Where do atheists come from?

[QuizMaster]

Ok I read the article and skimmed through the comments.
For anyone who wants to know where this atheist came from, read on.
Short answer:
I was born in Lewisham to Irish parents. I grew up on the outskirts of Dunlaoghaire.
Long answer:
I was born in Lewisham to Irish parents. I grew up on the outskirts of Dunlaoghaire. I was raised catholic. My parents did all the right catholic things, but were not all that religious. We certainly never said a rosary in the house. All my knowledge of christian belief comes from school, not from home.
I remember going to confession around Easter 1979, and thinking it was a completely pointless exercise. I never went again. A few months later my father died. Listening to the preist speaking at the funeral, I got to thinking how empty and fake the whole thing sounded. I got a lot of comfort from all the mourners coming up to us, one by one, but none at all from the ceremony.
That's about it really. 31 years and counting.
So where does religion come from? The more I think about religion, the more sense it makes for humans to "believe something", for 3 reasons:
(1) Coming together: Humans are a sort of herd animal, we need a common bond of the sort that religion gives us. Alternatively you can have a favourite football team or political cause.
(2) Denial of death: The human brain finds it almost impossible to contemplate death, so we have many and varied stories about how you are not really dead when you die: the afterlife, reincarnation, hanging about as spirits etc etc.
(3) Aspiration to something higher: Even as an atheist, at christmas time I remind my children of the nativity, the true meaning of Christmas. It's a lot better than having a festival of nothing but flashing lights, spending money and getting drunk. We are made of better stuff than that, there is something wonderful in all of us, but I do think that whatever this thing is, it is inside each of us and not coming from some magical being.

[imokyrok]

There's some very interesting stuff in evolutionary theory about why we need altruism. Look up Kin Selection.

Hope there is a very strong need for, it keeps people going through tough times. It would obviously be selected for.

Love keeps parents together long enough to raise a child to be somewhat self sufficient. There may be a very good reason why the 7 year itch is 7 years long.

On the instinctive need for a higher power I'm not so convinced. Daniel Dennett has some interesting ideas on how early religion may have formed as basically a way of enhancing the placebo effect. Check out "Breaking the Spell". It's a very good book on religion, far more sensitive and considerate than Dawkins.

All I know is that as soon as I developed the ability to think independently I started to smell a rat when it came to religion. This was before my confirmation.(which I still had to make despite my protestations)

I seem to remember reading that the three year itch is even more of an issue which would make sense as that would coincide with the time when a child is starting to wean. And the woman is becoming more independent and perhaps looking around for the next father for her next offspring. I also think that there is evidence to suggest that the initial intensity of "love" has worn of by about the three year mark.

You might be familiar with a fantastic series of lectures in evolutionary anthropology . Just google for a torrent of Barbara Kings TTC Biological Anthropology - An Evolutionary Perspective. I guarantee anyone with an interest in human evolution, anthropology and how evolution had impacted our development as a species will be spellbound. Content as follows:

1. What is Biological Anthropology?
2. How Evolution Works
3. The Debate Over Evolution
4. Matter Arising—New Species
5. Prosimians, Monkeys, and Apes
6. Monkey and Ape Social Behavior
7. The Mind of the Great Ape
8. Models for Human Ancestors?
9. Introducing the Hominids
10. Lucy and Company
11. Stones and Bones
12. Out of Africa
13. Who Were the Neandertals?
14. Did Hunting Make Us Human?
15. The Prehistory of Gender
16. Modern Human Anatomy and Behavior
17. On the Origins of Homo sapiens
18. Language
19. Do Human Races Exist?
20. Modern Human Variation
21. Body Fat, Diet, and Obesity
22. The Body and Mind Evolving
23. Tyranny of the Gene?
24. Evolution and Our Future

[Half Nelson]

Does this passage meld with your conception of the "atheistic mindset"?

This passage exemplifies the fact that many atheists ride on the coattails of religion. One of the themes of the passage is appreciation of beauty. Now where does such an appreciation come from? Is it a spiritual quality? Is it denied other animals? I suggest that the writer RD would firstly explore the foundations for his ideas rather than basing them on abstract assumptions resolved by others.

[QuizMaster]

The logical extension of the atheistic mindset is to 'free' us from all abstract needs. Logically we don't need spirituality, art, music, altruism, hope, even love. Of course, most of us will acknowledge an instinctive need for these.
We also have an instinctive need for a Higher Power, but that alone is somehow 'illogical'.

You, madam, are a gob$hite.
In my own experience, I have found atheists to make up more than their fair share of any charities or voluntary work that I have been involved in.

It could be argued that atheists have a greater love than religious believers. After all, we don't expect to be rewarded for our good works, or punished for not doing them.
But that's not how I see it. Humans are capable of doing a lot of good and a lot of bad, regardless of whether or not they beleive in a God or Gods.

[QuizMaster]

This passage exemplifies the fact that many atheists ride on the coattails of religion. One of the themes of the passage is appreciation of beauty. Now where does such an appreciation come from? Is it a spiritual quality? Is it denied other animals? ...

It's clear to see that the human brain is a lot bigger and more complex than our cousins, the other primates.
Perhaps we have reached a "tipping point", where we are aware of the aesthetic value of the things around us. There is certainly no need for some outside force to explain this.

[Half Nelson]

You, madam, are a gob$hite.
In my own experience, I have found atheists to make up more than their fair share of any charities or voluntary work that I have been involved in.

It could be argued that atheists have a greater love than religious believers. After all, we don't expect to be rewarded for our good works, or punished for not doing them.
But that's not how I see it. Humans are capable of doing a lot of good and a lot of bad, regardless of whether or not they beleive in a God or Gods.

Another poster who can read but not comprehend

[theObserver@hotmail.com]

Sorry. Managed to double post.

[QuizMaster]

Another poster who can read but not comprehend

Explain?
(please use simple terms for this dummy)

[Half Nelson]

It's clear to see that the human brain is a lot bigger and more complex than our cousins, the other primates.
Perhaps we have reached a "tipping point", where we are aware of the aesthetic value of the things around us. There is certainly no need for some outside force to explain this.

Perhaps? The questions are too important to settle for 'perhaps'.

[theObserver@hotmail.com]

"What we need now is a scientific study not of the theistic, but the atheistic mind. We need to discover why some people do not "get" the supernatural agency many cognitive scientists argue comes automatically to our brains. Is this capacity non-existent in the non-religious, or is it rerouted, undermined or overwritten - and under what conditions?"

Most Atheists, as well a theists, believe in objective truth. Religions make their claims based on a series of bad philosophical arguments which can be summed up as 'You don't know something. Therefore my God exists', and a series of half-truths written during the late iron age. It's no surprise for example that professional philosophers are overwhelmingly atheist.