Homo Religiosus? Are are most humans stupid?

[Ian Livingston]

I inadvertently sent this reply only to Alice. Meant to throw it out as chum:

I haven't yet seen any definitive link between religious inclination
and intelligence. It does seem likely, though, that it would be a
later development in the evolution of cognition, rather than an
earlier and more primitive one. It seems likely it might have
something to do with the imaginative function, which is a relative
newcomer. Feuerbach's notion of the projected deity always made good
sense to me, but I admit to privileging creative thought over
analytic. I suspect a process of synthesis in evolution, rather than a
descent by way of intelligent design. Human "progress" makes sense to
me only if we are becoming increasingly complex. Most religions
reflect some pretty complex ideation, and the later religions seem
more complex and subtle than the earlier ones, with those emerging in
Armstrong's "Axial Age" the most complicated of the bunch until just
the last few decades. The world's religions now seem to be engaged in
transformations necessary to account for the information revolution of
the last 400 years, or so. Atheism and scientism are among the
religions just emerging in the current climate. The subtlety of their
belief systems is very complex and requires faith on the same level as
any of the others. The only reason I can imagine wanting to live a
Cumean life would be to see how this question unravels over the next
thousand years. Maybe our brains will evolve the capability of
functioning without having to filter out so much of reality and we can
all become Blakean prophets with "cleansed doors." But, even then,
will we be able to claim our place in it all without "projecting a
world" according to the needs of the many?

On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 5:50 PM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com> wrote:
> I find a wide chasm between the so called 'religious',  apparently abundant
> in number, and those who really Dwell in the True Spiritual Habitation, even
> The Divine Humanity, whose numbers may be few. Those who claim 'Religious
> Authority' may often cite scripture to justify their self-righteousness and
> to demand submission among their followers. They who in Hypocritic Holiness
> call for condemnation rather than forgiveness of Sins upon the congregate
> souls.
> The Cathedral in it's True, Eternal Form, is an Idea, and I seem to agree
> with the above. However, doubt (or experiment) from what we see will only
> lead us to fragments of forgotten, partial truths which really are No Truth
> at all.



-- 
"liber enim librum aperit."