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We May Be Hardwired to Believe in God


z0eboy

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Babies Want Bad Guys Punished, Study Finds

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/12/01/babies-want-bad-guys-punished-study-finds/

“Somehow between age 5 and 8 months, the babies get this much more nuanced perception, the ability to interpret circumstances,” Hamlin said. “It’s hard to argue that parents are teaching their children to punish at 8 months. It’s a very complex idea. If they are learning it, they’re doing it on their own, suggesting that there is some kind of system for learning it.”

Rahil Briggs, a child psychologist and director of the Healthy Steps program at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., said scientists knew very little about what happened in a baby’s brain in the earliest months of life. But she said that other complicated concepts started to become apparent to infants, such as a sense of self and the characteristics and motivations of others, at around 6 months old.

“There’s all sorts of things that we think start to emerge around that age that all point to the fact that babies become more aware of distinctions,” Briggs said. “I think as we continue to do this research that people are going to continue to be surprised and impressed by how sophisticated babies really are.”

http://news.softpedia.com/news/We-May-Be-Hard-Wired-to-Believe-in-God-105802.shtml

From that point on, there's only two things that can happen: either that person becomes someone who doesn't believe in a higher power, or they turn into someone who sees the work of a supreme being in everything around us.

For the latter category, creationists have coined the “intelligent design” construct, which is meant to explain that the Universe and everything in it were created by God. This explanation is widely accepted by many individuals, because science cannot yet explain how the Universe came to be, and, most importantly, why.

It's been known for centuries that, as soon as seemingly-supernatural phenomena get their explanation, they move out of the “myth area” and enter the real world. Undoubtedly, once science has cracked the mystery of space and causality, many people will see that the fact that the Universe was formed in a single blow is not necessarily proof that God exists.

To test this belief system, Boston University psychologist Deborah Kelemen conducted a scientific study on both adults and children, in which she asked them to rate with “true” or “false” statements such as “Earthworms tunnel underground to aerate the soil,” or “The Sun makes light so that plants can photosynthesize.” Although at first glance these may seem true, they are actually not, in that, for example, the Sun doesn't make light because plants need to grow, but because it's a star.

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I saw this on Discovery Science channel last night (or maybe History channel). Always hard to tell how much of this stuff is good science and how much is crazy.
Consider this... if religion in general help people "cope" with things they don't understand, would you consider people that practice religion to be crazy people?

I think religious people need therapy... its sad.

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Our brains are also "wired" to believe all sorts of other things that require faith

the Principle of Non-Contradiction for one, and Cause & Effect Relationship for two.

Consider this... if religion in general help people "cope" with things they don't understand, would you consider people that practice religion to be crazy people?

I think religious people need therapy... its sad.

What's sad again? And I don't buy this non-sense about people NEEDING religion to cope. Maybe it facilitates a good and happy life (i.e. better than coping, more like something akin to prospering), isn't that what most religions claim that they are anyway?

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I think religious people need therapy... its sad.

This is more than stupid, it's a troll. It's a good way to lose your posting privileges. I just perma-banned someone on the "other side of the coin" (who, admittedly, was thought to have already been done by another mod long ago but apparently hadn't---though I am talking with them in e-mail and may actually invite them back---to the gasps of many, I'm sure).

And I'm not a member of any religion; "technically" the closest thing I would be labeled is agnostic, and as the one of the two of us that has a license to diagnosis mental disorders and do all manners of therapy, yours is certainly a stupid remark.

There really is a lot of very credible (though not all pleasing to everyone on any side) psychological research related to religious beliefs and how/why we come to believe all kinds of things. There (to be non-technical) plenty of "crazy" to be found in religion as a broad topic and in many of it's adherents (primarily due to enormous size of that population). But "non-believers" are (obviously) hardly immune from crazy and any "need for therapy" either by virtue of their "non-belief." Durrrr. :)

It's a complex matter to discuss from both an informed and intelligent position, and especially an unbiased, unemotional, and objective one, but comments like you have made previously and here now don't reflect well on you or your intentions and will eventually cost you in this forum. I suggest you consider your approaches to the topic more carefully.

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Makes sense. Humans are different. For example, I don’t think my dogs wonder “where did dogs come from, how did we get here?” – Whether it’s science or religion, humans by their very nature are inquisitive about their existence and will look for answers.

