Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? by Alix Spiegel

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? by Alix Spiegel An article on the National Public Radio site

My Response:

I am an atheist because there is no evidence of the existence of a god and any attempt to prove or disprove the existence of a god is a frivolous waste of time. I certainly would not confuse a wind chime with a "god detection device" and continue to call myself a scientist. Wind chimes are called wind chimes because they make sounds in response to wind not because they send messages from the spirits of dead mothers who want to inform their offspring that they have successfully "crossed over." What does that mean: 2 "dings" for heaven, 3 "dongs" for hell. The assumption that human co-operation exists because of a scheme of rewards and punishments enforced by a supernatural entity ignores the existence of altruistic behaviour in "social" animals like elephants which have been observed to protect their fellows often against apparent self-interest and at risk of their own lives.

September-01-10 1:01:29 AM

Two Books by Benjamin Dodds

Two Books
by Benjamin Dodds from Australian Reader.com

If a strange and sudden amnesia
were to befall us all
and a fresh new generation,
true tabula rasa children,
sired of ultimate innocence
were to rise,
they would laugh
and shake their bell-clear heads
to read dusty tales of risen corpses
and disproportionate paternal anger
over stolen fruit.

And down the years
when one of them unsure
took up an old book
from which he began to glean a trust
in the idea of a lonely being
who created man
exactly as he still appeared,
who drowned all but two
of every kind,
and who still monitored silently
from a lofty hiding spot
keeping daily scores for all,
the others would set this person down
and hand him another book,
one which was not yet written
when our own antecedents
first entertained such obtuse ideas.

Therein he would find
unshakeable solace
in the knowledge that
of all possible permutations
of individual life,
his own came about
when uncountable others did not.
Seek awe in that,
and he need never seek it
elsewhere again.

Arachnabomination

A father watched his young daughter playing in the garden.

He smiled as he reflected on how sweet and pure his little girl was.

Tears formed in his eyes as he thought about her seeing the wonders of nature through such innocent eyes.

Suddenly she just stopped and stared at the ground.


He went over to her to see what work of God had captured her attention.



He noticed she was looking at two spiders mating.

'Daddy, what are those two spiders doing?' she asked.

'They're mating,' her father replied.

'What do you call the spider on top?' she asked.

'That's a Daddy Longlegs,' her father answered.

'So, the other one is a Mommy Longlegs?' the little girl asked.

As his heart soared with the joy of such a cute and innocent question he replied, 'No dear. Both of them are Daddy Longlegs.'

'The little girl, looking a little puzzled, thought for a moment, then lifted
her foot and stomped them flat.

'Well, we're not having any of that shit in our garden' she said.

Harris Poll - American Beliefs

Poll: Belief in UFOs Matches Belief in OT, NT as Word of God
By Eric Young
Christian Post Reporter
Thu, Dec. 11 2008 01:51 PM EST

A little more than a third of Americans believe all the text in the Old Testament or all the text in the New Testament represent the Word of God, according to the results of a newly released poll.

That’s about the same as the percentage of people who believe in UFOs (36 percent) and less than the amount of people who believe in ghosts (44 percent), Harris Interactive found through its online survey.

Notably, however, 55 percent of those surveyed affirmed their belief that all or most of the Word of God is represented in the Old Testament and 54 percent for the New Testament. Furthermore, 80 percent were found to believe in God and 71 percent that Jesus is God or the Son of God.

“That very large majorities of the American public believe in God, miracles, the survival of the soul after death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise,” staff at Harris Interactive stated. “What may be more surprising is that substantial minorities believe in ghosts, UFOs, witches, astrology, and the belief that they themselves were once other people.”

According to the poll, 44 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, 36 in UFOs, 31 in witches, 31 in astrology, and 24 in reincarnation.

Among churchgoers, the numbers were not so different. Of those who attended religious services at least weekly, 34 percent said they believe in witches, 28 in astrology, 26 in UFOs, and 18 in reincarnation.

Overall, Catholics were more likely to believe in each of the above than Protestants.

Catholics were also much more likely than Protestants to believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (52 percent to 32 percent) and a little less likely to believe in creationism (46 percent to 54 percent).

Other notably figures recorded by Harris Interactive include the percentage of Americans who believe in angels (71 percent), survival of the soul after death (68 percent), Hell (62 percent), the Virgin birth (61 percent), the devil (59 percent), and Darwin's theory of evolution (47 percent).