Have Humans Evolved to Believe in God?

[lickapop]

where did God come from? If there is one there must be more? is God a sadist? Is God and Satan the same entity? lol wheres my drink

[Slybacon]

where did God come from?

 

That question is relative to time, and time is a purely human phenomenon. God just is.

If there is one there must be more?

 

Why, God is Everything and everywhere.

is God a sadist?

 

A sadist is something a human is. Is a lion a sadist?

Is God and Satan the same entity?

 

I believe Satan is part of God. It would be more fair to think of Satan as an expression of a part of God

lol wheres my drink

 

I don't know, but I've found mine

[Slybacon]

So, how can you know that your belief of God is not a delusion? I simply don't think it can be done. Essentially, existence of God is unknowable.

 

You can't. But some for a breif moment who have existed in other forms would say they could. And it is in these faint memories that they build their faith

You can comprehend an awful lot about god because its a human construct. Our limit of understanding god is only limited by how much historical evidence we have about ourselves. There is no evidence god exists outside of the human construct. Anyway It doesn't matter whether god exists or not - It's the communal ritual that's important because that's what binds people together for mutual benefit, not the actual belief. Baseline, it's an evolutionary adaption and god or belief can be anything you or the group wants. That's why spirituality beliefs are alway changing and quite diverse but the core ritual mechanism is the same. We'll never prove or disprove god - that's not the point. I think the worship of god is tied into environments that provide sustenance and hero worship. Before Judaism 'heroic' people or leaders were called gods. I think hero worship needs to be addressed.

 

How can you prove ANYTHING exists out side the human mind?

[botanika]

Our physical senses. Cmon sly take off the straw hat!

[lickapop]

double post double scotch:)

Edited February 11, 2011 by lickapop

[lickapop]

That question is relative to time, and time is a purely human phenomenon. God just is.

Why, God is Everything and everywhere.

A sadist is something a human is. Is a lion a sadist?

I believe Satan is part of God. It would be more fair to think of Satan as an expression of a part of God

I don't know, but I've found mine

 

LMFAO tho not enough to satisfy

[Slybacon]

Our physical senses. Cmon sly take off the straw hat!

 

Duuuude. How can you trust them. I mean seriously they are just electrical impulses in your brain.

There is so much more to reality and life then your 5 senses can comprehend. There is SOOOOO much going on outside of this world.

Your really letting reality take the magic out of your life.

I may be drunk, but the straw hat joke went over my head....?

[bℓσωηG]

so calm down, just quieten yuz minds lol, let what naturally would flow from your heart... flow, ( without clutter of the mind) this feeling ...if you can do it , is love, love is god , you can shine like the sun (if thats what you need to imagine) from your chest area, it will keep you safe and it will guide you to a greater experience of yourself than ever you have felt, push that ;love into everyone and everything you pass always and you have attained something

[Gunter]

atman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_%28Hinduism%29

have we evolved or did god evolve into us?

[CβL]

How can you prove ANYTHING exists out side the human mind?

That's right. So just enjoy the game.

Also, some of you might get a kick out of reading some of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality

Essentially, these people have philosophised if we were all in a simulation - then according to whom you believe, we may or may not ever figure it out.

The stronger form of the theory says that if it's possible to simulate a reality whose inhabitants could not tell from a simulation, and if the universe is infinitely old - then it's very likely we are in a simulation.

...the philosopher Nick Bostrom investigated the possibility that we may be living in a simulation.[2] A simplified version of his argument proceeds as such:

i. It is possible that an advanced civilization could create a computer simulation which contains individuals with artificial intelligence (AI).

ii. Such a civilization would likely run many, billions for example, of these simulations (just for fun, for research or any other permutation of possible reasons).

iii. A simulated individual inside the simulation wouldn’t necessarily know that it is inside a simulation — it is just going about its daily business in what it considers to be the "real world."

Then the ultimate question is — if one accepts that the above premises are at least possible — which of the following is more likely?

a. We are the one civilization which develops AI simulations and happens not to be in one itself?

b. We are one of the many (billions) of simulations that has run? (Remember point iii.)

Judging by the average person's use of time and resources... I'd say it's likely we are binary monkeys.

[botanika]

Duuuude. How can you trust them. I mean seriously they are just electrical impulses in your brain.

There is so much more to reality and life then your 5 senses can comprehend. There is SOOOOO much going on outside of this world.

Your really letting reality take the magic out of your life.

