Belief Generators

[David Blacklock]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-slo ... 76901.html

Below are three excerpt paragraph from the blog of David Sloan Wilson. The complete transcript is available at the above website. Perhaps a little unusual for this thread, but it is about God and Science, so I guess it qualifies. I will be interested to see if it provokes any interest.

DB

Non-believers criticize religion for causing between-group conflict and for its disregard for rational thought. Yet both of these problems extend far more widely than religion. Between-group conflict pervades the animal world. Ant colonies, lion prides, and chimp troops don't have religion, but they do have between-group conflict. As for the canons of rational thought, to the extent that brains evolved by natural selection, their main purpose is to cause organisms to behave adaptively in the real world--not to directly represent the real world.

This leads to a crucial distinction between what I call factual and practical realism. Consider Hatfield and McCoy, who are mortal enemies. Hatfield understands that McCoy is much like himself, even to the point of competing for the same square of ground. McCoy regards Hatfield as an inhuman monster, completely unlike himself. If McCoy's belief makes him fight with greater determination, then it counts as practically realistic, even if it is factually incorrect. Now imagine similar contests among beliefs--and the brains that create beliefs--taking place over thousands of generations of genetic and cultural evolution. Voila! We arrive at a conception of human mentality that is far more nuanced and interesting than the black-and-white cartoon of atheism vs. religion.

Finally, the fact that factual realism tends to be subservient to practical realism is a statement about how the mind works, not about how modern beliefs systems should be. We need respect for factual realism as never before to arrive at practical solutions to life's complicated problems. Evolutionary theory tells us that this objective doesn't come naturally and that some clever social engineering will be required, much as enduring religions manage to expand the circle of cooperation more widely than the tiny social groups of our ancestral past. The new atheists will need to display a virtue typically associated with religion--humility--if they wish to join this enterprise.

DB

[Canuckster1127]

David,

That is an interesting article if only because it appears to circle back from a potential atheist point of view to explain how religious viewpoints may have triumphed in a competition environment.

Here's a thought though. The easier explanation to my thinking is that mankind has a spiritual element or dimension which explains why man continues to search for meaning and direction in this regard. Pure rationalism and materialism rather than meeting a need in man for meaning, magnifies this additional element.

Of course the conclusion one comes to in this regard is going to be somewhat circular back to what a peson assumes as to the nature of man and why that spiritual element is there. Assuming it as a evolutionary dimension begs the question as to how that terminology can have any real meaning when we're not speaking of hard genetics, but rather social elements.

What's wrong with considering that man's spiritual nature may be a strong indication of something more than materialism can answer or offer?

Bart

[zoegirl]

If God wanted to design us with the capability of having a spiritual relationship with him, then wouldn't it make perfect sense that our brains reflect this in its operation? Of course, one could claim that this spiritual "belief generator" is simply the result of natural selection....but one cannot exclude the alternative model, we have been designed (and I am not even excluding a God driven natural selection in this design) with a brain capable of understanding the concept of God. No matter how God would have done it, in order to have a relationship with someone, He would have created us with the capability of conceiving and understanding Him.

I think in the end, what you conclude from our "idea" of God, these belief generators, is simply a result of what you are wanting to believe. If you want to deny God, you will see these belief generators as a result of a naturalistic process, meaningless in their reality, helpful only in reards to a society. But you cannot deny the alternative, that IF a God wanted to relate to His creation, this creation, this mankind, must have the equipment to understand this concept of a GOD.

[frankbaginski]

As this article points out there are battle lines being drawn for the souls of man. The nonbelivers are going to try many different styles of attack. They will of course wrap themselves with sheeps clothing. If you step back and think for a moment about why would an atheist want to spend their life trying to convert people, what is the motivation? If they are truly an atheist then why waste ones life on this. What is to be gained with the effort. Only when you step back and observe this through spiritual warfare does it make sense. We all have a little voice in us that tells us what is right, we also have a little voice to tell us that we are god. This is the spirit world fighting over our soul. To those people who have a great relationship with God and are filled with the Holy Ghost that evil little voice is ignored. Now some people are lost to the flesh and they cannot even visualize a spiritual part of themself. They own the little voices and embrace them as their own.

An activist atheist does not realize that they are doing the work of Satan. They think that people of the spirit are just nuts and need to be saved from themselves. I am sure in time someone will make a pill that will destroy that part of the brain that allows us to be self aware. I fear for that day. As a Christian I know that if someone is to come to the Lord it has to be a personal choice there is nothing I can do except be an example and spread the Word when I can. The other side does not have limits. I think Satan would like nothing more than to see the whole earth fry.

What I have been able to gather about the fight over man's soul is it will come on many fronts. The one you will read about is like this post about group conflict. They will try and show that any belief is grounded in a natural brain pattern and is a defense or social mechanism created by natural selection. What they lack is a way to feel good about being an atheist. A Christian has an inner peace that they can't give you. So they go after the intellectuals, the ones whose ego will be fed. They will try and raise the pride that goes with superiority. They will say how those Christians are just stupid and if they would just get with the program all of the worlds problems would go away. You read all the time about how Christians are just so mean spirited. But look at the facts. Christians don't walk into satanic cults and shoot people.

Most churches today do not teach about the spirit. In fact if a member were to come forward and say something about inner conflicts they would probably be told to see a doctor and get drugs. A spiritual revival is required. I go out on a limb all of the time talking about spiritual warfare. You should see the looks I get from people. It is as if I just showed them my shrunken head collection.

So what are we to do? We can't close our eyes to the battle. We have to tell people about the fight. We have to drop the notion that everything is permitted in a chruch. People flock to something solid. The chruch has to become solid. You can't gloss over some scripture and say "that was written in the old days and no longer applies".

We do have the ultimate weapon. We are the instrument of God. We have His Word. His Word brings peace and immortality. The Holy Ghost will change those who ask. All we have to do is to get people to ask. Most of us don't talk to strangers. That has to change.

[David Blacklock]

>>What's wrong with considering that man's spiritual nature may be a strong indication of something more than materialism can answer or offer?<<

Hi Bart,

There's nothing wrong with it, but there are other explanations - such as, that human spirituality developed as a cognitive by-product of his evolutionary heritage. Admittedly it is soft science - something someone dreamed up as a reasonable explanation.

DB