Homo Religiosus? Are are most humans stupid?

[alice wellintown]

By MICHAEL SHERMER
According to Oxford University Press's "World Christian Encyclopedia,"
84% of the world's population belongs to some form of organized
religion. That equals 5.7 billion people who belong to about 10,000
distinct religions, each of which may be further subdivided and
classified. Christians, for example, may be apportioned among over
33,000 different denominations. Among the many binomial designations
granted our species (Homo sapiens, Homo ludens, Homo economicus), a
strong case could be made for Homo religiosus.

[read the rest in THEIR newspaper: The Wall Street Jornal]

We believe in the supernatural because we believe in the natural and
we cannot discriminate between the two. We create gods because we are
natural-born supernaturalists, driven by our tendency to find
meaningful patterns and impart to them intentional agency. The gods
will always be with us because they are hard-wired into our brains.

—Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine, an adjunct
professor at Claremont Graduate University and the author of "The Mind
of the Market."


"Fear Death by [Paper]."

                         --The Waste Paper Becket Land