 

The reality is I can't take the magic out of my life because it's an evolved trait

Anyway the topic is whether we evolved to believe in God, not defining God.

It’s undeniable humans evolved to have abstract thought and some sort of spirituality – its universal and a fantastic way of not only binding people together but problem solving and dealing with life and death. So the answer to the threads question is yes, and both biologically and culturally. But not all humans evolved to believe in ‘God’, as it has come to be known from Judaea backgrounds. Aboriginals, for example, believe in ‘Dreamtime’, which in my opinion is a far superior and integrated description of our abstract thought processes than ‘God’. Are they the same thing? Yes and no. The underlying thought process of each culture is probably similar and very ancient but aboriginal people for a long time were not conned or forced into believing in one singular god – they were stewards of the land not petitioner’s of the ‘Lord’. So part of the evolution of believing ‘God’ is a result of cultural evolution and assimilation.

Here's another world for you that for me is as wondrous and magical to think about as the pope thinks about money or a Christian thinks about Jesus: The DNA studies from May last year confirmed races outside of Africa shared 1-4% of Neanderthal DNA. Neanderthals moved from Africa into other parts of the world around 400,000 years ago after diverging from our common ancestor before that in Africa. There are a few unexplained elements in our 'development' when humans left Africa some 50,000-100,000 years ago. They encountered, slept with, killed, probably learned from and dissolved the Neanderthal. Early south East Asian groups could have also crossed paths with species like Homo floreseinsis who were also around relatively recently.

Scientists say the DNA fragments are 'relic's’ and didn't offer us any evolutionary advantage but I personally doubt that statement as genetic science is in its infancy, we have not sampled a wide scope of remains and mixing would surely have created some interesting hybrid traits – ‘Hybrid Vigor’ - particularly if we follow the evidence it was only a small group of humans that actually left Africa. The political repercussions of stating which current racial groups have what percentage of Neanderthal DNA would be extraordinary so they don’t divulge that data readily. Additionally The DNA is such that it could have been a little mixing or across whole groups. The old view of how we spilled out of Africa and traversed the world is becoming a lot more interesting with genome projects. In contemporary times Science is far more interesting than scripture IMO.

It is commonly accepted that humans were superior to the Neanderthal in many ways, but the Neanderthal had a bigger brain and different brain shape. They might have also been relatively peaceful existing for hundreds of thousands of years.

Then there is an ancient skeleton found in Mungo Brush, Australia, dating 60,000 years ago that is anatomically modern human but very different to modern day aboriginals in its DNA. What if modern day aboriginals were not the first into Australia but assimilated another previous hominid group? Evolution is not so linear but exponential.

We can start to ask questions like: Did the Neanderthals have a belief system and if so how was it different?. What fundamentally separates African, European and Asian groups genetically and even spiritually?

Could it be that the reason why the Middle East is so complex and volatile today is because tens of thousands of years ago that is where so much mixing and dispersal happened and then subsequently even more mixing happened when later northern european white races invaded the old European, black and Semite races 7,000 years ago? How much % Neanderthal DNA do each of the current races today have and could it explain differences in anatomy and cultural expression? How did some races develop such sophisticated technology and organization while others stayed more primitive – did they have less or more Neanderthal DNA? Were Neanderthal warlike or the humans that assimilated them? What effect does small gene pools have when isolated? What effect did the Ice Ages and UV spectrum of europe have on humans?

I could go on and on – just speculation around DNA evidence. I agree with you, there is so much going on ‘outside our world’ and for me science can help unlock those worlds whether history, particle accelerators or what bush tucker to eat. Reality is magic. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what you worship but I feel organized monotheism religions halt learning about who we really are and are a scam to control people for financial or political gain. Religion would never ask the question of evolution by default. It asks what it means to be Holy instead of what it means to be human.

[ThunderIdeal]

you still seem to be confusing religion and god.

[botanika]

you still seem to be confusing religion and god.

 

Ha there's a separation?

[ThunderIdeal]

not worth response.

[hutch]

Ha there's a separation?

 

One is the divine the other is a form of practice...IMO

[SunChaser]

The spiritually active part of the human brain which makes us prone to the idea of religion and god, is clearly simply just a primitive design by evolution to keep our large brains from feeling meaningless and unmotivated. As our very active brains developed the ability of awareness in a seemingly meaningless existence which we did not understand, religious thought was clearly a extremely useful tool to give us reason and consume your active minds so we feel motivated to thrive.

