Many of us dislike religion (organized religion, in particular) because of the persecution that it has brought throughout history. Religion, or the application of religious beliefs rather, has hindered social progress throughout history and it still does. Religion has influenced policy makers decisions and they have pushed their beliefs on the rest of us. Legislation that has been passed in favor of arguments brought about by organized religion are not based in fact and are harmful. An obvious example (since we are on an AAS board) would be prohibition laws that have brought about the incarceration of massive amounts of people in the United States. Religious revivalism has destroyed this country and it still continues too.
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
Why there almost certainly is No God!!
- Thread starter Desibaba
- Start date
Many of us dislike religion (organized religion, in particular) because of the persecution that it has brought throughout history. Religion, or the application of religious beliefs rather, has hindered social progress throughout history and it still does. Religion has influenced policy makers decisions and they have pushed their beliefs on the rest of us. Legislation that has been passed in favor of arguments brought about by organized religion are not based in fact and are harmful. An obvious example (since we are on an AAS board) would be prohibition laws that have brought about the incarceration of massive amounts of people in the United States. Religious revivalism has destroyed this country and it still continues too.
Purzycki BG, Apicella C, Atkinson QD, et al. Moralistic gods, supernatural punishment and the expansion of human sociality. Nature;advance online publication. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature16980.html
Since the origins of agriculture, the scale of human cooperation and societal complexity has dramatically expanded.
This fact challenges standard evolutionary explanations of prosociality because well-studied mechanisms of cooperation based on genetic relatedness, reciprocity and partner choice falter as people increasingly engage in fleeting transactions with genetically unrelated strangers in large anonymous groups.
To explain this rapid expansion of prosociality, researchers have proposed several mechanisms.
Here we focus on one key hypothesis: cognitive representations of gods as increasingly knowledgeable and punitive, and who sanction violators of interpersonal social norms, foster and sustain the expansion of cooperation, trust and fairness towards co-religionist strangers.
We tested this hypothesis using extensive ethnographic interviews and two behavioural games designed to measure impartial rule-following among people (n = 591, observations = 35,400) from eight diverse communities from around the world:
(1) inland Tanna, Vanuatu;
(2) coastal Tanna, Vanuatu;
(3) Yasawa, Fiji;
(4) Lovu, Fiji;
(5) Pesqueiro, Brazil;
(6) Pointe aux Piments, Mauritius;
(7) the Tyva Republic (Siberia), Russia; and
(8) Hadzaland, Tanzania.
Participants reported adherence to a wide array of world religious traditions including Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as notably diverse local traditions, including animism and ancestor worship.
Holding a range of relevant variables constant, the higher participants rated their moralistic gods as punitive and knowledgeable about human thoughts and actions, the more coins they allocated to geographically distant co-religionist strangers relative to both themselves and local co-religionists.
Our results support the hypothesis that beliefs in moralistic, punitive and knowing gods increase impartial behaviour towards distant co-religionists, and therefore can contribute to the expansion of prosociality.
Since the origins of agriculture, the scale of human cooperation and societal complexity has dramatically expanded.
This fact challenges standard evolutionary explanations of prosociality because well-studied mechanisms of cooperation based on genetic relatedness, reciprocity and partner choice falter as people increasingly engage in fleeting transactions with genetically unrelated strangers in large anonymous groups.
To explain this rapid expansion of prosociality, researchers have proposed several mechanisms.
Here we focus on one key hypothesis: cognitive representations of gods as increasingly knowledgeable and punitive, and who sanction violators of interpersonal social norms, foster and sustain the expansion of cooperation, trust and fairness towards co-religionist strangers.
We tested this hypothesis using extensive ethnographic interviews and two behavioural games designed to measure impartial rule-following among people (n = 591, observations = 35,400) from eight diverse communities from around the world:
(1) inland Tanna, Vanuatu;
(2) coastal Tanna, Vanuatu;
(3) Yasawa, Fiji;
(4) Lovu, Fiji;
(5) Pesqueiro, Brazil;
(6) Pointe aux Piments, Mauritius;
(7) the Tyva Republic (Siberia), Russia; and
(8) Hadzaland, Tanzania.
