[Hank Kerchief]

Were I depart from atheists is that they see all religion as unnatural. I don't. In point of fact a religious belief system it is a naturally occurring phenomenon amongst all peoples since the dawn of time. Therefore I consider religion to be a positive part of our human psyche, God or no.

While this is commonly believed, it is not true.

There have been periods in history when men and women found spiritual fulfilment, as I and increasing numbers do today, in nature, art; long periods too when they lived without religious beliefs. The Ancients, wrote the philosopher John Locke in 1689, had no beliefs in a personal god, and about the same time French missionaries seeking converts were finding godless societies living contentedly all over the world.

The Indians of the Gaspe peninsula, wrote Chretien Le Clerq, had never formed a conception of any divinity but were charitable beyond anything in Europe, while the Jesuit Le Jeune found the natives of Cap Breton "exceptionally clever, honest and decent, very generous with a cheerful disposition", but also godless. And the Dominican Jean-Baptiste du Tertre whose church had warned him he would find black atheists in the Antilles to be depraved found otherwise.

"The love they have for one another is extremely tender... they assist each other in all their illnesses and cannot see their companions mistreated without feeling their pain." Similar discoveries were made in Thailand, China and Japan.

From "Put away childish things" Ludovic Kennedy, Thursday April 17, 2003, The Guardian

Hank

[Destro]

That is unsceintific nonsense written by men who only viewed God and religion from their own cultural contexts. These men who observed such things were primitive in their methods of observation and analysis. A belief system in some sort of supernatural system is universal and prehistoric and dare I say pre-human? From the burial practice of Neanderthals (burying their dead in beds of flowers-why would they bury their dead anyway?) to the cave paintings of the Cro-Magnon's and beyond.

That does not mean their is a god or a spirit world, just that humans all over seem to think their should be and act accordingly.

[Destro]

That does not mean their there is a god or a spirit world, just that humans all over seem to think their should be and act accordingly.

[Aric2000]

That was an interesting article, thanks for the link.

Perhaps a case could be made that it get it's own thread going, or is one already started?