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djoldgeezer
Lv 7
djoldgeezer asked in Society & CultureReligion & Spirituality · 8 years ago

Do you think this is true?

We human beings have a natural propensity to find religious claims and explanations attractive and easily acquired, and to attain fluency in using them. This attraction to religion is an evolutionary by-product of our ordinary cognitive equipment, and while it tells us nothing about the truth or otherwise of religious claims it does help us see religion in an interesting new light, it suggests that our minds solve fundamental problems in a way which leaves a “God” shaped hole waiting to be filled.

Update:

Michelle, "while it tells us nothing about the truth or otherwise of religious claims", didn't you read that. I am making no comment about the existence or non existence of God.

Update 2:

Christian Sinner. Sources. Robin Dunbar, Lewis Wolpert, Phillip Lieberman, Dr Fraans de Wall, Barbara King, Michael Shermer, Psychologist Matt J Rossano, Archaeologist Steven Mithen and many more.

Update 3:

Christian Sinner

Evolutionary cognitive development.

The two main schools of thought hold that either religion evolved due to natural selection and has selective advantage, or that religion is an evolutionary by-product of other mental adaptation. Stephen Jay Gould, for example, believed that religion was an exaptation or a spandrel, in other words that religion evolved as by product of psychological mechanisms that evolved for other reasons.

Such mechanisms may include the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm (agent detection), the ability to come up with causal narratives for natural events (etiology), and the ability to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions (theory of mind). These three adaptations (among others) allow human beings to imagine purposeful agents behind many observations that could not readily be explained otherwise, e.g. thunder, lightning, movement of planets, complexity of life, et

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  • Michael
    Lv 6
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I think is true that our fundamental psychology predisposes us to theism. I don't think that's even controversial. It's the explanation that sparks debate because it is consistent with a number of philosophical/theological positions.

  • Christian Sinner
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    If you are going to say that it is an evolutionary by-product, what data do you have on that.

    inquiry:

    what is the status of the religious evolutionary by-product of an antelope (or any other animal)?

    Is there a scale you are using to measure such a term as "religious evolutionary by-product"?

    What source are you using to determine that religion bears 'nothing about the truth'?

    In other words, no, I do not think you statement is true, on the basis that it seems completely biased and unscientific.

  • Michelle
    8 years ago

    No. You have simply implied this to be true. However, it is in fact an idea which people seem attracted to during times of need. I don't agree with your opinion, but that's ok because we all have a diversity of beliefs. God existed even before we existed. He created us, and you seem to talk about him in a way as I'd he is simply a make believe character which we seem to believe in only to fill in the void. Evidently, he is real and is our Creator.

  • Beau
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    I think that religous claims and explanations are what we use to try and describe the ineffable. The various claims and explanations have evolved over time. I think that there always being claims and explanations shows there is "something" that human beings are experiencing, and we keep trying to explain it.

    I don't think a belief in God, in itself is a step in our cognitive development, but I do think our conception of God shows us what step we are in, in our cognitive development.

    Peace and Namaste!

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  • Higgs Boson
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    I think some people want to believe there's a God in their future and try to leave a hole for him rather than the other way around.

    Source(s): I'm not attracted to religion in any way.
  • Usagi
    8 years ago

    I suppose so, I would not call it or believe it to be the truth but it is a good believable theory.

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    no religion simply gives wrong explanations for good questions, because people are just too lazy or stupid to look for the real answer

  • Tom
    8 years ago

    Matthew 5:3 - "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need"

    Source(s): http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2005481
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