Braddock wrote:
Except for some reason the 'chicken' has chosen never to explicitly show himself over the entire course of human history, instead choosing to play a cat and mouse game of 'peek-a-boo' with individuals who never have reliable witnesses nearby to back up what they have seen or experienced. Man has always been superstitious, it's the way in which the human mind attempts to make sense of events and situations that are often totally random and religion is an extension of this.
Your unnecessary sarcasm aside...you're basically reiterating what I said. As I tell Cam below, my point isn't an atheist/religious argument, but an anthropological (ie, scientific) one. You can rant about the non-existence of a higher being all you want...it doesn't change the points of the debate. Religion does not equate to the existence of a higher being...only the followers' belief in that existence.
The debate Cam and I are having is whether societal norms came first and drove religion or whether religion (ie, superstition) came first and drove societal norms.
CameronPoe wrote:
No offence if you hold religious beliefs but I cannot agree with you here. There has never been any evidence to suggest the presence of a supernatural power, as such man had to invent and shape that concept. I can only deal in hard fact and logic. One cannot say that God is not the fabrication of man, when you're an atheist anyway. It may not have been as specifically purposeful in its origins as I put it but it certainly grew into what I described.
While I do hold religious beliefs, that's not part of my argument. Nowhere in there did I say the existence (or absence) of a supernatural being led to anything...I said the
belief in a supernatural being led to things.
We are actually saying the same thing, just debating on which came first. There is evidence to support both arguments, but nothing conclusive either way. Religion and sedentary culture came about roughly the same time in human history...that's why this is a chicken/egg argument.
BTW, I don't necessarily believe God is a fabrication of man, but I do believe organized religion is.
