faith in the same way that a professing Christian would, I have never had a doubt that there is a "higher power". That doesn't mean there is one for it is not provable. But for me there is.

If this is just some delusion of the mind I am still quite comfortable with the delusion for numerous reasons.

Being raised a Catholic and having been encouraged to examine one's conscience in an honest way in order to make a confession has deep psychological benefits. It encourages honesty with self and honesty with one's fellow man. There are many things I do not like about the church but that is one of their better sacraments. Usually totally misunderstood by the protestant faith, it is valuable beyond description.

Formal religious instruction also taught me that there is comfort in like thought, a bonding that can be comforting and familiar. If people think like you and you like them, they feel comfortable with you as they embrace sameness. That was good when I needed it.

It also taught me to split myself off from that and to seek self.

It taught me to question authority and cast it aside when it did not give back "good".

Formal religion also taught me how to be quiet within myself and seek that higher power and endeavour to harness little parts of that energy that is a part of all.

For me it is not just about "faith", it is about "being". I have found over the years that what someone professes matters little to me. My partner is fundamental, I am into mysticism, one of my girlfriends is Moslem, another a Jew etc. What really matters is their heart and spirit and how they reflect that in their daily lives with their friends and family and the stranger on the street.

It is about the struggle for peace both internally and externally.

While doing research into infant behavior, psychologists have recently discovered that humans are born with a predisposition to believe in some supernatural actuality.
This is interesting, but prompts me to wonder what exactly does the study of infant behavior entail, and how conclusions are drawn. For example, how will the researcher know that an apparently superstitious behavior by an infant is not really a simple exercise of reason, and that it only seemed to resemble a possible superstition because the reasoning skill is still too underdeveloped. (eg cause-effect recognition etc.)

If it said young children, I'd say oh okay fine. But infants...

This is interesting, but prompts me to wonder what exactly does the study of infant behavior entail, and how conclusions are drawn. For example, how will the researcher know that an apparently superstitious behavior by an infant is not really a simple exercise of reason, and that it only seemed to resemble a possible superstition because the reasoning skill is still too underdeveloped. (eg cause-effect recognition etc.)

If it said young children, I'd say oh okay fine. But infants...


It is notoriously difficult to study babies. “But recently investigators have used the technique of showing them different events and recording how long they look at them, exploiting the fact that babies, like the rest of us, tend to look longer at something they find unusual or bizarre.”

I suspect that if a person did some Googleing one might find details of this type of research.

“human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena…this predisposition is an incidental by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry”.
I've held that theory for a long time, 'tis why the majority of the world is of religious affiliation (and many of those in China that are supposedly areligious are likely not so, especially in rural areas where indigenous religious beliefs take over).

Even atheists can find themselves afraid of the dark, if you know what I mean.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/godsandmen/evolution/evolution0000.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/godsandmen/evolution/evolution_sm.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/godsandmen/evolution/babin855.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/godsandmen/evolution/DayEvolution.gif

mmmmmm, tasty convo in deed....

if GOD could be explained, it wouldn't be big enough for me. So, I don;t try, but I do try and explain the experience of liberation and freedom. Freedom from what another expects from me is the beginning.

Flyinfree

I've never understood why people are divided into "faithful" and "atheist". I sometimes feel like the faithful are attempting to make me feel inferior by virtue of my lack of belief. Personally, I don't feel that either is an unreasonable stance to take.

“We’ve evolved to be creationists”

Science says that this gut feeling is a result of “cognitive functioning gone awry” and religion tells us that this is a matter of faith. What do you think?

I think that none of us have sufficient evidence to say positively that either is true.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/godsandmen/evolution/evolution0000.jpg


http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/forestier.jpg

From a pigs tooth.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/3023/image00001mv1.jpg

Sorry, I always have troiuble with resizing.

Sorry, I always have troiuble with resizing. and cropping...

Paul Bloom is pushing crap here. (based on what you posted, which means your pushing crap as well since you didn't even bother to link the article and liet us decide for ourselves what he was saying)

To claim "everyone on earth believes..." should be a good hint.

Besides that people will ALWAYS believe that science doesn't have all the answers because it doesn't.

Paul and the religions are pushing an agenda. And it wouldn't be cognative functioning gone arwy either. Evolution, by definition calls for a wide array of diversity so as best to overcome unpredictable problems. Naturally some people will be inclined to believe outragous ideas or disinclined to believe sane ones.

and cropping...

