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New computer program shows how faith may have evolved
 Joined: 6/28/2007(UTC)
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Quote:New computer program shows how faith may have evolvedBy Daniel Burke Religion, it seems, has always depended on the kindness of strangers. Like Blanche DuBois, the Southern belle of Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire," faith is beset by a world that often tramples on imagination and rewards strict rationality. Fate led DuBois to a mental hospital, but religion has thrived for milliennia in every known culture, anthropologists say. For neo-Darwinists, looking at it from a strictly evolutionary standpoint, that poses a puzzle. Why, for example, would early humankind sacrifice valuable meat to an unseen god, or practice dangerous forms of ritual mutilation? It might be required by religious faith, but it's a risky way to spend limited time and resources. So how did religion pass through the narrow gate of natural selection? Anthropologist James W. Dow thinks he has an answer: Religion, he says, is actually saved by non-believers. And he's got a groundbreaking computer program, dubbed "evogod," to prove it. Read on Edited by user Wednesday, July 2, 2008 8:19:56 PM(UTC)
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 Joined: 7/3/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,120
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And just who programmed this "evogod?" More silliness. |
The reverence of Yahweh is the beginning of Wisdom. |
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 Joined: 6/28/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,030
Location: Palmyra, VA
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Now there's an interesting quote: "'Religion,' he says, 'is actually saved by non-believers.'" Quite profound, if he only knew what he was saying.
kp
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 Joined: 10/3/2007(UTC) Posts: 1,191  Location: São Paulo, Brazil Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 2 post(s)
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Just to quote a little further down the article: Quote:Dow populated his simulated society with two groups of people: one that professed a belief in things unseen and unverifiable (think: spirits, gods, etc.), and another that did not. Dow assumes religious faith is a hereditary trait.
In the beginning of the simulation, the groups who talked about "unreal" things, as Dow terms it, died out every time. Bottom line: They weren't paying enough attention to their environment to survive.
Yet when the program was tweaked and realists began to help the imaginative, believers survived. In other words, a "realist" can provide vital information about the environment ("Hey, beware of the lion's den over there") to help the believers survive. And then don't you just hate when they say things like this? Quote:"I accept Darwinian evolution," he says, "I have no doubt that religion can be adaptive, but that doesn't mean it's not true. Its truth lies at a level of depth that science cannot grasp."
Of course, many other Americans don't think religion -- or any part of God's creation -- evolved at all. Dow says his paper "was not intended as an argument for atheism."
"A scientific view of religion can be useful," he says. "It need not be a substitute for religion, which has many valuable perspectives, especially on human life." He first damns belief in God and then tries to save himself by saying "was not intended as an argument for atheism." Ok, I agree that belief in god (with a small g) is wrong, but to try make the Scriptures (the lion's den part) seem ridiculous is damning in itself. I wonder how many people will read the article and be lead astray?! But imagine if this programmer knew Yah, I wonder how his simulation would've turned out. Yah's wisdom on top obviously and with the "realist" thinking himself wise becoming a fool in the end.
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