So religion is kind of like how effective the human body is at absorbing fat, very useful for our evolutionary development in the past, but completely useless and even harmful in the modern world! We can now understand our world using scientific method and have created our own meaning by becoming the most evolved species and claiming our custodial right over the earth and maybe one day (if we play our cards right) the solar system.

The way I see it, religion in the modern day (particularly the idea of one god) is nothing more than a self induced power hungry and egotistic form of psychosis, used by people to manipulate the vulnerable and hold back the advancement of mankind, in order to create there own little warped perception of reality for themselves.

The sooner society becomes completely secular and starts treating the idea of god as the myth it is the sooner mankind will come to having a better understanding of what the universe actually is.

I think the universe and everything in it is one single physical entity creating a chain of chemical reactions. Life and evolution in all it's forms is probably just a way of the universe trying to become aware of itself, or even maybe gain some control over itself. 

[hutch]

The spiritually active part of the human brain which makes us prone to the idea of religion and god, is clearly simply just a primitive design by evolution to keep our large brains from feeling meaningless and unmotivated. As our very active brains developed the ability of awareness in a seemingly meaningless existence which we did not understand, religious thought was clearly a extremely useful tool to give us reason and consume your active minds so we feel motivated to thrive.

 

First off how can you open with a statement like that...It is "Clearly Simply a primitive design"...maybe a IMO should have followed..An how do you know this? It is just your hypotheses not mine. The fear of and consequence of death drives evolution not the fear of getting bored...Could it be more the fear of death? I've never felt my life meaningless..

So religion is kind of like how effective the human body is at absorbing fat, very useful for our evolutionary development in the past, but completely useless and even harmful in the modern world! We can now understand our world using scientific method and have created our own meaning by becoming the most evolved species and claiming our custodial right over the earth and maybe one day (if we play our cards right) the solar system.

Are we talking religion here or the belief in God and whether evolution played a part.. I have never been a follower of any religion but I know there is a GOD. And I believe only one....lots of helpers but only one god. You put way too much faith in scientific method in explaining our world and that makes me laugh...200 years ago there would have been someone somewhere saying "We can now understand our world using scientific method" How wrong would they have been? How wrong will we be in say another 200 years. From what I have been exposed to lately I would say I have little faith in the science community but I do have faith in my GOD.

The way I see it, religion in the modern day (particularly the idea of one god) is nothing more than a self induced power hungry and egotistic form of psychosis, used by people to manipulate the vulnerable and hold back the advancement of mankind, in order to create there own little warped perception of reality for themselves.

 

No arguments from me there though I don't know enough about all religions to really say there isn't some good ones around...History shows a lot of bad ones....If you think the Idea of one GOD silly does that mean you believe in more than one?

The sooner society becomes completely secular and starts treating the idea of god as the myth it is the sooner mankind will come to having a better understanding of what the universe actually is.

I think the universe and everything in it is one single physical entity creating a chain of chemical reactions. Life and evolution in all it's forms is probably just a way of the universe trying to become aware of itself, or even maybe gain some control over itself.

 

Maybe the universe is GOD..... My life would not be any better IMO without my GOD.....That you Tim.Flannery

 

[Blood Trance Fusion]

The sooner society becomes completely secular and starts treating the idea of god as the myth it is the sooner mankind will come to having a better understanding of what the universe actually is.

I think the universe and everything in it is one single physical entity creating a chain of chemical reactions. Life and evolution in all it's forms is probably just a way of the universe trying to become aware of itself, or even maybe gain some control over itself.

 

That's contradictory. Are you completely secular while believing the universe is an entity?

God: "the perfect and omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe".

[woof woof woof]

No-one knows. A majority believe.

 

Disagree! Everybody knows on some level! 2 some it's nature,... to others God, others see it more abstract. Whatever you call it "IT's there!" It's part of us and we are part of it.

To say no-one knows is to deny your own nature.

We can boil everything down to it being Energy - beyond that it's a mystery. Great Mystery. Treat everything like you want to be treated.

[Blood Trance Fusion]

Saying that it's (your God's/existence's/gods are) a mystery is agreeing with me not disagreeing with me... We don't know. Some will admit we don't know and some think that they do know based on how their parents raised them in accordance to what someone hundreds and hundres of years ago thought they knew.

I treat everything as well as I can not as I want to be: I don't want plants to start harvesting me for sustenance but I don't know of other ways to live.

