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For millenia we attributed that which we did not understand to gods. As time went on, and we discovered more and more of the true nature of the world, many, if not most of these gods became obsolete. Yet even today, many still cling to belief in god or gods. Do we so resist abandoning these beliefs because after so many thousands of years, we are now genetically predisposed to needing it? And is it possible that the atheistic realization that we no longer need a god is a long delayed step forward in the evolution of our brains toward a deeper understanding of the true nature of the universe? In other words, is religious adherence to ancient dogma holding back the progress of the human species? I'll take it one step further and ask: If we can shed our dependancy on these ancient beliefs, could we one day evolve into something akin to what we have always worshipped, thus becoming Creators ourselves...in our own image?

2007-06-12 03:32:14 · 26 answers · asked by scottychop 2 in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

26 answers

>Do we so resist abandoning these beliefs because after so many thousands of years, we are now genetically predisposed to needing it?

It seems likely, yes. Religion and superstition has been around for many thousands of years, and given that it increases the incentive for primitive people to work together, it makes sense that over that time people would evolve to be biased towards being religious. Also, given how many people are still religious in our modern world, it is difficult to believe that that is only because they were told that God/Allah/whatever existed by their parents. I think it is fairly likely that we are genetically biased towards religion.

>In other words, is religious adherence to ancient dogma holding back the progress of the human species?

Not much doubt of that. :P

>If we can shed our dependancy on these ancient beliefs, could we one day evolve into something akin to what we have always worshipped, thus becoming Creators ourselves...in our own image?

Actually, some of us are, on a very small scale. Every time you start up a computer game, like StarCraft or Halo or The Sims or whatever you play, you're creating a miniature universe, one level below ours. It's very simple, and it doesn't have the same physical laws as ours does, but it still exists. Build a big enough computer and it would theoretically be possible to simulate everything necessary to have real human beings living inside the simulation; such people could even end up worshipping us if we played things right. So yes, it is possible for us to create universes ourselves, and as our technology improves it will become easier and easier to create larger and larger simulated universes.

2007-06-12 03:39:19 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Biological evolution does not work that fast. But one of the most significant steps in the evolution of humans was the evolution of the brain as a "universal computer" or "blank slate" that can form any thought (true or not) without the necessity for the thought to be "hard-coded" into the brain and genetically inherited. Biological evolution has been superceded by a completely different and much faster process of intellectual progress by social interaction. See Carl Sagan's "The Dragon's of Eden." It's a great book. Atheism is a product of philosophical or possibly scientific inquiry. In biological evolution, there is probably no intellilgent designer, whereas in philosphical & scientific inquiry each scientist or philosopher is an intelligent designer. I'm an agnostic. I strongly doubt the fables in the Old Testament. I believe the Golden Rule is great philosophy, but not unique to religion (part of the Golden Rule, empathy, might actually have been hard-coded into the brain by biological evolution). I believe that what we have yet to learn about the universe and ourselves will be much more profound and awe-inspiring than what we already know.

2016-03-13 21:40:34 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Atheism is a stage in the evolution of human thought. It started with pantheism. Then polytheism and monotheism. Atheism is next, followed by nihilism and happy nihilism. The unidirectional movement of a true progression is obvious and is explained in much more detail in Appendix 2 of The Happiest Beings are Nihilists, Part I: Zetosophers. In a nihilistic universe, god, defined hypothetically as a perfect "zero sum state," must be created by inferior beings. The monotheists have always had it backwards, deriving the imperfect world from god. Where did god come from? is the obvious retort. A nihilist does not have to explain where nothing came from. The world is a zero sum state that evolved from previous zero sum states in accord with the laws of physics and probability.

2007-06-12 09:49:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

damn that was great. I ask questions lie this all the time. I am an athiest that believes in a higher power but not in the sense of others as far as religion. more under the lines of buddhism but i don't claim that religion either.

i do believe a lot of what you said but at the same time i don't think it has stopped our evolution. the point about evelution is not how fast or how slow it happens but that it happens. there is no time frame on evolution.

