A theory in science doesn’t mean a lack of evidence or credibility.

If we were going to teach one form os pseudoscience, shouldn’t we be fair and teach them all? I mean clearly those people from millenia ago are smarter than us…

Did he have one? As I was reading God Hates You today, CJ Werleman said something about Adam having a bellybutton. It made me wonder, did he? I mean he didn’t exist, but that doesn’t mean I can’t muse about it. Technically, Adam had no mother or true birth. God threw some dust together and breathed into it and wham there we go. Some creationists will claim that men having nipples was just an asthetic choice on God’s part, does this apply here too? In every picture I was able to find, Adam had a bellybutton. How? Did God just throw that on there for the hell of it? Anybody want to clear this up for me?

This is something I’ve always wondered about. Why would God make a creature with such “natural” flaws? Why even put in an appendix or wisdom teeth? Just to fuck with us? Ockham’s Razor tells me to probably just stick with the whole evolution idea for this one…

Found this while surfing the web the other day, the irony is almost too much to bear. Evolution is the fairy tale? Lol.

I often find myself wondering why we still have religion. Or even why it spread so much in the first place. I would agree the origins would be an attempt to explain the natural world around us. Make sense, and every culture tried it. Yet even after the advent of science we still have religion here. Why?

 
It seems to me like religion would have spread, because we are loss orientated beings. I think Dawkins described something like this in one of his books. Wouldn’t it make more sense to treat the gust of wind as a predator rather than just nothing? The human who ignores that would be more likely to be killed by a predator. That’s simple natural selection. If you always assume it was just the wind versus a lion, that will probably catch up with you eventually. Wouldn’t the same principle apply to God? If you are more likely to trust something is true as a survival instinct, why wouldn’t that apply to religion? Especially when the consequences are as dire as Hell. At least that makes sense to me.

 
The reason religion continues today is indoctrination. Another human trait is to trust elders. Especially when they drill a concept repeatedly into your head from a young age. The logical approach to breaking the spell of religion would be with the children. A strong education would help. We need to raise a generation of critical thinkers who aren’t afraid to ask questions. The true enemy of religion is knowledge. Isn’t knowledge the whole thing which got Adam and Eve removed from Eden? I my opinion indoctrination is child abuse. Even indoctrination into atheism. Children should be given a choice. Let’s raise them all agnostic and let them choose for themselves. Currently, faith is based on your parents and geography. If you are religious, wouldn’t you think your location would change what faith you are raised in? Somebody born in Iraq would most likely hold different beliefs from somebody born in Sweden or Aboriginal Australia. Our future always rests with children so we should educate them and try to make them able to do the most good for humankind.

Today, we have a special guest post from blogger Steven Brewer. His blog is more about humanitarian things than atheist things, so this is different than his usual stuff. Also you can follow him on Twitter. @svb123 Anyway, here is his post:

I don’t mean evolution disproving the fundamental principles of most religions, every rational person knows no matter how much evidence you lay out in front of these brain washed people, they will not let it go.

Many are taken in from a young age. In the first years of school, naive children are preyed upon by religious leaders with their doctrines. 3/4 of Church of England schools are primary schools, ages 4 – 7. In every case, the leader fulfils the well known psychological requirements required to influence people. They begin with the principle of ‘faith’. In other words, they won’t ground any of their ridiculous claims in any evidence whatsoever but you have to believe everything they say no matter what happens and no matter what anybody tells you. In fact, what people will tell you only further proves how right they are because they predicted that it would happen, that some people would think you’re crazy and try to ‘tempt’ you back to reality, and they were right! People do try to make you snap out of it. Whatever they tell you though, you must stay strong. Fight for your Lord. Survive the ‘tests of faith’. Don’t give in to the temptation to think for yourself. Also, if any coincidences happen attribute them to God and take it as a sign. You can see signs in many different places, it’s all about interpreting them to what you think God would mean, and there’s no rules to this. If you think that’s what God would mean, it’s really true! Trust what you’re mind tells you, but try and stick to the theme of everything we’ve told you and see the Bible if you’re unsure.

