[ExI] What is religion? What is god was The Meaning of the Universe

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Thu Jun 16 17:27:24 UTC 2016


On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 11:24 AM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
​> ​
> More fundamental than the particular local set of myths is why people
> ​ ​
> have myths at all.


​Because their mommy and daddy told them those myths were real. Genes that
make children believe what adults tell them will do better than genes that
tell them to ignore adults because adults do have a lot of wisdom to impart
on their children. And most adults don't have hallucinations but some do
and they will tell their children about them and they will believe what
they hear, and as adults they will go on to tell their children about it
and they will believe it too. And so it goes.

Scientology may be a bit different as many became converts as adults, but I
don't think Scientology will ever become a major religion that way because
there aren't
​a ​
sufficient number adults that retain enough juvenile characteristics to
seek a father figure. If a religion wants to get big it has to snag people
when their young, very young, preferably learning to talk young
​ and before their critical thinking skills are developed.  ​


 John K Clark
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