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

[Keith Henson]

On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 8:53 PM,  John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.

This kind of harmless meme spread down the generations has been seen
in many animals including crows.

> 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.

That may be true among some old line religions.  But I know of several
cases where the children called bullshit on the parents at young ages.
My take on how scientology works is in a 14 year old paper here:
http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html

Sex, Drugs, and Cults. An evolutionary psychology perspective on why
and how cult memes get a drug-like hold on people, and what might be
done to mitigate the effects

As for this cult, it's down by around 90% from when they tangled with
the internet back in 1995.  My contribution was a lot less than the
South Park, trapped in the Closet episode, but I think I helped bring
them down.  Back in 1995 the media was terrified of them.  Now . . .

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a44458/ruthless-scientology-excerpt/