Speaking of dogs and beliefs....you know about the dyslexic insomniac agnostic? Laid awake all night wondering if there was a Dog.

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I think religious fanatics have mental issues, but being overly fanatic about anything is a disorder.

Religious people are no more crazy and atheists. I do think it is the way we are raised. If you are raised in a particular religious household or culture more than likely you will follow suit. I think you can apply politics to that also.

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Consider this... if religion in general help people "cope" with things they don't understand, would you consider people that practice religion to be crazy people?

I think religious people need therapy... its sad.

I think the more interesting research would be why SOME people who don't believe are so hardwired to tear down the belief system of another, especially when we live in a society built upon the freedoms to believe whatever we choose.

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Our brains are also "wired" to believe all sorts of other things that require faith.

Yes. In evolutionary terms, having our brains "wired" in such a way is a form of environmental adaptation. It could be the physical environment or even a political environment. In order to survive long enough to successfully create genetic offspring, humans have been able to convince themselves of all sorts of things.

A good example of this adaptation is perhaps the late passing of Kim Jong-il. The North Korean people mourned his passing as though he were their god. Why? Because once a totalitarian government has control over your very existence, like food, one will do and believe anything to survive. That's what Orwell was getting at in 1984 where O'Brian was breaking Winston down in Room 101. "Sometimes they are five [fingers]. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once," O'Brian explained to Winston as he tortured his "mental illness" out of him.

So don't be too hard on z0eboy. He's simply adapting to the cultural and political environment he lives in.

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So don't be too hard on z0eboy. He's simply adapting to the cultural and political environment he lives in.
I applaud you for your rational response.

I don't wish any ill will towards anyone. I provided some incite from other sources to explain my radical point of view.

If someone were to tell you that god is a warlord that causing famine, poverty and chaos; who would want to worship that god? There have been infinite references to "god or gods" and we have a "choice" on which one to "worship" I for one don't worship any god...

I believe in the ability of the human race to become supreme one day... things of "sicence fiction" we posses the power to make them reality.

In other words... I'm free spirited and take life for what it is... infinate potential.

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Consider this... if religion in general help people "cope" with things they don't understand, would you consider people that practice religion to be crazy people?

Consider this... If God existed, and wanted people to believe in him, would we expect to find that people were apparently set up to be biologically inclined to do so? :)

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I applaud you for your rational response.

I don't wish any ill will towards anyone. I provided some incite from other sources to explain my radical point of view.

If someone were to tell you that god is a warlord that causing famine, poverty and chaos; who would want to worship that god? There have been infinite references to "god or gods" and we have a "choice" on which one to "worship" I for one don't worship any god...

I believe in the ability of the human race to become supreme one day... things of "sicence fiction" we posses the power to make them reality.

In other words... I'm free spirited and take life for what it is... infinate potential.

The word for what you are doing is proselytizing. Much like evangelicals you started by slamming those that disagree with you and then went into the innocent "I'm just trying to share the awesomeness of what I've discovered" routine. We've seen it and in case you missed history it never ends with everyone agreeing to disagree but wanting to be best friends forever. If you want to do it then be ready to get slammed, challenged, mocked, and hated. Ask anyone else that does it in a nation where their view is the minority view and see how it went.

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Indeed.
I purposely did that to weed out the real trolls. :ols:

wow, I guess me not being pro-religion has singled me out to be discriminated against

(obviously the mods on this board don't care about what I have to say and encourage trolling if it benefits a "choosen" few).

It's all good, where I'm from I'm used to it. :silly:

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The word for what you are doing is proselytizing. Much like evangelicals you started by slamming those that disagree with you and then went into the innocent "I'm just trying to share the awesomeness of what I've discovered" routine. We've seen it and in case you missed history it never ends with everyone agreeing to disagree but wanting to be best friends forever. If you want to do it then be ready to get slammed, challenged, mocked, and hated. Ask anyone else that does it in a nation where their view is the minority view and see how it went.
You sir concern me, you have put so much energy to portray me as some kind of villian, how ironic this is the same propaganda people of religion use against... you guessed it people of no religion, next thing you know people are going to say I don't have "faith" because I don't believe in any type of "god"
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