Paul Bloom is pushing crap here. (based on what you posted, which means your pushing crap as well since you didn't even bother to link the article and liet us decide for ourselves what he was saying)

To claim "everyone on earth believes..." should be a good hint.

Besides that people will ALWAYS believe that science doesn't have all the answers because it doesn't.

Paul and the religions are pushing an agenda. And it wouldn't be cognative functioning gone arwy either. Evolution, by definition calls for a wide array of diversity so as best to overcome unpredictable problems. Naturally some people will be inclined to believe outragous ideas or disinclined to believe sane ones.

Cropping, good idea.

Hey, I fixed it!

Although my concept of God has altered over the years as I no longer embrace the Christian faith in the same way that a professing Christian would, I have never had a doubt that there is a "higher power". That doesn't mean there is one for it is not provable. But for me there is.

If this is just some delusion of the mind I am still quite comfortable with the delusion for numerous reasons.

I was brought up being taught to believe, fervently, in religion, and was "saved".

For many years after reaching adulthood and no longer having anyone to force me to go to church, I trundled along, neither fully believing nor unbelieving........but only because (no doubt out of self protection) I just never would ALLOW myself to look too piercingly behind the curtain of religion and its claims.

When the internet came along, that changed. It suddenly became very easy to find something I had never been exposed to before; rational, intelligent people talking about religion, and what would be required for it (Xtianity in particular) to be true.

I immediately began to see just how preposterous --laughably preposterous-- the claims were of men walking on water, men living inside great fish, floods that covered all the mountains on earth, donkeys speaking in human voice, water being magicaly turned into wine, dead people arising from graves and walking about.....and a thousand other bits of pure, unadulterated nonsense.

Once you recognize that all of those things are complete bunk, you quickly realize that the whole "belief system" is built on lies and impossible myths and ridiculous fables.

In exactly opposite fashion to what Paul Bloom is talking about, I seem to have been born with a predisposition to not believe in supernatural phenomena......…a predisposition which is evidently an incidental by-product of my cognitive functioning; a cognitive function that refused to "go awry” and be made to "believe in" impossibilities, no matter how much brainwashing and indoctrination was thrown at it.

Deep inside, I realized much, much later in life, it had never really made sense to me, all the irrational religious claims.

It is all bullshit superstition. Period. I sensed it, but would not let myself find it out until I finally decided to look behind the curtain one day.

For the committed religionist, there are disconnects in place --circuit breakers-- that will never allow them to look at the world through rational, critically-thinking, unbiased eyes. As soon as the slightest thought begins to enter their mind that it (some nonsensical thing or ideology they've been taught by religion} makes no sense to them, the overiding thought comes (just as their indoctrination was put into place for) to them -- ""Uh oh!....these thoughts must be the Devil trying to evilly sway me. Must think of something else, quick!""

And so the scam is perpetuated, ad infinitum.

Religion = the most perfect con game ever conceived.

______________________________

"I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe" -- Superstitious robot on animated TV show 'Futurama'

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/3023/image00001mv1.jpg

Sorry, I always have troiuble with resizing.
What? What? Norman Rockwell is god? What?

When the internet came along, that changed. It suddenly became very easy to find something I had never been exposed to before; rational, intelligent people talking about religion, and what would be required for it (Xtianity in particular) to be true.
I trust you've read Richard Dawkins?

I was brought up being taught to believe, fervently, in religion, and was "saved".

For many years after reaching adulthood and no longer having anyone to force me to go to church, I trundled along, neither fully believing nor unbelieving........but only because (no doubt out of self protection) I just never would ALLOW myself to look too piercingly behind the curtain of religion and its claims.

When the internet came along, that changed. It suddenly became very easy to find something I had never been exposed to before; rational, intelligent people talking about religion, and what would be required for it (Xtianity in particular) to be true.

I immediately began to see just how preposterous --laughably preposterous-- the claims were of men walking on water, men living inside great fish, floods that covered all the mountains on earth, donkeys speaking in human voice, water being magicaly turned into wine, dead people arising from graves and walking about.....and a thousand other bits of pure, unadulterated nonsense.

Once you recognize that all of those things are complete bunk, you quickly realize that the whole "belief system" is built on lies and impossible myths and ridiculous fables.

In exactly opposite fashion to what Paul Bloom is talking about, I seem to have been born with a predisposition to not believe in supernatural phenomena......…a predisposition which is evidently an incidental by-product of my cognitive functioning; a cognitive function that refused to "go awry” and be made to "believe in" impossibilities, no matter how much brainwashing and indoctrination was thrown at it.