Faith is blind. As a Christian, you’ve been trained to shut your eyes and close your mind by people who have been trained in methods that are thousands of years old, methods that have themselves evolved through the ages. Cults that worked and managed to sufficiently reproduce have survived and thrived to become what they are today, and the fact they are so old is used as ‘evidence’, if it’s old it must be true. Of course, because lies fade naturally over time.

You can’t hold a reason, debate or discuss these things with people who have, for whatever reason, abandoned the harsh light of reality and science for a more comfortable position with their heads buried in sand.

No, evolution won’t be the death of religion as pure evidence to the contrary of fundamental religious non-evidence. But evolution itself could put an end to it. Humans can evolve past holding on to these unsubstantiated beliefs in absurd ancient fairy tales.

Throughout history, despite the many many deaths we can thank religion for, it has generally helped people stay alive and reproduce faster (don’t spill seed on the ground, let God decide how many kids you’ll have, don’t be gay…) and avoid doing things that risked lives or survival of the species. Many of the rules seem to have a kind of logical to them. It gave people positivity through some very dark times. While I acknowledge this is one advantage followers benefit from because positive thinking is essential for a happy life, I refute this as the only way to achieve that and it is far from being the best way. It’s inflexible and can turn sour pretty damn fast.

People were significantly less well informed in the days when these cults began, and the disadvantage of being uninformed is that you’re extremely easy to manipulate. Questions needed answering, people needed things to do as a community and society needed to be kept in line. If you look like you know what you’re talking about, you’ll do.

You could say that God was a handy invention, allowing governments to control people, create jobs, and provide entertainment. It is kind of like a game. All that pretending and story telling. The whole institution is a tad convenient for kings, queens and religions leaders of it’s day… Except perhaps for Henry VIII when he wanted a divorce, but then all he had to do was break away from it and start his own church, one that allowed divorce. But that’s ok, you can rewrite God’s “perfect law”. And at that time, it was convenient for the progression of humanity. Growth was an issue, people were needed to expand armies and fight wars, work farms and discover new technology. It seemed at the time fear was the best way to go about maintaining order and getting things done.

However none of these old ways fit with society today. Intelligent people don’t respond well to intimidation, manipulation is slightly harder when you have alternative sources, there’s an abundance of education in the West, and information from books, the internet and television. Then of course there’s the continuously expanding scientific evidence staring us in the face, which really doesn’t correlate well with these heavily edited ancient books, written by primitive ancestors who thought starts were little lamps in the sky and the earth was flat.

When considering the validity of a given religion, people now have a growing level of access to non-religious sources to choose from, especially on the internet. Unquestionable, unproven fantasy is no longer the only option, unlike just a few decades ago when families could completely shield their own children from reality. This is resulting in a rapid growth of atheism: smart people who are opting out.

So with that in mind, do religious followers have an evolutionary advantage over atheists today? I’m thinking no.

Does ’survival of the fittest’ really involve having more kids than you can afford to feed on an increasingly over-populated and polluted planet? And will those children grow up thanking their parents’ impractical ideologies that held them back mentally throughout their childhood?

Is blocking progress on life saving stem cell research really pro-life? For that matter, is forcing people who have somehow managed to conceive ‘unexpectedly’ to have babies they’re in no position to support really in the best interests of life?

Does denying two men or two women who love each other the ‘privilege’ of rights straight couples are entitled to and completely take for granted really sound progressive or particularly adaptive? All this because an ancient book doesn’t allow it, in case the survival of our species is threatened by a lack of reproduction? Even though said ancient book has been adjusted for a certain King’s desire to get rid of his first wife?

And lastly, does having one of your most prominent leaders suggest Africa tackles problem with aids by ditching condoms really help with the survival humanity?

Perhaps that last one is a question about the survival of religion itself. More people than ever are looking on as religious leaders everywhere are beginning to embarrass themselves with their common sense defying notions as they attempt to push their ridiculous, ancient, unadaptive dogma on people, whatever the cost. We need to adapt and focus on the future if we are to survive, not cling to the past, ideology that worked 2000 years ago but has no place in society today, let alone in the future. The religions that are lingering now are merely ‘dead skin’ of the past. The aftermath of what used to help us survive, but now only holds us back. If you follow doctrines like these, you need to put away your pointless traditions and so called ‘moral’ values, passed down to you from naive, wife stoning cavemen ancestors and start contributing to the real world.