Comments on: And The Jury’s In – Again – Religion Improves Nothing

By: Tony D

Tony D — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:02:32 +0000

Perhaps there is a positive aspect to religious belief. As humans we are subject to a not well understood phenomena called the Placebo effect; the idea that if one believes in a an innocuous substance or idea the body processes this and may insures a positive result. The opposite of this the Nocebo effect occurs when a harmless substance or idea believed by an individual can be associated with harmful effects due to negative expectations, It appears that fundamentalist religious individuals are prone to think that their belief is superior to non-believers and therefore they tend to have Placebo effect experiences during their lives. Of course they are subject to the opposite Nocebo effect also which can be devastating to them and others in their environment.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:58:39 +0000

I believe humans do, actually, have a gene that causes us to feel pain and therefore care for others. When we show that sympathy, humans naturally gravitate towards us. Over our evolutionary timeline, we have genetically learned to care for one another to survive.

To say that atheists have no moral background is ridiculous, for in some ways it is even inherent in everyone’s own genes. Morality has nothing to do with religion, rather (at least in my opinion) religion has used morality (or whatever skewed view of morality those at the top have) as a tool to unite populations and gain followers.

I also believe religion creates a mental struggle between the concept of “good” (what “God” wants) and “bad.” And, in my opinion, it’s impossible to find peace within yourself in such a mental struggle.

By: KA

KA — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:26:37 +0000

Hey, happy yew near, everybody!
(That a spoonerism or a malapropism, I wonder?)

By: ChuckA

ChuckA — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:43:06 +0000

Brooklyn Boy’s comment reminds me that the annual Times Square, ball drop, countdown…erm…looms?
I’ll probably watch CNN on that…featuring, admitted atheist, Kathy Griffin with Anderson Cooper.
That, in turn, always reminds me of my very enjoyable month of April, 1967, playing trombone with a ballroom big band at the Roseland Ballroom; when I stayed at a [then VERY cheap] hotel right across from the CBS(?) studios, and very near Times Square.
(Now called, I’m guessing: “The Best Western President Hotel”, at Times Square)

Anyhoo…
Happy New Year everyone!
Yeah…another whole (extremely weird-ass?) decade bites the dust…?
What’ll the next decade be like?
[I feign plugging in my 'Maestro' brand Theremin; adding mucho echo/reverb into the mix.]
“oooEEEooo”

By: Brooklyn Boy

Brooklyn Boy — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:23:59 +0000

The late, great George Carlin nailed it perfectly. Americans have a tough time facing the truth. Religion is one of the things our society uses to hide from it.

Of all the industrialized nations, we are, by any measure, the most religious. Yet, we have the highest rates of crime, divorce, violence, addiction and incarceration. Now ex-president Bush, who describes himself as a man of faith, stood at the helm of this country for two terms and what do we have to show for it? Our economy is in ruins. We’re involved in two wars. Nearly 50 million of our citizens have no health insurance. Our schools are failing.

So it seems that the harsher our reality becomes, the less our citizenry wants to face it. I’m not going to hold my breath either.

By: benjamin

benjamin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:14:10 +0000

EXCELLENT blog…of course the godless choir already knows this sermon. What I don’t understand is the unwillingness to see what is right under believers’ noses. The evidence is so overwhelming and undeniable that religion a mental poison, along with politics/patriotism, and finance. Very few people in this country seem comfortable enough to think. If they had the fortitude to ponder the implications of their belief structure, I bet superstition and ancient mythology would crumble. But alas, people are emotionally immature and intellectually dishonest so I’m not going to hold my breath for it. I guess maybe I do understand it, lol.

By: Tony D

Tony D — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:29:59 +0000

Mankind, from the beginning, like so many other animals is a pattern seeker and by natural selection those who survived, more likely were good at discriminating between dangerous and benign patterns. Because of our unique intellectual capacity mankind evolved “agenticity” (Shermer ) “the tendency to believe that the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents” contributing to these patterns. With prominent thinking of this type it is easy to conclude that the meme for religion found good soil for growth. This delusional thinking becomes disastrous in our modern society where the knowledge of agents is based on science. An example of how agenticity affects the outcome of disease is clear in this actual occurrence that took place in a hospital a few years ago. Two Catholic Nun’s went on a trip to parts of Africa where Malaria is endemic; sadly they returned with malaria and were hospitalized, whereupon they were questioned as to whether they took the recommended prophylaxis for Malaria before leaving on their trip. They stated that they didn’t need it because they prayed to God to keep them safe. Multiply this error in patternicity and agenticity a thousand times over and you can see how delusional thinking can have a causative affect on medical statistics.

By: ChuckA

ChuckA — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:23:56 +0000

For this atheist, the answer to the question whether the World would be better without religion comes easily. One only needs to point to the overwhelming data from the, IMO, totally bonkers and vicious historical record…in every area of the world…to demonstrate the inherent danger of, totally irrational, superstitious thinking.
Of course it poses a somewhat interesting exercise for speculating how the World, indeed, would have evolved WITHOUT all the mythologically based bullshit of religions.

Morality…TRUE morality, that is…has nothing to do with the often IMmorality contained in the often monstrous passages of both the Bible and Quran. Actually, basic morality, as Dawkins, Hitchens, et. al…and Science…demonstrates that even very young children already know, intuitively, the basic difference between “Right & Wrong”. Add to that, the recent Scientific observations of the evolved existence of basic morality amongst many animal species.

Speaking of Christopher Hitchens…
From a debate (December 2, 2009) between Christopher Hitchens & Rabbi David Wolpe at The College at Brockport on the question:
“Why Does God Matter?”…two relevant segments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–CiMMA3FgU&annotation_id=annotation_125752&feature=iv
continued in this segment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rbCVcRpnF0

Yes…I think, especially considering the World’s already huge collection of Nuclear weapons, the sooner humans wake up and jettison, ESPECIALLY, I’d say, the Abrahamic variety of, insanely dangerous, Armageddon ridden religious beliefs, the better chance the human race has for continued Planetary survival.
Then, of course…
there’s those friggin’ random asteroids roamin’ around out there in the Cosmic void.
What’s that?…
“Too late, ChuckA…we rather cockamamee humans may be doomed, no matter what!”…?
Ummm…”with all due respect”…my response to that might be something like:
“Koo-cooh-Kee-kee-caca…neenooh-nah-nooh…squawk…henya, henya?”