Loading...Humans are born believers – Atheism is a skill we develop
It takes a lot of effort to be an atheist. Anyone can achieve it and overcome their parent’s programming with a bit of effort.
The human brain evolved to attribute a living cause to every phenomenon – if the rustling of a bush in the forest wasn’t a predator, then it was probably an evil spirit.
Those who instinctively assumed something was there were the ones who survived when it actually was a predator.
And those people – and they alone – are our ancestors.
Neuroscience experiments show that belief in invisible entities interacting with the physical world has become the default state of the human brain.
We now know better. Help save someone from their prehistoric fears – give them the good news today.
Religious belief of some sort is a nearly universal feature of humanity and probably of any higher intelligence. Musk is right to be afraid of AI.
I highly recommend this book. It explains why we, and by that I mean I, was brought up to believe. Despite it having little evolutionary benefit in the modern world.
Spiritual beliefs emerge from ancient psychological tendencies according to this article. Kind of makes sense too.
…. and the number of people with faith in God is increasing. Rationality has it’s work cut out, though I doubt that atheists would indoctrinate their kids as much as those who benefit from spiritual beliefs.