Belief in God innate?

M

mop

2,500+ Posts
this is an interesting article about a scientist who claims that we are born with a belief in God. if true (and i know that this is debatable), what do we make of those who believe everything is naturalistic? in other words, why would purposeless processes lead to an irrational belief? if the answer is merely because it gives us a survival advantage, should we not then question the basis of ALL knowledge? how many other irrational things are we believing merely because they give us a survival advantage?


born with belief in God?
 
We have an innate need to order our surroundings. This need extends to the point that we observe order (patterns) where there isn't any. This is as basic fact of our existence proven time and time again. An unseen all powerful creator is the greatest "ordering" of all, as it gives purpose to all things. If you want to say this is God given or it is evolved (if you make the distinction), is really inconsequential. We will order the chaos, that is what we do. The fact of it, however, neither proves nor disproves the existence of a creator, it just says we are what we are.
 
kids are also more likely to have imaginary friends, no? and believe there is a boogeyman, the tooth fairy, Santa, etc.

this article is no revelation.
 
Anthropological surveys show, over hundreds of cultures, a wide variety of religious behaviors. Belief in a supreme being, while common in people number due to the large populations of the modern insitutional churches, is not ubiquitous across religious belief systems. So, belief in "God" is not sufficiently uniform across cultures to be "innate". It is also such a derivatve sort of behavior (as are many other "beliefs" and social behaviors) that it seems an emergent property of other issues.

Belief in ancestors and thus belief in spirits is much more common, as fundamental behaviors go. One theory is that this arises naturally from our paleo experiences in dealing with death: where did that person go?

I don't have the reference for this particular POV handy, the guy teaches at Washington U. of St Louis.
 
Again, this claim seems to run against the cross cultural studies. Not all religious cultures are about "god", so how can the desert island claim have a shred of credibility?

Belief in a particular form of religion is not innate. A built in tendency to see "purpose" does not automatically imply a Judeo Christian god belief. Some see their ancestors, or other spiritual entities behind this purpose. These are not supreme beings. (I keep hearing the dialog to Time Bandits) On the other hand, religious behavoirs and beliefs in general are ubiqitous across cultures. Some would say that religious meme's have been culturally sucessful, or that brains and such memes evolved together. This only restates the point that the phenomena is common. The real question is "why", and the article has nothing worthwhile there. It is a puff piece written through a religious affairs editor perspective, not that there's anything wrong with that. Its just not sound science reporting.

The "innate" argument doesn't mean much, to go down another rabbit trail. Witness the threads on homosexuality. All behaviors are "natural", so that means nothing as to their positives or negatives, nor their correlation with "truth". Just an empty argumentative path.

The subject matter is very interesting, however, the solutions are not going to be so cut and dried.
 
Belief in God innate? Not for me. I understand the point of human beings needing to put their world in order, and I see how belief in God satisfies the mysteries of things not yet understood, but as far as I know, we created God as a concept to fill that void.

I know to eat when I hungry, drink when I'm thirsty, and to take shelter from the elements, but the only reason I have a concept of Jesus, Mohammed, or any other prophet/savior/god is because I was taught those things. Who to worship, how to worship, those are learned behaviors. Nothing innate about it. I've had people try to recruit me into their religions, guilt me into religion, scare me into religion (my favorite), family members indoctrinate me into religion, and people show up at my front door and try to sell me religion. Innate?

Spirituality, on the other hand, I can buy. Sadly, I think that most people have been taught that religion is either the only or most accessible path to spiritual fulfillment and connection to something bigger than us. I can't think of more innately spiritual moments and deeper connections than in simple things like playing with my dogs (or sometimes just regarding one another), kayaking on a beautiful river, and being with my kids/family. None of the things that make me feel most connected and awe-inspired of life itself require me to acknowledge a name (or risk damnation) or engage in scheduled rituals. (outside Texas sports, of course!
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This whole "culture war" in this country is sad and getting more ridiculous by the moment. When you read church signs with stuff like "Take your faith to the ballot box," "Faith is a higher faculty than reason," or hear educated scientists who are believers proclaim that "scripture trumps interpretation of scientific data," it is just hard for me to believe that this stuff is in any way innate.
 
NBMIsha....actually, from the studies I have done, that is not the case. Belief in God, regardless of culture, seems to be virtually universal. While I agree with your assessment of it not always being a Judeo-Christian concept (that depends upon special revelation through Scripture), there does seem to be some sort of culturally universal belief in an overarching God.
 
Mop
Let me get back to you on the specifics of what I say above. I think there is more diversity in religious behavior than you may be crediting.

It will be the weekend before I can did this up.
 
ever heard of the logical fallacy "strawman" huckleberry? you misrepresented my argument terribly and then destroy it. not too difficult. i merely meant that far and away most people in most cultures do believe in a God who is above other gods. not that one person in each culture believes in God.
 
thanks huckleberry, i have talked about this issue so many times that i didn't realize how unsubstantial my original post was. you are right to point that out.

yes, in my understanding, just about every culture on earth (primitive and otherwise) has what seems to be an almost universal belief in a god who is above all other gods or the only god. even traditionally polytheistic societies seem to have a belief in a god over all of the other gods. so that does NOT prove that God therefore exists, but it is at the very least interesting and something to consider. after all, if we do believe that God is merely a product of millions of years of evolution it leaves us in the awkward place i mentioned in my original post.
 
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