Why Didn’t A More Rational View Of Life Crush The Development Of Fantastical Religious Ones?

[Jimmy]

… and why have they persisted to this very present day of intelligence?

Back in the day as major religions were taking shape why didn’t a more scientific view of our world and universe crush the development of religions? Why did fantastical stories flourish and get believed as truth? One would think we’d know better. I mean we do have some brains.

 

[Pawpatrol]

Because God has created man with the innate knowledge of God.

 

[Jimmy]

Because God has created man with the innate knowledge of God.

Innate? What does that look like? Seeing god with your mind? Heart? Both? How do you know you’re not mistaking your innateness with just a thought?

 

[Pawpatrol]

Innate? What does that look like? Seeing god with your mind? Heart? Both? How do you know you’re not mistaking your innateness with just a thought?

existing in, belonging to, or determined by factors present in an individual from birth : native, inborn
innate behavior
2
: belonging to the essential nature of something : inherent
3
: originating in or derived from the mind or the constitution of the intellect rather than from experience

 

[Jimmy]

existing in, belonging to, or determined by factors present in an individual from birth : native, inborn
innate behavior
2
: belonging to the essential nature of something : inherent
3
: originating in or derived from the mind or the constitution of the intellect rather than from experience

So instinct? How come atheists don’t seem to have this instinct?

 

[Pawpatrol]

So instinct? How come atheists don’t seem to have this instinct?

They had when they were born. In most cases their parents raised them to disbelieve.

 

[ChristineM]

… and why have they persisted to this very present day of intelligence?

Back in the day as major religions were taking shape why didn’t a more scientific view of our world and universe crush the development of religions? Why did fantastical stories flourish and get believed as truth? One would think we’d know better. I mean we do have some brains.

Science wasn't understood, so it was best guess time.
Basically we have no idea how, so god...

 

[Heyo]

Science wasn't understood, so it was best guess time.
Basically we have no idea how, so god...

That explains why religions were successful in the past, but why are they still?

It may sound cynical, but I think the same explanation still applies. Science isn't understood by a vast majority of people, and it is still "best guess time" for them.

That doesn't apply to all, since there are scientists who believe despite understanding science, but 1. religiosity is much less prevalent among scientists and 2. their beliefs are usually more deistic and less literal.

 

[Jimmy]

That explains why religions were successful in the past, but why are they still?

It may sound cynical, but I think the same explanation still applies. Science isn't understood by a vast majority of people, and it is still "best guess time" for them.

That doesn't apply to all, since there are scientists who believe despite understanding science, but 1. religiosity is much less prevalent among scientists and 2. their beliefs are usually more deistic and less literal.

I don’t think so. I think science is understood by most. So why is religion still so persistent?

 

[Heyo]

I don’t think so. I think science is understood by most. So why is religion still so persistent?

You would have to ask the religious, but look first at the evidence, how many people believe in YEC? It is impossible to understand science and be a YEC. How many people are climate change deniers? It is impossible to be a climate change denier and understand science. Go on with anti-vaxxers, flat earthers and other conspiracy theorists.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Why do we still add flavoring to food when the nutrients are enough?

 

[LuisDantas]

(Why Didn’t A More Rational View Of Life Crush The Development Of Fantastical Religious Ones)

… and why have they persisted to this very present day of intelligence?

Back in the day as major religions were taking shape why didn’t a more scientific view of our world and universe crush the development of religions? Why did fantastical stories flourish and get believed as truth? One would think we’d know better. I mean we do have some brains.

This may be a question for anthropologists to answer, but I will give it a go. Apparently it is because we are just not very well suited to rational thought, and end up creating wishful thinking.

But mostly because our social contracts are only rarely friendly to rationality and questioning. To this day we keep having people chanting to flags, for instance, and even feeling proud of it.

 

[Jimmy]

You would have to ask the religious, but look first at the evidence, how many people believe in YEC? It is impossible to understand science and be a YEC. How many people are climate change deniers? It is impossible to be a climate change denier and understand science. Go on with anti-vaxxers, flat earthers and other conspiracy theorists.

I’m not talkin bout yec. I’m talkin about other things like believing Jesus will return with a new heaven and earth.

 

[Heyo]

I’m not talkin bout yec. I’m talkin about other things like believing Jesus will return with a new heaven and earth.

I'm not talking about YEC either, I'm talking about science illiteracy, which you denied exists. YEC were just one example.

 

[Jimmy]

I'm not talking about YEC either, I'm talking about science illiteracy, which you denied exists. YEC were just one example.

True. Yeah it would be impossible to be a yec and understand science at the same time. But that doesn’t answer my question as to why religion persists today

 

[libre]

Why Didn’t A More Rational View Of Life Crush The Development Of Fantastical Religious Ones?

In many respects it already has.

In ancient Greece, people were burned alive for reading Lucretius's writings on atomism and atheism.
However now the existence of atoms is accepted near universally. Further, there are now states with no religion and even states opposed to religion.

In the 1600s Galileo was placed under house arrest and made to recount that his astronomical observations where consistent with a Heliocentric model of the universe. Today we consider that the sun is the center of a solar system to be self-evident.

Back in the day as major religions were taking shape why didn’t a more scientific view of our world and universe crush the development of religions? Why did fantastical stories flourish and get believed as truth? One would think we’d know better. I mean we do have some brains.

Materialism and proto-materialisms have been brutally suppressed throughout almost all of human history. Not because the ideas are inferior, but because rejecting Idealism is profoundly dangerous to powerful people and institutions that benefit from Religion.

 

[Jimmy]

In many respects it already has.

In ancient Greece, people were burned alive for reading Lucretius's writings on atomism and atheism.
However now the existence of atoms is accepted near universally. Further, there are now states with no religion and even states opposed to religion.

In the 1600s Galileo was placed under house arrest and made to recount that his astronomical observations where consistent with a Heliocentric model of the universe. Today we consider that the sun is the center of a solar system to be self-evident.

Materialism and proto-materialisms have been brutally suppressed throughout almost all of human history. Not because the ideas are inferior, but because rejecting Idealism is profoundly dangerous to powerful people and institutions that benefit from Religion.

Profoundly dangerous? I doubt that. If people didn’t want to follow religion, believe me they wouldn’t, The only thing I can think of as to why religion is so adhered to, speaking of mainly Christianity, is because it has a lot of truth in it.

 

[LuisDantas]

True. Yeah it would be impossible to be a yec and understand science at the same time. But that doesn’t answer my question as to why religion persists today

Well, that is a whole different question.

There are legitimate needs that are addressed by religion and pseudo-religion, even if often in pathological and destructive ways.

But it troubles me that you seem to present rationality and religion as mutually excludent tendencies. That is not supposed to be true.

 

[Jimmy]

Well, that is a whole different question.

There are legitimate needs that are addressed by religion and pseudo-religion, even if often in pathological and destructive ways.

But it troubles me that you seem to present rationality and religion as mutually excludent tendencies. That is not supposed to be true.

How am I doing that?

 

[libre]

If people didn’t want to follow religion, believe me they wouldn’t,

Yes, and many did. In the case of the Greek atomists, many of them were burned alive for daring to read atheist texts which declared the non-existence of god.

De Rurum Natura by Lucretius was lost to time until it was later found in the fifteenth century in a monastery.
Generations of scientists have since read the text. Hobbes, Bacon, Galileo, Darwin and Einstein, to name a short few. Who knows how much a scientific worldview could've flourished if the Greek atomists had not been erased by the Platonic tradition for a millennia.

That said, much progress has been made. In many fields, scientific views of the world has eclipsed idealist ones.