View Single Post
  #6  
Old 12-10-2006, 11:33 PM
DougShrapnel DougShrapnel is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,155
Default Re: Religion A perfectly rational belief

[ QUOTE ]
You're not arguing that religion is rational, you're arguing it's in the human nature. I agree with you. But that doesn't make it rational. What you "fill in" with regard to vision, or memory, etc, is frequently inaccurate. This inaccuracy increases as things become "stranger" or further removed from concrete practical reality.

And this "filling in" is certainly not rational. It's not necessarily "irrational," as irrationality tends to imply conscious thought, but the brain fills things in according to ingrained patterns, not reasoned calculations. It's almost literally a "knee-jerk" type of response. And yes, I think using a knee-jerk response to determine the basis of life, the universe, and everything is irrational.

[/ QUOTE ]I believe it's rational. What our brain tells us is true, we believe. We have no choice in this matter. The main thing we can do is to adjust our actions based off of what we know is the likely misrepresentation of reality. The other things that we can do is adjust those items that our minds use to fill in the details. This is much harder.
Reply With Quote