[woof woof woof]

#1 The spiritually active part of the human brain which makes us prone to the idea of religion and god, is clearly simply just a primitive design by evolution to keep our large brains from feeling meaningless and unmotivated. As our very active brains developed the ability of awareness in a seemingly meaningless existence which we did not understand, religious thought was clearly a extremely useful tool to give us reason and consume your active minds so we feel motivated to thrive.

#2So religion is kind of like how effective the human body is at absorbing fat, very useful for our evolutionary development in the past, but completely useless and even harmful in the modern world! We can now understand our world using scientific method and have created our own meaning by becoming the most evolved species and claiming our custodial right over the earth and maybe one day (if we play our cards right) the solar system.

#3 The way I see it, religion in the modern day (particularly the idea of one god) is nothing more than a self induced power hungry and egotistic form of psychosis, used by people to manipulate the vulnerable and hold back the advancement of mankind, in order to create there own little warped perception of reality for themselves.

#4The sooner society becomes completely secular and starts treating the idea of god as the myth it is the sooner mankind will come to having a better understanding of what the universe actually is.

#5I think the universe and everything in it is one single physical entity creating a chain of chemical reactions. Life and evolution in all it's forms is probably just a way of the universe trying to become aware of itself, or even maybe gain some control over itself. 

 

#1 Jabez,... you can put it that way,... Indeed it is to motivate us,..... but why and what is the driving force behind the motivation? "It's the QUESTION that drives us!" (haha, a line from a movie) - I think humanity is being driven into more and more exciting news fields of exploration. (We have some serious explorers here)... apparently there are many things that are still beyond us.... and we are given the opportunity in this lifetime to satisfy our curiosities. Plenty reasons to enjoy life.

#2 Dogmatically following religions is unhealthy I agree,.... but they can serve as a good basis for healthy norms/values.... however religions should be met with modern critical thinking. I wouldnt disregard them altogether. And this is exactly why I like Buddhism.

#3 Not entirely agreeing.I can see your point. However religions can be very comforting for people... that is why people wont let go that easyliy... then when someone like you comes allong and gives an opionion like that people will feel attacked in their beliefs,..that can hurt.). I am sure there are many practicioners of religions that have a healthy balance between openess, the modern world. And also,... someone might in your vieuw have a less evolved perception,... but does that you the right to critisize theirs?

I am sure many people are thankfull for the basis they received from religion. I also think that you yourself Jabez and many more here owe much more religion(s)then we realize....

#4 Sure,... yet most problems in the world are so obvious that religions are not not even an obstacle for trying to find a solution. I think common sense and a little education go a long way.... and that most people are free to pay tribute to life/love/health in any way they see fit.

#5I think the universe and everything in it is one single physical entity creating a chain of chemical reactions. You really think it is all chemical?Life and evolution in all it's forms is probably just a way of the universe trying to become aware of itself, or even maybe gain some control over itself.Agreed!

[woof woof woof]

Double

Edited February 14, 2011 by woof woof woof

[woof woof woof]

Saying that it's (your God's/existence's/gods are) a mystery is agreeing with me not disagreeing with me... We don't know. Some will admit we don't know and some think that they do know based on how their parents raised them in accordance to what someone hundreds and hundres of years ago thought they knew.

I treat everything as well as I can not as I want to be: I don't want plants to start harvesting me for sustenance but I don't know of other ways to live.

 

Of course we know that we dont know....... duuhhhhh! ;-) hahaha

I dont think that you understood what I said when I said that "Everybody Knows!" Everybody knows because everybody IS....... At the moment we are at complete peace withourselfs we Know.

[Blood Trance Fusion]

Okay. The only thing I know is that I don't know.

Edited February 14, 2011 by Blood Trance Fusion

[botanika]

Homo erectus: ugg?

Cro-mag man: mammoth

Noah: water

Odin: the sun and moon and everything in between

Tutenkhamen: which one am I?

African: coke bottle

Mayan: hope these virgins bring rain...

Asian: ommmmmm

Indigenous Australian: the land boss

Christian: what have I done now?

Muslim: Kuran

Freemason: it's a secret

New age hippy: well it's sort of like everything man but sort of like nothing you know?

SAB: I disagree

Alien: take me to your leader

Scientist: sigh

Bon Scott: Let there be rock

Jew: there's a fortune to be made out of all of this!

Edited February 14, 2011 by botanika