random notes

Evolutionary guru: Don't believe everything you think

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Tell me about the relationship between self-deception and religion.
It's complex. At one extreme you could say religion is complete nonsense, so the whole thing is an exercise in self-deception. I was raised as a Presbyterian and I occasionally attend. I stand back and I read the creed that I was taught as a child and it's utter, utter nonsense. But could it have spread so far by self-deception alone? Religion has been selected for. It has given many benefits to people - health benefits, cooperative benefits. So I take an intermediate position.
...

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the evidence seems more to indicate
that the religious training in deception
is a factor of strength for religious groups
to conduct criminal behavior and deny it
in fact it is proven by prison statistics
that religious people constitute
the majority of criminals inmates

also the strict correlation
between western religions and genocides,
the reproductive obsession of religious mythology
and the use of reproduction as weapon of mass subversion
may also explain the resilience of the religious myth

in several historical circumstances, the religious myth
subverted social institutions for selfish interest
produced demographic explosions to cause revolutions
and finally mobilized its forgiven criminals
to prey on others wealth
in order to feed the pyramids of bigotry and violence
...

amun(ra)
:)