God didn't make man; man made gods

[Stuckinthebush]

An interesting article in the LA Times about religious "DNA".

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-thompson-atheism-20110718,0,5682260.story?obref=obinsite

Before John Lennon imagined "living life in peace," he conjured "no heaven … / no hell below us …/ and no religion too." No religion: What was Lennon summoning? For starters, a world without "divine" messengers, like Osama bin Laden, sparking violence. A world where mistakes, like the avoidable loss of life in Hurricane Katrina, would be rectified rather than chalked up to "God's will." Where politicians no longer compete to prove who believes more strongly in the irrational and untenable. Where critical thinking is an ideal. In short, a world that makes sense.

In recent years scientists specializing in the mind have begun to unravel religion's "DNA." They have produced robust theories, backed by empirical evidence (including "imaging" studies of the brain at work), that support the conclusion that it was humans who created God, not the other way around. And the better we understand the science, the closer we can come to "no heaven … no hell … and no religion too."

Like our physiological DNA, the psychological mechanisms behind faith evolved over the eons through natural selection. They helped our ancestors work effectively in small groups and survive and reproduce, traits developed long before recorded history, from foundations deep in our mammalian, primate and African hunter-gatherer past.

{snip}

[FiveGoodMen]

1. I think this sort of research is a good thing

If we're ever going to shut that damned religion program down, we need to know how it works.

[Stuckinthebush]

2. I had a bit of fun and posted it on my facebook page

Not a word from my otherwise chatty friends. I think this kind of research is vital but also makes people very uncomfortable. Good!

:)

[frogmarch]

3. Excellent!

Thanks for your post and the link.

I'm going to post a link to the article on my Facebook page. Maybe someone will read it.

We can be better as a species if we recognize religion as a man-made construct. We owe it to ourselves to at least consider the real roots of religious belief, so we can deal with life as it is, taking advantage of perhaps our mind's greatest adaptation: our ability to use reason.

Imagine that.

Excellent.

[Stuckinthebush]

4. As of tonight, I have no comments on my FB page

I think it scares people.

Oh, well!

[Odin2005]

5. IMO religion comes out of the human tendency to anthropomorphize objects.

All children (except for some autistic children) anthropomorphize objects until they are taught not to. From this you get the animistic beliefs that eventually evolved into religion.

The notion of "god" is simply the ultimate and most abstract form of anthropomorphizing nature.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. a line in "The Brothers Karamazov"...

planted the initial seed of doubt in my mine. Something to the effect of "If god did not exist, he would have to be invented". Yes, I know Dosteovsky stole it from a German, I think, but it planted a seed in my head. Took it about 20 years to bloom, but what are you gonna do?

[LeftishBrit]

7. From E.Y. Harburg's "Rhymes for the Irreverent"

Speaking of the Common Man, said Lincoln,
God must love him.
And the Common Man, he must love God-
He made so many of Him.