Faith of the selfish gene

[The Grave]

Is faith simply a tool used by genes to propagate themselves?:uk:

[Tricky]

Data is uncertain. There may be a "God gene" but genes aren't the only things that control the behavior of a species.

[Glen.Nogami]

Data is uncertain. There may be a "God gene" but genes aren't the only things that control the behavior of a species.

Data are uncertain. A datum is uncertain. :p

[Loss Leader]

Blind faith aids social cohesion and encourages unity behind a leader. It would seem that this would have been advantagious to a species that can really only survive by cooperation. There being a good evolutionary reason for it, I think there's enough evidence to strongly suspect that it is at least partially encoded into our biology.

[Morrigan]

^ Someone hasn't read The Selfish Gene... :D

[Beerina]

Faith stands astride two wild beasts running out of control through the wilderness, piggybacking, one foot on the natural tendency of the mind's associational nature (learns by associating two things, whether they have an actual connection "in the real world" or not) which then seeks to refine the associations it has generated, and the other foot planted solidly on the natural tendency of humans to defend their own clan.

The two combine to provide a powerful zergling rush, controlled by a handful of power seekers, against the other power seeker's own zergling rush.


Personally, I see "faith" as the corner into which religion has been pushed, once people realized there were natural causes to lightning bolts and storms and conception of babies and the mind and the Earth.

Can't prove god? Well, then, He must want to not be proved.

Yeah, that's the ticket. God doesn't want to be proven. It's important we believe in Him without proof. Why? Uhhhhhhh.

This is a vital concept. It didn't always exist. "God cannot be proven" developed over the millenia.

No proof? Well, therefore:

A. He doesn't exist

or

B. He does, but wants to hide from us.


Out comes the first beast, and people choose B, aided by the second beast's leader telling them that must be the case because, in a deconstructionist sense, that threatens his power and wealth base.

In any case, that He doesn't exist is a much more parsiminous explanation. Unless you believe The Devil pre-planted loads of earlier religions to just make it seem an omnipotent, monothesic god-concept evolved from them.

But if that bizarre scenario were the case, why would a God who still threw you into Hell for being deceived so be worthy of worship?