The reason most people belief in god is that they were indoctrinated into theism by their parents before they had minds that were rationally capable of making a decision. That’s why the vast majority of people have the same religion as their parents – they just ended up with their particular family’s default beliefs.

There are some who believe that religion satisfies some innate need in humans. I think the recent history in Europe is powerful evidence against that – the increase in the number of atheists and the decrease in theists has been very quick. For a lot more data on this topic, see Religious Beliefs in Europe: Factors of Accelerated Decline, available on google books.

Posted: August 12th 2010

See all questions answered by Eric_PK

The real reason people have god belief (and no other animal does have that, though some have shown the ability to court superstition) is that we can.

The psychologist, Andy Thomson discusses at length why we believe in god. En bref, religion hijacks some nifty traits that evolution gave us for other reasons.

One of those traits is being super vigilant to prevent our getting eaten by other predators. Hence, we are very tuned to thinking there is something where there is not. It is better to doubt it is the wind, concluding that it could be a lion, from an evolutionary point of view (in the sense, that the individual can procreate). Such a trait of over vigilance would be naturally selected for.

There is also some work being done on that religious beliefs themselves possibly can give an edge for survival which I do not find very convincing. I accept the gene-centric view of evolution and find the building of community via religion as a focus of group selection to be wonky.

Doing commerce also has a very positive aspect on building communities, so has evolution given us the trait to do business? Add any other activity that supports social cohesion, and you will see the difficulty from the standpoint that religious beliefs do not constitute a monopoly on building community.

However, not being eaten by a lion would give the individual more of a chance to pop her DNA off to the next generation, while the group selection focus does not only not answer why religious beliefs would be chosen as the prime way to build social groups, but even if they are, how does cohesive social groups play a role in the direct selection of an individual, giving her or him the edge for procreation (which is what all the gene 'cares for’)?

The selfish gene leads to altruism, as in that altruism results from naturally selected individuals who by the dint of their individual traits have a greater chance to pass their DNA on. It is the altruism which allows for the building of social cohesion by whatever method (business, religion, tribal identity, etc.) Therefore, religious beliefs hijacks what the selfish gene 'demands’ from natural selection.

Additionally, Pascal Boyer thinks that divine families are simply a projection of the human family onto the supernatural plane, and since patriarchy has a strong trend in human communities, the god figure is often modeled after an alpha male. But there is always room for virgins (Virgin Mary and those hapless virgins waiting for those that die for Islam) and obedient sons (Jesus Christ).

Our own sense of family along with some of our naturally selected traits like altruism leading to social cohesion by various methods and our pronounced sensitivity to things that are not there are used by religion to make up its non-evidential belief systems for the purpose to explain and answer questions. It was the best we could do before we developed modern science, logic, and secular philosophy.

Posted: July 4th 2010

See all questions answered by logicel