Participants reported adherence to a wide array of world religious traditions including Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as notably diverse local traditions, including animism and ancestor worship.
Holding a range of relevant variables constant, the higher participants rated their moralistic gods as punitive and knowledgeable about human thoughts and actions, the more coins they allocated to geographically distant co-religionist strangers relative to both themselves and local co-religionists.
Our results support the hypothesis that beliefs in moralistic, punitive and knowing gods increase impartial behaviour towards distant co-religionists, and therefore can contribute to the expansion of prosociality.
DarkMatter
New Member
I was an atheist or so I thought. Until The Creator presented ?himself? to me in a way that I may understand. These are my views and not something to take as "fact", as no one knows for sure.
- Religion and Spirituality must be defined as two separate terms as they both as indeed not the same. Religion, in essences is a cult. Tells you what to do and how to do it. Spirituality is the individuals connection to their spiritual believes.
This is how I understand The Creator, "He" for lack of a better word.
- Even He questions who created him. Because he looks around and see's there are no others like him. This is a very lonely existence and he is trying to guide us to the levels we need to reach to be able to have understanding of understanding.
- He does not want our praise as he wants us to walk as equals. While thanking him is a nice gesture, He prefers that we thank the eagle or tree as through them we thank The Creator and through the Creator we thank all.
- He quite possible could be our Universe that has evolved a consciousness. Just imagine, the Universe is evolving just as all life, perhaps it "woke up" one day to find it was the only one.
I use to believe that there was no Creator, etc. Now I believe there is, however, The Creator is not 100% the God of mans religions as many, operating within the limits of his understanding, as distorted what The Creator was trying to get them to understand.
That's my two cents.
- Religion and Spirituality must be defined as two separate terms as they both as indeed not the same. Religion, in essences is a cult. Tells you what to do and how to do it. Spirituality is the individuals connection to their spiritual believes.
This is how I understand The Creator, "He" for lack of a better word.
- Even He questions who created him. Because he looks around and see's there are no others like him. This is a very lonely existence and he is trying to guide us to the levels we need to reach to be able to have understanding of understanding.
- He does not want our praise as he wants us to walk as equals. While thanking him is a nice gesture, He prefers that we thank the eagle or tree as through them we thank The Creator and through the Creator we thank all.
- He quite possible could be our Universe that has evolved a consciousness. Just imagine, the Universe is evolving just as all life, perhaps it "woke up" one day to find it was the only one.
I use to believe that there was no Creator, etc. Now I believe there is, however, The Creator is not 100% the God of mans religions as many, operating within the limits of his understanding, as distorted what The Creator was trying to get them to understand.
That's my two cents.
The God Brain: Roundtable Discussion on God and Spirituality for Brain Games
The God Brain: Roundtable Discussion on God and Spirituality for Brain Games
National Geographic contacted Neuroscience News and invited us to take part in a virtual roundtable discussion to help promote an upcoming episode of Brain Games called The God Brain. (Brain Games: The God Brain premieres Sunday, February 21, at 9 pm ET on National Geographic Channel). http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/brain-games/episodes/the-god-brain/
This post is part of that discussion which begins with an intriguing, and possibly controversial question from our National Geographic friends.
Is belief in God innate in our brains, as if it were installed by some divine programmer? Or is spirituality a more complex evolving adaptation that has both helped and harmed us as a species?
The God Brain: Roundtable Discussion on God and Spirituality for Brain Games
National Geographic contacted Neuroscience News and invited us to take part in a virtual roundtable discussion to help promote an upcoming episode of Brain Games called The God Brain. (Brain Games: The God Brain premieres Sunday, February 21, at 9 pm ET on National Geographic Channel). http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/brain-games/episodes/the-god-brain/
This post is part of that discussion which begins with an intriguing, and possibly controversial question from our National Geographic friends.
Is belief in God innate in our brains, as if it were installed by some divine programmer? Or is spirituality a more complex evolving adaptation that has both helped and harmed us as a species?
