If Pavlov could make an adult dog salivate at the ringing of a bell in a matter of weeks...?

It seems much like agnostics coming here so that the other agnostics can convince them (and themselves) that they are actually atheists... .

Overall, I think you are correct. Nevertheless, imagine the same effect in terms of atheism/anti-theism. The positive reinforcement is social consensus and peer agreement. The pernicious process of indoctrination starts at birth with raising children to meet the needs of the industrial system. Nobody questions the reason for considering increased efficiency a form of progress when critical technologies are always double edged swords and mental illness rates in the modern (and secularized) society are soaring.

*edit*, no interest in religion is distinctly different from anti-theism. Anti-theism is a social identity. You wouldn't attach yourself to a social identity without positive social reinforcement. On the other hand, apathy is unbiased.

If you listen closely, atheists are in denial of the emptiness of the universe. The intellectually honest atheists (nihilists) do, indeed, claim that awareness of the emptiness of the universe gives them special insight.

A Clumsical- extinction is a behavioral term wherein a habit that grow to be before bolstered disappears whilst it stops getting bolstered. So the salivating, that's a habit which grow to be bolstered via food, stopped happening (extinguished) whilst the reinforcement (food) stopped.

i guess positive reinforcement could work for lots of things, i could train my dog to salivate every time he hears me take a ****, that would be pretty funny.

this doesn't seem to be related, unless you are saying people who pray to god are like stupid animals. i can't imagine many people finishing up they're prayers and immediately expect some tangible reward. their reward in intangible, in the world of delusion.

I totally agree with you in that the dogs of Pavlov and the dogs of the priests are the same dogs who devoured w bush junior

Pavlov was studying conditional and unconditional instincts.

Religion isn't stemming from instincts, religion is based on ability to sell idea.

Yes, if you assume that God is providing for the "positive reinforcement".