Monday, March 05, 2007

Why Gods Exist for Some, but Not Others

I have, like many folks, often wondered about the evolutionary basis for a belief in gods. Human brains seem to have coded for this rather strongly, overwriting all kinds of higher reasoning and leading to kinds of logic that, while tolerated for god arguments, would never be tolerated for any other kind, e.g. prove god doesn't exist.

Also:
Religion seemed to use up physical and mental resources without an obvious benefit for survival. Why, he wondered, was religion so pervasive, when it was something that seemed so costly from an evolutionary point of view?

In short, are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?

Long article in the NYT, worth a read.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Dawkins is ready for "The Cleansing" to begin.

MAH said...

"The Cleansing"... Given that 95% of the population are believers, I can only assume you mean you're planning to wipe out those of us in the minority.

Anonymous said...

95% are believers in what? I would say that 100% are believers of something. But if there is ANYTHING that is believed by 95% of the population I am stumped about what that would be.

MAH said...

95% of the Earth's population believe in god or gods. 85% of US citizens believe specifically in some form of christianity.

Again, I don't think these kinds of majorities need to worry about "Clensing"