Deep inside, I realized much, much later in life, it had never really made sense to me, all the irrational religious claims.

It is all bullshit superstition. Period. I sensed it, but would not let myself find it out until I finally decided to look behind the curtain one day.

For the committed religionist, there are disconnects in place --circuit breakers-- that will never allow them to look at the world through rational, critically-thinking, unbiased eyes. As soon as the slightest thought begins to enter their mind that it (some nonsensical thing or ideology they've been taught by religion} makes no sense to them, the overiding thought comes (just as their indoctrination was put into place for) to them -- ""Uh oh!....these thoughts must be the Devil trying to evilly sway me. Must think of something else, quick!""

And so the scam is perpetuated, ad infinitum.

Religion = the most perfect con game ever conceived.

______________________________

"I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe" -- Superstitious robot on animated TV show 'Futurama'

Honestly, I don't even know when I began to suspect this "religion" thing was all wrong. I think perhaps I was very, very young. I think it was being raised in a Catholic system, surrounded primarily by Catholics of like mind.

My dad was sick a lot, deathly sick. The church at that time said it was wrong to give your body to science yet I knew my father had. I listened to my parents discuss the fact that should he die there would be no Catholic funeral. That scared the crap out of me. What, no Catholic funeral? How could he do that, put his very soul in jeopardy to perhaps help someone else if he would then go to hell.

Then it dawned on me, it was because he did not believe he would go to hell for that. Then I began to watch carefully for what my parents truly believed and their behaviour and I knew that we have to each find our own way. But it must make us better as individuals or it is a waste of breath and life. Funny thing about that shift in belief. It felt freeing.

As a young adult I embraced the born again tenets for various reasons. Desperation/fear is the most likely reason and for that time in my life, the rigidity appealed to me. The hours of daily bible study numbed me and that was likely a good thing as it was a healing time that was needed. Kind of a mindless escape.

And then again the path diverged.

Have to say though, it's been a great ride. If I'd had kids I think I would likely have raised them, "cautiously" Catholic. Perhaps not, but in order to reject something you must first be given the choice.

So Freethinker, is it possible there is a God? And if there is, what is this higher power? Is there bad and good outside of yourself in your world? We obviously both reject established religion but is there something possibly beyond the merely rational?

What? What? Norman Rockwell is god? What?

Not exactly, I was wondering what responce that would get though.

By my quick cut and past job I was trying to show the human side of Evolution that is all to often left out of the equation.

Nice South Park impression.

Nice South Park impression.
I've only seen like 3 episodes so I'm not sure to what you refer.

I've only seen like 3 episodes so I'm not sure to what you refer.

I dont really know the kids names, but one of them has a mother who, every time she is stunned she says, What what what!

So Freethinker, is it possible there is a God?
Yes. Absolutely.

But you must understand what is implied by the word *possible*.

It is also --*possible*-- that there is a herd of pink unicorns just outside my window.

It is also --*possible*-- that there is a leprechaun under my chair right now.

But --as is the same with religion/god, Jupiter, Jehovah, Horus, Zeus, Set, Mithra and every other metaphysical entity I have ever heard of-- there is not the slightest shred of evidence to suggest the existence of any of those entities......be they unicorns or gods.

And if there is, what is this higher power?
No idea.

Is there bad and good outside of yourself in your world?
There are things that are positive for homo sapiens, and things that are negative for them. But good-versus-evil? ........No. Not in my view.

We obviously both reject established religion but is there something possibly beyond the merely rational?
Well, let me put it to you this way;

...if there were some supernatural or otherworldly or beyond-the-rational event or manifestation or thing that exists on this planet or that ever has existed, does it not seem likely to you--to the point of a virtual certainty-- that in the over 100,000 years of existence of mankind on this planet, there would have been ONE instance, ONE single solitary occurence of **something beyond the rational** that SOME person, at SOME point in time could have demonstrated, could have shown actual, repeatable, objective, scientifically verifiable proof of......?!?!?!?!?!

Yet there has not been.

THAT, to the rational mind, prompts a certain conclusion.

I dont really know the kids names, but one of them has a mother who, every time she is stunned she says, What what what!
That's either Stan's mom or Kyle's mom... forget which... Kyle's I think. But yeah I just heard her voice in my head and it was hilarious.