<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 12:25 PM, John Clark <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:johnkclark@gmail.com" target="_blank">johnkclark@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Keith Henson </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:hkeithhenson@gmail.com" target="_blank">hkeithhenson@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">
<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">></div> I tend to bypass theology for biology,particularly evolutionary psychology and reply to theology questions<span class=""><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>with the meta question, "Why do humans have religions at all?"<br></span></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">The world is a dangerous place so there would be an </font></div><font size="4">evolutionary<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> advantage for children to believe what their parents tell them about it. Most people don't have hallucinations but some do, and those that do will tell their children about it and they will accept it as a fact about the world as uncritically as the fact that it's dangerous to swim in that river because of the crocodiles. And when they grow up they will tell their children the same thing even if they have not had the hallucination themselves. So the grandchildren will also believe that the </div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">hallucination</font><div style="display:inline"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> explains something important about the world, it must be true because mommy and daddy told me it's true. And so it goes.</font></div></font></div><div><div style="display:inline"><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div></div><div><div style="display:inline"><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> John K Clark</font></div></div><div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline">What is so difficult for me to understand is this: we teach young children about the tooth fairy, Santa, Easter bunny, and all sorts of things in various cultures that they grow out of (a meaningless phrase, that), coming to see fairly early that these are false. So why do they believe anything the parents and wider culture believe? One would think that they are now prejudiced against the older generation's beliefs. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline">After all, they were lied to over and over.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline">bill w<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
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