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Is there a fitness advantage to atheism's delusion of disbelief?

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ant

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Is there a fitness advantage to atheism's delusion of disbelief?

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Abstract: An evolutionary theory of self-deception-the active misrepresentation of reality to the conscious mind-suggests that there may be multiple sources of self-deception in our own species, with important interactions between them. Self-deception (along with internal conflict and fragmentation) may serve to improve deception of others; this may include denial of ongoing deception, self-inflation, ego-biased social theory, false narratives of intention, and a conscious mind that operates via denial and projection to create a self-serving world. Self-deception may also result from internal representations of the voices of significant others, including parents, and may come from internal genetic conflict, the most important for our species arising from differentially imprinted maternal and paternal genes. Selection also favors suppressing negative phenotypic traits. Finally, a positive form of self-deception may serve to orient the organism favorably toward the future. Self-deception can be analyzed in groups and is done so here with special attention to its costs.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract
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Re: Is there a fitness advantage to atheism's delusion of disbelief?

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That abstract mentions self-deception, not delusion or disbelief, so it's difficult to tell what you're trying to get at....
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Re: Is there a fitness advantage to atheism's delusion of disbelief?

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A nice description of why the delusion of religion has lasted so long. Thanks!
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” - Douglas Adams
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Re: Is there a fitness advantage to atheism's delusion of disbelief?

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Let's rephrase the question. Is there an advantage to disbelief? It's easy to imagine there is, especially in the modern environment. But obviously we are wired to come to beliefs a little too easily. And we tend to defend such beliefs, even in the face of contradictory evidence. It’s important, I think, to understand why we are so inclined to self deception. As Trivers says on this article:
. . . we know that processes of self-deception—active misrepresentation of reality to the conscious mind—are an everyday human occurrence, that struggling with one’s own tendencies toward self-deception is usually a life-long enterprise, and that at the level of societies (as well as individuals) such tendencies can help produce major disasters (e.g., the U.S. war on Viet Nam). With potential costs so great, the question naturally arises: what evolutionary forces favor mechanisms of self-deception?
Here’s the entire article.

http://roberttrivers.com/Publications_f ... rs2000.pdf
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Re: Is there a fitness advantage to atheism's delusion of disbelief?

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It's common to see a contrast presented between reason and science and religion and irrationality from many who claim the former as their foundations.
Of course since religions often are mutually contradictory in important areas, it follows they cannot all be true, at least in those areas.

Many who hold to religious beliefs do not accept this dichotomy between religious belief and science and reason as valid.

Any idea or belief that survives has "fitness" whether true or false so fitness can't adjudicate on the matter.

Reductionist materialism is challenged to explain things it seems incapable of and the resultant popular ideas from these attempts appear to others as more science fiction than fact.

The mind and it's workings is a good example.It seems the more an appeal to science is made the easier it is for some to accept patently absurd ideas.
Here's an I.D. based article zeroing in on what look like some modern day "Science Fictions."

http://www.uncommondescent.com./intelli ... uman-mind/
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Re: Is there a fitness advantage to atheism's delusion of disbelief?

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Many who hold to religious beliefs do not accept this dichotomy between religious belief and science and reason as valid.
Because they don't realize the majority of their reasoning is heuristic, and in many cases fallacious. You provide examples in your post, whether you realize it or not.

Reductionist materialism cannot explain many things. That does not mean reductionist materialism is false. It is not a mark against reductionist materialism. There are faults with reductionist materialism, but your appeal to ignorance is not one of them. This is a place you are being irrational, and even after repeating the same things over and over, it never seems to click. You are using fallacious reasoning. You are using this reasoning to support your position, and it's demonstrably non sequitur. But it just doesn't click.

Regarding the mind, the entire article is either a straw man or appeals to ignorance. The entire thing, from top to bottom. It is a lesson in how not to support a supernatural worldview, if you value reasoning over irrationality.

Those who hold to religious beliefs do not understand how to properly reason. And yes, there are rules for reasoning, refined over thousands of years. Only by adhering to ALL of them rather than cherry picking those supporting the religious worldview does it become clear that religious people abandon reason, at least when it suits them. You have to reach that point before you can look back at the abandoned religious worldview to see its faults.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” - Douglas Adams
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