This is an interesting possible explanation I came across into why much of mankind has had or needed faith in "gods"

Faith as a Product of Evolution.

We try to understand that faith is a natural response in humans. Victor Stenger, in his book Physics and Psychics, raises a tough question: “If supernatural beliefs were simply the product of the unsophisticated thinking patterns of early humans, then they should have largely faded away in our scientific age. Yet every survey of people’s beliefs continues to indicate a strong majority who believe in God, angels, the devil, astrology, and various other occult and supernatural phenomena.”

A possible answer, says Stenger, comes when we consider the advent of the city, which “forced people into greater dependencies on one another.” He continues, “Humanity became social. Leaders were now needed to keep some kind of civil order, and the village shaman and temple priest, with their supposed supernatural powers, proved to be effective in keeping everyone in line.” Stenger suggests that we “call upon materialism for a reasonable hypothesis: religion evolved by a process analogous to the natural selection that produced us and every other living species. Religious belief may now be deeply programmed in our DNA. This may have happened because, at one time, such beliefs provided a survival advantage for the people who had such coded information in their genes.”

“In the early days of the human race, we were few in number and struggled in competition with other species to survive. In that precarious situation, special advantage would accrue to those people living in communities with strong tribal rules forbidding behavior patterns threatening to the survival of the community. These ranged from taboos against incest and murder to special dietary prohibitions.

“By attributing these taboos to supernatural command, the leaders and their priests could enforce them more effectively. Individuals with a genetic disposition to question or disobey the rules would be suppressed, ostracized, or even killed. So they were less likely to pass their skeptical genes on to the next generation....”

So, while recognizing that “the genetic programming in favor of supernatural belief does not have the value for survival it once had — in fact, quite the contrary,” we can, in the interim, at least recognize that the tendency toward faith is a natural product of evolution. Stenger does offer hope, though:

“Fortunately, by the same process of evolution, we humans have developed a unique quality that gives us the power to overcome our instincts. This power resides in our intellect. Only through the application of intellect to overcome the dangerous behaviors programmed in our genes can we expect to survive. And our intellect is pointing the way for us to reprogram our own genes, to rid them of the transcendental temptations that now threaten our very existence.”

quite a nice write up and interesting analysis!

There is also Julian Jaynes theory on the breakdown of the BiCarmel Mind. Prior to the strong development of the Corpus Callosum, often one side of the brain contained the gods.

Even if science proved beyond a reasonable doubt there is no God,believers always have fideism to lean on.

great news

now thought patterns are genetically passed down too

so we are 'born this way' and now can assimilate to demand our equal rights in society.....

Victor Stenger is laboring under the "begging the question" logical fallacy. He assumes that there is no God and searches for a reason to explain why people believe in the supernatural. An alternative theory is that we were made to believe in God and those of us who don't are simply in rebellion against their nature.

Spidercmb, I don't think Stenger is assuming there is no God, that is your personal, logical deduction after reading his article....

Victor Stenger is writing about our social need for faith and a supernatural belief in God, angels, the devil, astrology,various other occult or supernatural phenomena.


I believe Stenger was writing about a social need for faith, and
I believe individuals need two things to have religious faith:
1) exposure to religion... you are a Christian because you are surrounded by it, if you lived in a Hindu community you would gravitate toward.. I think you get my drift :)
2) a personal need and weakness.... religious people are less responsible for their actions and consequences, they lean on religion to help them deal with life, and use it as an excuse for their actions (religion is imaginary, a delusion, therefore actually a type of psychosis)

We haven't even discussed the ultimate delusion.... prayer
Think about it, by praying, you will cause the forward motion of the universe to change, you will alter time-space relationships... what a naive and selfish concept... prayer :(

what is 'less responsible' about the religious?

thats a curious conclusion, in terms of responsibility

do you find it more 'responsible' to believe one only has to answer to mans laws (which are mostly governed by money)?


how is praying any less delusional than having a positive attitude? is it not true that much of what happens to us stems from our attitude and the actions we take or dont take resulting from that attitude?

do you think the mind has no power to motivate actions and attract situations?

what is 'weak' about leaning on something or someone,,,? do you believe humans never need emotional or intellectual support?

is it better that the 'intellectual' ( I use the term loosely, because I dont believe non religious equals intelligent anymore than religious equals unintelligent) read books about history and philosophy to come up with ideas and solutions, than for a religious person to read a bible and do the same thing?

In reference to this quote from V. Stenger...

“Fortunately, by the same process of evolution, we humans have developed a unique quality that gives us the power to overcome our instincts. This power resides in our intellect. Only through the application of intellect to overcome the dangerous behaviors programmed in our genes can we expect to survive. And our intellect is pointing the way for us to reprogram our own genes, to rid them of the transcendental temptations that now threaten our very existence.”
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A false premise based upon muddy thinking.

The DNA in question is the very REASON we survived to this point in our evolution...

Removing it would doom future generations to withering upon the vine when faced with obsticals larger than mankind...

They would have no 'instint' to adapt.

Humanity would die.

One does not remove parts from an engine until one has sure knowledge of the workings of the entire engine... else one remove the most important part and discard the spark plug that fires the process.

"the ultimate delusion"... Are you Sure?

Prayer is not a great cosmic bolt from the blue...

Prayer is like the wings of a butterfly. It effects but a small atom of the air in its passage yet can create change even to the ends of the earth...

or the end of time as we know it...

not with a loud shout but with a single flutter and a bit of faith.

I disagree with this because we are born without belief,what we are taught or teach ourselves to believe is human nature.Even if we believe it we can change our minds and believe something else.
I still rather know than believe.

There is no difference then knowing and believing though.

The only difference there is, is that you've chosen to believe whatever it is you're claiming to know. This applies to everything, not just religious views.

They say so and so is the president of the country and has done such and such. But how do you truly know that? The person we think is the president could possibly be a cover up and someone(s) else is actually running the country. The president could just be used to satisfy the country and keep them content. Not aiming this discussion into political discussion, just mentioning this one fact. Just people choose to believe they know.