Simple question?

Is belief in deities a bug or a byproduct of a bug?

http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2007/03/08/the-evolution-of-religion/

It's certainly not a feature.

Quote: Nareed

Is belief in deities a bug or a byproduct of a bug?

http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2007/03/08/the-evolution-of-religion/

It's certainly not a feature.

Good article. They try and make a point
that's it's a 'struggle' to be an atheist
because we really want to believe. The
author then says it's not a struggle at
all, in fact it's a struggle to believe.

That's exactly how I feel. Not believing
is a piece of cake, being a believer would
be like fingernails on a chalkboard. I
could never even pretend to do it, let
alone do it for real. We're hard wired for
self deception. We see a boulder and
think it's a bear. We see something we don't
understand and immediately think the
supernatural is behind it. We think we
see a creation so we go looking for the
creator.

In case FrGamble needs a break from all the negativity.

https://youtu.be/SEf7MoQYgzE

That is a really cool ad, thanks!

Simple religious question
Tony Perkins, the president of Christian lobbyist group Family Research Council
last year Perkins said a hurricane heading for Washington DC was a sign of God's wrath for the legalisation of gay marriage
ok
On the flip side he just lost his home to the floods in Louisiana.
Gods wrath against Tony Perkins? :-)

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/louisiana-floods-destroy-home-christian-leader-who-blamed-natural-disasters-gay-people-1576782?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rss&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/news&yptr=yahoo

Quote: terapined

Gods wrath against Tony Perkins? :-)

I refuse to consider other explanations :)

As someone who doesn't believe that God, if he exists, is currently interacting with the world or its inhabitants in any way, I don't think much of it.

On the other hand, I do enjoy the irony.

I think it is interesting that identical twins aren't automatically both right handed or left handed. I've never really heard anyone say people consciously choose what hand would be dominant. But it generally doesn't have the stigma* of sexuality, where people want to condemn people who don't "choose" the correct normal hand.

I think the most significant issue of it is, is you don't normally hear people accusing other people of picking what hand would be dominant. Accusing them of a sinful choice.

And we even have ambidextrous which may mimic bisexuality. Now maybe ambidextrous people do feel they have a choice. That would be the natural result of it, I think.

*When I say it doesn't have the stigma, I don't mean to say it doesn't have a history of it, but the one of sexuality has been a much bigger factor.

Just as significant, if you ask someone to look at something with one eye, there is also ocular dominance.

Did you consciously choose that? More likely, you never even thought about it. You just did it without thinking about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance

Quote: rxwine

*When I say it doesn't have the stigma, I don't mean to say it doesn't have a history of it, but the one of sexuality has been a much bigger factor.

A lot of it got stuck in the language. "Sinister" comes from a Latin term meaning "on the left." "Ambidextrous" comes also from Latin terms meaning "right-handed on both sides." It won't surprise you to know "dexterous" means "right-handed," or the derivation is from Latin for "on the right."

I've also run into prejudice against left-handedness. Not often, and not deep. But some of it is there. If you ask a left-handed person, they'll tell you many utensils, tools and implements are designed poorly for them.