Post No.: 0322 Furrywisepuppy says: In the industrialised world, religiosity has been on a marked decline, even in the USA. This may be because life has somewhat improved for many people overall over the past several decades, and … Read More
Post No.: 0304 Furrywisepuppy says: Post No.: 0283 discussed rituals and their personal effects on individuals. In this post, we’ll explore their social effects on groups… For groups – rituals can bring and bind people together in … Read More
Post No.: 0283 Furrywisepuppy says: The vast majority of people in the world currently affiliate themselves with a religion, whether they’re actively practising or not. Religion can be broken down into the beliefs (e.g. gods, afterlives, spirits and … Read More
Post No.: 0258 Furrywisepuppy says: Humans weren’t completely amoral before religion was invented. Other social primate relatives and mammals demonstrate what seem like compassionate behaviours and a sense of fairness too (although to a lesser degree e.g. chimpanzees … Read More
Post No.: 0247 Furrywisepuppy says: Religion is affiliated with commitment and family values, and therefore religiosity arguably makes a long-term mate more attractive – for women (commitment and fidelity) as well as for men (reducing the risk of … Read More
Post No.: 0217 Fluffystealthkitten says: Religions have had, and still currently have, a lot to directly say about sex and marriage norms across the world. Different major religions have different fertility rates, and other factors (e.g. poverty levels) … Read More
Post No.: 0203 Furrywisepuppy says: ‘Cultural group selection’ occurs because there’s inter-group competition. Group selection is basically natural selection but played out between groups rather than individuals. And via this inter-group competition, we developed ways to enhance intra-group … Read More
Post No.: 0162 Furrywisepuppy says: Sacred values or beliefs (special values or beliefs placed above the merely material, secular or profane) are considered non-tradable or non-negotiable – thus they violate rational cost-benefit rules. This is because they are … Read More
Post No.: 0153 Furrywisepuppy says: Anti-atheist prejudice or antipathy can sometimes result because a lot of people will only trust in a state leader (or any other person in a role where trust is particularly important) who holds … Read More
Post No.: 0120 Fluffystealthkitten says: Homo sapiens (who have been around for only ~200,000 years so far, or at least a number of this order of magnitude as the best estimate at the time of writing) only started … Read More
Post No.: 0113 Furrywisepuppy says: Following on from Post No.: 0023 about how science cannot always answer what we ought to do with the facts we find – philosophy, religion and politics attempt to answer the questions that … Read More
Post No.: 0096 Furrywisepuppy says: ‘Priming’ is a fluffy technique that involves exposing people to a prior stimulus (or prime) in order to influence their responses to a subsequent stimulus, without their conscious guidance or intention. In experiments, … Read More
Post No.: 0086 Furrywisepuppy says: Our instincts didn’t evolve to make a 1:1 accurate representation of the real world or the truth – they evolved for survival and reproduction success. So if misperceptions or lies don’t immediately kill … Read More
Post No.: 0070 Furrywisepuppy says: As a follow-on from Post No.: 0039, we detect faces extremely well in order to avoid predators, but we ‘see’ faces even in inanimate objects, which may explain why we over-read and over-attribute … Read More
Post No.: 0054 Fluffystealthkitten says: To clarify something first of all – memes in this context are any cultural elements that can be copied and passed on from individual-to-individual, analogously to how genes can be copied and passed … Read More
Post No.: 0039 Furrywisepuppy says: Religious or spiritual beliefs in immaterial souls (that can exist without a physical vessel and have strictly free wills), in god(s) and in the afterlife – can be adaptive for individuals and groups … Read More
Post No.: 0023 Furrywisepuppy says: This post follows directly on from Post No.: 0012 about the way that science cannot answer ‘why’, or purpose and meaning, type questions… Science is also the tool to use for answering … Read More
Post No.: 0012 Furrywisepuppy says: As a loose follow-on from Post No.: 0007 about the scientific method and the value of science, the scientific method is the best way to determine objective facts and truths – but science … Read More
