What Other Reason

[foodchain]

Could religion persist. I just cant think of anything that supports why people would be religious anymore, and for what its worth I am basically just asking why are people religious. Not so much in places that lack any form of education, like caves in afghanistan, just so much in parts of the world were people can come to understand the earth is not flat nor made by any particular supernatural whatever. How can religions persist, do people actually need to hold onto a fantasy in order to exist, how can you say anything bad about people that escape problems via drug use? As a matter of fact I think it would be easy to point out religion kills more then drugs, or more then most anything. Nothing makes any sense if you think about it.

 

I am sorry I just cant understand how anyone with a moderate education could be religious anymore this day and age.

[iNow]

Well, there does tend to be a very strong social component, and it is advantageous to be a member of a large, powerful group. There is also humans evolved predilection for accepting what is taught to us by our elders and for reinforcing information, even when that information is faulty, as we often consider information more relevant or valid when we are around others who also find that information relevant or valid.

 

A lot of it is "it's just what people know, and all they've ever known since childhood." Some of it is the genuine need for human connection, and the benefit which comes from belonging to a large social group (i.e. you're down on your luck and you have friends and community to help you through it, or to feed/shelter you, etc.).

 

We are social creatures, and I see religion (more than anything else) as a simple way for people to bond socially over a common purpose/story. It used to be more about control of the masses (religion was the original government), but now it's about connection, and people sticking with tradition and what they've been taught.

 

As for belief in god, that's a separate issue, but I have a hypothesis that goes like this... We see all life as something which came from previous life... and god is essentially a short-hand for the "first parent." Every life form has a sort of parent, and that keeps going back until you get to god. While I don't believe in god, the "first parent" concept seems to explain much of the reason it seems so compelling to so many. We know that all life came from some other life which came before, and we give special signifance to the parental figure. God is just the top parent on the hierarchy.

 

But religion... It's mostly social, having a sense of belonging, sticking with what you've been taught, and finding answers to questions that are complex and gray.

[ennui]

This thread will open a large can of worms, I'm sure! I did a poll asking if people believed in God (it was a very crude one, without any definitions or anything- I wanted to keep it protean) and was surprised by how many people said yes. For some reason, I always imagined that members of the scientific community would be overwhelmingly atheist. It was partly bolstered by some studies I'd found a few months ago (from New Scientist, to my recollection) on the religious demographic of scientists in North America. From my hazy memory of the data collected, they pointed to a 90% or above atheist population within the sciences.

 

Shovels of criticism can be laid upon polls as a means to distinguish a certain population's religious convictions, or lack thereof. But from personal experience it seems to be roughly accurate: about 90-95% of the scientists I know are atheists. I'd be surprised to learn if this wasn't the case for most Western laboratories or scientific institutions.

 

I disagree with the premise in the initial post that education is some sort of 'flaming torch' to vanquish the shroud of religious and mystical mental trappings that occupy the human mind. There are likely more factors at work in determining the religious attitudes of a person. My personal experience has demonstrated to me that scientists from religiously conservative cultures such as Pakistan, India or Italy still have deeply rooted religious beliefs that don't change. No matter how much they educate themselves about science, they still attend a Mosque or Church every weekend.

 

I've only spoken about scientists because I know a lot of them (and this is a science forum). But to me, this signifies that the religiosity of a person isn't really linked to education. I'd say that culture and personal experience hold much more sway. I'm sure it plays a part - but perhaps isn't the primary player.

 

In my own case, I am religious - definitely not an atheist. I also have education in science. These two things haven't correlated at any point. As I become more educated in science, my religiosity isn't waning. If anything, I'm becoming more spiritual as I age.

[Mokele]

Did I blink and miss the point where we re-opened the long-closed Religion forum?

[ennui]

Did I blink and miss the point where we re-opened the long-closed Religion forum?

 

You used to have one? Did it attract fundamentalists?

[DrDNA]

Aucun bien ne viendra de ceci.

[Mokele]

I think the conversation over it is still around in the suggestions forum, but basically it was a nightmare of flame-bait, trolling, and bitter axe-grinding.

[padren]

One thing about Religion, is they've competed and evolved for a very long time, physically, philosophically and socially to hone exceptionally survival-fit memes. The means by which they impact a follower's mind is a combination of unintended mutation and thoughtful modification, but the end result includes some very strong propagation and survival skills.

[Mokele]

As already mentioned, we've closed the Religion forum, and not just so the same threads could crop up elsewhere.

 

Closed.