Thread: No Religion??
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Old 06-14-2007   #25 (permalink)
Ilya
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Toronto
Posts: 107
Default Re: No Religion??

Quote:
Human nature is adapting to survive. That most people nowadays have chosen faith as a way to adapt to their environment or to their lack of understanding of it, doesn't mean that religiousness is a fatality or a part of human nature.
You could be right, but I am fairly certain that you aren't, if only because every single human society has developed religion independently. I suspect that if you eliminate religion by some magical method, it will come back in the form of cult-like movements (like Scientology). It is very likely that there is a part of the human brain that is responsible for religiosity and it's even possible to artificially stimulate this part of the brain by inducing mild seizures (80% will report religious experiences, that can also be measured by brain imaging). Interestingly, Richard Dawkins has taken part in this study and was one of the 20%.

The point is that the capacity to feel religion, and the hunger for it, is not merely cultural but biological. Take away current religion and something else will come to fill the gaps, and that something could be far more dangerous than modern religion.

I would suggest that instead of eliminating religion, we should work on reforming it to fit the modern world.

PS: I consider your usage of the word fatality to be quite inappropriate. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the feelings of religiosity, and I would even go as far as saying that those kinds of feelings have been the most wonderful ones I have ever experienced. The fatality of human nature is extremism, but extremism is not always tied to religion: look at fascism (which is unrelated to religion) and communism (which is fundamentally antitheistic).

Last edited by Ilya : 06-14-2007 at 11:56 PM.
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