Real World Philospohy

[Fyron]

Originally posted by General Woundwort:
1) Lots of assertions here, little proof. What is the evidence that primitive man "invented" religion?

Invented, created, concocted, came up with, thought up, dreamed up, use whatever term you want. Good evidence is the fact that noone begins their life with any set religious views; everyone has to be spoon fed them to have them. So, the first people must not have had religious views, and they developed over time. Organized religions developed as a means to control people, just like organized governments. The fact that Judaism developed amidst a polytheistic culture, and later Christianity developed from it, with Islam sort of branching off somewhere afterwars, is good evidence that religions evolve. It is a pretty safe assertation that they all had to evolve from somewhere... and "the word of God" is not a good point, as EVERY non-animistic religion (with some form of deity...) can say that (not God, but whatever deity(ies) they worship).

There is a wealth of study and evidence out there about the evolution of religion, starting from the primitive to the modern. I am sure google will turn up some useful links. I just do not have hte time at present to wade through them all... Just make sure to use the site:.edu tag in your searches (assuming I remembered that correctly... check the advanced search formatting help page) so that you can restrict sites to being on .edu domains, thus eliminating the bulk of garbage sites (garbage for any sort of intellectual purposes...). Of course, there are garbage sites on .edu domains, but at least you start off on better footing with university-owned web space... and they tend to have much better documentation.

2) What is so absurd about one religon being true and all the others false? The Christian doctrine of human depravity (the idea that human nature has become corrupt and therefore hostile to the idea of God) is a rational explanation for the diversity of religions, from a monotheistic POV.

That requires assuming that Christianity is correct... the fact is that pretty much all religions have the exact same claims of divine revelation and all that stuff, and so all have the truth. But how can you pick which one has the real truth? Quite simply, you can not. Any arguments you could come up with to justify your choice apply equally to many other religions as well.

3) Truth is not determined by numbers of claimants, but whether a truth claim corresponds to reality.

Exactly. That sentence or two was not part of my argument, just an absurd answer to any possible absurd claims along the lines of "but everyone around me believes this..." and such. Though, I can see where your apparent confusion on my post came from...

4) The West has a decidedly atheistic bent nowadays. If your neighbor went around denying that you exist, would you be really that enthused to talk to him?

Sure I would! That would be one interesting conversation. The west has a decidedly atheistic bent nowadays because atheism is the next step in religious evolution...