Originally Posted By: peter
Originally Posted By: Redrum
Originally Posted By: peter
Dawkins suggests that religion might have originated as a misfiring of the brain's falling-in-love mechanism


Regardless of one’s religious beliefs I find it very insulting to the religious community that someone should suggest they believe in God because of a mental defect.

I guess it is very convenient to squelch someone’s opposing views by calling them mentally deficient.

I don't think Dawkins was suggesting that religious people in particular are mentally deficient or defective compared to others: I read it more as saying that this defect is common to all human beings. Religion, after all, appears to have evolved independently multiple times: every remote and hitherto-uncontacted human society ever discovered has practised it. Which I guess means that if being defective is defined as being abnormal, it's atheism which is defective when compared to the broad span of human existence during which religion and its precursors held sway. Rationality itself is to some extent a battle against human nature.

Peter


Ok,

I definitely agree that the fear “nothingness” after death is a contributing factor to the desire to believe in a higher power as well as an afterlife. However I have always thought the other driving factor to “religion” was the need to herd. I’ve really never thought that a “love” feeling was obtained from religion (maybe for some). It seems like religion goes hand in hand with a communal activity (church). Most religious practices take place in a group setting. Most religions don’t have many individual worship activities and if they do it is usually something to boast about to the group. I’ve always then concluded that the friction, or at times violence, between religions erupt from the “our group vs. them” mentality. That’s how two seemly peaceful groups that teach love and kindness can end up killing each other.

I’ve never been one to have a strong herding desire so team sports, organized religion and to some extent politics have never interested me much.