I also believe that it isn't genetics that makes us cling to a higher power but tradition and envioronment. even some of the most vile people on this earth believe in a higher power. not because they are born that way but because it was some of the first words that they ever heard.

my mother became a christian after i was already older so i was taught my whole life to make my own decision as to weather i wanted a religion or not and which one i wanted to join if i did. i chose nothing.

love the question. makes you think and not alot of these do lol

2007-06-12 06:21:19 · answer #4 · answered by kaluah96 3 · 1 0

I think you are on the right track, however you left something out. One of the major reasons people cling to a religion, along with finding explanations for things they do not understand, is because people have a fundamental fear of death. Religions, pretty much across the board, take care of this by offering, heaven, rebirth, or whatever a particular religion offers.
I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure there is no religion that simply indicates that you die and that's it. There is always the promise of something more to make people feel better about dying.
So despite the rise of science and rationalism that have lead more and more people to atheism, as long as people have the pretty universal fear of death, you will always have some religion.

2007-06-12 03:40:58 · answer #5 · answered by Rum R 3 · 0 0

I would argue that there has been no "evolution of the human brain". Thousands of years ago people were contemplating philosophy and mathematics like today. The difference is that they had no shoulders to stand on and the process was more difficult. We only need to listen to others or read a text book while they started from scratch. If anything, the human mind has atrophied and become weaker- not growing at all.

There's no problem with attributing what we don't understand to God as well as attributing what we do understand to him also. When I look at the human eye and wonder at its complexity just as Darwin did, I see how it works (as far as we know) and I don't see less of God, I see more.

2007-06-12 03:41:53 · answer #6 · answered by One Voice In The Day Rings True 5 · 0 1

I'm inclined to give some credence to the possibility of a "god gene", which makes some people more susceptible to the influence of religion.

I have noticed that some people simply have the ability to critically examine their spirituality and beliefs, while others appear to be completely incapable of it.

It may very well be that atheists/ agnostics/ non-believers are a product of evolution, albeit a very subtle one.

The real question though, is whether or not the believers will try to violently stamp out non-belief before it takes over our society. I get the impression, personally, that they already missed that opportunity, though, centuries ago.

At this point, religion is dying out, and there's not much they can do, as even the "god gene" people's handicap is not enough to completely distort reality.

They can see the same facts that we can. And even though they will try to deny them, they won't go away. They will just continue to adapt and water down their religions until atheism is not so hard to tolerate, regardless.

2007-06-12 03:39:07 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2 1

Actually, no atheism is nothing of the sort.

The first instances of an atheism like philosophy, Epicureanism and Buddhism, had nothing to do with scientific discoveries or lack thereof.

Even in its modern incarnation, it emerged from the abstract disciplines of philosophy during the post-Reformation era, and the French revolution, and not the physical sciences.

The current dichotomy between science and religion, and the presumed association of science with atheism is a relatively recent phenomenon, as much the result of some Christian stubbornness on the subject of evolution as the emergence of science-minded atheists into the pop-religion writings market (i.e. Dawkins and Harris et al.)

2007-06-12 04:03:37 · answer #8 · answered by evolver 6 · 2 1

There have always been people who don't believe in God but I will agree with you that for a large part modern atheism is due to a type of intellectual evolution. It can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution and the dawn of Modernism where people wanted to believe in tangible things instead of abstract ideas.

However, this evolution hasn't stopped. In today's postmodern world, most intellectuals scoff on those modernists. They don't necessarily believe in God, but they believe that nothing can be known objectively, therefore they don't believe in atheism either.

Give it another couple decades and it will keep evolving. It's the beauty of the human mind.

2007-06-12 03:36:23 · answer #9 · answered by Drake the Deist 2 · 2 0

While the scientific discovery supports atheism (as much as anything does), it is more the scientific method that leads to the atheistic conclusion. The insertion of a deity into any experiment would make the experimental conclusions moot, for we would have to say, "or perhaps God performed a miracle."

And evolution has no goal to move either forward, backward, stagnate or any direction at all. Evolutionary theory only says that species adapt to their environment or go extinct. There's no "enhancement" other that which helps us live in the here & now and reproduce more than those who struggle with the here and now.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

2007-06-12 03:38:47 · answer #10 · answered by NHBaritone 7 · 1 1

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