the science of belief

[rone]

I've been meaning to share this with you for months now, but i kept forgetting.  Something whipartist posted reminded me about it.

Despite the vast number of religions, nearly everyone in the world believes in the same things: the existence of a soul, an afterlife, miracles, and the divine creation of the universe.  Recently psychologists doing research on the minds of infants have discovered two related facts that may account for this phenomenon.  One: human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena.  And two: this predisposition is an incidental by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry.

The companion interview to this article, "Wired for Creationism?", should also be read.

Comments

[waider.livejournal.com]

European churches are often under state control and, like many government monopolies, have become inefficient

Er, they are? they have? Funny, I was under the impression that the problem where it is perceived is precisely the opposite: European states are often under church control, my own state being a good example up until recent history.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I wonder if he's specifically thinking about England. Or maybe even that's not accurate anymore.