Every culture worships argument
Offline An argument that I have often heard put forth by quite a number of people, is the argument that every culture throughout history has felt the need to worship a deity or sought spiritual experiences and they seem to think that this points as a type of proof of a god.
However, I remember reading an article somewhere that mentioned several scientific explanations for why people seek spiritual experience and why people believe in a god.
From what I can gather, it appears as though there are biological reasons behind the desire that people have for seeking/believing in god.
I am sure that there are plenty of people on here that are familiar with the science behind believing, care to shed further light on this for me ?
Any reccomended books to begin reading about this ?
From what little that I know, it would seem that this makes sense. After all, every culture has worshipped deities that are applicable to their own personal culture only. Which to me, would somewhat prove that god is a construct of the culture itself and not the other way around.
But, the fact that every culture worships a different god (or has a different notion of how the same god would behave, i.e. Islamics/ Christians) would seem to cancel out the ridiculous notion of a 'ONE TRUE GOD" . Truth to be told, the fact that every culture has had some sort of mythical deity would seem to point at evidence for not beileving in my mind and not the other way around.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
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Check out this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMjTSJR3M6M
The reason is to maintain a social order with a privledged class at the top that use religion to maintain power and control over the common people. Imaginary rewards and punishments work just as well as real ones as long as people believe them. The 'opiate of the masses' keeps the lower classes from rebelling.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
I thought Dawkins addressed this adequately, at least for me, in "The God Delusion".
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
I haven't actually made it all the way through the God Delusion yet. I am one of those oddball people that tries to read about 3 or 4 books at once. It's setting beside my bed with a bookmarker about two chapters in.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Very informative vid. Thanks.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
http://www.amazon.ca/Gods-We-Trust-Evolutionary-Landscape/dp/0195178033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290884912&sr=8-1
Worship and belief isn't spiritual except of certain circumstances, just like poverty isn't especially spiritual. Spirituality is a progressive tendency that changes over time and leaves lots of obsolete but persistent forms behind. Just because for a few millenia that form was organized religion, doesn't mean that all of it is organized religion.
Most of Christians today aren't particularly spiritual, they're just brainwashed and emotionally needy. They don't realize that the way how they treat Jesus and God is childish. Babies in Christ they are. When it comes to religion, they're not better than these ancient palestinian goat herders. My village is full of them. They're like a stuck gramophone record, saying the same words and songs every week, every year, every century and millenium. Forget the Hubble telescope photographs, that's how eternity looks like.
I think that most of belief is an emotional attachment to words and concepts, to books, to simple "answers". Emotions are very subjective, so believer is not very concerned about objective truth of holy texts. Emotions are the lowest common denominator of the world, this is why religions are so succesful.
All right, I realize this doesn't look much like a disproving of God. I'm not very emotional person (though I'm working on it), but despite of that I had and have profound mystical experiences. And there's a difference between people who were brainwashed into religion, and those who see it as a documentation of their own mystical experiences. Mystical experiences are actually not that unique and even among Christians I ocassionally see people with them. I think those deserve my support, despite of how I otherwise slander Christian dogma.
Mystical experiences are entirely non-dogmatic. There is no Hell in them. Christians who had them preach about Hell and nonbelievers that end up in there much less, so it sounds like a lip service. Because, it's not easy to spew fire and brimstone, when the inner universe is filled with unconditional love. I think this may be the core of spirituality. Now someone get one of these people under fMRI brain scan. You won't find anything by scanning the average guy on street.
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.