DarkMatter
New Member
Thanks for the National Geographic info. I will definitely be watching it. I have watched similar documentations on this and find it to still leave us questioning is The Creator real or not. At the end of the day, I don't this this question really matters. What matters is how are we using God. To help or harm and anything that harms should be considered a valid interpretation of God, beliefs, or spirituality.
Good for Nothing
Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible
Good for Nothing – George Scialabba – Inference
Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible
Good for Nothing – George Scialabba – Inference
Adopt an Atheist Prayer Movement
http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/adopt_atheist.html
[W]e are beginning a brand new campaign at the Creation Studies Institute. We are calling on all of our supporters to join our “Adopt an Atheist Prayer Movement” by praying for the salvation of these men and women.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Bill Nye
Mark Zuckerberg
Steven Pinker
Steven Weinberg
Ron Reagan
Christopher and Peter Hitchens
Sam Harris
Richard Dawkins
Michael Shermer
P.Z. Myers
Christopher Hitchens
George Clooney
Dave Silverman
Stephen Hawking
http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/adopt_atheist.html
[W]e are beginning a brand new campaign at the Creation Studies Institute. We are calling on all of our supporters to join our “Adopt an Atheist Prayer Movement” by praying for the salvation of these men and women.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Bill Nye
Mark Zuckerberg
Steven Pinker
Steven Weinberg
Ron Reagan
Christopher and Peter Hitchens
Sam Harris
Richard Dawkins
Michael Shermer
P.Z. Myers
Christopher Hitchens
George Clooney
Dave Silverman
Stephen Hawking
YMCA
iamINVICTUS
New Member
Good song by the crash test dummies about this: "god shuffled his feet"
There Are 13 Countries Where Atheism Is Punishable by Death
http://www.thewire.com/global/2013/12/13-countries-where-atheism-punishable-death/355961/ (There Are 13 Countries Where Atheism Is Punishable by Death)
Atheists living in 13 countries risk being condemned to death, just for their beliefs (or non-belief) according to a new, comprehensive report from the International Humanist and Ethical Union out on Tuesday. All 13 countries identified by the study are Muslim majority.
The countries that impose these penalties are Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. With the exception of Pakistan, those countries all allow for capital punishment against apostasy, i.e., the renunciation of a particular religion. Pakistan, meanwhile, imposes the death penalty for blasphemy, which can obviously include disbelief in God.
http://www.thewire.com/global/2013/12/13-countries-where-atheism-punishable-death/355961/ (There Are 13 Countries Where Atheism Is Punishable by Death)
Atheists living in 13 countries risk being condemned to death, just for their beliefs (or non-belief) according to a new, comprehensive report from the International Humanist and Ethical Union out on Tuesday. All 13 countries identified by the study are Muslim majority.
The countries that impose these penalties are Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. With the exception of Pakistan, those countries all allow for capital punishment against apostasy, i.e., the renunciation of a particular religion. Pakistan, meanwhile, imposes the death penalty for blasphemy, which can obviously include disbelief in God.
Religion and Society Series - God, Science and the Universe
· Has a scientific explanation of the universe replaced the need for God as cause of its origins?
· Could life on our planet exist apart from divine intervention?
· Is there evidence for a designer?
Lawrence M. Krauss - Theoretical Physicist, Director of the Origins Project, Arizona State University
Stephen C. Meyer - Intelligent Design Advocate & NYT Bestselling Author
Denis O. Lamoureaux - Associate Professor of Science & Religion, St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta]
· Has a scientific explanation of the universe replaced the need for God as cause of its origins?
· Could life on our planet exist apart from divine intervention?
· Is there evidence for a designer?
Lawrence M. Krauss - Theoretical Physicist, Director of the Origins Project, Arizona State University
Stephen C. Meyer - Intelligent Design Advocate & NYT Bestselling Author
Denis O. Lamoureaux - Associate Professor of Science & Religion, St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta]
Sector51
New Member
Why has religion become so overhyped? Take Easter and Christmas for well known examples. These 2 holidays have become gift giving days and rather over commercialized.
The #Easter Quiz (with answers!) for you and the whole family to play. Why not take a copy to church? #EasterSunday
