It used to be the ultimate million-dollar question: why do people believe in God? But inflation has swollen the price to £1.9 million. This is the sum being handed to Oxford University researchers to explore a topic that has puzzled philosophers and scientists for centuries. The researchers will not be troubling themselves with the matter of whether or not God exists, merely whether belief in God maybe gave Man a Darwinian evolutionary advantage; or whether it is a result of Man’s sociable nature.
London Times: Why do we believe in God? Researchers are to spend £1.9 million to find out
Posted in * Culture-Watch, Religion & Culture
How do I get a grant like that?
Can I get a grant to study why the sun comes up in the morning?
From a secular view, there are hundreds of answers to that question.
From an evolutionary biology POV, the most obvious and striking answer is that belief in God encourages “folks” to have hope and confidence in the future, and thus to want to have children, and to marry so they can do so, and then, once they have married, to proceed to actually have and raise children.
This is no speculative, theoretical issue. In North America right now, atheists are not having enuf children to reproduce themselves; while believers reproduce.
From the POV of societies with declining religious belief — Europe has ceased to have enough children to reproduce itself since Christianity declined there. Absent immigration, according to current fertility trends, nations like Russia, Greece and Spain will cease to exist — i.e., die out, well within this century. Some of them have worse prognostications than TEC and ACC — and that is really sad, because I assume these nations are actually worth preserving, while it is, at the highest, very dubious that TEC and ACC are worth preserving.
Toral
There is no reason for Christians to fear or ridicule studies such as this.
They will also allow us to identify reasons why people do not believe in God. And address them.
I would like to propose to the granting agency a reading of Ephesians 2;8-9; faith in God is a gift from God. Where do I collect my GBP 1.9 million? I will put it in a church planting fund.
I would like a grant to find out why there is something rather than nothing.
Why is their air?
Why do we believe in God?
Because God exists, made the heavens and the earth, and generally makes this known to everyone through what has been made. As the rock band live sings,
[i]I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive[/i].
[b] 1.9 Million pounds please. [/b]
I’m sure it’s just genetic. You have your God gene turned on and other people don’t: so let’s not judge, ‘kay?
Sorry people, my answer is better so I am sending my bill first, ok?
Answer: Because it is a better risk than not doing so. Larry
#3 Toral – The irony here being that an extreme belief in Darwinism – to the point that it supports atheism – acts like a harmful mutation. It puts Darwinists at a selective disadvantage, lessening the chance that they will have offspring.
#7: Don’t you mean “they’re heir”?
I’m curious as to whether Sir John Templeton is funding this study. He made a lot of money in the stock market and is now interested in spirituality.
On thinking more of this, I am reminded of a study funded close to 20 years ago looking at the migration patterns of fish in the Santa Cruz River; a bone-dry riverbed in Southern Arizona!
This is an important and exciting research opportunity and I wish to make my contribution. Where do I apply?
Hard to figure what they might find.
For those of us who believe, the answer is obvious: as in Romans, He has made His presence known; when He is silent, His existence is known by that “God-shaped void†of longing.
For those who do not believe, those phenomena, and our interpretation of them, are the very data they are seeking to explain by any reason other than that they are true.
I was going to write in “because God exists,” but rats, Justice1 beat me to it!
And after tithing to my church (a good Anglican congregation) I was going to donate another portion to our Global South diocese (Uganda).
Maybe Oxford could just forward the reward to Kendall and let him portion it out to deserving entities? 😉
[blockquote]Why is there air?[/blockquote]
“To blow up basketballs” — Bill Cosby