Software Suggests Evolution
It would be difficult to overestimate my contempt for stories like this: someone writes a program that purports to explain how the capacity for religious belief evolved. Here is my favorite part:
The model assumes, in other words, that a small number of people have a genetic predisposition to communicate unverifiable information to others.
The researchers ought to have had a lot of personal experience with that.
The model assumes, in other words, that a small number of people have a genetic predisposition to communicate unverifiable information to others.
The researchers ought to have had a lot of personal experience with that.
Labels: Evolutionary Fairy Tales, Software Abuse
posted by Jeff Burton at
6:42 AM
2 Comments:
As science progresses, scientists are looking for naturalistic explanations for pretty much everything - that's what they do. I think it's good for us to wrestle with the question - if scientists (claim to) find naturalistic explanations for things such as an evolutionary basis for the development of religion or neurological basis for our experience of God, emotions, morality, etc., does belief that those findings might be scientifically true necessarily preclude the existence of a real and personal supernatural God? I'm not sure that it does. Are they really explaining away God, or just describing the naturalistic part of the picture? Do you believe that God created and sustains you, or do you believe in sexual reproduction and biochemistry? Of course it's both - it's a false dichotomy. I know they think they are explaining away God, and enjoy characterizing it as such, which just complicates the issue.
By
swirlingeddy, At
May 28, 2008 12:18 PM
Ed, what I most object to about the project I linked to is that it is presented as evidence for what they claim. It's not quite as bad as Dawkins' weasel, but it's in the same order, at least.
By
Jeff Burton, At
May 28, 2008 12:27 PM
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