Is religion habitual?

Question

I mean ever since mankind could THINK...... they couldnt have known about the forces of nature, and just got in the bad habit of explanations through GOD's, at least a few thousand GOD's and some of these God's were prime-time, and some are still around. Is it just a bad habit?

Answer 1

There has been a bit of speculation in scientific literature lately, and in the press, about whether humans might have a 'god gene'... i.e., whether we are 'hard-wired' for religion.

The answer to this, I think, is a resounding NO. Instead, I think that we are hard-wired for 'self-delusion'.

Contemplating the dawn of human consciousness and abstract thought, it is intuitively obvious that 'cognitive dissonance' posed an existential threat. For example, if Moog was wandering about on the savanna, gazing up in the air and thinking "Gee... I wonder what holds the sky up?"... there would have existed a non-trivial probability that he would NOT have been afforded an opportunity to pass his genes along to the next generation.

The ideal (and 'natural') cure for cognitive dissonance is 'knowledge'... but an ALTERNATIVE cure for cognitive dissonance is 'belief'... the ILLUSION of knowledge... i.e., self-delusion. It just so happens that the ALTERNATIVE cure is much easier to come by... and a lot less work and trouble... than the ACTUAL cure. There would have been an awful lot in the world that needed 'explaining' to a bunch of newly self-aware, abstractly-thinking minds... and no technological means to access 'knowledge', no 'knowledge-base' upon which to build, no means to interpret the 'facts' that were presented by the senses. In other words, 'cognitive dissonance' would have been an overwhelming impediment to their continued existence.

Religion takes advantage of this... pre-packaged delusion. Swallow the "God did it" pill, and cognitive dissonance disappears... poof. Moog is not gazing up in the sky, and wondering about things. Instead of being distracted (he 'knows' the answer... "god did it."), he is paying attention to his surroundings, watching out for cave bears and saber-toothed tigers... and increases the probability that he will have an opportunity to pass his genes along to the next generation.

The concept of 'god'... a 'meme'... a 'viral idea' which is easily passed on from person-to-person, and is easily assimilated... is incredibly efficient; it short-circuits the necessity for each person to have to fabricate his OWN delusions... and short-circuits the need for 'knowledge'.

What was true at the dawn of human awareness and abstract thought is still true today... the ILLUSION of knowledge (belief) is much easier to come by... and much less trouble and work to acquire... than ACTUAL knowledge.

Today, we don't have to worry about being eaten by a cave bear or a saber-toothed tiger if we are distracted. But this trait that once afforded humans a 'survival advantage' has been opportunistically co-opted by 'religion', which subverts this human 'advantage-turned-into-weakness' for motives of profit and power.

This is all just my opinion, of course... I might be so bold as to call it a 'hypothesis', if I had any idea how it might be tested... which I don't. However, imagining for a moment that this might be 'true' (it certainly has a lot of 'explanatory power'), it then leads to the next question... do atheists LACK the 'self-delusion' gene?

Culture... of which 'religion' is undeniably a part... overcame a lot of the 'natural selection' pressures that exist in nature. One might say that the selection pressures that have arisen since the dawn of 'civilization' are not 'natural' at all... instead, they are artificial... contrived, even. Looking back in history, and the rise of christianity, 'thinking differently' was a 'feature' that was deliberately weeded out of society... heretics... apostates... atheists... the list goes on. Any threat to the prevailing set of delusions was systematically and ruthlessly eliminated. The only way that a 'thinker' was able to survive was by pretending to be a 'believer'. With regard to the 'explanatory power' of my idea, this accounts for why 'critical thinking' is so scarce in our society... why there are so many 'believers' in comparison the atheists and agnostics. Critical thinking ability was 'weeded out' of the gene pool by the societal 'norms' (self-delusion was and is 'normal')... the 'artificial' selection processes which had replaced 'natural' selection. It is useful to look up Giordanno Bruno for a typical example of this. For about 1,200 years, Christians dealt with the best minds that humanity produced by torturing them and chucking them into a vat of boiling oil, or burning them at the stake... or (like Galileo) locking them away.

This has been a well-kept secret of religious leaders, for thousands of years... and explains why 'thinkers' were frequently tortured and executed. However, that well-known blabbermouth, Martin Luther, let the cat out of the bag:

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and... know nothing but the word of God." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but... more frequently than not... struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." ~ Martin Luther

"To be a Christian, you must 'pluck out the eye of reason'." ~ Martin Luther

"There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason, especially if she enters into spiritual matters which concern the soul and God. For it is more possible to teach an a** (donkey) to read than to blind such a reason and lead it right; for reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed." ~ Martin Luther

I used to think that 'critical thinking' was an innate human ability. I thought that since I did it, then everybody could do it... and DID do it.

