"Barney-Killer" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 11:50:13 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:



There's some interesting new psych research on the subject, which
suggests
that part of belief is based on a human tendency to put the most positive
face on all outcomes, both good and bad. An accumulation of positive
interpretations of events ("mother was suffering so much, it's
providential
that she died quickly...") leads to a sense of intelligent guidance.

This adds to some earlier research concerning anxiety over things like
fear
of dying, inexplicable events in the physical world that are most easily
explained as the product of supernatural intelligence, etc. It's an
interesting field, but it sounds like a lot of guesswork, so far.


I think you are closer to the heart of the matter than you may
realize, Ed. Human psychology is definitely a complex area, where even
the most highly educated people can do some guesswork at least part of
the time, but the unspoken truth is that what you just posted, and
what scientists are researching in that area, makes a lot more sense
than most, if not all, religious texts (which, bottom line, tend to
play on Human emotions, not logic or reason).

Religious texts are, in fact,
excellent observations of the human condition, with some social constructs
thrown in for "improvement" WRT the current political structure. The King
James version is a specific directed translation made for political
purposes,
for instance.

Ultimately, logic and reason should win out.
At least we as a species
should hope so It may be, and probably will be, the only thing that
saves us as a species. Not to mention all the other life forms sharing
the planet with us!


--


"History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the
Party is always right."

"... by far the more important reason for the readjustment of the past is
the need to safeguard the infallibility of the Party. It is not merely that
speeches, statistics and records of every kind must be constantly brought up
to date in order to show that the predictions of the Party were in all cases
right. It is also that no change of doctrine or in political alignment can
ever be admitted. For to change one's mind, or even one's policy, is a
confession of weakness."

"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."

- George Orwell, "1984"