There is one amusing note that recurs with both runner and one under god. Not only do they cite their belief in God, but they also cite Jesus and scripture. Maybe there is a God. However, there is no reason to believe that God has anything to do with the biblical fairy tales or Christianity. Cicero lived from 106BC to 43BC well before the invention of Christianity. Cicero's "The Nature of the Gods" sounds very modern:

'In this subject of the nature of the gods the first question is: do the gods exist or do they not? It is difficult, you will say, to deny that they exist. I would agree, if we were arguing the matter in a public assembly, but in a private discussion of this kind it is perfectly easy to do so. Now I myself hold a religious office, and believe that public religious worship and ritual ought to be reverently observed: so that I could wish to be certainly persuaded on this first question, that the gods exist, as a matter of fact and not of faith. I confess that many doubts arise to perplex me about this, so that at times I wonder whether they exist at all. But I will meet you halfway. I shall not attack you on assertions such as this, in which you are in agreement with the other schools of philosophy. Almost all philosophers agree - and I as much as any - that gods exist. I will not dispute this. But I challenge the cogency of the arguments which you have adduced to prove it.

'You say that it is a sufficient proof of the existence of the gods that men of all races and of all nations believe in them. But such an argument is both false and frivolous. In the first place, how do you know the opinions of all mankind? I would think that there must be many wild and primitive peoples who have no idea of the gods at all.

continue

Cicero’s “The Nature of the Gods” continued

“And what about the atheist Diagoras, and after him Theodorus, both of whom openly deny that any gods exist? Then there was Protagoras of Abdera, whom you mentioned just now, the greatest sophist of his time. In the introduction to one of his books he wrote that he was not able to say whether the gods existed or not. For this he was banished by public decree from the city and land of Athens, and his works were burnt in public. I suspect that his example made others more reluctant to express such sentiments, when they saw that even agnosticism could not escape such penalties. And what about the temple-robbers and the blasphemers and the perjurers? As Lucilius says, "if Lucius Tubulus or Lupus or Carbo - or some such son of Neptune" - had believed in the existence of the gods, could they have been such liars and such libertines?”

The response to doubt of dogma is probably one reason for the persistence of religion.

There is a dogma that the solution to problems is government. This is countered by the dogma that the government has no solution to problems. For certain activities such as planning transportation nets, water resources, protecting biodiversity there is no better institution than government. Government may be wrong, but for certain types of problems government is the instrument we must go to for solutions.

Ian Robertson, in his book, "Sociology," tells us
that:

"Emile Durkheim's study, 'The Elementary Forms
of Religious Life,' was first published in
1912 and has since become a classic...
Durkheim was impressed by the fact that
religion is universal in modern society, and he
wondered why this was so."

"His answer was that religion had a vital function in
maintaining the social system as a whole."

"He pointed out that the origins of religion were social,
not supernatural. He pointed out that, whatever their
source, the rituals enacted in any religion enhance the
solidarity of the community as well as its faith."

"Consider such religious rituals as Baptism, Bar Mitzvah,
Weddings, Sabbath services, Christmas mass, and funerals."

"Rituals like these serve to bring people together; to
remind them of their common group membership; to
re-affirm their traditional values' to maintain
prohibitions and taboos; to offer comfort in times of
crisis; and, in general, to help transmit the
cultural heritage from one generation to the next."

"The cause of much of the social disorder in modern
societies, Durkheim contended was that people no
longer believed deeply in traditional religion, but they
hadn't found a satisfying substitute. Lacking commitment
to a shared belief system, they tended to pursue their
private interests without regard for their fellows."

For many years it was believed that as science progressively
provided rational explanations for the mysteries of the
universe, religion would have less and less of a role to
play and would eventually disappear, unmasked as nothing
more than superstition.

However, there are still gaps in our understanding that
science by its very nature can never fill.
On the ultimately important questions --- of the
meaning and purpose of life and the nature of morality.

Few people of modern societies would totally deny the
possibility of some higher power in the universe, some
supernatural, transcendental realm that lies beyond the
boundaries of ordinary experience, and in this
fundamental sense religion is probably here to stay.

Hi Foxy,

I agree that religionists will find gaps and occupy spaces, where science can’t explain things, and guard said gaps. As you would know, some speak of the God of the Gaps, in this context. As “gaps” tend to be infinitely divisible, I feel gods will be with us for some time to come. Even if humans produce a mini universe in a particle accelerator, I suspect some priest will say it is god’s work.

Three challenges for science are explanations for (a) the creation of matter in our universe, (b) consciousness, and (c) how the first cell came into being. Yet, to give Science it dues, it is making in-roads on all three.

I hope I am still around to see (a), (b) and (c) explained. Confirmation of the creation of matter in the Higgs field would be a bigger step for humankind than Armstrong’s step on the moon.

Science despite its honesty maybe doomed to spend eternity dealing with religions’ Xeno paradoxes. If Science explains 99.99999999999% of everything. Christians et al. shall point to the .000000000001% not explained.

The super-mundane of QM or other physics unknown yet or even physics forever unknowable to our primate brains, need not be supernatural; just merely too remote, too complex or irreducible from this universe. Though, I hope not! :-)

Cheers,

Oly

OLiver writes 'Science despite its honesty '

Yeah we have seen that with the corruption, manipulation and dishonesty by our 'leading' scientist in the climate change scandal. Dream on Oliver. You might fool yourself and others but not anyone who believers that true science is tried and tested. Your 99.9% is not the same computer model that the climate scientist use is it? The evolutionist have used the same corrupt dishonest 'science' for decades. Pseudo evolutionary science is no closer to finding our origins because it takes more faith to believe that crap than it does in the obvious.

would someone care to help me put some flesh (i.e. concrete examples) to the following remarks (from the lead article):

"Imagination link
Other researchers say the findings reinforce earlier studies suggesting that thinking about God is intimately linked to the imagination.

These experiments "support previous findings that representations of God seem intimately related to the self, also in terms of brain function", says Uffe Schjødt of Aarhus University in Denmark, whose research published earlier this year showed that praying uses similar brain regions as talking to a friend.

"These findings help explain why supernatural religious agents are often attributed a physical form and issue edicts that resemble the social practices of the culture from which they emerge," says Jordan Grafman of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, whose team earlier this year linked emergence of religion with the development of "theory of mind", the capacity to recognise that other living things have independent thought and intentions."

What would be examples of religious agents being attributed a physical form and issuing edicts that resemble the practices of the culture from which they emerge?