I was badly mistaken. Critical thinking is NOT an innate human ability. It must be LEARNED... and in order to learn it, you must have the capacity... the potential... to learn it. Unfortunately, it seems that most (around 85%) of the adult population of the USA does not even know what critical thinking IS... much less actually know how to actually DO it. Part of the problem has to do with the US public education system... it is designed to create 'employees'... not 'thinkers'. It is even possible to get an advanced college degree... even a degree in one of the 'fuzzy' sciences... and STILL have not heard of 'critical thinking'. Unless you have an advanced degree in one of the 'hard' sciences, it is very unlikely that you will possess any critical thinking skills. In other words, apart from the 'hard' sciences, anyone who manages to acquire critical thinking skills does so IN SPITE OF their schooling... not BECAUSE of it. The rest of the problem seems to be related to intelligence. There have been around 40 studies over the past 80 years which revel a statistically significant INVERSE correlation between intelligence and religiosity... in ofher words, the LESS intelligent a person is, the MORE likely that person is to harbor supernatural (religious) beliefs. Conversely, the MORE intelligent a person is, the LESS likely that person is to harbor religious beliefs. From my observations, the CAPACITY (potential) for learning critical thinking skills does not even EXIST until you get up around an IQ of 125 or so.

While it took me decades to figure this out, religious leaders have been aware it for centuries. The Luther quotes serve as an example of this... but he certainly was not alone in this view:

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but... more frequently than not... struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther

Religious 'shepherds' KNOW that their 'flock' (sheeple) are scientifically ignorant and incapable of critical thinking. They KNOW that they find 'scientific' sources' to be intimidating and incomprehensible. These puppet-masters KNOW that their flock (victims) will seek their 'knowledge' from 'trusted' sources... the very-same puppet-masters. When the sheeple hear things like 'scientists claim that humans and apes shared a common ancestor, in the distant past', they experience 'cognitive dissonance'... this information is in conflict with the 'truth' that they have believed for their whole lives. So... where do they go to resolve this cognitive dissonance?... Scientists?... NO! They go to their 'trusted' sources... the sources who KNOW that they have been taught WHAT to think... they have not been taught HOW to think. Sources who KNOW that they can lie, obfuscate, misrepresent with impunity... with absolutely NO RISK that their minions will seek out independent, peer-reviewed corroborating information.

Where this nonsense comes from is an INDUSTRY (Christianity) whose BUSINESS it is to create whole generations of adults who are, at once, gullibile, irrational, willfully ignorant, self-deluded, intellectually dishonest, droolingly stupid and hypocritical... and willing to tithe 10% for having their cognitive dissonance held in check through regular doses of holy bullshit.

They do their jobs very well indeed.

Here's the key thing to understand... a 'truism'...

1) religious 'belief'... the internalized certainty that specified myths, superstitions and fairy-tales are congruent with 'reality' CANNOT WITHSTAND the glaring light of 'critical thinking'.

2) over 85% of adult Americans profess religious 'belief'

3) THEREFORE, at least 85% of adult Americans have not applied critical thinking to their religious 'beliefs'.

There are some obvious outliers, of course... scientists those work obviously requires critical thinking... yet they seem be able to check their brains at the church door. I cannot explain this, other than to say that it is a good example of 'compartmentalization'... and it plainly shows that even brilliant people are not immune to self-deception and self-delusion. Fortunately, such people are so few in number that they can be regarded as an anomoly, rather than a cause for grave concern.

Finally... the upshoot of this is very serious, when you think about it. Around 85% of adult Americans are delusional... MADE that way INTENTIONALLY. Something that account for 85% of ANYTHING can be said to define what is considered 'normal'. So, on that basis... in the USA... INSANITY is 'normal'... and thus, the inmates are running the asylum... and the inmates have control over the most sophisticated nuclear arsenal in the world. THIS is a cause for grave concern.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKDKq_PPbk&mode=related&search=
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Answer 2

Religion has changed since then. Thousands of years ago people believed that there were different gods that physically made things happen. He physically threw lightning bolts, drove chariots across the sky, pushed the sun up, held the earth on his shoulders, chased the moon across the sky. Painted the leaves with the seasons, cried the rain, blew with their own breath to create the winds. I'm Christian and a science teacher so I know that this isn't so, but I do believe that there is a God, one God.

Answer 3

there is an element of buddhism this is a faith: Zen, Mahayana, Tibetan, New Land etc. and there's a what you may call, church, or sangha, and so they have what you call a pope, the Dalai Lama, who now lands a job coaching college people, final time I heard. For one ingredient, buddhism does not compliment any God, so it could be nicely suited with the different religions given which you nonetheless get to compliment their God, the Buddha skill that there is not any could desire to renowned or argue the life of God provided that there is not any medical way of proving it exists. yet buddhism isn't a faith. this is a coaching by using a riches-to-rags guy Siddharta Gautama, who's an enlightened being(a scientist, in layman's words) who found out a thank you to the tip of suffering, your suffering - in what's called the 4 noble truths. It were shown for 2000 years that it somewhat works, besides the fact that it is up so you might make certain if it is real. He additionally teaches a thank you to be triumphant in non secular perfection and happiness, and there are discourses too that is going so a techniques as a thank you to therapy hemorrhage, lol. i admire examining Buddhist texts too, they are humorous(his first 5 disciples left him because of the fact he ate scrumptious meals, he's meant to be coaching ascetism to them / the clergymen at that element tried to seize him right into a controversy and convert him, yet he converted them extremely, and what's worse - he enable them to return to a determination and notice for themselves in the event that they somewhat need to transform and alter into beggar clergymen!), yet in case you seem deep adequate at your existence, you will locate them real.

Answer 4

I think the abrahamic religions are like cigarettes... addicting, and harmful to self and others.