[quote author=Lisa_Swallows link=1162636212/75#76 date=1200230962]That many people believe it shows only that they believe it; you are making the logical fallacy of
argumentum ad populam (argument from the masses). 400 years ago, 100% of people thought both that the Earth was stationary with the Sun going round it, and that the Earth was the center of the universe. They were wrong on both counts. Popularity of belief is not evidence. (Also remember that much of what is true is actually counter-intuitive.)
As to hardwiring, belief itself is a meme, and as such it is fantastically vulnerable to parasitization. As children, the rule of thumb is "believe everything told to you", which is good advice when the message is "don't eat red berries" or "don't pick up snakes", but piggybacking on that good advice can easily be the "believe there is a shiny beardy man in the sky" nonsense, for which there is no evidence.
Memes explain in Darwinian terms (the only meaningful terms) the nature of belief; they do not mean that the belief itself is true. Stop confusing the two. Understanding the real world actually improved (note the past tense) survival odds (as modern society now removes the likelihood of death in infancy, or at least skews the odds), because earlier atheists like Lucretius and Democritus saw the world more how it is than their contemporaries.
BTW, "what the bleep" is just crap pseudoscience, and if any single one of their claims can be demonstrated under proper scientific conditions, they will win $1 million:
http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/38/31/They have two years to apply, but I expect to see you making that application immediately. After all, why wouldn't you... unless you really know already that it's all crap...?[/quote]
One can only assume you suffer from spiritual deafness as well as spiritual blindness, since you addressed ONLY your own agenda as previously stated, and did not address in the slightest the notion I put forth, as backed by HARD science, that man's propensity for faith is GENETICALLY based, (as opposed to your blathering about 'memes'...)
But in trying to wax eloquent, you hoisted yourself on your own petard. Is it not obvious (well, probably not to you, since your mind is so obviously CLOSED to anything that distrubs YOUR belief system) that even as man's understanding of the world around him has so dramatically EXPANDED over the past 400 years, that religious belief, while certainly not remaining
static by any means, has remained every bit as ROBUST over that same period, in SPITE of the scientific advances?
And it's a specious argument that science was advanced by atheists...Far MORE advances have been discovered, postulated, or proven by NON-atheists, which you certainly must be aware of, but again, in pursuit of your agenda, you choose to obfuscate.
"Belief" is not "argument for the masses"...rather it is observed phenomenon. Those who don't partake are in a very noticeable minority. Part of their dementia is the illusion (in their minds) that their defect signifies higher intelligence, instead of diminished emotional capacity.
You talk about WHAT people believe in, unable to see
the only significant thing is that they DO believe in SOMETHING, and you do not (or perhaps, it would be more correct to say...CAN not...). It is YOU who represent the 'flat earth society', not the other way around...and that is the delusion that entraps you.
People could not believe in a round earth they could not see, just as you cannot believe in a deity YOU cannot see...and yet you automatically fault the vision of those around you instead of questioning the shortcomings of your own eyes.
In a nutshell, the
capacity for belief depends on an
inner vision you simply lack. On that sad note, you are to be pitied, not ridiculed.
