If so, does this make it untrue and therefore unworthy of human commitment?
Religion does not arise at least in human evolution from a need nor from projection, so is neither true nor untrue, and also neither requires nor does not require commitment. See my papers on trans-species definition of religion and case for chimpanzee religion.
Many years ago as a young university student I wrote poems. One of these poems (although in German language) started: In the beginning humans created god in their own likeness.
One could see the beginning of religions as an attempt of humans to explain the world around them, especially those aspects that are not so easy to explain. It then is natural that humans create imaginations that relate to the world of their experience. They usually give a human image to god, and the create god in a system of values that inform their ethics. If there is a god(s) that are as the highest existing Being(s), to which we assign characteristics such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, goodness, righteousness, holiness, etc., we have to admit that our understanding of such highest being(s) can be only insufficiently expressed with our language as we cannot know, what all this includes and we cannot express it.
Whether there is god or gods or not is a different question. It is a question of faith / believe rather than knowledge. This is probably on purpose (in case god(s) exist). If the latter is the case then they would be powerful enough to make that humans can found evidence of their existence. Assuming that there is no such evidence (others surely will contradict me) I conclude that god / the gods do not want that we have clear-cut evidence, but that the issue remains an issue of belief and action (living a life as there would be god / gods that provide ethics as values we want that others treat us……). In case there are no god / gods then at least we have led a life that considered all around us as divine creatures…….
Again, I suggest reading my papers on religious behaviors among chimpanzees. It is fully biological ritualization of behaviors deployed at birth, death, reverence for nature and consortship. They don't have or need theological beliefs. When 'beliefs in god or no god' arose in human evolution is a topic for research. I have my guesses over the 2 million years of evolution of religion and art, some with little evidence, some with a lot more evidence. Given the global ubiquity of religious beliefs, mythology and ritual, a minimal date for origin of so-called 'belief systems' seems to be that of emergence of homo sapiens sapiens 250,000 years ago. Monotheistic (Abrahamic) belief systems are of course only a few thousand years old, though their precursors seem associated with emergence of JT-mtDNA and Afroasiatic (Afrasian) languages.
http://www.iupui.edu/~womrel/Rel433%20Readings/01_SearchableTextFiles/Asad_ConstructionOfReligionAnthroCategory.pdf
Hello Kirk MacGregor,
First, I should thank you for presenting such insightful questions.Adopting a religion is mostly instinctive because human beings have an inborn need for benefiting from ideal moral values and well being . These values and ideals provide them with a peaceful environment where they can live in serenity. However, since such values are often threatened and usurped by various sources of exploitation, man looks up to the divine powers for justice, happiness ,goodness, righteousness, etc. Notably, respect for freedom of religion is regarded as a natural human right which has a great bearing on democratic and peaceful progress of human societies. Such freedom, however, cannot be enjoyed without the presence of equality and justice. On this basis, by adopting a religion, the individual tries to receive divine help for preserving the main essence of human nature , which is personal dignity. This creates a relational need for all human beings by which they are able to turn to the image of God when their inalienable rights are denied by corrupt rulers and political systems.it is therefore essential for all people to have a religion to worship God for His endless bounties and for seeking an inherent dignity at times of grievous violations of their stability, security and peace of mind.
Best regards,
R. Biria
DEFINIDELYYY BECAUSE HUMAN IS IN SOCIAL LIFE SHOULD BE RULES AND SOME FORCES: ONE OF dHEM IS RELIGIONN...
Rather than ask the question whether there is any evidence for a belief in some sort of god or goddess, ask the question whether there is any scientific evidence that god or goddess does not exist? If one defines a god as having theistic characteristics, namely omniscience, omnipotence, absolute benevolence, etc. these theistic beliefs all require that we live in a Newtonian cosmos, with a Newtonian concept of space-time. That was an ok theory until end of the 19th Century. In the light of Einstein's theory of special relativity space-time consists of absolute intervals and there is no absolute space or time. Therefore theism is proven false. If so, all concrete theistic notions are false. Even the so-called Pascal's wager is based on a false belief, so appears ridiculous. On this basis one has to develop a non-theistic definition of the divine. I would like to see some good answers as to what that concept would be. Carl Jung made some progress in this regard; Alfred North Whitehead also. New answers are needed.
Well Prof , e.g: China and Japan ...
Religion is a platform for coming together .
I should not be saying this : when I was younger I was thinking , it is man-made , now I have an appreciation but not too keen .
I think having something to believe in is a question of necessary and easy comfort. Believes are more or less credible for different humans points of view. A set of more or less coherent believes might upgrade to the status of Religion, which becomes hard to downgrade with time.
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Belief and faith in a God arises out of human need to have a support and a protector who knows everything and can do everything, in which to seek shelter and security.
With this security emanated from the faith, the human being strengthens his spirit, which at the same time strengthens his immunity and survival capacity in a chaotic, difficult or not yet understood way, and therefore, fails to modulate it according to his demands and needs.
La creencia y la fe en un Dios surge por necesidad del ser humano de tener un apoyo y un protector que todo lo sabe y todo lo puede, en el cual buscar cobijo y seguridad.
Con esta seguridad emanada de la fe, el ser humano fortalece su espíritu, lo que al mismo tiempo, fortalece su inmunidad y capacidad de supervivencia en un medio caótico, difícil o que aún no logra comprender, y por tanto, no logra modularlo según sus demandas y necesidades.
Perhaps the chief real diagnosis as to why religions abide is inadvertently revealed by an unexpected source. In ‘The Bone Clocks’, novelist David Mitchell writes ‘The paranormal is persuasive: why else would religions endure?’ It looks like the historical crux of the matter, which needs to be looked at in-depth and addressed urgently.
Statistical studies indeed show that about half of the people in any given population have, at some point in their lives, experienced something they could not explain, something they viewed as some kind of ‘mystical experience’. Those experiences cut across all socio-economic and other categories. They have been reported by atheists and by members of all known religions. If those astonishing numbers are anywhere near right, we are looking at a major level of incidence that can only have a significant impact on society’s overall attitudes.
The origin and nature of these experiences is debated, with specialists from within ad hoc fields (such as neurology) disagreeing amongst themselves . But those experiences are true, widely reported, veridical, and to sweep them under the rug with a scornful smirk and a shrug like the Richard Dawkins's of the world do is unscientific, and only ensures that codified know-it-all religions become the sole haven for those who seek an explanation.
The idea that belief in a god is a result of projection dates back to Feuerbach (The Essence of Christianity), but it really entered mainstream thought through Freud's theories about projection and the human desire for security.
While those are interesting theories, current work in the Psychology of Religion has more complicated and empirically driven answers. You might be interested in Terror Management Theory, which suggests that religious beliefs and rituals do help assuage anxiety. Other work suggests that religions may have played an important role in helping individuals in complex societies cooperate. Their also seem to be other cognitive defaults that we have (e.g. belief in dualism & teleology) that make religious beliefs very likely. If you're interested in the way religion arose, I'd encourage you to dig into some of this research that helps give a naturalistic and evolutionary account of the origins and persistence of religious systems.
Religion meets very deep needs of man that nothing else can. What is very true is that Man has needs and will always have needs, and that means man will always be committed to Religion.
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