Comments on: BEST OF 2009: God’s beliefs mirror our own

By: zepiphany

zepiphany — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:00:52 +0000

Since “God” is a man-made construct, naturally the beliefs that religious people feel “God” has, are in line with their own. For those of us who see no need to invoke a supernatural force, this study doesn’t make much sense or say very much.

By: Fair Bear’s Broadside « Blog Archive « Head Bread by Nunitak

Fair Bear’s Broadside « Blog Archive « Head Bread by Nunitak — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:14:11 +0000

[...] hummus, hummus, 4.+ tons Nunitak comments on ‘God copying us.’ — see the [...]

By: Nunitak

Nunitak — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:44:28 +0000

Like gentle winds
warming buds of fall,
our pathways shine
with fragrant blossoms,
perchance to share, forever new,
joyous, distant starry clusters.

[the chance is affected more by the cosmic vastness and the paths of progression involved, but sometimes "it's a small cosmos." ]

If God is kind, loving and helpful, did He become like me (much more junior) or did I become like Him?

If I see Him as All Powerful, why I am I not yet creating galaxies?

BTW, a scientist is speaking here, fyi.

By: Fimbulwinter « Simple Country Physicist

Fimbulwinter « Simple Country Physicist — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:44:59 +0000

[...] leave a comment » Courtesy of the Encyclopedia Britannica folks, I note that today is the anniversary of Leo X, Bishop of Rome, excommunicating Martin Luther in 1521 CE. [Link] It seems somehow congruent that I also noted an article about research done at U Chicago: Religious people tend to use their own beliefs as a guide in thinking about what God believes, but are less constrained when reasoning about other people’s beliefs, according to a new study.[Link] [...]

By: Cocat

Cocat — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:06:11 +0000

Wow – God in our own image. How twisted. But given our human intellect, I guess it was inevitable.

By: My God agrees with me … apparently « Confessions of an Undercover Theologian

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:57:42 +0000

[...] God agrees with me … apparently So reports Heresy Corner on this piece of research published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) from the [...]

By: Martin Luther

Martin Luther — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:05:48 +0000

“When things go our way, we ‘Praise the Lord’, but when they don’t go our way, we withhold it . . . And it is in this way we convict ourselves. . . We follow a God of our own making!”

By: Martin Luther

Martin Luther — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 10:56:56 +0000

“When things go our way, we ‘Praise the Lord’, but when they don’t go our way, we withhold it. . .And it is in this way we convict ourselves; We follow a God of our own making!”

By: Thaddeus

Thaddeus — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:33:00 +0000

Biology is of course the way we got our gods. When we changed from a hunter/gather group culture to a pastoral one those who could look to the star`s or other nature sign`s could show when to plant food and when to hunt and when even to move.Those folks where gods or claimed to be in touch with one or many.It also helped with talking and print. ( read how Ireland Saved Civilization ) When you get more food and meat ya have more kids and live longer then you get grandmothers who can care for kids while the mothers work so even more live. To this day grandmothers help with kids and guess who you will find in a church the most ? Grandmothers and woman. Older white guys are still telling them what to do how to feel,and even what politics to have its time for them(the woman) to grow up we are not in pastoral groups anymore.Conformity is what got us in the mess we are in now. And Religion is sadly a big part of it !

By: EelLove

EelLove — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:13:48 +0000

Bravo to Elizabeth and James Hampton for championing reason.

Elizabeth I think what you were getting at with “Secular ethics has nothing to do with religious doctrine,” is what many might call “secular humanism.” (I would guess you know this). For those who aren’t familiar with it, in a nutshell it might be described as (true Christ-like) christian behavior without the unnecessary and misleading cultural myths (religion) are burdened with.

James I think you were on the money with the connection between religion and biology. As Terror Management Theory argues, humans are (following Darwin) the biological beings which have evolved to our present state, and like all biological beings, we have an innate drive to survive (and pass along some genes man!). In addition, human beings are unique in that we are self aware. With this comes the knowledge of our inevitable death. So we have a creature desperate to live, yet cognizant of an inevitable death. What does this do? It has the potential to create crippling anxiety.

So how do people deal with it? In a number of ways, creating cultural myths being a big one. As Cultural Anthropologist Joseph Campbell pointed out, the earliest indication of religion is Neanderthal grave sites. As Campbell, TMT, and others have argued, religion is mainly a tool to alleviate the anxiety created by mans dual nature (biological/symbolic). It’s one of many means to alleviate existential anxiety.

But there’s a brighter side: if people use culture to alleviate anxiety, then those of us who maintain compassion and caring as constructs of the self, acting compassionately can alleviate anxiety.

Terror Management Theory has at this point amassed a wealth of empirical research to back it up, and I would encourage anyone interested in understanding why man needs religion to look into it.

Cheers!