Religion is often treated as a 'mystery' of the ancients who allegedly interacted directly with God. It's really based on the ancient 'knowledge' of people that found goat herding gave them enough free time to write weird stuff down. Let's apply some science to this 'knowledge'.
There are approximately 200 areas of the human brain that are capable of independent thought. The prefrontal cortex is supposed to process the output of all of these 'areas' to form a complex organic computer. The output is the co-ordinated, sorted and censored thoughts of all these specialized brain areas to create what we choose to cling to in our ignorance as 'human consciousness'. The random crazy stuff is supposed to be rejected. The Easter Bunny, those random noises in the night and the faces in the clouds or on wet plaster are supposed to be ignored, and not taken as signs from one of the voices in your head that you take to be God.
People whose prefrontal cortex doesn't work very well can have a number of psychological diagnosis that at the extreme end we simply call insane. Those people with more minor abnormalities in brain function are often referred to as 'spiritual', or up the scale a bit they are called 'very religious'.
To put a sharp point on this, 93% of the national academy of sciences members are admitted atheists or agnostics. It's 96% among biologists, probably from their exposure to creationists. Personally I'll defer to the really smart people that I can follow along with if they talk slow, as opposed to the people who are impressed with the writing skills of goat herders. Twitter @BruceEnberg You can send me your prayers, but that only impresses the goats.
There are approximately 200 areas of the human brain that are capable of independent thought. The prefrontal cortex is supposed to process the output of all of these 'areas' to form a complex organic computer. The output is the co-ordinated, sorted and censored thoughts of all these specialized brain areas to create what we choose to cling to in our ignorance as 'human consciousness'. The random crazy stuff is supposed to be rejected. The Easter Bunny, those random noises in the night and the faces in the clouds or on wet plaster are supposed to be ignored, and not taken as signs from one of the voices in your head that you take to be God.
People whose prefrontal cortex doesn't work very well can have a number of psychological diagnosis that at the extreme end we simply call insane. Those people with more minor abnormalities in brain function are often referred to as 'spiritual', or up the scale a bit they are called 'very religious'.
To put a sharp point on this, 93% of the national academy of sciences members are admitted atheists or agnostics. It's 96% among biologists, probably from their exposure to creationists. Personally I'll defer to the really smart people that I can follow along with if they talk slow, as opposed to the people who are impressed with the writing skills of goat herders. Twitter @BruceEnberg You can send me your prayers, but that only impresses the goats.