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Religion
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Title: Humans 'hardwired for religion'
Source: Guardian
URL Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1864748,00.html
Published: Apr 18, 2007
Author: James Randerson
Post Date: 2007-04-18 09:33:10 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 374
Comments: 14

Humans 'hardwired for religion'

James Randerson

Monday September 4, 2006

Guardian Unlimited

The battle by scientists against "irrational" beliefs such as creationism is ultimately futile, a leading experimental psychologist said today.

The work of Bruce Hood, a professor at Bristol University, suggests that magical and supernatural beliefs are hardwired into our brains from birth, and that religions are therefore tapping into a powerful psychological force.

"I think it is pointless to think that we can get people to abandon their belief systems because they are operating at such a fundamental level," said Prof Hood. "No amount of rational evidence is going to be taken on board to get people to abandon those ideas."

Poster Comment:

Hmmmmmmmm......

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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)

It's scriptural, we have a void. But for God, not religion. Certainly not Westboro Baptist Church. "Matthew Shepard has been in hell for 3110 days."

robin  posted on  2007-04-18   9:52:15 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

I guess robin. I've never seen religious extremism cause more insanity and war than it is today. I have an article from the Jerusalem Post that claims the MRIs of Palestinian terrorist’s show malformations. Talk about racism. I’ll dig it up and post it here later. That said, overt thumpers are equally nuts IMO. I haven’t a clue how anyone can take Bible stories literally. I'm starting to believe religion either "takes" or is doesn't.

Jethro Tull  posted on  2007-04-18   10:06:07 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Bill Maher claims religions are the cause of all the world's problems.

But I would be careful not to confuse religion with God. You could say that all organizations are the cause of all the world's problems and still be mostly accurate.

At least the world's Merlins no longer sacrifice children and virgins to volcanoes to save and control a village. Oh nevermind, now the world's Merlins have human/drug trafficking and wars - to make money and control people. And we still need a good scare every few years, to remember who will save us.

robin  posted on  2007-04-18   10:14:26 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Bill Maher claims religions are the cause of all the world's problems.

But I would be careful not to confuse religion with God. You could say that all organizations are the cause of all the world's problems and still be mostly accurate.

Religion is the subversion of the spiritual and mystical to the very real power of those in control. Religion is about power on earth. It is about controlling the minds of the people, by shaping their reality. The Catholic Church, for example, was created to be the state religion, and was used to stamp out of Christianity the spiritual tenets in favor of dogma, learned and repeated without reference to its source or validity.

The tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is about religion denying to humans the path to spiritual enlightenment through ingesting the things that will give one the ability to discern good and evil, to have knowledge of the gods.

It wasn't an apple they ate. It was a mushroom.

Paul Revere  posted on  2007-04-18   10:23:47 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

The Catholic Church, for example, was created to be the state religion, and was used to stamp out of Christianity the spiritual tenets in favor of dogma, learned and repeated without reference to its source or validity.

I'm not a Catholic, my husband is. As a Protestant I've always been rather leery of Catholicism, just because.
I've had opportunity to get better acquainted with it, and in it's favor I will say this:
It kept the Faith from being misinterpreted by a bunch of illiterates during the Dark and Middle Ages. You cannot blame the chaos that followed the fall of Rome on the Church. The Church, albeit imperfect, also brought with it education, universities, and high ideals.
The first fracture was with the Orthodox, and depending on your viewpoint, one broke away from the other. The next fracture was thanks to Luther, (sincere or sarcastic, depending on your viewpoint). After that it became a free-for-all, for anyone with a 4th grade education to mis-translate and misinterpret the Bible as he so chose. All these fractures have weakened Christendom, not strengthened it, which is not to say that it didn't needed a good purging or two or three, (e.g. the Borgias, Woolsey, the Inquisition, the torture for heresy, the witch trials, etc.).

robin  posted on  2007-04-18   10:43:14 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

The Dalai Lama, the Pope - all part of the same problem from my perspective. Men who rule others through religion are not spiritual. They're men controlling other humans with brainwashing and shared delusions.

IMO.

Paul Revere  posted on  2007-04-18   10:59:04 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

I can see how anyone might feel that way.

robin  posted on  2007-04-18   11:58:19 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

I do not feel that holding political power can be reconciled with having spiritual awareness. The lines attributed to Jesus and others in this regard are very wise. Jesus, in the legend, refuses to follow the world of power and of glory. He refuses to sell out to his church's hierarchy or his political rulers. He warns those who follow him not to build a treasure on earth.

Religion endures for many reasons. I think it is because we are pack animals, and we need some rituals in our lives to bond us. We also need to vehicle for certain thoughts and ideas. I also believe we believe in God because there is one, and we inherently knows this. We believe in spiritualism because it's real.

Religion is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the yin and the yang of humans. We need the spiritual, but we tend to serve the ritual.

Paul Revere  posted on  2007-04-18   12:04:58 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

We are born with a strong sense of survival too, and wouldn't you know it, there's someone capitalizing on that too, along with every other instinct known to human beings.

robin  posted on  2007-04-18   12:11:10 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

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