[ExI] de Waal

[William Flynn Wallace]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 10:16 AM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Feb 22, 2018 7:51 AM, "William Flynn Wallace" <foozler83 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> A far more difficult thing, in my opinion, is the origin of the concept of
> the immortal soul.  I am working on that one.
>
>
> "But I can't actually just stop existing.  What happens to my memories, my
> identity, after I die?  I have not experienced anything like them just
> going poof, so even if you say that's what happens, that doesn't make
> intuitive sense."
>
> In other words, a common cognitive dissonance when thinking about one's
> own death.
> ----
>
​Yes.  Death, the great mystery.  It's just impossible to think of going to
sleep and not waking up.  And primitive people extended this to plants -
trees had souls, cattle had souls - others thought trees were gods and
should be prayed to to excuse the act of cutting them down.

In Pinker's book the more science/education a population knows/has, the
more people leave religion.  ​

​Science is a threat - the religious people are right.  Natural causes
trump metaphysical causes.

bill w​

> ​
>
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