Keith

This makes me wonder why "nature" can display apparent purpose in providing the brain chemistry for "group think," religion, and morality which alledgedly have a role in human survival... yet as individuals we are (viewed by many atheists) somewhat less than fully rational if we happen to believe in, say, the Christian God.

Keith

John Page

Unfortunately, I am extremely dissatisfied with my working hypothesis, which is why I'm still working on it. That's just my nature , I guess.

Philosoft

We see purpose in nature because we anthropomorphize just about everything. However, not all human behaviors are optimal for survival. The naturalist can often identify and explain these behaviors rather well using observable evidence. The theist, on the other hand, has to rely on explanations like the completely backwards, and somewhat offensive, doctrine of Original Sin and provide additional ad hoc explanations as to why the Christian God would impose such a cruel sentence on humanity.

John Page

Ah! The apparent purpose. The ability to divine something called purpose (through analysis of causal chains) enhances our ability to survive in the competitive environment. This ability enables us to effect a kind of time travel by projecting events forward based on information about the past. Being able to do this with a high degree of accuracy enables you to out-anticipate your opponent.
Under some circumstances it would be entirely rational.

Defiant Heretic

I would say that atheism doesn't explain anything by itself. It just says that "god" doesn't explain anything either, and so we need to rely on science to learn about the universe.

Robert G. Ingersoll

And which 'christianity', pray tell, is 'the real thing'?

Catholic? Protestant? Greek Orthodox? Coptic? Literal, fundamentalists, conservative? Progressive, modernistic, liberal? Baptists? Church of England? Mormans? Jehovah Witnesses? Presbyterian? Methodist? Snake Handlers? Lutherans? Holy Rollers? Quakers? Unitarians?

Only one can be 'the real thing' - which one, Oh Great Swami of The True Faith? Help us steer clear of the thousands of false 'christianities'.

Psycho Economist

Keith.

I'm not the autobot for the infidels.org reading list, but you really might want to check out a few of the books listed there about the psychological / anthropological roots of religion. The one of them I've read personally is Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer.

Assume, if you don't already accept, that we evolved from other mammals, which have for most of their history been middle-of-the-food-chain beasties, eating plants and insects, ducking from the dinosaurs.

Boyer suggests that religious thinking is a byproduct of predation & pedator-avoidance skills.

"When in doubt", the organism's thinking goes, "assume what you're seeing is caused by something with a will and capacity for intentions towards you"... and then rule out the possiblity. A line of reasoning that's as applicable to cats pouncing on string as it is to being anxious about banging shutters in the winds, as it is to seeing "the virgin Mary" in fenceposts.

However, since we humans are sentient, but not all of us are good at statistics, when we're confronted by any type of coincidence our first reaction is to think there was a deeper meaning about why the coincidence "had to" have happened. That's religion in a nutshell.

People pass along their particular religion because it's typically been the all-inclusive system of explaining how the world works. It was first in Greece, then Rome, then the Ottoman empire that the "whys" of the universe got peeled away from the "hows". Then philosophy, science and religion started to diverge. The Moche don't pull Prentice-Hall Biology off the shelves to teach their kids about poison arrow frogs. Well, maybe they do now.

One other thing:
Unless you think Christianity predates Judaism, how can Judaism be some knock-off of Christianity?

Keith

Let's say you're right, and religion is a product of evolution that somehow helps humans survive. First, why should atheists look down on people who believe in a god of some kind? Isn't it quite natural?

Secondly, if atheism is true, does it really matter what anyone believes about the existence of a god? If so, why?

I haven't said that Judaism is a knock-off of Christianity. It would be more accurate to say the reverse is true. I have a lot of respect for Judaism because it is truly original, and because it is actually from God.

There are a multitude of pseudo-Christian religions. How can one know which religion is true? My belief is that the sin nature blinds everyone to the truth. This blindness is a willful blindness. We don't see the truth because we don't want to. Only by God's grace can anyone become unblinded, desire to know God, and be saved. It does not happen without God's grace. I was once an atheist. Nothing has meaning without God. It was by God's grace that I saw myself as a sinner in desperate need of his mercy.

Keith

John Page

I'm and atheist. I don't "look down" on theists. Why should they? Human nature....
It is reasonable to say that if one is true then the others may be false. If I could rephrase your question "How can one know that any religion is true?
Untrue. These words mean precisely what I say they mean, no more no less.
What does this mean?

Cheers, John

Keith

How can we be sure which human behaviours are optimal and which are sub-optimal for survival?

And why do we anthropomorphize just about everything? Could it be because that is what's most natural for us? We see design, order, and purpose all around us...how could we not think that design, order, and purpose originate from a personality? Don't these things require a personal god?

Is the doctrine of original sin offensive, or is this your own view of it?

Keith