Do humans have a faith instinct?

morethanpretty · 01-12-2010, 05:50 PM

I grew up in a Christian household, and for a long time I thought I should be too. I would lay in bed at night praying, asking for help. Waiting for it. I was taught, if you gave your burden over to Jesus, he would take the weight of it on his shoulders. So when I was especially troubled I would pray, I would try really hard to believe and have faith, but the weight never lifted from my shoulders. I would end up feeling worse, because despite my best efforts I obviously didn't have enough faith because the burden didn't get lighter. The emotional pain was mostly chemical (clinical depression), I did my best to help myself, but Jesus was supposed to be helping me too. Never did.
The suicidal tendencies didn't lessen until I gave up trying to have "faith."

I don't think humans have a genetic coding to make us have faith in the supernatural. I think we have always needed to explain the world around us, and there was no explanation or scientific method, ect, so the explanation we tended towards was supernatural because natural processes were so beyond our grasp. I think our current belief in the supernatural is just like tradition. Our societies have been so ingrained with religious beliefs, its going to take a long time for us to progress past it. There are still a large number of natural laws and processes that we don't understand, for some its just easier to attribute it to the supernatural.

My mom is one of those. She'll tell me something like, "The eye is so intricate and well developed for its purpose, we can't even get close to making something like that, only God could do that." Its a dumb argument for God to since evolution has had a few billion years to develop the eye. Humans have had what, a few hundred thousand years? There is no comparison.
Just because we can't recreate some product of nature, doesn't mean it had to be God. That is a lazy explanation.

jinx · 01-12-2010, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

My mom is one of those. She'll tell me something like, "The eye is so intricate and well developed for its purpose, we can't even get close to making something like that, only God could do that."

Whose eye? Ours? A squid's?

morethanpretty · 01-12-2010, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinx

Whose eye? Ours? A squid's?

Our eyes. Good article, I shall have to remember it.

01-12-2010, 05:50 PM	#1
morethanpretty Thats "Miss Zipper Neck" to you. Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: little town (but not the littlest) in texas Posts: 2,957	I grew up in a Christian household, and for a long time I thought I should be too. I would lay in bed at night praying, asking for help. Waiting for it. I was taught, if you gave your burden over to Jesus, he would take the weight of it on his shoulders. So when I was especially troubled I would pray, I would try really hard to believe and have faith, but the weight never lifted from my shoulders. I would end up feeling worse, because despite my best efforts I obviously didn't have enough faith because the burden didn't get lighter. The emotional pain was mostly chemical (clinical depression), I did my best to help myself, but Jesus was supposed to be helping me too. Never did. The suicidal tendencies didn't lessen until I gave up trying to have "faith." I don't think humans have a genetic coding to make us have faith in the supernatural. I think we have always needed to explain the world around us, and there was no explanation or scientific method, ect, so the explanation we tended towards was supernatural because natural processes were so beyond our grasp. I think our current belief in the supernatural is just like tradition. Our societies have been so ingrained with religious beliefs, its going to take a long time for us to progress past it. There are still a large number of natural laws and processes that we don't understand, for some its just easier to attribute it to the supernatural. My mom is one of those. She'll tell me something like, "The eye is so intricate and well developed for its purpose, we can't even get close to making something like that, only God could do that." Its a dumb argument for God to since evolution has had a few billion years to develop the eye. Humans have had what, a few hundred thousand years? There is no comparison. Just because we can't recreate some product of nature, doesn't mean it had to be God. That is a lazy explanation. __________________ Addicts may suck dick for coke, but love came up with the idea to put a dick in there to begin with. -Jack O'Brien

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)