The end of faith.

Originally Posted by JackyBoy

I have to admit I don't have any of my own ideas of how religion came about but Richard Dawkins has an interesting theory. He says religion is a by-product caused by a misfire of some otherwise useful quality in human brains. He uses moths as an analogy. We've all seen a moth fly into a flame. To us it looks like the moth is simply emo and desires to end its own life in self-immolation. In actuality, moths flying into a flame according to Dawkins is a misfire caused by its otherwise useful ability to navigate using light such as the sun or in this case a flame.

Richard Dawkins isn't the first to suggest it. Ever since Darwinian theory came about people have been trying to figure out what the necessity is for religion in our life.

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He also talks about children and their tendency to invent imaginary friends. To the child their "friend" is every bit real and it's this imagination that carries over into adulthood in the form of religious faith. God to the theistic grown up is every bit as real as the "friend" is to the child.

Which is why, incidentally, God can be easily substituted for the 'crowd', 'society', 'the government', 'the man', etc. People are semi-conditioned for obedience; as they grow and mature, a healthy individual should discard that. The hugely religious are still clinging onto the fact that they have parents they can rely on with their 'heavenly Father'.

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I really dislike how 'faith' is used as a multipurpose word. Faith should only be used when we're referring to the mysticism of religion. Proper usage would be: I have no reason to believe in God, but my faith enables me just that. Improper usage: I have no reason to believe my friend is telling the truth but I have faith that she is. I really do hope our expectation of promise keeping does not work like this. I don't want to have to resort to prayers when a friend promises to meet me for lunch.

No, you can't pull that. The very first definition of "faith" according to Random House is 'confidence or trust in an individual or concept'. Even though it's very easy to say, "faith is the absence of reason", that's only a secondary definition, and no matter how much you might attempt to take it back people still say they have faith in a person's ability and not mean to be going against all reason. Not to mention that sometimes people use the word faith interchangably with 'religious beliefs', which is a bit different, as well.

This word "faith" is just not a clear-enough statement to make judgments like that.

Jam it back in, in the dark.