Humans 'Predisposed' to Believe in Gods and the Afterlife

[icymist]

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2011) — A three-year international research project, directed by two academics at the University of Oxford, finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in gods and an afterlife.

The £1.9 million project involved 57 researchers who conducted over 40 separate studies in 20 countries representing a diverse range of cultures. The studies (both analytical and empirical) conclude that humans are predisposed to believe in gods and an afterlife, and that both theology and atheism are reasoned responses to what is a basic impulse of the human mind.

The researchers point out that the project was not setting out to prove the existence of god or otherwise, but sought to find out whether concepts such as gods and an afterlife appear to be entirely taught or basic expressions of human nature.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714103828.htm

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

1. I saw a show on one of the science channels a while back...

A researcher (I think he was at U. of Guelph) was doing a study in which he put people into a room with no sound, light, etc.,
basically it was sensory deprivation. He then used a helmet with an electromagnet attached at a set location and angle to
induce a magnetic field in the area of the brain he was interested in.

What they found was that many of the people would begin to have some dreams (visions, dreams, not sure of a good way to actually describe it)
that could be compared to near death and out of body experiences. In essence the magnet could induce a sense of interacting with 'God'. It is hardwired in our brains. (I wonder if that is why zombies want to eat brains.)

To me this all makes sense. The Val-father, a being so great and beyond what we could ever comprehend, is dreaming. Our universe and the other universes are all part of the dream. As people in the dream, we are a part of the Val-father and that relation gives us a sense of
him/her even though we could never completely comprehend it. A cell in your toe has the DNA of the entire person that is you but is only a small part that could never comprehend you.


I think I'm rambling now - my fingers can't type what I'm thinking very well...

[icymist]

2. Oh, I think you do a good job explaining yourself.

<snip>
A cell in your toe has the DNA of the entire person that is you but is only a small part that could never comprehend you.


Excellent!