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Religiosity [message #58991]

Tue, 06 October 2009 05:28

JFR

On fire!

Location: Israel
Registered: October 2004
Messages: 1367

I have been away from APOS for a few days so I was not around to make my contribution to the "Religion" thread. (Aren't you lucky!) What follows is my penance. Apologies for it being long, but IMHO it is worth the read.

A link arrived in my inbox which caught my eye because of its "professional jargon": "The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions." I just had to read the article by Paul Gregory (in the Evolutionary Psychology Journal) but to my dismay it was 44 pages long and it was all in the same professional gobbledegook. [Nigel, is that a neologism of mine?] So I was delighted when I found a commentary on Gregory's paper, written in more inviting language. It is by Ronald Bailey of Norwich University, under the headline "Does Prosperity Entail The End Of God?" (I didn't even know there was a university in Norwich!) Bailey writes:

Is religiosity beneficial in affluent first world nations? That is the question addressed by independent researcher Gregory Paul in the current issue of the journal Evolutionary Psychology. In his article, "The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions," Paul argues that evidence strongly shows that as socioeconomic conditions improve secularism/atheism increases. Paul is a thorough-going progressive who fully endorses the economic security policies found in most western European countries. According to Paul, religious belief remains more prevalent in the United States largely because of Americans experience higher levels of economic and social insecurity than do the citizens of other rich countries. Paul asserts that the fact that secularism increases with perceived economic and physical security undercuts the argument that religious belief is natural (genetic) to human beings. He concludes:

In view of the reduced levels of religiosity consistently extant in populations that enjoy secure middle class lives, it can be postulated that if socioeconomic conditions had been similarly benign since humans first appeared it is unlikely that religion would have developed to nearly the degree seen in actual human history, and atheism would have been much more widespread and possibly ubiquitous since the beginning. Materialism and language in contrast would still be omnipresent. Ergo, strong religiosity has all the signs of being a natural invention of human minds in response to a defective habitat, and is neither supernatural, nor genetically preprogrammed to the same extent as are more deeply set language and material desire. Because spirituality is a relatively optional attribute more comparable to writing which is not fundamental to the human condition, it is not consistently more difficult for humans to be spiritual than nontheistic, under certain environmental conditions the opposite can be true.

Actually, Gregory's conclusion is longer than that, but you get the gist I hope. As they used to tell us in school: discuss.

J F R

[Updated on: Tue, 06 October 2009 07:40]

The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)

Re: Religiosity [message #58993 is a reply to message #58991]

Tue, 06 October 2009 07:12

Nigel

On fire!

Location: England
Registered: November 2003
Messages: 1756

gobbledegook is a well established word. Alt sp - gobbledygook.

Hugs
N

I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.

…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.

Re: Religiosity [message #58994 is a reply to message #58991]

Tue, 06 October 2009 13:23

arich

Really getting into it

Location: Seaofstars
Registered: August 2003
Messages: 563

Gobbledigook, LOL a little different is the title of a song. Then there is Gobbledygook. I love variety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCjjgDSJqUI&feature=channel_page

Ya know it can also mean we need to take the stick out and let go a little. But then I don't want to reach "childhoods end" in many ways.

[Updated on: Tue, 06 October 2009 14:27]

People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm

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