Is there any disadvantage in being a believer and any advantage in being an atheist (or vice versa) since we are all going to die. Does being atheistic increase the enjoyment derived from life (or is it the opposite)? [JCT's question from the comments section of last post]
I believe that there must be some form of advantage to the individual to be a believer since evolution has favored it in the majority. May be blind belief in an entity larger than life would have enabled a survival advantage in do or die situation, say in a brutal war of domination. Soldiers of the god fearing, ready-to-be-martyr –life-after -death believing tribe may show greater efficiency in killing the enemy compared to resource wise identical soldiers who does not have such beliefs to defend. This is assuming that there is a genetic and hence phenotypic basis for the need to believe in god. So this tribe that showed exceeding efficiency in killing and dominating now has the opportunity in spreading their ‘superior’ genes and hence the phenotype that makes their progeny believe in god.
I hope you have read the one where I compared the emotional load on the agnostic surgeon versus that of the theist surgeon after the loss of a patient. Again there may be some balm in explaining away to another entity when it is actually your actions that caused a disaster.
Yes. I think there are some advantages in being a believer.
However, this advantage conferred to the individual or the tribe may come with a price for the species in the long term. By long term, I mean the time when technology has sufficiently advanced that the tribes possess weapons that can destroy each other completely that there is no domination for either: the nuclear age.
I am pretty sure that if the cold war standoff was between nuclear armed Christians versus equally capable Islamic bloc instead of between capitalist and communists, we would have been reading this blog in a nuclear winter now.
Religion allows such blind rage that nuclear holocaust would have been assured. No logic , not even that of mutual assured destruction would have stood against the blind fury of religious beliefs.
Joy in life:
I believe that joy in life is independent of your belief in god or the lack of it. Some people are happy and some are less so. People are born with a level of happiness that remains remarkably constant despite their belief systems or their socio-economic situation. I personally believe in the hedonic treadmill theory of happiness.
But definitely, there will be lot less unnecessary guilt in the mind of an agnostic compared to the superstitious god fearing individual. [moral values being equal]
Are we all going to die?
Certainly! Even the stars die.
[The theists are born again, live and die happily ever after. Its game all over for the atheist. Ha!]
However I am working on the brain download thing for you!
I believe that there must be some form of advantage to the individual to be a believer since evolution has favored it in the majority. May be blind belief in an entity larger than life would have enabled a survival advantage in do or die situation, say in a brutal war of domination. Soldiers of the god fearing, ready-to-be-martyr –life-after -death believing tribe may show greater efficiency in killing the enemy compared to resource wise identical soldiers who does not have such beliefs to defend. This is assuming that there is a genetic and hence phenotypic basis for the need to believe in god. So this tribe that showed exceeding efficiency in killing and dominating now has the opportunity in spreading their ‘superior’ genes and hence the phenotype that makes their progeny believe in god.
I hope you have read the one where I compared the emotional load on the agnostic surgeon versus that of the theist surgeon after the loss of a patient. Again there may be some balm in explaining away to another entity when it is actually your actions that caused a disaster.
Yes. I think there are some advantages in being a believer.
However, this advantage conferred to the individual or the tribe may come with a price for the species in the long term. By long term, I mean the time when technology has sufficiently advanced that the tribes possess weapons that can destroy each other completely that there is no domination for either: the nuclear age.
I am pretty sure that if the cold war standoff was between nuclear armed Christians versus equally capable Islamic bloc instead of between capitalist and communists, we would have been reading this blog in a nuclear winter now.
Religion allows such blind rage that nuclear holocaust would have been assured. No logic , not even that of mutual assured destruction would have stood against the blind fury of religious beliefs.
Joy in life:
I believe that joy in life is independent of your belief in god or the lack of it. Some people are happy and some are less so. People are born with a level of happiness that remains remarkably constant despite their belief systems or their socio-economic situation. I personally believe in the hedonic treadmill theory of happiness.
But definitely, there will be lot less unnecessary guilt in the mind of an agnostic compared to the superstitious god fearing individual. [moral values being equal]
Are we all going to die?
Certainly! Even the stars die.
[The theists are born again, live and die happily ever after. Its game all over for the atheist. Ha!]
However I am working on the brain download thing for you!
Hi. Great post. Do you think that atheists may also have some advantage as they have only one life to do whatever they want to do and hence have a sense of urgency and hence achieve more compared to theists who are more relaxed?
ReplyDelete