Posted on 03/04/2007 8:44:01 AM PST by shrinkermd
...This is different from the scientific assault on religion that has been garnering attention recently, in the form of best-selling books from scientific atheists who see religion as a scourge. In “The God Delusion,” published last year and still on best-seller lists, the Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins concludes that religion is nothing more than a useless, and sometimes dangerous, evolutionary accident. “Religious behavior may be a misfiring, an unfortunate byproduct of an underlying psychological propensity which in other circumstances is, or once was, useful,” Dawkins wrote. He is joined by two other best-selling authors — Sam Harris, who wrote “The End of Faith,” and Daniel Dennett, a philosopher at Tufts University who wrote “Breaking the Spell.” The three men differ in their personal styles and whether they are engaged in a battle against religiosity, but their names are often mentioned together. They have been portrayed as an unholy trinity of neo-atheists, promoting their secular world view with a fervor that seems almost evangelical.
Lost in the hullabaloo over the neo-atheists is a quieter and potentially more illuminating debate. It is taking place not between science and religion but within science itself, specifically among the scientists studying the evolution of religion. These scholars tend to agree on one point: that religious belief is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved during early human history. What they disagree about is why a tendency to believe evolved, whether it was because belief itself was adaptive or because it was just an evolutionary byproduct, a mere consequence of some other adaptation in the evolution of the human brain...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Believers rely on a "leap to faith." Still there is room for the physical and psychological sciences to examine "religion" and "faith" as common human experiences.
I note that this article is number one for emailing today.
It is a common fallacy to say that believers make a "leap of faith" as that is not necessarily the case. That does often describe individuals in liberal Christian denominations but it does not describe others who have never made "a leap of faith" and describe themselves as "always knowing" God. The inability of scientists to posit value to this latter claim and study it is part of the worthlessness of the 'science of religion'.
Faith is always a leap, and that's OK. Richard Dawkins is a douche bag. Sittinpretty,see South Park for this.
The two main pillars of evolutionist philosophy are that "survival of the fittest" is the only moral law in nature, and that he who dies with the most offspring is the winner. The two ideals in that moral world have to be the serial rapist, and the welfare mother. Those are the two people an evolutionist would look up to.
"These scholars tend to agree on one point: religious belief is an outgrowth of brain architecture."
Dawkins, Harris and Dennett have a brain lesion then?
Did you post this as a "Religion" or "News/Activism" category article?
No. Your statement is wrong. For a subset of religious believers it is indeed a "leap" of sorts. But there are other subsets where the word "Faith" does not have the same Protestant definition largely used in the USA but rather signifies something rather different.
In terms of degree, one can start with getting up in the morning and swinging your legs out of the bed and standing up. You have faith that the floor is still there. No leaping involved. The level of faith is based on patterned experience.
I could go on, but it is late and there is a baby to feed. Take care!
Absolutely brilliant!
The more I read your posts the more delighted I am with your observational wit!
Faith in an unseen God is a leap for modern man. Gelief in anything larger than the Self has disappeared for many.
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