ferguson1951 "You do not believe in God. But would you belive tha American Psychological Association? Then read this:https://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/12/believe"

"Religion may fill the human need for finding meaning, sparing us from existential angst while also supporting social organization, researchers say."

So what? The fact people use superstitious fantasy as crutch doesn't change the fact it is superstitious fantasy.

"“What we’re showing is that our basic cognitive equipment biases us toward certain kinds of thinking and leads to thinking about a pre-life, an afterlife, gods, invisible beings that are doing things — themes common to most of the world’s religions,” says Barrett."

I don't think you read this link either, oh dear how embarrassing for you, again. It's a cognitive bias, well well. And the researchers claim this bias was nothing to do with religious belief per se, rather it had other evolutionary benefits, and the hits just keep on coming.

"That said, most researchers don’t believe that the cognitive tendencies that bias us toward religious belief evolved specifically for thinking about religion. Rather, they likely served other adaptive purposes. "

Now for the end of the article which you clearly didn't read...

"That distrust causes much of the world’s strife and violence and is one of the reasons the “new atheists,” including British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, PhD, and neuroscientist Sam Harris, PhD, want to see religion disappear. But that will be difficult if not impossible if religion is a byproduct of the way our brains work, as much of the recent research suggests, says Atran. What could work, says Norenzayan, is to replace religion with secular communities built on a common moral foundation. He suggests that Denmark’s society is successfully doing this with its large welfare state, its national ethic of hard work and its strong attachment to political freedom and individualism. "

You'll never learn will you, stop Goggling questions and linking articles based on the headline results you clown.

@ Calli

if you cannot exert even the elementary effort required to learn what scientists actually postulate, you're in no position to sneer at their work. Take your ignorance and re-insert it into the same orifice you manifestly extracted it from.

Wow, that is the nearest I have seen you come to a complete "fuck off Noddy you bore me" comment . BRAVO!!!!!!

Come over for a beer any time mate!

Gosh, you really don't get it. I'm trying to make you rich and famous and for this you want to tattle on me.

Although your discourse on science is, as usual, inaccurate, I will point out that yes, science, as a method to discover the truth, is always open to new evidence and interpretation. You see that as a negative. Must be my educational bias (I have one of those dreaded university degrees) but I find new scientific discoveries endlessly fascinating. What a terrible thing, striving for new information.

,,,and as a follow up, your denunciations of logic and education do, by definition, label you deliberately stupid, there is really no way around that. Facts are not ad hominem insults.

ferguson "The Big bang is like the origin of life: first scientists say one thing. When some time later it proves to be foolish then they change the story to make it more palatable."

The big bang theory is about the origin of the current universe, it makes no claims about the origins of life, nor does science yet have any definitive evidence and thus makes no claims about the origins of life. all human methods of reasoning are fallible, they cannot be otherwise, thus a method that can't admit an error and accept all facts must remain tentative in light of new evidence would be doomed to cling to asinine absurdity, the way religions have always clung doggedly, and some still do, to insanely stupid erroneous myths like creationism, and global flood myths. This tired old canard that this somehow makes all scientific facts unreliable is one of the very stupidest claims religious apologists make.It takes a particularly stupid and ignorant individual to use this absurd claim.

"With cancer treatment it is the same thing. For ages they failed to cure it with chemo and the rest. Now that even they admit it get them nowhere they are coming up with immunotherapy."

Another gem, sadly this is again complete nonsense, chemo is still used and many thousands of people have been saved by chemo, I have seen three immediate family members have their lives saved by dedicated medical professional, and just such treatments, which have been improved year on year. Medical research of course has improved treatments like chemo, which despite your cretinous claim is absolutely still used, and is more effective than ever thanks to new targeting techniques, and of course medical research finds new treatments like immunotherapy as well, this doesn't of course mean old methods never worked, only a complete moron would even make such a claim.

Ferguson1951: The right thing to do is first try religion in practice and then judge.

Most atheists are people who've grown up in religious traditions. Do you think Christianity and Islam, etc., wait until people are adults and then offer them a free choice? No. They seize little children and indoctrinate them from infancy. Atheists actually have a very good knowledge of their former religions, because they are the ones who've thought deeply enough to see through all the lies. The more I learn about Christianity and its history, the more disgusted I become.

ferguson1951: Prove me that there is no God. You cannot, so I deduct that there is a God.

I can't prove to you that there's no Santa Claus, Superman, Thor, Zeus, Odin or Amaterasu. So you can deduce that they all exist as well.

ferguson 1951 "I've made my case."

You've ignored my question, and lied about what I asked more like. I never mentioned proof, I asked you what objective evidence you can demonstrate for any deity? Tellingly you have offered none, and simply lied and claimed I had asked for proof.

@Terraphon Re: To Fergie - "...come back and apologize for accusing us of something we didn't do."

...*eyes wide and mouth agape in display of shock*.... Oh, how DARE you! The sheer audacity! For your information, Fergie is here doing The LORD'S Work! And you stroll up in here and have the NERVE to demand an apology from a pure and faithful lamb who is willing to wade in amongst us godless heathens in an effort to save our filthy demented souls by spreading the joyous words and blessings of GOD??? Oh, you wretched and evil cur! You should be THANKING Fergie for sacrificing his precious time, and for his willingness to endure such harsh and wicked torment in the name of his precious Father! But, NO! Instead, your vile arrogance blinds you to such wonderful blessings! I'm afraid there is no hope for you, poor Terraphon. What a shame... *shaking head sadly*... Fergie, if you are reading this right now, this one is not worthy! For that matter, I am not worthy! NONE OF US ARE WORTHY!!!... *falling to knees in anguished shame*.... *looking up with pleading eyes*... But, please.... PLEASE know your valiant efforts to haul our wretched lives from the dismal depths of demonic despair have not gone unnoticed! For you have planted seeds here for all to read! And perhaps one day one of those seeds may eventually sprout and take root and grow into a gloriously strong and solid OAK, upon which others may lean to rest and take comfort in its shade! Glory be to you, Fergie! Glory be...

This is standard operating procedure for supernaturalists - avoid addressing what we actually state in public, instead, address whatever misrepresentations thereof they think will be convenient to do so for their amateur apologetics. They pull the same piece of duplicity with scientific postulates as well, though in this case, one has to be open to the possibility that they're simply too stupid to understand actual scientific postulates, because they've been brought up on the limited and parochial imaginations of the authors of sad mythologies.

The moment I see such drivel as "you believe in evolution", or "the Big Bang was an explosion", I know I'm dealing either with an idiot or a lying shitbag. Likewise with "we didn't come from no monkeys" or "you think life appeared by chance". Unfortunately, teaching supernaturalists to avoid canards of this reprehensible nature, is frequently as futile a task as trying to teach spinor calculus to my tropical fish, though they at least exhibit signs of possessing functioning neurons.