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Let me start this with a disclaimer. I am an atheist. I tried several times in my youth to be a Christian, but I failed to find anything remotely believable in the Bible. And, further, on my scale of "quality of the human being standing in front of me," expressing a belief causes the person to lose points. The number of points lost depends on the level on insistence that I need to hear the Word. And it does not matter what word. If you try to convince me that I need to drink you particular flavor of Kool-Aid, your point total will drop rapidly.
This morning (the Christian Good Friday), NPR ran a story of Christians in Jerusalem retracing the Biblical route taken by the Biblical Jesus on his Biblical way to the Biblical crucifixion. In their account, however, the only "fact" in doubt was the exact route. Does not matter than in all the study done in the region, there is not one shred of evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was real and lots of evidence that suggests the stories told in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John could not have happened as reported even in the earliest known versions of those writings.
A whopping percentage of human beings above the age of 20 (I draw the line there, because folks less than 20 will believe anything if enough of their friends do) are religious. The "actual" number is hard to pin down. :) In the last 10 years, the global number has polled between 60 and 90 percent. I'd be willing to split the difference for now. Call it 75%. The definition of "religious" for those polls seems to be belief in supernatural forces or beings or both.
There have been a number of studies that strongly suggest that part of the human brain is wired to establish cause and effect reasons for everything with magic as the default option. As a reason, magic lends itself to the creation of structured beliefs. If we offer up a sacrifice to the rain god at the right time in the right way and the rain god is not displeased with us for something, the rain god will provide for a bumper crop this year. Our study of the brain -- in terms of how and why we think what we think -- is so new a field that we can't say very much "for sure." My belief is that this view of why human beings have religion is an elegant answer.
Last night, I wanted to kill some time so I thought I'd watch the not-much-science Science Channel. Lo! Filled with Old Testament pseudo-science. I watched about 2 minutes of Exodus. The makers of that show knew their audience. Not even a hint that the basic story of Moses might be myth. They did, though, throw some hind-sight explanations in to show how some of the details might be shaky. How about this detail: There is not one shred of evidence that Egypt ever had a large population of Hebrew slaves. The evidence is leaning heavily against the the entire Moses story.
How about this one: In all the geological studies conducted in the last 150 years, there has been no evidence of a mass flood. Sorry, Noah. Not only was your Ark too small, but there was no water to float it on!. Good thing, cause you didn't have the technology of "2012" available to you.
Human being long for cause and effect explanations and when reason doesn't provide one (quickly enough), superstition arises. And then, when reason does provide a suitable answer to one of life's eternal questions, the established superstition is still clung to like a life-preserver made of dung.
So, on days like this, when I am inundated with Christian folklore, I feel far less than charitable to the True Believers of what ever myth happens to be the current fashion of their bit of world geography.
This morning (the Christian Good Friday), NPR ran a story of Christians in Jerusalem retracing the Biblical route taken by the Biblical Jesus on his Biblical way to the Biblical crucifixion. In their account, however, the only "fact" in doubt was the exact route. Does not matter than in all the study done in the region, there is not one shred of evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was real and lots of evidence that suggests the stories told in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John could not have happened as reported even in the earliest known versions of those writings.
A whopping percentage of human beings above the age of 20 (I draw the line there, because folks less than 20 will believe anything if enough of their friends do) are religious. The "actual" number is hard to pin down. :) In the last 10 years, the global number has polled between 60 and 90 percent. I'd be willing to split the difference for now. Call it 75%. The definition of "religious" for those polls seems to be belief in supernatural forces or beings or both.
There have been a number of studies that strongly suggest that part of the human brain is wired to establish cause and effect reasons for everything with magic as the default option. As a reason, magic lends itself to the creation of structured beliefs. If we offer up a sacrifice to the rain god at the right time in the right way and the rain god is not displeased with us for something, the rain god will provide for a bumper crop this year. Our study of the brain -- in terms of how and why we think what we think -- is so new a field that we can't say very much "for sure." My belief is that this view of why human beings have religion is an elegant answer.
Last night, I wanted to kill some time so I thought I'd watch the not-much-science Science Channel. Lo! Filled with Old Testament pseudo-science. I watched about 2 minutes of Exodus. The makers of that show knew their audience. Not even a hint that the basic story of Moses might be myth. They did, though, throw some hind-sight explanations in to show how some of the details might be shaky. How about this detail: There is not one shred of evidence that Egypt ever had a large population of Hebrew slaves. The evidence is leaning heavily against the the entire Moses story.
How about this one: In all the geological studies conducted in the last 150 years, there has been no evidence of a mass flood. Sorry, Noah. Not only was your Ark too small, but there was no water to float it on!. Good thing, cause you didn't have the technology of "2012" available to you.
Human being long for cause and effect explanations and when reason doesn't provide one (quickly enough), superstition arises. And then, when reason does provide a suitable answer to one of life's eternal questions, the established superstition is still clung to like a life-preserver made of dung.
So, on days like this, when I am inundated with Christian folklore, I feel far less than charitable to the True Believers of what ever myth happens to be the current fashion of their bit of world geography.
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