Why can't I believe? (is it a genetic predisposition?)

[carlo]

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I, and others, have the inability to believe in a divine power despite attempts of religious schooling and the general institutionalized instruments within society to promote such a disillusionment. Though, as I guess I have made apparent, I am somewhat educated on the concept of atheism and antitheism I am interested to understand why some of us, even as children, are unable to conform and believe in God even after immense efforts.

I have 2 questions:

Supposing I wanted the ability to believe in a a God but just didn't have it in me to fulfil such a longing; am I a lesser or richer person than somebody who can?

Secondly, what are the chances that some people are born with a genetic predisposition rendering them incapable of faith and if such a gene exists; would you wish it upon your children?

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To use "genes" as a reason to not know a matter is to abrogate responsibility. This is tantamount to saying that the "devil made me do it". This is not to say that you should know the matters you are dealing with but"genes" are not the reason.

[Splendour]

Thought you might find this idea interesting. I was doing some research on the soul and came across this on wikipedia under the topic soul. Note the relation this researcher makes to survival.
Quote:
"Research on the concept of the soul
In his book Consilience, E. O. Wilson took note that sociology has identified belief in a soul as one of the universal human cultural elements. Wilson suggested that biologists need to investigate how human genes predispose people to believe in a soul.

Daniel Dennett has championed the idea that the human survival strategy depends heavily on adoption of the intentional stance, a behavioral strategy that predicts the actions of others based on the expectation that they have a mind like one's own (see theory of mind). Mirror neurons in brain regions such as Broca's area may facilitate this behavioral strategy. The intentional stance, Dennett suggests, has proven so successful that people tend to apply it to all aspects of human experience, thus leading to animism and to other conceptualizations of soul.

A counterargument (from Keith Sutherland, among others) points out that just because the brain has regions that deal with colour and other aspects of vision, one does not argue that the genes produce an area to promote the illusion of a blue sky. By analogy, if there is a 'God sense' just as there is a sense of vision, it seems to argue for the objective existence of an extra-mundane reality."

[luckyme]

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A counterargument (from Keith Sutherland, among others) points out that just because the brain has regions that deal with colour and other aspects of vision, one does not argue that the genes produce an area to promote the illusion of a blue sky.

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Sutherland believes the sky is actually blue. amazing. Essentially we do experience color for biological reasons, very centered around differentiating various shades of green. Night vision screens are green for that reason. That the sky appears blue is a happenstance but it is certainly part of the illusion.

luckyme

[foal]

[ QUOTE ]
Daniel Dennett has championed the idea that the human survival strategy depends heavily on adoption of the intentional stance, a behavioral strategy that predicts the actions of others based on the expectation that they have a mind like one's own (see theory of mind). Mirror neurons in brain regions such as Broca's area may facilitate this behavioral strategy.

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"Mirror neurons" have nothing to do with the intentional stance as far as I'm aware. They've been used to support simulation theory, which is separate from theory of mind.

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The intentional stance, Dennett suggests, has proven so successful that people tend to apply it to all aspects of human experience, thus leading to animism and to other conceptualizations of soul.

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[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] Can you either explain what you mean or provide the quote that you're getting this from? How does viewing others as intentional beings lead to animism and conceptualizations of soul?

[Splendour]

the quote is from wikipedia under the topic soul

Nothing for me to explain foal I am no an opponent or proponent of this notion...I just ran across it and it seemed relevant to this topic so I mentioned it

[foal]

Oh I missed the fact that that whole thing was a quote.

I wasn't claiming to be a proponent or opponent of the notion either. I was trying to understand what the notion actually is. If you don't know either, then it's a little odd that posted it. But your posting methods have already been complained about to death so I wont kick a dead horse.

[Splendour]

Isn't the compilation of knowledge, the tracking of it as important as the explanation. Sharing is important. Somethings are only discovered by collaboration. Observation is important even without a conclusion. I don't have to hold forth on everything I notice.

[foal]

Yes yes, ok. I'm just saying you don't have to post everything you find that "seems relevant", esp. when you aren't interested in discussing it. I wouldn't pick on you for this based on this thread alone, but you have a tendency to clutter up threads with a lot of irrelevant copy/pastes.

[Piers]

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Supposing I wanted the ability to believe in a a God but just didn't have it in me to fulfil such a longing; am I a lesser or richer person than somebody who can?

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Not particularly, depending on what you mean by lesser or richer.

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Secondly, what are the chances that some people are born with a genetic predisposition rendering them incapable of faith and if such a gene exists; would you wish it upon your children?

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It’s certainly likely that the ability to deceive oneself has some genetic foundation that is often lacking in atheists.

Environmental factors are important, for instance I believed in god up till the age of 8 or 9. The first time I realised that an atheistic viewpoint existed I stopped believing in God. However if I had never met an atheist during my life I might well have not stopped believing in God.

As to children I am happy to leave it to chance.

[PantsOnFire]

I think it is entirely environmental. As children growing up, role models embed a variety of beliefs in us.

Education allows us to reconcile those beliefs and amend them if necessary. Likewise, freedom and social interaction allow us to further explore our belief system with others in an open manner.